WASHINGTON — The Build America Bond program would be extended for three years — but the current 35% subsidy rate would gradually shrink to 33% in 2011, 31% in 2012 and 30% in 2013 — under a discussion draft of jobs legislation unveiled today by House Ways and Means Committee chairman Sander Levin, D-Mich.
The bill also would exempt private-activity bonds from the alternative minimum tax for another year, permanently exempt water and sewer exempt-facility PABs from state volume caps, and extend the recovery zone bond programs for another year. The allocation formula for recovery zone bonds would be modified to ensure areas of the country that were previously overlooked for allocations receive a share of the bond authority.
Levin’s bill, to be called the Small Business and Infrastructure Jobs Tax Act of 2010, would be a follow-on to another jobs bill that is currently pending in the Senate. That measure — which would allow four types of tax-credit bonds to be issued as BAB-type bonds, with direct payments to issuers instead of tax credits to investors — has already been approved by the House. Members of the Senate are expected to vote later today or tonight on whether to limit debate on that bill.
The Ways and Means Committee plans to vote on the Levin bill Wednesday, according to a committee release.
