Special Bd. of Aldermen — 10/26/15 Page 5
businesses in the State, it is based in Keene, they really focus on Keene and hunger which makes sense for
an entity that is focused on groceries and is based in Keene. So they really use it as part of their philanthropy
whereas | would say the New Market Tax Credits, it is really more transactional.
Mr. Cummings Yes to follow up on that is very transactional and it is a Federal Program and the largest
purchaser will not necessarily be not even in NH but within New England. The largest purchaser of New
Market Tax Credits is US Bank.
Alderman Tencza
Can | just ask a question about the tax credits? Are those competitive | mean especially the NH, | mean are
businesses guaranteed if they want to donate to the Performing Arts Center get those tax credits or is there a
process?
Ms. McNamara For CDFA?
Alderman Tencza
Either.
Ms. McNamara The process for NH CDFA is we have to apply to NH CDFA it is quite competitive so there is
a whole application process and they make a decision and we will Know in June. | have worked on a number of
campaigns, especially the arts, that have done well, because they see the connection between economic
development and arts. They connect the dots to the creative economy that this kind of thing would bring in. |
can’t guarantee it, but | think it is a really good option.
Mr. Cummings And similarly if | may just relative to the New Market Tax Credits, it is an application process, it
is very competitive, the feedback that we have gotten as we’ve been working through this is this is a very good
project. You apply to what is called a CDE, a Community Development Entity. These Community
Development Entities are throughout the entire country. Our application can go throughout the entire country
and based off of available credit and applications, it is a competitive process for receiving an award or an
allotment. We are focusing on an area that is a census delineated track that is a low to moderate income track
that | know that folks within the community development world are very interested in seeing economic and
community development occur within. So there is some cautiously optimistic folks that believe that this is a
very good project to receive a New Market Tax Credit.
Alderman Lopez
When you were interviewing people, did you speak to any other non-profits that might be using similar
programs like CDFA or New Market?
Ms. McNamara One of the questions that | asked everybody that | interviewed is if they know of any non-
profits that are starting a campaign that might compete with this and there were none that bubbled up, that
people know of. That’s not to say that non-profits might not be planning something but there are none that
people know of. So! don’t. But | will say that NH non-profits can and often do apply for CDFA tax credits,
independent of a capital campaign; so the CDFA tax credit award might fund their entire project. So there
could competition. Sometimes CDFA likes to do one or two or three CDFA tax credit awards in the same
community because they see them as leveraging each other.
| wanted to talk a little bit about what are the different rules and responsibilities in a capital campaign.
Sometimes | am hired as a consultant and people think “Oh phew! She’s going to take care of it, we are all
set, check that off our list”. So the people on the capital campaign work group that | have been working with
know that is not true. Let’s start with this, so the campaign committee which is a group that we are recruiting
