Property taxes

Renewable Energy and Job Creation Act of 2008

hmoroz — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 11:22:48 -0400

Legislation

The middle class

Supports

Video Summary

Injustice Facts

Percentage of the benefits of the child tax credit that went to families in the top 40% of the income distribution in 2005: 60

Maximum percentage of the benefits of the child tax credit that went to families in the lowest 20% of the income distribution in 2005: 1

Estimated number of children that the child tax credit provision in the legislation would benefit: 13 million

Estimated number of jobs that could be lost if federal tax credits for solar and wind energy are not extended: 116,000

Percentage by which the cost-sharing for addiction benefits exceeded that for medical or surgical benefits, according to a 2007 Health Affairs study of employer-provided benefits: 46

Number of taxpayers subject to the alternative minimum tax in 1970: 20,000

Number of taxpayers projected to be subject to the alternative minimum tax in 2010, absent changes in current law: 33 million

Number of taxpayers subject to the alternative minimum tax in 2007, after Congress passed a temporary alternative minimum tax patch: 4.1 million

Overview/Summary

Middle Class Position Analysis

The Middle Class Supports. The Renewable Energy and Job Creation Act includes a wide range of tax cuts and legislative initiatives, but the overall thrust of the bill is highly positive for the middle-class. Indeed, middle-class Americans are increasingly feeling the effects of an energy policy that favors large oil companies over the economic and environmental benefits of sustainability. The energy tax credit expansions and extensions in the Renewable Energy and Job Creation Act are part of a long-term strategy to alleviate high gas and heating costs, make the country more energy efficient, and ensure that the economy retains jobs in renewable energy and technology. With the middle class already feeling the effects of weak employment, Congress must strengthen a renewable energy and energy efficiency industry that benefits both the environment and the economy.

Additionally, the Renewable Energy and Job Creation Act’s changes to the child tax credit would make 2.9 million additional children eligible for the benefit and would increase the benefit for 10.1 million more. Expanding the income floor for the tax credit means that very low-income aspiring middle-class families, who currently benefit less from the credit than higher-income families, will receive the support they need to make ends meet.

The mental health and “substance use disorder” parity provisions of the Act not only do much to remedy the discriminatory practices of insurers, but will increase access to mental health care services for middle-class Americans already struggling with high health care costs. Temporarily raising the Alternative Minimum Tax exemption ensures that middle-class Americans are not overwhelmed by a tax that they were never intended to pay. An increase in tax payments for more than 25 million American homes – exposing fully 46% of households with incomes between $75,000 and $100,000 to the AMT by 2010– would be disastrous for families already reeling from home foreclosures, high gas prices, and nearly stagnant wages.

Quotes from Experts

Beyond this Bill

Additional Resources

“Greener Pathways: Jobs and Workforce Development in the Clean Energy Economy,” from the Apollo Alliance

“Taxation and the Family: What is the child tax credit?” from the Tax Policy Center

Tax Topics: Individual Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT), from the Tax Policy Center

The American Housing Rescue and Foreclosure Prevention Act of 2008

hmoroz — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 11:21:47 -0400

Legislation

The middle class

Supports

Video Summary

Injustice Facts

Percent increase of foreclosure filings from June 2007 to June 2008: 53

Approximate value of mortgages that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac own or guarantee: $5.2 trillion

Total residential mortgage debt outstanding in the first quarter of 2008: $12.1 trillion

Total outstanding public debt: $9.5 trillion

Percentage of new mortgages Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac currently originate or guarantee, according to Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson: 70

Number of homes that will experience devaluation because of subprime foreclosures that take place nearby: 40.6 million

Average decline in property values for homeowners living near foreclosed properties, in dollars: 5,000

Overview/Summary

Middle Class Position Analysis

Middle Class Supports. As many as 2.5 million families could lose their homes to foreclosure in 2008. At the same time, growing doubts about the solvency of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac threaten to further destabilize the entire U.S. economy. Congress is not acting a moment too soon..

The refinancing program created by the American Housing Rescue and Foreclosure Prevention Act will have concrete results for middle-class homeowners facing the frightening prospect of foreclosure. Although participation in the program is voluntary for lenders, many are expected to participate and the measure is projected to help approximately 400,000 homeowners. Because the bill forces lenders to write down the principal by at least 10%, the program offers a less generous bailout to mortgage lenders than it otherwise might. Since irresponsible lending is a major cause of the current financial and home equity crisis, the effort to restrict the tax-payer funded bonanza for these lenders is beneficial.

The $4 billion of CDBG funds authorized by the legislation addresses two important problems plaguing aspiring middle-class Americans: the community breakdown that can result from vacant foreclosed homes in neighborhoods across the country and the lack of affordable housing in many communities. Middle-class Americans who are current on their mortgages and face no personal risk of foreclosure are nevertheless harmed when a foreclosed home down the street brings down property values, erodes the local tax base, and threatens to become a magnet for crime. The Center for Responsible Lending has shown that approximately 40.6 million homes will experience devaluation because of nearby subprime foreclosures, that homeowners living near foreclosed properties will lose approximately $5,000 on the value of their homes, and that approximately $200 billion dollars in house values and tax base will be lost from nearby foreclosures. By funneling federal money to local agencies to serve lower- and extremely low-income individuals, the CDBG funds will help neighborhoods recover from the harm done to their communities by foreclosures while helping to ensure that neighborhoods can accommodate aspiring middle-class Americans.

While the Congressional Budget Office believes that there is a 50% or better chance that Treasury will not have to use its new authority to purchase stock in the GSEs, the enactment of this authority reassures markets that the federal government is willing to serve as a backstop if Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac continue to falter. Because these secondary mortgage lenders hold or guarantee approximately half of all mortgages, their failure would have devastating consequences for middle-class families and the American economy as a whole. The promise of a bailout is regrettably necessary to prevent further market destabilization.

Increased oversight of the GSEs will be crucial to ensuring that the government-backed entities minimize taxpayer risk, while making mortgages affordable to middle-class Americans. Standards for a mortgage licensing and registration system and enhanced mortgage disclosure requirements are forward-looking measures that will help prevent the predatory lending and other improper lending practices that contributed to the foreclosure crisis.

Quotes from Experts

Beyond this Bill

Additional Resources

Mortgage Lending, from the Center for Responsible Lending

Housing Policy, from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities

A Brief History of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, from Time

Renewable Energy and Job Creation Act of 2008

hmoroz — Thu, 22 May 2008 17:49:06 -0400

Legislation

The middle class

Supports

Video Summary

Injustice Facts

Percentage of the benefits of the child tax credit that went to families in the top 40% of the income distribution in 2005: 60

Maximum percentage of the benefits of the child tax credit that went to families in the lowest 20% of the income distribution in 2005: 1

Estimated number of children that the child tax credit provision in the legislation would benefit: 13 million

Estimated number of children who would become newly eligible for the child tax credit under the legislation: 2.4 million

Estimated industry revenues from renewable energy and efficiency in 2006, in dollars: 970 billion

Estimated lost investment if federal tax credits for solar and wind energy are not extended, in dollars: 19 billion

Estimated jobs in the renewable energy and efficiency industry in 2006: 8.5 million

Estimated number of jobs that could be lost if federal tax credits for solar and wind energy are not extended: 116,000

Overview/Summary

Middle Class Position Analysis

The Middle Class Supports. While politicians are proposing short-term band-aids to deal with rising fuel costs, middle-class Americans are increasingly feeling the effects of an energy policy that harms the environment and favors large oil companies. The energy tax credit expansions and extensions in the Renewable Energy and Job Creation Act are part of a long-term strategy to alleviate high fuel costs, make the country more energy efficient, and ensure that the economy retains jobs in renewable energy and technology. Indeed, a recent study demonstrated that failure to extend energy tax credits for solar and wind power could result in the loss of 116,000 jobs. With the middle class already feeling the effects of weak employment, Congress must strengthen a renewable energy and energy efficiency industry that benefits both the environment and the economy.

Aspiring middle-class families with children are in a particularly difficult situation in an economy of high food, fuel, and health care costs. The Renewable Energy and Job Creation Act’s changes to the child tax credit would make 2.4 million additional children eligible for the benefit and would increase the benefit for 10.5 million more. Expanding the income floor for the credit means that very low-income aspiring middle-class families, who currently benefit less from the credit than higher-income families, will receive the support they need to make ends meet.

The revenue raising provisions of the Renewable Energy and Job Creation Act not only make the legislation fiscally responsible, but make the tax code fairer by eliminating loopholes exploited by wealthy executives and multinational corporations.

Quotes from Experts

Beyond this Bill

Additional Resources

“Greener Pathways: Jobs and Workforce Development in the Clean Energy Economy,” from the Apollo Alliance

“Taxation and the Family: What is the child tax credit?” from the Tax Policy Center

“Families Helped by the Child Tax Credit Expansion Work Hard in Low-Paying Jobs,” from the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities

Foreclosure Prevention Act of 2008 [Revised Bill]

atraub — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 14:37:17 -0400

Legislation

The middle class

Supports

Video Summary

Injustice Facts

Amount of mortgage-related assets that the Federal Reserve assumed as collateral for a loan it made to facilitate the sale of Bear Sterns to J.P. Morgan Chase: $30 billion

Amount this bill provides in tax refunds for businesses that claim a loss: $6.1 billion

Amount this bill provides to state and local governments across the country to shore up neighborhoods devastated by mortgage foreclosures: $4 billion

Estimated number of foreclosures prevented if Congress lifted the ban on loan modifications by bankruptcy courts, a provision this bill does not include: 600,000

Amount of home equity saved if Congress lifted the ban on court-supervised loan modifications that would otherwise be lost because of foreclosures of neighboring properties: $72.5 billion

Amount that lifting the ban on court-supervised loan modifications would cost middle-class taxpayers: $0

Overview/Summary

Middle Class Position Analysis

The Middle Class Supports. With two million families facing the loss of their homes over the next two years and large sectors of the U.S. economy destabilized by mortgage defaults, the foreclosure crisis and the wider turmoil it has caused are among the greatest threats to middle-class Americans today. This bill responds to that threat, although not in the most effective way. The bill is stuffed with costly and irrelevant provisions, while the positive steps it does include fail to go far enough to help struggling families. The single most effective measure proposed to address the crisis – a change in bankruptcy law that would prevent hundreds of thousands of foreclosures – was killed as an amendment. Meanwhile some provisions that did make it into the final bill could even make the foreclosure problem worse.

Positive measures in the bill include FHA modernization, which will enable more homeowners to refinance problematic mortgages. The block grants for communities hard hit by the crisis to reclaim foreclosed properties and turn them into affordable homes is another very positive step, but here too the amount of funding may be too little to revitalize neighborhoods in need. Funding for mortgage counseling is also beneficial, but inadequate. And while enhanced mortgage disclosures are helpful, they are no substitute for a genuine ban on deceptive lending practices along the lines enacted by some state governments. The tax exempt bonds for state agencies to refinance subprime loans is a modest effort which will inevitably bail out lenders, whose lax standards helped cause the crisis, along with struggling homeowners.

While provisions to help homeowners and devastated communities are stingy, home builders and other businesses facing economic losses due to the downturn reap $6.1 billion in tax breaks. This provision has little to do with helping prevent foreclosure and is not even a cost-effective means of economic stimulus. The property tax deduction for non-itemizers is similarly problematic. While many middle-class families might see a small tax break under this provision, the credit is not substantial enough to help families who face foreclosure or are having serious difficulties making mortgage payments and is not targeted at these homeowners. To make matters worse, the deduction is limited to people who live in areas that have not raised property taxes. This creates an incentive for states and municipalities to cut services that middle-class families rely on rather than raising the revenue needed to preserve them. Finally, the tax credit for buying a foreclosed home might, as the Washington Post point out, actually encourage more home foreclosures.

The alternative energy tax breaks, added at the last minute, are similar to those included in the House’s Renewable Energy and Energy Conservation Tax Act. Providing the public investment necessary to jump start the development and promotion of renewable energy sources and ultimately mitigate global warming sweetens what is otherwise a unsatisfactory effort to deal with the home mortgage crisis. Middle-class Americans will ultimately see some benefit from this bill – but they deserve better.

Quotes from Experts

Beyond this Bill

Additional Resources

“Senate Housing Legislation Highly Disappointing” from the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities

Mortgage Lending page from the Center for Responsible Lending

Property taxes

Renewable Energy and Job Creation Act of 2008

Legislation

The middle class

Video Summary

Injustice Facts

Overview/Summary

Middle Class Position Analysis

Related Blog: Header

Quotes from Experts

Related Blog: Text

Beyond this Bill

Related Blog: Link

Additional Resources

The American Housing Rescue and Foreclosure Prevention Act of 2008

Legislation

The middle class

Video Summary

Injustice Facts

Overview/Summary

Middle Class Position Analysis

Related Blog: Header

Quotes from Experts

Related Blog: Text

Beyond this Bill

Related Blog: Link

Additional Resources

Renewable Energy and Job Creation Act of 2008

Legislation

The middle class

Video Summary

Injustice Facts

Overview/Summary

Middle Class Position Analysis

Related Blog: Header

Quotes from Experts

Related Blog: Text

Beyond this Bill

Related Blog: Link

Additional Resources

Foreclosure Prevention Act of 2008 [Revised Bill]

Legislation

The middle class

Video Summary

Injustice Facts

Overview/Summary

Middle Class Position Analysis

Related Blog: Header

Quotes from Experts

Related Blog: Text

Beyond this Bill

Related Blog: Link

Additional Resources