Among the last votes of the Senate’s lame duck session this year was extending expired tax provisions. The Senate has this debate every year or two, and sometimes it goes much later than it should have. This was one of those years, despite efforts from many of us to avoid a last minute scramble.
The provisions included a series of items for individuals, such as the college tuition deduction and a deduction for teachers who buy classroom supplies out of their own pocket, which I advanced as chairman of the committee with jurisdiction over taxes, and provisions of interest to employers such as equipment expensing provisions for farmers and business owners and a tax credit for the production of electricity from wind energy. As the author of the original wind energy tax credit, I worked to defend it against unwarranted attacks from those who don’t understand or appreciate renewable energy.
The argument for getting this tax business done early is to give certainty to the individuals who use the provisions and for businesses that need to plan ahead to make investments that help with job creation and retention. Wind energy producers won’t make investments around an uncertain future, and who can blame them.
But the current Senate leadership assigned a low priority to the tax extenders package. The President didn’t help and even hurt by threatening a veto on an agreement under negotiation between the Senate and the House of Representatives. The agreement in progress would have provided a two-year extension for most provisions and would have been good for wind energy production, with a multi-year extension. The President was set to get a lot of what he wanted in that deal, but he wanted more. In the end, the tax provisions were extended retroactively for only a year. I hope for a better process and a better outcome next year, when the Senate is under new leadership.