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Floor Speech
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Mr. KAINE. Madam President, today I want to discuss legislation I am introducing, the School Infrastructure Modernization Act, with my colleague Senator Warner.
To claim the Federal tax credit for historic preservation, a building renovation must be for a different purpose than that for which the building was previously used, a requirement known as the prior use rule. This bill waives that requirement for renovations of K-12 public school buildings. This will make it easier to restore historic-but- dilapidated school buildings across the country so our children have safe, modern spaces in which to learn.
As a Richmond City Council member and later mayor, I faced challenges familiar to many municipalities--overcrowded schools, aging buildings, and limited dollars in the budget. But in one particular case, I and a group of local stakeholders identified a creative solution. On one hand, we had an overcrowded Thomas Jefferson High School with in-zone and magnet students. On the other hand, we had a closed Maggie Walker High School that needed renovations. We put together a financing package that made use of Federal and State historic tax credits to renovate Maggie Walker High School and satisfied the prior use rule by consolidating the magnet program from Thomas Jefferson into a new Maggie Walker Governor's School for Government and International Studies. Today, some 30 years later, this is one of America's highest performing public high schools. Without the Federal historic tax credit, this would have been too expensive to make happen.
This bill will make it easier to do similar projects around the country. More modern school buildings will bolster the quality of public education, and carrying out these projects will generate private sector infrastructure investment and jobs. In Virginia alone, according to a 2021 study, more than 1,000 K-12 schools are at least 50 years old, representing more than half of all the K-12 schools in the Commonwealth.
I encourage my colleagues to support this commonsense incentive that is good for education, good for infrastructure, and good for jobs. ______
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