Historic Home Owners Tax Credits

Our last meeting on “Historic Home Owners Tax Credits” was very interesting and well attended. Joe DeRose from the Wisconsin State Historic Preservation Office clarified a lot of questions for us about how the program works and how best to take advantage of it. It would seem to be a largely forgotten or otherwise not taken advantage of here in Beloit. There have been no applications submitted in years from Beloit. We’re fortunate in that not all states have this benefit available to home owners.

This Old House recently announced their “Best Places To Buy An Old House In America“. Unfortunately we didn’t make the cut. Reviewing the winners, it was interesting that several neighborhoods cited availability of their states tax credit program among the benefits of living there.

By way of overview…

• - It is a 25% Wisconsin state income tax “credit”. Not federal tax, not property tax, not a “deduction”.

• - For example, you spend $10K combined on one or more projects, you get credited back $2,500. If you cannot use the full credit in a given year, you can carry the unused credit into the following years until you use it up.

• - There is a $10K minimum investment. This can however be spread over multiple projects and up to five years. Additionally, you’re not limited to one application. if have ambitious plans and want begin using taking the credits prior to all the projects being completed you can break it up into multiple applications, so long as these still equal >$10K each.

• - If you live within one of Beloit’s historic districts or individually listed homes you’re eligible to apply. If you do not you may still be eligible to apply.

• - There are specifics on what sorts of projects are approved and strings attached are mostly with regard to meeting “secretary of the interior standards for rehabilitation”.

• - Your project(s) need to be approved before any work is begun otherwise your application is void.

Important. You’ll need to confirm the above and your understanding. The above is to the best of my understanding.

Historic Home Owners Tax Credits - Program Description.

Historic Home Owners Tax Credits – Application.

Additionally, if you’ve questions you may contact Joe DeRose at Joe.DeRose@wisconsinhistory.org You can also contact Joe for some guidance prior to going through the application.

Personally, I wish we had applied when we moved in years ago. I suspect we could have received credit for many of the things we’ve already payed for. We’re in the process of doing so now though. Perhaps I’ll record how it goes for us here.

Next meeting agenda: Mon. 2/9

Hope you can make it out this evening. Please join us.

Agenda:

• Old Agenda:
  • Brief intro to website updates & Neighbor’s Directory
  • Not-for-profit organizational set up
    • Beloit NPA draft bylaws/amendments/approval
    • Election of officers
  • Committee Reports
    • Neighborhood Action -spokesmodel
    • Programs Development -spokesmodel
    • Marketing & PR – Rick
  • Updates – Other
    • Landmarks Commission & Horace White Park – Marge F.
    • Downtown Business Association – Becky M.
    • Rock County & Beloit 2020 – Bob F.
    • School District – Emma C.
    • Beloit College – John W.
    • City Council, Police Dept., Plan Commission – Volunteer(s)?
• New Agenda:
  • Any new agenda from meeting attendees
  • Plan Commission vacancies
  • Neighborhood apartment buildings (Park Street, Emerson Hall, Harrison Steet)
  • City’s paint program & Neighborhood Housing Services
  • Block captains & spring time block parties?
• Housekeeping
  • Meeting frequency
  • Neighborhood Directory – sign up & pics

Meeting Minutes 1/26/09

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Next meeting agenda: Mon. 1/26

At our last meeting there were a few things we were asking folks to consider in advance of today’s meeting.

• Beloit NPA Bylaws
• Committee participation
• Reporting volunteer

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Meeting Minutes 1/12/09

Once again we got hit with nasty weather the evening of our meeting. All the same over twentyfolks braved the snow and cold including a half dozen new faces which is particularly gratifying. Things continue to come together for us.

We’re now a licensed not-for-profit

Committees have been agreed upon and are forming

Both Visit Beloit & Stateline Community Foundation support offered

Most importantly though, we now have an actual wooden gavel

Items discussed:

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Meeting Minutes 12/08/08

It was an icy bad-weather evening last night. And the bad weather not-withstanding we had thirty one people join us including a bunch of new neighbors. We met some new neighbors from Central and some new neighbors from Emerson. Not yet really well represented are Wisconsin Ave. and Milwaukee Ave. If you know of anyone on those streets it would great to have those areas represented.

Sgt. Northrop from the Beloit PD joined us. We’d forwarded to him a raft of questions and incidents we’d hoped to talk about. Frankly I figured we’d likely go about half an hour > forty five minutes and have time for other agenda as well. It would seem though we tapped into something a lot of people wanted to talk about. The exchanged showed no sign of let up for the full hour and a half we had. It could have likely continued if we’d not called time. It was a very positive, supportive exchange which I was particularly glad about. Very light on the pissing & moaning. Heavy on the what-can-we-do support. Lots of questions. Lots of good background information. Lots of actionable things we could take home with us which was great! Frankly there was too much for me to try and recount here. If you missed it we’ll most likely touch on this again in some form again.

The short-list of things you’ll want to keep in mind or try to put into action…

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Next Meeting – Monday Dec. 8th.

Just a reminder. We’ll be meeting next on Monday the 8th.

• Pleasant Street Coffeehouse, (604 Pleasant Street)
• 6:30 PM
• No RSVP, no dress code, no purchase necessary… just come. 

Agenda:

• A representative from the Beloit PD will be meeting with us for discussion.
• Old Agenda
  • Proposed groupings/committees from individually proposed ideas.
  • Not-for-profit application status/discussion – balance due/when.
• New Agenda
  • Anything new from those attending
  • Meeting with area employer’s relocation HR people
  • Beloit college students marketing assistance option

If you’ve a question you would like the Beloit PD rep to address please forward to nesnabeloit (at) gmail (dot) com. These will be compiled and forwarded so that they can do any needed research in order to provide best information for us.

Hope you can join us!

Meeting Minutes 11/24

It never even occurred to me to check the Packer’s game schedule. I didn’t realize we had another schedule conflict until a few days ago. All the same, that we had twenty seven in attendance I think was huge! Jennifer and Pleasant Street Coffeehouse were great hosts. Before our next meeting I’ll get over there and puzzle out the monitor hookup to the big screen TV.

Without benefit of projecting to the TV review & discussion of the neighborhood/association ideas was a bit challenged. It was however resolved that I’d take a stab at consolidating the suggestions into a short list of broader groups from which people could participate if they’d like. We could then use this vehicle of what people show interest in helping out with as our guide to what we pursue as an association. A splendid suggestion. Much more organic. You see that’s how it works… if we can get enough smart and interested people together then the better ideas percolate up. I’ll post a try at a short list of broader groups under separate cover.

Anyway, several individuals expressed interest in pursuing varied projects the question being might others be willing to join them. To date people have expressed interest in pursuing:

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Next Meeting – Monday Nov. 24th.

• Close by, walking distance for many of us.
• Convenient parking for the rest.
• Coffee along with their other drinks and desserts
• WIFI …. woohoo! 
• A large screen TV we can hook up to as a monitor
• Supporting a local business who’s been a great neighbor to the Church St. group as well.

PLEASE NOTE: We’ll be meeting a bit earlier at 6:30 PM. This will allow us some time to get something if we like before they close the register for the evening.
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We’d like to know what you’re thinkin’

Following up on the range of ideas expressed over the last couple meetings I’ve cobbled together a crude poll. Take a look. Take a moment to let us know what you think.

It’s rough, it’s ugly but it should give us some feel for where peoples priorities are at, what they’d welcome most. Of course there’s more then we could reasonably consider pursuing but this can be a first step towards winnowing down to a ’short list’ of what’s do-able.

Take the new Beloit Neighborhood Preservation Association Poll! Express yourself!

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