Amherst Times

Congressman Details How Legislation Will Benefit WNY Taxpayers, Create Jobs and Help Local Economy

Congressman Brian Higgins (NY-27) voted today with his colleagues in the House of Representatives to approve the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, a comprehensive bill that will stimulate the local and national economy through targeted tax breaks and investments.

“Western New York’s economy is struggling and local residents and businesses are suffering,” said Congressman Higgins.  “This drastic action to provide swift and sweeping recovery measures is necessary for this region and our nation’s short and long-term viability.”

Below Congressman Higgins details how this bill will benefit WNY taxpayers, create jobs and help the local economy:

Putting Money in Your Wallet

• Middle Class Workers: Through reduced withholdings, the Making Work Pay tax credit boosts take home pay for local workers, benefiting over 7 million residents in New York State. The bill provides a $400 credit per person. The full credit would be paid to people making $75,000 or less.
• Seniors, Disabled Veterans and Retired Railroad Workers: Provides a payment of $250 to retirees, disabled individuals and SSI recipients receiving benefits from the Social Security Administration, Railroad Retirement beneficiaries, and disabled veterans receiving benefits from the Department of Veterans Affairs. 
• County Property Taxpayers: Medicaid funding will reduce the “mandate” charged to local counties, preventing higher property tax bills for local property owners in Erie and Chautauqua Counties.
• First Time Homebuyers: Residents earning less than $75,000, who purchase a home before December 1, 2009, are eligible for a home buyer credit equal to 10 percent of the purchase price up to $8,000. It also changes the law so the credit is no longer required to be paid back.
• Car Buyers: Those who buy an automobile will be able deduct all state & local sales taxes paid on purchase of all new cars, light truck, recreational vehicles and motorcycles through 2009. The full deduction would be available to those earning less than $125,000.  In addition to helping car buyers, this provision is significant for communities like WNY with a great deal of manufacturing companies linked to the auto industry.

· Provides a tax credit for families that purchase plug-in hybrid vehicles of up to $7,500 to spur the next generation of American cars.

• Homeowners: Extends to 2010 and expands – from 10% to 30% – tax credits for purchases such as new furnaces, energy-efficient windows and doors, or insulation.
• Consumers: Funding for DTV coupons, will provide the 17,613 households in Western New York currently on a waiting list with a $40 savings certificate.
• Middle Class Families: Includes an Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT) Patch, protecting 3,142 New Yorkers from paying this tax.  Originally created in 1970, the AMT was intended to impact higher income individuals but was never adjusted for inflation.  The Congressional Budget Office estimated that “in 2010, if nothing is changed, one in five taxpayers will have AMT liability and nearly every married taxpayer with income between $100,000 and $500,000 will owe the alternative tax.”

Building Infrastructure and Creating Jobs in WNY

• Roads & Bridges: The bill makes a $150 billion investment in our infrastructure (road, transit, airport, rail, water, electric grid), the largest investment since the Interstate Highways were built in the 1950’s.
• New York State is expected to receive $1,120,684,723 for highways and bridges, $967,435,186 for transit, $254,817,805 for light rail and $431,570,997 in Clean Water State Revolving Fund money for water infrastructure projects – a total investment of $2,774,508,711 for transportation and infrastructure projects in NYS.

Chautauqua County

• • Two of the largest transportation projects on Governor Paterson’s economic stimulus priority list for Western New York (DOT Region 5) are in Chautauqua County.
  • Under the list released by the Governor in January (and subject to change)
  • $17.41 million could be used for work on Route 60
  • $21 million would be used for work on Route I-86
  • On a smaller scale in Chautauqua County:
  • $1.322 million could go toward 1-86 joint replacement work, and
  • $791,000 would be used on Route 20
  • $1.9 million would be used for bridge painting in Chautauqua & Cattaraugus counties
  • In total $42.423 million in transportation infrastructure work is slated to take place Chautauqua County with stimulus package funding.
  • Using the jobs formula of 42 jobs per million in infrastructure investment, this work would create over 1,780 jobs.

Erie County

• • A number of projects will qualify for federal funding under this bill.  Congressman Higgins is working hard to see that the NYS Department of Transportation distributes stimulus infrastructure funding to WNY in a way that is substantial, fair and comprehensive.
• Water Infrastructure: Western New York has an extremely old water system that will benefit significantly from stimulus package investment. According to the State’s lists, $104,155,000 in Clean Water State Revolving Fund projects in Congressman Higgins’ district would be eligible for funding.
• Transportation:
  • Provides $8.4 billion for investments in transit which will include money for the NFTA.
  • Allows for $8 billion for investment in high-speed rail which could help plans by New York’s Congressional Upstate Caucus to advance a high speed rail system across New York. 

Educating Our Children

• The bill creates the American Opportunity Tax Credit – a $2,500 credit for higher education expenses available to individuals making less than $80,000.
• Increases the maximum Pell Grant by $500, for a maximum of $5,350 in 2009 and $5,550 in 2010, benefiting 461,816 Pell Grant recipients in NYS.
• School districts in Congressman Higgins’ district will receive more than $100 million.
• Prevents local teacher layoffs and other cutbacks in education by including $39.5 billion to school districts nationwide using existing funding formulas.
• Computers are now qualified education expenses under 529 Education Plans, providing tax savings for these purchases.

Keeping Our Neighborhoods Strong and Safe

• $2 billion for the redevelopment of abandoned and foreclosed homes to be distributed by formula to the states.  This will help communities like Buffalo, Cheektowaga, Lackawanna, Jamestown, and Dunkirk confront their vacant housing problems and the planning challenges that come along with it.

· New York will receive $403,961,699 in Weatherization Assistance funds which will save families on average $350 per year on their heating and air conditioning bills and put people to work doing the improvements.

· The bill provides $3 billion in funding for cash-strapped police departments through the Byrne, JAG and Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) initiatives to hire officers and purchase the necessary equipment to ensure that our streets are safe.

Advancing WNY as a Technology Leader

• $10 billion dollars in additional funding for the National Institutes of Health.  This will help Western New York by increasing grant dollars to find new treatments for cancer at Roswell Park Cancer Institute, and support the important work at the University of Buffalo and the Hauptmann-Woodward Research Institute.  This research will lead to the next generation of high-tech jobs and small businesses in the region.
• Approximately $34 million for hospitals in Erie and Chautauqua County for health information technology software and infrastructure improvements.  These funds will go towards making hospital facilities more modern, efficient, and will improve care for patients and reduce costs.  Funding is also extended to doctors.  The bill’s total investment in Health Information Technology is $19.2 billion and the goal is to have 90% of doctors and 70% of hospitals integrated by 2016.

o Supports U.S. development of advanced vehicle batteries and battery systems through loans and grants so that America can lead the world in transforming the way automobiles are powered and so WNY auto industry companies remain open and strong.

Encouraging Local Business Growth

• Includes a variety of provisions to help small business, including small business expensing for investment in new plants and equipment, loss carry back for small businesses, a delay of the 3% withholding tax on payments to businesses that sell goods or services to governments, and a cut in the capital gains tax cut for investors in small businesses who hold stock for more than five years.
• In addition the bill will also provide $3.5 billion in additional New Markets Tax Credits allocation. This will help Buffalo and Western New York by making revitalization projects in older areas more attractive to developers and banks and speed them up through the pipeline in an otherwise down market.
• It creates a new category of tax credit bonds for investment in economic recovery zones.  NYS would receive an allocation based on the state’s job losses in 2008 as a percentage of the national job losses.  Local municipalities will be able to use these bonds to invest in infrastructure, job training, education and economic development in areas that have significant poverty, unemployment or home foreclosures.

· Helps businesses quickly recover costs of new capital investments by extending the bonus depreciation and increased small business expensing for businesses making investments in plants and equipment in 2009.

Helping Those Laid-Off Get Back on Their Feet

• The bill includes provisions to help displaced workers pay for health insurance under COBRA, a program that allows newly laid off workers to keep health insurance provided by their former employers for a period of time.  One of the provisions offers a government subsidy — 50% of premiums for 12 months — to help out-of-work Americans pay for healthcare. Another provides states funding to help pay for expanded Medicaid rolls for workers who’ve lost their jobs and can’t afford health care on their own or can’t get COBRA coverage because their former employer doesn’t offer a health care plan.
• Continues through December 2009 the extended unemployment benefits program (which provides up to 33 weeks of extended benefits) that is otherwise scheduled to begin to phase out at the end of March 2009.
• Increases unemployment benefits for 20 million jobless workers by $25 per week, and encourages states to modernize their UI systems to keep up with the changing workforce with expanded coverage.
• Job training and employment services will be provided to help the 7,600 WNY workers who lost their job in 2008.

Passage of The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act by the House is the final Congressional action sending the bill to President Obama’s desk to be signed into law.