WASHINGTON — The American Public Power Association has adopted a resolution that calls for the preservation of tax-exempt financing and supports any proposed legislation that would ease private-use restrictions for public power utilities using tax-exempts to finance facilities.
The resolution was one of nine the APPA approved at their annual Legislative Rally here.
The tax-exempt financing resolution expresses APPA’s continued opposition to proposals to weaken or eliminate the tax-exemption for municipal bonds or replace them with other financing tools.
During the past two years, there have been several proposals to curtail or eliminate tax-exemption, including the most recent from President Obama’s fiscal 2013 budget. He proposed to reduce the value of tax-exempt interest and other tax preferences to 28%. It would apply to single taxpayers with income over $200,000 and to married taxpayers filing a joint return with income over $250,000.
The APPA said it will continue to talk with members of Congress and emphasize that tax-credit or direct-pay bonds are not an alternative for tax-exempt bond financing.
