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Aluminum industry tax relief
bill passed by House
A bill to protect
family-wage jobs in the 12th District has cleared another legislative
hurdle on its way to becoming law, Reps.
Mike
Armstrong and Cary
Condotta reported today. Substitute Senate Bill 6304, which would help
aluminum companies struggling under the weight of increasing energy
rates, passed the House of Representatives today, 91-4.
“This legislation is
important to re-starting the Wenatchee Alcoa plant and preserving local
jobs,” said Condotta, R-East Wenatchee, and assistant ranking Republican
on the House Commerce and Labor Committee. “It’s important to the
families in our community, and I’m hopeful the bill will make it all the
way through the process and be signed into law.”
Substitute Senate Bill 6304 would temporarily reduce aluminum companies’
business and occupation tax rate and provide some sales and use tax and
natural gas tax exemptions. It would also exempt aluminum plants from
the utility tax on purchases of nonfederal power.
“The legislation we passed
today with the new amendment attached is very close to what we
originally passed out of the House the first time around,” said
Armstrong, R-Wenatchee, of today’s measure.
He compared it to the
House bill he and Rep. Condotta sponsored, which passed the House in
mid-February but died in a Senate committee.
“The goal has long been to
put people at the Wenatchee Alcoa plant back to work making aluminum,
and to ensure they make aluminum for years to come,” said Armstrong.
“Passing this measure one more time in the House helps guarantee that.”
The legislation would apply to all aluminum smelters in Washington,
including the one in Wenatchee and another in Ferndale. It builds in
accountability by requiring smelters to report the numbers of jobs and
measure the legislation’s effectiveness. The incentives would end Dec.
31, 2006.
Condotta thanked the Alcoa company for their support and for all it has
done for local communities. “Even when the company had to shut down the
Wenatchee plant, they kept the family wage jobs in action and worked to
improve the plant. And when they were done with that, they put those
folks to work in the community where they provided thousands and
thousands of hours of volunteer services.”
“This is a win-win situation,” said Armstrong. “The tax breaks only kick
in if the smelters fire up the plants again. If they don’t, we get more
back in tax revenues than it would cost us to offer the tax breaks in
the first place.”
The bill now goes back to the Senate for final approval.
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For more information, contact:
John
Sattgast, Public Information Officer: (360) 786-7257
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