California Treasurer Bill Lockyer said his office will move quickly to take advantage of recent federal legislation to increase private-activity bond volume caps and tax credit allocations for housing.
President Bush last week signed a housing bill into law that adds $11 billion to private-activity volume caps for single- and multifamily housing projects.
California’s share of the increased volume cap is $1.2 billion above its previous $3.1 billion cap. The same bill also authorized California to authorize an additional $146 million in tax credits through 2019, according to the treasurer’s office.
“My office will move quickly to fully allocate both sources of funding so Californians and our economy get the most out of this package,” Lockyer said in a statement.
As treasurer, Lockyer chairs the California Debt Limit Allocation Committee.
He said the CDLAC will put implementation on a fast track to ensure the state meets the legislation’s year-end deadline for allocating the financing. Under the expedited timetable, the committee will accept applications in October and work with state and local government bond issuers to allocate all of the financing in December. Once the allocation is made, issuers will have until December 2010 to sell the bonds.
The California Tax Credit Allocation Committee, also chaired by Lockyer, will distribute the new tax credits to specific projects at its October meeting, a spokesman said.
