Issues
Legislators Pick Winners and Mostly Losers – Again
SALEM — The $150 million reincarnation of Oregon’s manufacturing BETC (Business Energy Tax Cuts) — in talks for months and still in flux — appeared for the first time in writing Thursday in the waning days of the legislative session.
Details were spelled out in a 78-page tax bill amendment that shored up several expiring credits. The manufacturing Business Energy Tax Credits would die off, replaced by a $25 million annual pool.
Although green energy companies remain the priority, the move diversifies taxpayers’ portfolio beyond solar manufacturers. High-dollar recipients such as SolarWorld and SoloPower have been pummeled by foreign competition and a tough economy.
Lane Solutions Responds:
Here we go again. Solyndra, Abound Solar, A 123 Energy. What do they have in common? They’re companies the Federal Government picked as winners and dumped over $1 Billion of your tax dollars into – and lost. And there are plenty more, ahem, “problems” where these come from.
This is what happens when government picks winners and losers. Like when the Oregon Dept. of Energy loaned $10 Million to SoloPower, with Portland taxpayers on the hook for half. Most or all of the money’s gone. And they’re not the only one in Oregon.
But our legislators continue to believe that they’re smarter venture capitalists than private venture capitalists. They can’t see that if there were buckets of bucks to be made off “clean energy” some company would jump at the chance with their own dollars. But then our guys and gals in Salem have your dollars to play with. And, like the old saying goes, “There ain’t no end to the good you can do with someone else’s money. – The Oregonian, June 27, 2013
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