Helping to preserve historic buildings may be the one thing everyone at the Minnesota Legislature agrees upon

An effort to continue Minnesota’s primary tax break for restoring historic buildings has bipartisan support at the state House and Senate — and little organized opposition. 

That still isn’t enough to make supporters of the measure comfortable.

Backers of the extending the provision, technically known as the Minnesota Historic Structure Rehabilitation State Tax Credit, worry that lawmakers — with pandemic response and passing a budget being the major priorities of the 2021 session — might lose sight of addressing the credit, which expires June 30. A similar bill was introduced in 2020 but then disappeared after a single hearing (along with a lot of other issues sidelined when COVID-19 hit).

“The pandemic requires a lot of focus and a lot of brainpower by the state, so we want to make sure that, given the urgency of the timeline now, that this is something on everybody’s radar screen,” said Erin Hanafin Berg, the policy director of Rethos, the nonprofit formerly known as the Preservation Alliance of Minnesota.

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