State Audit Recommends Sunset Of Low-Income Housing Tax Credit

A new state audit recommends a sunset of the state’s low-income housing tax credit. It’s a great recommendation that we have supported in the past. You can find the full audit here and the “citizen summary” here. The audit highlights a broad set of problems with the current program — not the least of which being that nearly $1.5 billion worth of Low-Income Housing Tax Credits (LIHTC) are outstanding and have not been redeemed. This paragraph from the auditor’s press release is indispensable (emphasis mine):

Currently, only 42 cents of every dollar issued actually goes toward the construction of low income housing; the remainder goes to the federal government in the form of increased federal income taxes, to syndication firms, and to investors. State law allows claiming the same project costs under two or more tax credit programs. This “stacking” of tax credits can be lucrative for developers, but it generates no additional economic activity or state benefit.

To reiterate: Less than half of the money spent through the LIHTC program… actually goes toward the building of low-income housing. Page 16 of the audit goes through all of the auditor’s recommendations, including the idea of adding substantive spending caps to the LIHTC. That’s an excellent idea. When you have a billion-dollar budget-buster like this sitting out there, a strong cap is an obvious and common sense reform, though the Missouri House’s track record on tax credit reform issues has been abysmal.

Either way, the auditor’s report recognizes the need for reform to the LIHTC. It’s an open question whether the legislature will also recognize the problem.