Minnesota jobs at stake as Congress chooses whose tax break to extend

Minnesota Central

Arguably, the American tax system is chock-full of tax credits and provisions that have created an unfair system which are dominated by lobbyists and special interest groups. Congress is in the midst of making a decision concerning which industries should have their tax breaks extended. Should industry profitability eliminate a few companies from the tax credit? How should America's vision of the future and the jobs that could be created be factored into the equation ?

Choice A – Re-enact tax incentives - now set to expire in 2008 - which will end all federal tax credits on solar, wind and other alternative energy installations. Allowing the tax incentives to expire, would effect investors as they would be unlikely to pump much new money into clean power unless they are sure the credits will be available next year. When the tax credit expired at the end of 2003, the construction of new wind farms dropped by 75 percent the next year. The American Wind Energy Association has already detected a drop in new capital spending. An economic study by Navigant Consulting finds that over 76,000 jobs are put at risk in the wind industry, and approximately 40,000 jobs in the solar industry. The states that could lose the most jobs include: Texas, Colorado, Illinois, Oregon, Minnesota, Washington, Iowa, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, and California.

Choice B – Permit the scheduled tax credit increase which was at 3% in 2005, that was raised to 6 percent in 2007 and to increase to 9 percent in 2010 for MAJOR oil companies.

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