On Wednesday, June 25, the Maine Senate voted unanimously to send LD 554, “An Act to Encourage Resident-owned Communities and Cooperatives and Preserve Affordable Housing Through Tax Credits,” to the Governor’s desk. This bill, sponsored by Sen. Cameron Reny, D-Bristol, would create tax incentives to encourage the sale of mobile home parks and other multi-unit housing developments to resident-owned cooperatives, cooperative affordable housing corporations, or municipal housing authorities. The legislation would help preserve affordable housing options throughout the state. 

“All Maine people deserve to be secure in their housing,” said Sen. Reny. “This bill helps preserve affordable housing options in mobile home and manufactured housing parks, and it gives residents of these communities a leg up when they try to buy the land under their homes. Funding and enacting LD 554 equips Maine with another important tool to ease our state’s housing crisis.” 

LD 554 creates a tax deduction to incentivize the sale or transfer of housing developments, housing parks, or apartment complexes to resident-owned communities, cooperative affordable housing corporations, or municipal housing authorities. This bill allows for an income tax exemption of up to $750,000 on capital gains from these transfers. LD 554 also outlines the performance measures that would be used to evaluate the effectiveness of the tax deductions in meeting the goal of preserving Maine’s affordable housing supply.

LD 554 now heads to the Governor’s desk for her signature.

Sen. Reny represents Maine Senate District 13, which includes most of Lincoln County and the towns of Washington and Windsor.