Historic tax credit bill ‘vital’ for Birmingham and Alabama

State Sen. Jabo Waggoner of Vestavia Hills said he plans to again sponsor an Alabama historic tax credit bill in the Legislature to rehabilitate abandoned buildings.

The Legislature convenes Feb. 7.

Waggoner wants to renew Alabama’s historic tax credit, which has benefited nearly two dozen projects in Birmingham and more than 50 statewide, including the Lyric Theatre, Redmont Hotel and the Florentine Building.

The three-year program expired in 2016. The state Legislature failed to renew the historic tax credit program before the end of last year’s legislative session.

“The historic tax credit bill is vital not only for Birmingham but this entire state,” Waggoner said. “It has transformed downtown Birmingham. You look at the Redmont, you look at the Pizitz Building, you look at the Lyric and the list goes on.

“And it’s not just in Birmingham. We’re talking about Mobile, we’re talking about Montgomery, we’re talking about Huntsville, we’re talking about some buildings in rural Alabama that have to have the historic tax in order to bring back to life some of these buildings,” he said.

The restorers of Birmingham’s Lyric Theatre used the state’s historic tax credits during the project. (File)

The Thomas Jefferson Tower is among the restoration projects aided by Alabama’s historic tax credits. (Michael Tomberlin/Alabama NewsCenter)

Interior of the Pizitz Building during its restoration. (Michael Tomberlin/Alabama NewsCenter)

Birmingham’s Federal Reserve building was restored with help from Alabama’s historic tax credits. (Michael Tomberlin/Alabama NewsCenter)

A rendering shows a sidewalk view outside the restored Pizitz Building. (Contributed)

More than $7 million went into bringing the Lyric Theatre back to life, and the project took advantage of Alabama’s historic tax credit program. (File)

The Lyric Theatre’s gold-painted plaster cherubs were beautifully restored. (File)

Waggoner sponsored the bill in the past session, but it failed to gain traction in the Senate. “A couple of guys in the Senate had heartburn,” Waggoner said. “Bottom line, it did not pass.”

A forensic audit company has been hired to look at all of the tax credits in Alabama, said Waggoner, who estimates there are “probably 3 or 4 billion dollars worth of tax credits in the state.”

The audit is expected back today.

“If they come back and say the historic tax credit issue is a good thing, positive for the state of Alabama, I will responsor the bill and I am very confident it will pass,” Waggoner said.

Re-establishing the tax credit is more than an economic incentive tool for rehabilitating and developing historic structures, Waggoner said.

“You don’t attract a Mercedes to come to Vance, Alabama, without a tax credit,” he said. “It’s all about industrial development, and they need tax credits. And Alabama through the years has taken advantage of them.”

The program has been responsible for $384 million in private investment in Alabama since it started in 2013, according to a report in January 2016 by a Maryland-based accounting firm.