Venango County Tea Party Patriots

A non-partisan, non-profit, non-member, association dedicated to educating the public and promoting the principles of fiscal responsibility, constitutionally limited government and free market economics, and all other lawful activities.

tax credit

/

PA May Pay For Clean Up of Shell Refinary

Lawmakers briefed on Gov. Tom Corbett’s package of financial incentives for a planned petrochemical refinery in western Pennsylvania said Friday that it could also include the cost to clean up pollution from the zinc smelter that has operated there for decades.

The revelation by two state senators is the latest about Corbett’s negotiations on the facility with Shell Oil Co., a subsidiary of Netherlands-based oil and gas giant Royal Dutch Shell PLC.

The Republican governor’s administration has shared with the public sparingly those plans on what lawmakers say would be the biggest package of taxpayer-paid incentives in Pennsylvania’s history for a project being billed as the reindustrialization of the state.

Two senators briefed on the project, Sen. John Blake, D-Lackawanna, and Sen. John Wozniak, D-Cambria, said the project deserves serious consideration. Blake cautioned that the Corbett administration must show that the cost of the incentives must match the potential economic benefit to the state.

The projected multibillion-dollar ethane cracking plant would convert ethane from the area’s bountiful Marcellus Shale natural gas liquids into more profitable chemicals such as ethylene, which are then used to produce everything from plastics to tires to antifreeze.

Blake said the administration’s financial incentive plans for Shell revolve around a recently disclosed tax credit worth up to $1.65 billion over 25 years and a newly created tax-free zone for the site that the Legislature approved in February.

Read more.

/

Obama Pushes Congress on Green Energy Tax Breaks

President Obama used the backdrop of an Iowa wind-energy manufacturing plant Thursday to ramp up pressure on Congress to extend an expiring tax break that has been vital to financing new power projects.

Extension of the wind-energy production tax credit — which is slated to lapse at year’s end — is part of a short “to do list” of actions Obama says Congress could do quickly to help the economy.

Obama, speaking at TPI Composites, noted that domestic manufacturing, rather than imports, of various wind turbine parts now supports many facilities in 43 states employing tens of thousands of workers.

“So we’re making progress. But I’m here today because that progress is in jeopardy,” Obama said at the plant in Newton, Iowa, that makes wind turbine blades.“If Congress doesn’t act, those tax credits I mentioned — the ones that helped to build up the wind industry and bring it here to Newton — will expire. If Congress doesn’t act, companies like this one will take a hit. Jobs will be lost. That’s not a guess. That’s a fact. And we can’t let that happen,” Obama said, according to his prepared remarks.

“That’s a fact. And we can’t let that happen. We can’t walk away from these jobs. Congress should extend these tax credits, and they should do it now,” he added in the speech that noted Iowa supports more wind power jobs than any other state.

The wind power industry and supply-chain companies are lobbying hard for an extension of the credits, arguing that uncertainty about the incentives is already hurting the sector and that some layoffs have begun.

Read more. 

/

Obamacare Business Tax Credit Too Small

Tax credits in President Obama’s healthcare law aren’t big enough to prompt small businesses to start offering healthcare benefits, the Government Accountability Office said Monday.

Fewer businesses than expected have been taking the tax credit.

The Congressional Budget Office initially estimated that the credits would total $2 billion in 2010, but instead businesses only claimed $468 million, according to the GAO.

Similarly, a recent report from the advocacy group Families USA said that as many as 2.5 million businesses were eligible for the tax credit but failed to claim it.

GAO said it couldn’t pin down the number of eligible businesses, but concluded interest has been limited in part because the credit is too small. It’s not big enough to change the minds of companies that aren’t offering healthcare coverage, GAO said, citing interviews with small businesses and insurance brokers.

Read more.