Companies Question Gillibrand’s Proposals
Officials At Cummins, Bush Industries Speak OutBy Sharon Turano sturano@post-journal.com
Ideas U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand has proposed to help area manufacturers are being questioned by some of the area's largest manufacturers.
Although Mark Land, Cummins Inc.'s corporate communications executive director, said he does not think there is a lot in the proposals that will affect the company's Jamestown operations, he said company officials applaud the senator's efforts.
Bush Industries Chief Executive Officer James L. Sherbert did not support the measures, lobbying for others instead.
Sen. Gillibrand said Tuesday she plans to introduce legislation to help New York manufacturers after more than 160,000 manufacturing jobs were lost in New York state since 2001, including 6,322 lost in the Southern Tier between 2001 and 2008.
"The economy continues to be the number one issue on everyone's mind," she said, adding the national unemployment rate is at 9.5 percent, and is higher in some areas, with manufacturing being one of the hardest-hit areas.
"We've lost more than our fair share," she said, adding, "New York has been hit hard."
Sen. Gillibrand said even if jobs are not cut, an employee may face wage or health insurance cuts.
HEALTH OPTIONS PROGRAM ACT
One of the things Sen. Gillibrand is introducing is the small business Health Options Program Act. Sen. Gillibrand said health care costs are putting companies out of business. Therefore, she plans to introduce the legislation to help make health care more affordable. The legislation would allow small businesses to buy into an insurance pool with other businesses, reducing costs by spreading out risk. It would also offer tax credits for small businesses and the self-employed. Businesses with less than 50 employees would receive a tax credit of $1,000 for each insured employee - $2,000 per family. For the self-employed, the tax credit would be $1,800 for individuals and $3,600 for families.
"The government is not capable of running a 300 million population plant," said Sherbert about her proposed health care legislation. Although he said the health care system is not as functional as it should be, he does not think Sen. Gillibrand's proposal would be an option. "I don't think it will work," he said.
"Anything that lowers health care costs for companies of any size and that increases the number of workers with quality coverage would be a positive for the entire region," Land said.
RAILROAD TAX CREDIT
Sen. Gillibrand said she wants to address transportation costs by co-sponsoring bipartisan legislation to increase the Short Line Railroad Rehabilitation Tax Credit from $3,500 to $4,500 and extend tax credits through 2013. She said that for every $1 invested by the federal government to maintain short line freight rails, the tax credits would leverage $2 in private investments, which are set to expire at the end of this year.
Sherbert said Bush uses rail daily, adding it seems to work well. He said, however, it is a private industry and asked why it should receive tax credits.
MANUFACTURING ACTS
Sen. Gillibrand also introduced the Investments for Manufacturing Progress and Clean Technology Act. It would invest $30 billion for states to establish a manufacturing revolving loan fund so businesses can retool, expand or establish clean energy manufacturing operations and invest $1.5 billion for the next five years for the manufacturing extension partnership to help manufacturers access clean energy markets and transition to clean energy technologies. It would increase the federal share of MEP funding.
And, she is calling for $131.8 million to fully fund the federal Manufacturing Extension Partnership program as part of the America COMPETES Act to make sure the program has the resources it needs to transition more New York manufacturers to clean energy production, and attract new clean energy manufactures to New York.
"A push for clean energy production is consistent with Cummins' mission that says, in part, that everything we do as a company should lead to a cleaner, healthier and safer environment," Land said.
"We shouldn't confuse environmental stewardship with the banner of creating new jobs," Sherbert said.
He said the United States needs a sound energy policy, adding it has not had one in more than 30 years. Sen. Gillibrand's proposal, he said, would make companies less competitive and have them take up costs.
"Someone has to pay for this," he said, adding tax credits are not free, and the country already has deficits and liabilities. "There's a debt here that's staggering. These kind of things are going to add to it. I don't get it."
Instead, Sherbert said he would like to see the United States government come forth with a c comprehensive energy policy that takes into account all resources available and applies sound environmental strategy rather than jump to a clean energy strategy, foregoing other energy sources, he said. Instead, he thinks Sen. Gillibrand's proposal will eliminate jobs and could cause inflation.
"There's not a manufacturer in America making enough money today," Sherbert said.
