No Heart-Pounding Finish For State Tax Credit Auction

If you bid on items at online auction sites such as eBay, you know that the final moments of bidding can lead to heartburn. With a few seconds left, you can be outbid by some stranger on that rare tchotchke you've had your eye on. While the state has long auctioned off surplus state property on eBay (just a few days left to get your hands on this Pavement Density Indicator!), a pair of state agencies is choosing a different tactic to auction off what is admittedly a rather different kind of product:  Tax Credits.

In short, the Department of Energy is teaming up with the Department of Revenue to auction off 1,500 tax credits worth $1,000 each. Opening bids start at $950, meaning there isn't a lot of breathing room between the minimum bid and the point at which it isn't worth your time. But unlike eBay and many live auctions, there's no way of knowing what's already been bid. Department of Revenue spokeswoman Rosemary Almond wouldn't tell me how many bids have come in so far, saying that revealing that information "might give people who haven’t bid yet an edge." (I'm guessing a $951 bid would serve you well at this point, but you didn't hear it from me...)

If all the credits are sold (i.e. bid on) the auction would raise a minimum of $1.4 million for the state to fund grants for renewable energy projects. Of course, the state will turn around and return that money (and likely more) to tax credit purchasers next spring when people file taxes. Bidding on the tax credits opened on October 24, and the deadline (as of this writing) is just 75 minutes away.