Speaking to business and nonprofit leaders in Rye Brook recently, freshman Congressman John Hall, D-19th District, welcomed their input on pending legislative issues while taking a stand on the Indian Point nuclear power plant that could put him at odds with his Westchester business constituents.
A breakfast guest of The Business Council of Westchester in its Key Bank speaker series, the rock musician-turned-politician from Dover Plains thanked the sponsoring bank for the small-business loan that enabled him to start his independent record label ”“ “a loan I”™m happy to say we just paid off last week.”
Pledging to work “to reinforce fiscal fairness for small businesses,” Hall said he had voted for the Small Business Tax Relief Act recently signed into law.
Reform of the alternative minimum tax (AMT) “continues to be one of the top necessities for tax reform for this Congress,” he said.
AMT “has strayed from its original purpose” of taxing only the wealthiest and now places “an increasing and onerous tax burden on a growing number of middle-class families,” he said. Westchester County has more households paying AMT than any county in the nation, he said, while all five counties in the 19th Congressional District are among the top 2 percent in the country impacted by AMT. In 2004, district residents made an average of just above $3,800 in AMT payments, $500 less than the average yearly tuition at a SUNY school, Hall said.
Addressing a critical issue for his audience, the congressman said health care “leaves all businesses from GM to the corner store vulnerable.”
Hall said premiums for employer-based health care rose by 7.7 percent in 2006.
Premiums for firms with less than 24 employees increased by 10.5 percent. “It”™s the fastest-growing expense for employers and health-care costs are dramatically outstripping growth in earnings, wages or inflation.”
The health-care coverage crisis is “a complex challenge but one that we must address,” he said. “It”™s compromising our ability to compete in the global marketplace.”
A member of the House Select Committee on Climate Change and Energy Independence, Hall warned that with America”™s dependence on Middle East oil purchased from despotic, terrorism-financing regimes with money borrowed from China and others, “We”™re gradually losing our sovereignty as a country, not to mention our solvency.” He said the nation can reverse that slide by developing new technologies and alternative renewable energy resources such as biofuels, wind turbines and low-head hydropower.
“We in the Hudson Valley can grow energy crops for biofuel and biodiesel” and create local jobs in the process, he said.
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Hall heard an appeal from Westchester business leaders for federal funding for the Tappan Zee Bridge corridor improvements project. Marsha Gordon, president and chief executive officer of the Business Council and co-chairperson of the Westchester- Rockland Tappan Zee Futures Task Force, said a proposal that includes an east-west commuter rail line connecting the region “is the best option, and we”™re going to need a lot of money to do that.”
“The cornerstone for any final plan for the Tappan Zee should be increased capacity with an emphasis on public transit by commuter rail,” said the congressman, who also serves on the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee. “An improved Tappan Zee corridor will mean greater ease of movement and better environment because there”™s less pollution being pumped out by all those tailpipes and a better economy and quality of life.”
Hall said he has called for an independent safety assessment of the aged and leaking Indian Point nuclear power plant as a prior requirement for re-licensing by Entergy Nuclear Northeast. “I think that we need to consider public health and safety first,” he said.
Westchester”™s two largest business groups, the Business Council and the Westchester County Association, have come out in support of Entergy”™s application for re-licensing of Indian Point.
“We absolutely agree that there has to be a safe Indian Point,” Gordon told Hall, “but we as an organization support the re-licensing because we need the power to keep our businesses going. So this is a conversation that we look forward to continuing with you.”
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