Legislation from GOP lawmakers would make some state tax credit programs more flexible to drive investments in child care and workforce housing, bill authors say.
Rep. Dave Armstrong of Rice Lake and Sen. Dan Feyen of Fond du Lac are currently circulating a co-sponsorship memo for the bill.
It follows legislation signed into law last year that made changes to the state’s Business Development Tax Credit and Enterprise Zone Tax Credit programs, including allowing companies to claim credits for investments in workforce housing and child care programs, the memo shows.
Armstrong and Feyen say they’re hearing from employers that “WEDC was interpreting” the law to mean businesses needed to own the workforce housing and child care programs to qualify for tax credits, not only invest in them.
They argue “that was not the intent of Act 143’s lead authors” and the new legislation is meant to address that.
Under current law, qualifying recipients can claim tax benefits up to 15% of their investment in workforce housing for employees and up to 15% of their investment in creating a child care program for employees, according to the Legislative Reference Bureau. That law restricts qualifying investments to “capital expenditures made by the person,” LRB wrote.
The bill would allow businesses to receive the credit for contributions made to a third party for building or rehabilitating workforce housing or establishing a child care program, as well as contributions made to a local revolving loan program. Plus, the legislation would get rid of a requirement that the qualifying programs must be for employees.
“By clarifying the law and in the process making it more flexible, more businesses may be willing to invest in workforce housing and childcare programs,” bill authors wrote.
The co-sponsorship deadline for the legislation is 5 p.m. on May 15.
See the bill text.
