Charleston Regional Business Journal
By Mike Fitts
mfitts@scbiznews.com
Published Sept. 1, 2010
A fee on stock transactions would be a good way to fund new road construction and put more people back to work, according to House Majority Whip James E. Clyburn.
Clyburn appeared at a news conference organized by business groups that want to see Congress pass a new transportation infrastructure act. They are launching a public relations campaign to increase pressure on Congress, where a six-year transportation bill has been stymied over how to pay for it.
Past bills have been financed with increases in the federal gasoline tax, but Clyburn said Tuesday that option is not politically viable this year. Instead, Clyburn wants to finance the road work with a tax of 0.25% on each stock transaction.
Clyburn sees the surcharge on transactions as appropriate because many of the major Wall Street trading firms are making big profits not long after taxpayers bailed them out.
“The taxpayers who bailed you out and put you in that position ought to be repaid,” Clyburn said at the news conference at Columbia’s Sloan Construction.
A full transportation bill would bring safer roads and help employment in the road construction industry, Clyburn said... FULL ARTICLE
Posted on
Wed, September 1, 2010
by Crystal Drwenski