Speaker of the US House of Representatives, John Boehner (R-Ohio) has recently repeated his vow to make comprehensive tax reform a top priority of the new Congress this year. Symbolic of that end, Speaker Boehner has reserved the designation of House Resolution 1 (HR 1) for the coming tax reform bill. (more…)
Tag: Illinois State Budget
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You may appreciate this recent update from Paul Suplizio, President of the WOTC Coalition. Paul reviews recent political exchanges and developments in connection with the sequester and observes how the sequester fight is drawing attention away from other important matters such as Hurricane Sandy tax relief.
You might recall, one form of tax relief under consideration for Hurricane Sandy victims is an expanded Work Opportunity Tax Credit for areas affected by the storm. (more…)PUBLISHED IN
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WHEREAS, any official position of the City of Los Angeles with respect to legislation, rules, regulations, or policies proposed to or pending before a local, state or federal governmental body or agency must have first been adopted in the form of a Resolution by the City Council with the concurrence of the Mayor; and
WHEREAS, since 1984 the California Enterprise Zone program has provided businesses hiring credits, sales/use credits, and other tax incentives to stimulate business growth, attraction, and employment within economically challenged areas of the State; and
WHEREAS, the City of Los Angeles includes two enterprise zones that cover Sylmar, Warner Center, Canoga Park, Chatsworth, Northridge, Van Nuys, LAX, Hollywood, Mid-City, Koreatown, and Downtown; and
WHEREAS, countless numbers of businesses in these parts of Los Angeles have received hiring credits, sales and use tax credits, expense and interest deductions, DWP rate discounts, and other benefits that have resulted in significant business cost relief, promoting job growth and economic improvement in some of the City’s hardest hit neighborhoods; and
WHEREAS, Enterprise Zone hiring credits are designed to encourage employers to hire people who live in disadvantaged areas, are currently on unemployment, receiving government assistance, or are veterans entering the workforce; and
WHEREAS, during his State of the State address, Governor Jerry Brown proposed scaling back the Enterprise Zone Program by limiting the time available to apply for tax credits, remapping the zones, and reducing the amount of tax credits; and
WHEREAS, reducing or eliminating Enterprise Zone benefits will be devastating to thousands of Los Angeles businesses, increasing their cost of doing business, impacting their future growth plans, and potentially resulting injob losses; and
WHEREAS, in these tough economic times, the State should be looking for ways to promote the growth of business rather than saddling businesses with new costs;
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, with the concurrence ofthe Mayor, that by the adoption of this Resolution, the City of Los Angeles hereby includes in its 2013-2014 State Legislative Program OPPOSITION to any reductions, changes, or eliminations of the Enterprise Zone program.
PRESENTED BY: Mitchell Englander, Councilmember, Twelfth District
Download PDF. (more…)PUBLISHED IN
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California State Assemblyman V. Manuel Perez published an editorial this week, in which he praises many aspects of the Governor Jerry Brown’s budget. He expresses concern, however, about the proposed regulatory changes to the state’s Enterprise Zone program. (more…)
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The Work Opportunity Tax Credit (WOTC) target group known as Disconnect Youth was created by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Tax Act of 2009. (See “New WOTC Tax Credit Opportunities Arise from Stimulus Bill”)
For purposes of WOTC eligibility, a disconnected youth is someone who at the time of hire: (1) is between the ages of 16 and 24 inclusive, (2) is not regularly attending any secondary, technical, or post-secondary school during the 6-month period prior to hire, (3) is not regularly employed during the same 6-month period, and (4) is not readily employable by reason of lacking a sufficient number of basic skills.
While very successful as part of the work opportunity program, it was also very short lived. An expiration date of December 31, 2010 was built in from its beginning. Since that time, however, many of us have held out hope that the Disconnect Youth target group would be renewed. The WOTC Coalition, among others, has been pressing for its renewal.
Early this morning, I received the following correspondence from Paul Suplizio, President of the WOTC Coalition. In it, Paul addresses current efforts to restore the Disconnected Youth target group. It is published here with permission.
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From: “Paul Suplizio”
Date: Wed, February 06, 2013 1:13 am
Subject: WOTC Disconnected Youth Target Group
February 6, 2013
Since expiration of the disconnected youth target group in 2010, our Coalition has been pressing for its restoration. “Disconnected youth,” broadly defined as youth ages 16 through 24 who are out of school and out of work, are approaching 7 million in number today. In the brief 18 months of 2009-2010 when they were a WOTC target group, 362,561 disconnected youth found jobs, and we were easily on the way to a half million a year when their target group was terminated.
Our Coalition’s efforts helped bring about appointment of an inter-agency task force, headed by OMB, in 2011, and a “request for information” was sent to around 800 government agencies and NGO’s, culminating in a webinar conference in June of last year that, regrettably, hasn’t produced much so far. Our dialogue with OMB staff has continued since that time, with the goal of getting the President to address the serious disconnected youth problem in the Fiscal Year 2014 budget, and propose WOTC as the solution.
We are enclosing a copy of our latest message to OMB, sent on January 31st.
We haven’t received a reply to this message and don’t expect one till after release of the President’s budget.
Regardless of the budget, we will go all out way for restoration of disconnected youth this year. If there’s a sequester deal between now and March 1st, we will have a chance to get in the deal. Please bring this up with your White House contacts and ask them to support it—no need to ask them to extend WOTC, just present disconnected youth as major labor force problem that needs to be addressed, that restoring it in the jobs tax credit which proved very effective in 2009-2010 makes sense and should be included in the President’s proposals.
You should also bring it to attention of Majority Leader Harry Reid, Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, and ask other Finance Committee senators to urge Senator Baucus to get it in the Democrats’ revenue proposals for a sequester deal. Senator Reid wants revenue in any sequester bill, so if the political stars align, there may be a tax title which can carry both disconnected youth and Hurricane Sandy WOTC to passage.
If sequester doesn’t work, we’ll try again on the next tax vehicle to come along.
We will keep you informed.
PAUL E. SUPLIZIO
President, WOTC Coalition (more…)PUBLISHED IN
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On Friday, California State Assemblyman Jeff Gorell (R-Camarillo) introduced a bill to expand California’s Enterprise Zone program by creating the state’s 41st zone. The Oxnard / Port Hueneme Enterprise Zone would include parts of the City of Oxnard, the City of Port Hueneme and the Port of Hueneme. (more…)
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California Governor Jerry Brown released his administration’s 2013-14 state-budget proposal today. Like the 2011-12 proposal of two years ago, this budget includes changes to the state’s Enterprise Zone hiring credit program. Unlike that previous attempt, however, the Governor intends to make these changes without the help of the CA legislature. The changes are based in regulatory power through the Department of Housing and Community Development, which oversees the program statewide. (more…)
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An article published today in The Saratogian by Paul Post outlines the recent renewal of the Returning Heroes and Wounded Warriors tax credits (as target groups within the Work Opportunity Tax Credit program). The so-called American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012 reauthorized the WOTC program through December 31, 2013. (more…)
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The American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012 was passed by the US House this evening and President Obama will sign it. The bill renews a slew of the so-called tax extenders, including the Work Opportunity Tax Credit through 2013. (more…)
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This update from Paul Suplizio, President of the WOTC Coalition, offers some additional details about the fiscal cliff bill passed by the Senate late tonight.
Contrary to my earlier observations, Paul states that the bill DOES include VOW to Hire Hero provisions in its extension of the Work Opportunity Tax Credit. Hopefully, I was wrong. I like Paul’s version better.
Paul also makes some important observations about recent Hurricane Sandy relief efforts — including a proposal to expand the WOTC Program with a new Hurricane Sandy target group. (more…)PUBLISHED IN