Senator Kane Co-Sponsors Pro-Jobs Legislation

Senator Rob Kane (R-32) recently joined Senate Republican Leadership and fellow members of the caucus in calling for the General Assembly to adopt their initiatives to help small businesses create jobs and grow the state’s economy.

“As the owner of a small business, and as a taxpayer, I know that it is in our best interest to do everything we can to encourage the creation of new jobs and to help existing businesses stay in Connecticut. I look forward to working with my new colleagues in the General Assembly to pass these legislative initiatives this year,” said Senator Kane.

Senator Kane joined Republican senators in announcing their pro-jobs proposal at a press conference held recently at the Legislative Office Building in Hartford. The proposal builds on the Job Creation Tax Credit introduced by Senate Republicans and passed into law in 2007. This existing law provides a tax credit to C-corporations that create 10 or more new jobs in a year.

Highlights of the Senate Republicans’ 2008 Pro-Jobs Initiative include:

* Expanding the Job Creation Tax Credit: The Senate Republicans’ 2008 proposal calls for eliminating the need to seek approval for the tax credit from the state Department of Community and Economic Development (DECD), extending the benefit to all businesses, and applying the credit annually to each new net job created. The proposed law would take effect July 1st, making the credit applicable to income years beginning on, or after, January 1, 2008.

* Repealing the Business Entity Tax Effective January 1, 2008: Republican legislators have called for eliminating the $250 annual “tax on existing” since its inception in 2002, and will continue to call for its elimination during the upcoming legislative session.

* Bringing Business Sense to Regulation: The Senate Republicans’ 2008 proposal calls for requiring DECD to conduct a cost/benefit analysis of all existing regulations every five years. When it is determined that a regulation’s societal cost outweighs its benefits, or that a regulation is redundant, it would automatically be repealed unless the legislature’s Regulations Review Committee votes to keep it.

Creating Next Generation Industries: The Senate Republicans’ 2008 proposal calls for extending the existing movie industry tax credit to emerging industries likely to provide employment to middle class working families in Connecticut. Targeted industries could include alternative energy, environmental remediation, optics and photonics, life sciences devices and nanotechnology. Under the proposal, companies that have not yet made a profit could trade their tax credits to profitable Connecticut companies