ATLANTA — The Georgia Trust for Historic Preservation has worked to keep the state’s historic structures in good shape and protected from the damages of time since 1973.
However, the organization said Thursday that federal funding cuts, including funds allocated to them that are being withheld due to changes in Washington, are putting their mission at risk.
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“Recent developments at the federal level of government present a direct threat to historic preservation and require us all, as advocates for historic places, to speak up,” the Georgia Trust for Historic Preservation said in a statement.
The organization said the “critical federal funding” that keeps their historic preservation efforts going in Georgia has not yet been distributed for the 2025 fiscal year.
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Additionally, and in their words “even more troubling,” was that the funding is almost “completely eliminated” in the 2026 fiscal budget in Washington.
That’s because the latest federal budget would almost completely remove the Historic Preservation Fund, a federal program that assists state-level and local preservation work.
The organization said it puts Georgia’s historic sites in jeopardy.
“The istration’s failure to release the 2025 Historic Preservation Fund and its proposal to nearly eliminate this critical funding in 2026 will have catastrophic consequences for historic preservation efforts nationwide,” W. Wright Mitchell, president of the Georgia Trust for Historic Preservation, said.
Mitchell said the funds being withheld also meant that state historic preservation offices could end up closing down, adding that “the damage from these actions could take decades to repair.”
The Historic Preservation Fund was first created in 1966 through the National Historic Preservation Act.
The legislation was signed into law by former President Lyndon B. Johnson.
The fund is what is used to ister the National of Historic Places, issue Historic Tax Credits for reinvestment and, among other functions, provide technical assistance, reviews and approval of federal tax credit projects.
The Georgia Trust for Historic Preservation said this type of funding helps to incentivize private investment in historic communities across the state, as well as lead to investments that create jobs, both directly and indirectly.
“The continued withholding of appropriated funds and the proposed elimination of future funding will be detrimental to all historic preservation efforts in the state,” the organization said.
Channel 2 Action News has reached out to the White House for comment and are waiting for their response.
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