[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 152 (Wednesday, September 27, 1995)]
[House]
[Pages H9567-H9568]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




        DROP SUNSET PROVISION FOR LOW INCOME HOUSING TAX CREDIT

  (Mr. ORTON asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to include extraneous material.)
  Mr. ORTON. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to express my strong opposition 
to the Ways and Means Committee proposal to sunset the low-income 
housing tax credit, which is to be included in the House reconciliation 
bill.

[[Page H 9568]]

  As evidence of how unwise this proposal is, I would like to enter 
into the Record a letter I received from the Governor of my home State, 
Mike Leavitt. This letter urges the deletion of the committee's sunset 
of the low-income housing tax credit. It also points out that this 
private sector tax incentive accounts for virtually all of new 
construction of Utah's apartment units which are affordable to hard 
working, low income renters.
  Mr. Speaker I urge my colleagues on the other side to listen to 
Governor Leavitt, who incidentally is the chair of the Republican 
Governors Association. Let's drop this misguided proposal from the 
reconciliation bill.
  Mr. Speaker, I submit the following for the Record.
                                                    State of Utah,


                            Washington Office of the Governor,

                              Washington, DC., September 19, 1995.
     Hon. Bill Orton,
     House of Representatives,
     Washington, DC.
       Dear Representative Orton: House Ways and Means Committee 
     Chairman Bill Archer has released his proposed Budget 
     Reconciliation to members of his Committee. It calls for the 
     sunset of the Low Income Housing Tax Credit [LIHTC] after 
     December 31, 1997.
       As you know, the LIHTC is the only incentive remaining 
     today in Utah, as well as the nation, for the production of 
     affordable rental housing. According to the Utah Housing 
     Finance Agency which administers the tax credit program for 
     our state, the 6,000 units financed in Utah by LIHTC accounts 
     for virtually all this state's apartment construction that 
     have rents which are affordable to hard-working, yet lower 
     income renters. This represents fully half of all the new 
     apartments that have been constructed in Utah since 1987. It 
     also finances rehabilitation of large numbers of old 
     apartments into decent and affordable places for low income 
     families to live.
       The LIHTC is not a direct spending program of the federal 
     government like so many other housing programs, but rather 
     offers tax incentives to the private sector to invest capital 
     into these difficult to finance housing efforts. Although 
     corporations are the principal investors in the tax credits 
     which finance these low income apartments, the LIHTC is not 
     in any way a form of ``corporate welfare''. The LIHTC builds 
     partnerships between public and private sectors to very 
     efficiently draw capital into solving this nation's housing 
     dilemma.
       Additionally, the LIHTC has played an important role in 
     sustaining the apartment construction industry in Utah for 
     nearly a decade. It is playing a prominent part in the 
     resurgence of a healthy Utah real estate industry. Vastly 
     more important, the LIHTC has produced more than 6,000 rental 
     homes, housing in excess of 25,000 lower income parents and 
     children, in nearly every community in our state. Those 
     decent and affordable places to live simply would not exist 
     without the LIHTC.
       Please contact Chairman Archer and ask him to delete the 
     LIHTC sunset proposal from his Budget Reconciliation Bill.
       Thank you for your attention to this important matter.
           Sincerely,
                                               Michael O. Leavitt,
     Governor.

                          ____________________