State Tax Credits

On October 2, 2013, The Virginia Housing Finance Authority (VHDA) Board of Commissioners Approved revisions to the 2014 Qualified Allocation Plan. The application deadline is January 29, 2014 and application materials will be available in mid-December.

New York State Homes and Community Renewal (HCR) announced the latest round of available Low-Income Housing Credit (LIHC), Housing Trust Fund (HTF), HOME Program (HOME) and State Low-Income Housing Tax Credit Program (SLIHC) funds, as well as the new Rural and Urban Community Investment Fund (CIF), available through the Unified Funding application process.

New York State Homes and Community Renewal (HCR) released its proposed 2013/14 Qualified Allocation Plan (QAP) for the federal and state Low-Income Housing Tax Credit Programs. They have also announced a series of public hearings to solicit comments on the two plans.

North Dakota Housing Finance Authority (NDHFA) staff is in the process of developing a Draft 2014 Qualified Allocation Plan to be used in the administration of the Low Income Housing Tax Credit Program. If you have suggestions for changes to the existing plan, please provide your written comments by August 20, 2013. A draft 2014 Qualified Allocation Plan is expected to be ready for public comment by October 22, 2013.

Florida Housing Finance Corporation will host a Housing Credit Allocation Process Workshop on July 30, 2013 at 1:00PM to solicit public comments concerning the distribution of the 2014 housing credits. Topics include proximity requirements in scoring, limited development areas, housing credit request amount tests, total development cost limitations, funding selection based off of county size, the 2014 QAP, and other discussions.

Nebraska Investment Finance Authority (NIFA) will hold a Focus Group Meeting to gather comments in preparation of creating the 2014 Qualified Allocation Plan.

Minnesota Housing is developing its annual Action Plan for 2014. The draft Action Plan will be available beginning August 13, 2013 at http://www.mnhousing.gov.

After ten years of serving as the Commissioner of the Department of Community Affairs (DCA) in Georgia, Mike Beatty is moving on to become the President and CEO of Georgia’s Great Promise Partnership, Inc., a nonprofit offering a unique workforce development opportunity for Georgia. Beatty was appointed to serve as Commissioner of DCA in June 2003 by Governor Sonny Perdue and was reappointed by Governor Nathan Deal in January 2011.

The 2014 proposed Iowa Qualified Allocation Plan (QAP) has been posted on the Iowa Finance Authority website and is open for public comments until August 27, 2013 at 4:30PM CST

The Delaware State Housing Authority (DSHA) announced the authorization of the Neighborhood Assistance Act (NAA) FY 2014. The NAA Program encourages businesses and individuals who pay Delaware state income taxes to invest in programs serving impoverished neighborhoods or serving low- and moderate-income families. In exchange for a qualified contribution, the NAA provides state tax credits equal to 50% of the investment. There is a maximum of $500,000 in tax credits available and DSHA will resume accepting NAA applications on a first-come, first-served basis.

Due to higher demand for long term bonds in Oregon, the Oregon Housing and Community Services (OHCS) has undertaken an analysis of current charges for bonds and 4% transactions. On June 7, 2013 the State Housing Council moved to approve the change of the 4% LIHTC reservation charge from 6.5% to 12% on all existing applications and future applications using OHCS Bonds. The 4% LIHTC transaction which use private activity bonds that have a PAB committee date set as of July 11, 2013 will not be affected at this time by the changes, though the Oregon State Housing Council will vote on expanding the reservation charge to include 4% LIHTC transactions at the August 2, 2013 meeting.

The Michigan State Housing Department Authority (MSHDA) has posted an updated version of the Scoring Criteria for the Low Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) program to its website. MSHDA made this necessary update to modify the Cost Containment criteria to reflect new data that is now available following the completion of awards of 9% LIHTC from the 2013 allocation year. MSHDA also announced that the first competitive funding round for 2014 Low Income Housing Tax Credit will have an application submission deadline on August 15, 2013 at 5:00 P.M. EST.