The random, awkward budget cutting process finally reached the heritage conservation world last week as the Historic Preservation Fund was nearly zeroed out by the administration. This would decimate state and tribal historic preservation offices and make compliance with the National Historic Preservation Act nearly impossible. The Historic Preservation Fund comes not from taxes but from offshore oil leases, a detail significant to those of us who do the work, but perhaps not to those doing the supposed cutting.

The Creamery – an historic tax credit project in San Antonio – I should have included it with my last blog about Art Deco – which included three other Art Deco buildings in San Antonio being restored with tax credits.

Historic Preservation Offices review both federal undertakings under Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act as well as buildings being restored with historic tax credits. The National Park Service also has a role in both activities, and the cuts look to be deep there as well.

Stilwell House, part of the National Historic Landmark Fort Sam Houston, San Antonio.

Now, as with the other chaotic and uncoordinated cuts proposed during the recent recrudescence, one has to consider 1. Will it change on its own or, less likely, by action of legislature or judiciary?, 2. Will it remain in its present colossal form or shrink?, 3. Are the cuts the actual goal? Other goals manifest recently include: chaos and disorientation; maintaining presence in the news cycle; performative “sin” or “virtue” signalling; or a desire to distract attention from an earlier performance.

St. Anthony Hotel, San Antonio. One of the first projects to combines the 2015 Texas historic tax credit with the federal historic tax credit.

Burns Building – one of two historic tax credit projects on Houston Street that our Capital Club donors will be touring next week.

Time will tell. In the next week or so. The National Preservation Partners Network recently joined other national groups objecting to the colossal cuts, and you can see the statement here. Everyone has been lobbying for the continuation of historic tax credits, and even their enhancement, which has bipartisan support. In Texas in the last decade the federal and state tax credits have created 515 projects worth hundreds of millions of dollars.

Continue Reading