(MAINE) — Governor Janet Mills signed LD 2116 into law on April 21, 2026, extending Maine’s Affordable Housing Income Tax Credit through December 31, 2036.

The measure keeps in place a state tax credit used by developers who invest in constructing or preserving affordable housing. Under the program, those developers qualify for state income tax credits tied to that work.

Lawmakers sent Mills a bill that started with a broader goal. Rep. Ambureen Rana, a Democrat from Bangor, sponsored the legislation with the original aim of making the credit permanent.

The proposal changed in committee. The Democratic-majority Taxation Committee amended the bill and turned the permanent extension into an eight-year extension instead.

That revision still gives the program a long runway. With the new law, the Affordable Housing Income Tax Credit now runs through the end of 2036.

Maine officials pointed to a recent example as they made the case for the program’s value. In Aroostook County, 20 units of senior apartments were preserved as affordable housing through the credit.

The example offered a concrete picture of how the program operates in practice. Rather than functioning as a direct grant, the credit supports private investment in projects that create or maintain affordable units.

LD 2116 keeps that structure in place for another stretch of time. Projects that depend on the credit to close financing gaps now have a program window that extends to December 31, 2036.

Rana’s sponsorship placed a housing tax incentive at the center of the debate in Augusta. Even after lawmakers scaled back the bill from permanence to a fixed-term renewal, the final law preserved the central purpose of the measure: continuing a credit aimed at affordable housing production and preservation.

The timeline matters for development projects, which often move over years rather than months. A tax credit set to remain available through 2036 gives builders and preservation groups a longer planning horizon than a short-term extension would have provided.

Housing advocates and developers now have a clearer date around which to structure proposals, partnerships and financing plans. The extension also gives Maine a longer period to support the types of deals that keep existing affordable units from leaving the market.

Mills signed the bill as Maine continues to rely on tax policy to support affordable housing supply. The law does not make the credit permanent, as first proposed, but it secures nearly another decade for a program state officials have tied to preserved senior housing in Aroostook County and to other affordable housing work across the state.