Spending Talks Escalate | Tax Policy Center
President Biden and legislative leaders to meet today. Negotiations over government spending legislation did not advance over the weekend. President Biden and the top four congressional leaders from the House and Senate will meet today at the White House. The first batch of spending bills must be passed by Friday to prevent a partial government shutdown. The second batch must be passed by March 8. A stopgap funding measure extending current spending levels through March 22 remains an option.
House Budget Committee Chair: Tax increases should be considered to cut the deficit. Rep. Jodey Arrington (R-TX) told Semafor, “It’s only fair to have both revenue and expenditures on the table.” He said long-term deficit reduction could be depoliticized with a bipartisan fiscal commission. “Without discussing the revenue side, you will never have a commission, and you will never have Democrats show up for a consensus solution.”
Maine Gov. Janet Mills: Exempt all nonprofits from sales tax. The Democratic governor has proposed extending the state’s sales tax exemption to all nonprofit organizations operating in Maine. Maine is one of 17 states that does not offer a blanket tax exemption for nonprofit organizations. State officials say extending a sales tax exemption in Maine would correct inequities and simplify the tax exemption process, but it would cost Maine $10 million annually.
Texas replaces tax abatement program with new tax incentives for businesses. Texas policymakers have replaced the heavily criticized Chapter 313, a tax abatement program that expired in 2022. I It will be replaced by the Texas Jobs, Energy, Technology, and Innovation (JETI) program. The program passed with bipartisan support and offers property tax cuts to eligible companies that move into Texas communities in exchange for job creation. It includes more oversight of participating companies and, includes additional job and salary requirements.
Asian Development Bank: EU carbon border tax will do little to cut carbon emissions. The report released yesterday by the Asian Development Bank critiques the European Union’s plan to levy tariffs on high-carbon imports. The report says that the tax could hurt developing nations in Asia; it also argues the tax would not likely lead to significant reductions in greenhouse gas emissions. It argues that mechanisms to share emissions reduction technology would be more effective. “Asian subregions with higher shares of carbon-intensive exports to Europe, particularly Central and West Asia, would be more negatively affected by [the tax] and the EU’s emissions trading system,” the bank said in a press release.
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