LIHTC

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.

Governor Steve Beshear (Democrat) recently approved of the 2014 Kentucky Qualified Allocation Plan (QAP). There were a few minor revisions from the QAP drafts and Guidelines that are highlighted in yellow on the final version, including certain appraiser standards if Housing Credit exeeds $250,000. The total amount of Housing Credit expected to be available to Kentucky for 2014 is estimated to be approximately $9,500,000.

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) recently issued Notice 2013-40 and 2013-39 to suspend certain low-income housing tax credit (LIHTC) and tax exempt facility bond rules in order to allow owners of low-income housing to provide temporary shelter to non-low-income victims of the May 2013 Oklahoma tornadoes.

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

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.

The Arizona Department of Housing (ADOH) is requesting input for its 2014 Qualified Allocation Plan (QAP).

The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) issued a new report entitled “Corporate Tax Expenditures: Information on Estimated Revenue Losses and Related Federal Spending Programs.” The report comes out as the U.S. Congress begins more serious consideration of tax reform. Presumably the data will be used to inform decisions as the topic is debated further and could have an impact on various programs utilized by NH&RA members. The report does not make any policy recommendations or endorsements regarding specific programs but does outline costs, revenue forgone and provides a basis for comparison acorss budget functions.

The Massachusetts Department of Housing and Community Development (DHCD) announced the start of their summer 2013 affordable housing competition for rental projects. The DHDC will accept applications from sponsors whose projects were pre-approved in June 2013 through DHCD’s pre-application process.

The Alaska Housing Finance Corporation announced the start of the FY2014 GOAL Competition, which provides grants, federal tax credits, and zero-interest federal loans to developers and project sponsors to build affordable housing for low to moderate income families and seniors.

MaineHousing will hold a public hearing of the Draft 2014 Qualified Allocation Plan at 9:30 AM on Tuesday, June 18, 2013.