December 5th, 2008
As principal of District 205’s ACE High School, I am asked what types of students I have. I am proud to make a blanket statement that we have the types of students who want to come to school. In fact, our attendance rate is 98%.
I have heard from employers that one of the greatest challenges is having new employees showing up to work on time, and an underpinning of our school is preparation for the workforce. It is my hope that normalizing a work place behavior like attendance will indeed produce the desired type of workers our community needs.
December 5th, 2008
Congressman
Don Manzullo (R-IL) today told the CEOs of the Big 3 Automakers that they must
look beyond their short-term needs and employ programs to increase the demand
for their vehicles if they expect to survive the next several years.
A member of the House Financial Services Committee,
Manzullo participated in this morning’s committee hearing on a potential bailout
of GM, Ford and Chrysler. Manzullo challenged the CEOs of each of the companies
during the hearing, seeking their thoughts on the value of offering tax
incentives to encourage Americans to buy vehicles. Manzullo’s opening statement
can be viewed on his website at http://manzullo.house.gov.
“I care deeply about the 2,600 people who work at
Chrysler’s Belvidere Assembly Plant and the thousands more who work at auto
dealerships and auto suppliers in northern Illinois. But simply giving the
automakers money to stem the bleeding will do nothing to protect their jobs in
the future,” Manzullo said. “Auto sales are down 30 to 50 percent for each of
the companies, and we must consider offering tax credits or other incentives to
encourage Americans to buy cars again.”
Manzullo supports a 3-step approach to strengthening
the U.S. auto industry and improving our economy:
1. Allow
automakers to stem the bleeding by tapping some of the previously approved $25
billion in loans for retooling plants to meet higher fuel economy standards.
This is the fastest way to get cash to automakers because it is a bipartisan
solution supported by the President and does not require a taxpayer
bailout. With a legislative tweak, the automakers could quickly get
the cash they need and then pay it back to the retooling fund at a later date.
2. Require management and unions to
follow through on plans to restructure and make Big 3 American companies more
cost competitive. This
restructuring will be necessary to ensure American companies can compete in the
future with foreign vehicles built in America.
3. Provide incentives to encourage
Americans to start buying cars again. Manzullo co-sponsored a bill – HR 7273 –
that would allow Americans an income tax deduction on the sales tax and interest
they pay on a new car. This would provide a $1,300 tax benefit on the purchase
of a new $25,000 car. He is also considering a straight tax credit on the
purchase of a new or used vehicle (if we offer a tax incentive to promote new
car sales, we must also offer a tax incentive – albeit smaller – for used cars
or the dealerships will be flooded with unsellable used cars).
Manzullo also believes accelerating the domestic
manufacturing tax deduction – which he co-authored in 2004 – would dramatically
reduce taxes on the Big 3 American automakers and give them the cash infusion
they need to sustain and create new jobs. The manufacturing deduction currently
provides a 6 percent tax rate reduction for manufacturers on the goods they
produce in the United States. The tax rate reduction is scheduled to increase to
9 percent by 2010, but a bill Manzullo authored earlier this year (HR 5101)
would accelerate the phase-in to 9 percent retroactively to Jan. 1,
2008.
“This legislation gives our
manufacturers an extra 3 percent cut in their tax rate immediately that they can
use to sustain and create jobs in America,” Manzullo said. “It also provides a
greater incentive for our manufacturers to keep jobs in the United States and
actually bring some jobs back from overseas because they would pay a 9 percent
tax premium on any work they send offshore.”
Manzullo supports several other free-market
strategies to help American automakers, including:
· Allowing companies to repatriate their overseas profits back to the
United States tax free for one year if the money is used to pay off distressed
debt or support business expansion or job creation.
· Suspending the capital gains and
“recapture taxes” for two years to encourage Americans to invest in America and
encourage corporations to sell unwanted assets and acquire the capital they need
to sustain and create jobs.
· Allowing companies to carry-back losses
an additional two years, generating a tax refund and immediate
capital.
· Directing the Securities and Exchange
Commission to suspend the mark-to-market regulatory rules until the agency can
issue new guidelines that will allow firms to mark these assets to their true
economic value.
· Reducing the corporate tax rate from 35
to 15 percent.
· Ensuring unusually high pension funding
requirements do not destroy America’s automakers in these troubled economic
times.
