Congress passes $1.8 trillion Omnibus Bill, extends New Markets Tax Credit program

Congress on Friday passed a $1.8 trillion package of spending measures and tax legislation that was quickly signed into law by President Obama. The bill includes a five-year extension of the New Markets Tax Credit program, which encourages investment in low-income areas.

The legislation passed the Senate 65-33 Friday afternoon, following the earlier House vote of 316-113, according to Sen. Susan Collins, senior member of the Senate Appropriations Committee.

The federal NMTC program was extended through 2019 at its current level of $3.5 billion annually, according to a statement of the NMTC Coalition, which credits the program with creating nearly 750,000 jobs in economically distressed rural and urban areas and leveraging almost $75 billion in capital for businesses, community services and facilities.

Launched by the federal government in 2000, the program attracts investors to those low-income areas by offering a 39% federal income tax credit over a seven-year investment period. The tax credits are allocated by Community Development Entities like CEI Capital Management that seek allocations in a competitive process.

The four members of Maine’s congressional delegation voted to approve the Fiscal Year 2016 Omnibus Bill, which will fund the government through next September.

Charlie Spies, CEO of CEI Capital Management LLC, applauded the five-year extension of the federal NMTC program.

“The congressional vote to extend the federal New Markets Tax Credit program for another five years has come at a critically important point in the economic recovery of our nation’s low-income communities — rural and urban alike,” he said in a written statement provided to Mainebiz. “I am thankful to all those who recognize how powerful the program has been to help diversify shallow economies and create economically healthy communities. In particular I’d like to express appreciation to Maine’s Congressional delegation, Sens. Angus King and Susan Collins and Reps. Chellie Pingree and Bruce Poliquin who have seen its success creating and preserving jobs and attracting investment capital in their districts.”

In a press release sent out Friday evening, Collins highlighted some of the provisions that she said will benefit Maine:

$1 billion toward an additional destroyer likely to be built at Bath Iron Works and full funding for the DDG-1000 program.

The federal truck weight limit in Maine is now permanent law. As the chairwoman of the Senate Transportation Appropriations Committee, Collins said one of her top priorities has been to keep trucks weighing up to 100,000 pounds off of downtown streets and on the federal interstates. In 2011, she successfully negotiated an agreement to allow the heaviest trucks on the highway for the next 20 years. This provision, she noted, makes these truck weight limits permanent law for Maine.

$2 billion increase for National Institutes for Health, including a $350 million increase to combat Alzheimer’s disease, which affects 5.2 million Americans, including 37,000 in Maine. The $350 million increase in funding to combat Alzheimer's disease brings the total to $936 million in fiscal year 2016.

Increased funding for offshore wind power, bringing the total to the Department of Energy’s wind program to $95.5 million. Collins said in the release that she successfully advocated to include language directing $7.4 million for “alternate projects designs, which directly benefits the University of Maine’s innovative deep water offshore wind project.”

$7.2 million for the Maine Air National Guard’s 101st Air Refueling Wing to renovate the base fire and crash rescue station.

$500 million for the Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery, or TIGER, competitive grant program. Maine has received a TIGER grant award each year, totaling more than $112 million, since the grant was established in 2009.