Wow: Missouri Accounts For Nearly One-In-Seven Historic Preservation Tax Credit Projects
Federal historic-preservation statistics showed just how heavily Missouri used preservation incentives. Missouri accounted for 99 certified projects in the period being reported—roughly one out of every seven projects nationally—and associated rehabilitation costs exceeded $300 million.
The figures underscored the exceptional scale of Missouri's commitment to this form of subsidy. Historic preservation can have value, but the relevant policy question is whether taxpayers should shoulder large portions of private project costs through transferable tax credits and whether those credits generate enough additional activity to justify their expense.
Missouri's unusually large share of national projects strengthened the case for examining the program critically rather than assuming that more subsidized projects necessarily mean better economic policy.
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