Posted: March 5th 2010
From The Mitchell Daily Republic:
An amendment introduced this week by U.S. Sen. John Thune would have put resources and tax incentives into the hands of small business owners, a proposal he said could “put stimulus money where it should have been in the first place.”
The amendment failed 38-61 Wednesday afternoon, but Thune is firm in his belief that America should be investing in small businesses and not in, as he said, programs that only create more government jobs.
Specifically, the amendment introduced by Thune, R-S.D., proposed to create and expand small business tax incentives, targeted at helping those businesses invest in new capital and hire workers. The amendment would have been funded by redirecting unspent money from the 2009 stimulus bill, and it was endorsed by the National Federation of Independent Businesses, Thune told reporters Wednesday.
“Small businesses are the economic engines that drive job growth in this country,” he said, adding that the amendment was a “common-sense way to help them invest in equipment and hire additional workers.”
The amendment would have created incentives for small businesses to more easily pay off large expenditures for manufacturing equipment and other physical capital. The amendment would also have eliminated capital gains taxes on small business investments and allowed for a 20 percent deduction for small business income.
Thune, speaking during a regularly scheduled conference call, said the $862 billion stimulus bill passed last year was untargeted and has been slow in generating results.
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Thune noted that small businesses create up to 80 percent of all new jobs, but that only 1 percent of last year’s stimulus bill was dedicated to small business tax relief and job creation.
