Tax credits available for hiring developmentally disabled

• The state has scrapped the Nov. 30 deadline for the initial application for new tax credit program.
• Businesses can get credits of up to %245%2C000 for hiring a developmentally disabled worker full time.
• The program will help integrate more developmentally disabled people into the workforce.
• The federal government is requiring states to close sheltered workshops%2C a fixture for decades.

To make it easier to take advantage of a new tax credit for hiring people with developmental disabilities, the state has scrapped the Nov. 30 deadline for the initial application.

Instead, all businesses with active unemployment insurance accounts as of that date will be eligible to apply for the Workers with Developmental Disabilities Tax Credit Program, which takes effect Jan. 1.

Interested employers must submit a request for certification application to the state Department of Labor. The agency expects to post the application on its website soon, spokesman Brian Keegan said Thursday.

The new program will provide a tax credit of up to $5,000 for hiring someone full time (30 or more hours per week) and up to $2,500 for part time (at least eight hours per week). The duration has to be at least six months. The non-refundable credit is 15 percent of qualified wages for full-timers and 10 percent for part-timers.

The business incentive will help integrate more people with developmental disabilities into the workforce as New York works to close sheltered workshops. States are required by the U.S. Supreme Court's Olmstead decision and the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to place people with disabilities in the most integrated work and housing settings possible.

"We have over 8,000 people currently in sheltered workshops across New York state and for so many people, this has really been such an important part of their life," said Sen. David Carlucci, D-New City, chairman of the Senate's Mental Health and Developmental Disabilities Committee.

"So to go through these changes is a very big shift in the way people live. We've got to make sure that nobody is left out, nobody is left behind," he added.

To participate in the tax-credit program, a person with a developmental disability must be working at a sheltered workshop or have been unemployed prior to Oct. 1.

In 2013, the state Office for People with Developmental Disabilities ended new admissions to sheltered workshops, where people with developmental disabilities do piece work. It created a pre-employment service called Pathway to Employment to help people transition into integrated workplaces.

The state has set aside $6 million a year through 2019 for the Workers with Developmental Disabilities Tax Credit Program. Unused credits can be carried forward for three years.

Putnam ARC Executive Director Susan Limongello said her group hopes the tax credit will increase the number of jobs for people with disabilities in the county.

"We see the tax credit as win-win: a credit for businesses who seek a more diverse workforce and new employment opportunities for our vocational program participants, many of whom have already been enjoying community-based employment for a number of years," she said in a statement.

Carlucci said it's important to educate as many employers as possible about the program.

"A lot of people don't know about it, are not aware of it," he said.

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All businesses with unemployment insurance accounts as of Nov. 30 will be eligible to apply for a tax credit program for hiring workers with disabilities. Businesses interested in the new program will have to file an application for certification with the state Labor Department. For more information, visit http://on.ny.gov/1ujI2Zp or contact the agency at WWDDTC@labor.ny.gov or by phone at 877-226-5724.