Wanna bet how this will end? Like scores of others, that 14-year-old tax break is now facing intense scrutiny as the 113th Congress, with only a handful of days left in its legislative life span, decides whether or not to renew 56 tax provisions set to expire. To their fans, the measures — as major as the multibillion-dollar research and development tax credit for corporations or as minuscule as a $9 million break for racehorse owners — are vital to select industries and broader economic development. Photo Jon Kyl, a retired Republican senator from Arizona, fought hard to keep the break that allows Nascar track owners to write off their costs over seven years. Credit John Moore/Associated Press But a growing group of lawmakers say many, if not most, of them are little more than special-interest spending “earmarks” by another name: “tax expenditures” that are kept alive by well-heeled lobbyists for their well-funded clients. “Clearly this town sings with an upper-class accent,” said Senator Sherrod Brown, Democrat of Ohio, who is pressing to refocus the New Markets Tax Credit on areas specifically blighted by the retreat of manufacturing. For years, renewing the so-called extenders package has been pro forma. A few lawmakers grumbled about provisions like faster tax write-offs for racehorses and Nascar tracks, a special break for film and television productions, decades-long “temporary” special treatment for Puerto Rican and Virgin Islands rum, and assistance for StarKist’s tuna cannery in American Samoa.
Posted on: Wed, 19 Nov 2014 15:15:57 +0000
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