Engineering Inc. - September/October 2008 - 15

arge projects do need periodic large influxes of money that comes through earmarks. cathy connor L Parsons Brincker- PB hoff ). “When we’re building enormous, billion-dollar highway interchanges and interstate bridges, the formula program just isn’t sufficient, and large projects do need periodic large influxes of money that comes through earmarks.” Industry watchers also have reacted with skepticism to McCain’s proposed gas tax holiday. Sen. Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.) attempted to insert the proposal on behalf of McCain as part of technical corrections to SAFETEA-LU. The proposal would have suspended gas taxes from Memorial Day to Labor Day in an effort to lessen the public pain of surging gas prices. Obama opposed the measure from the onset. Kyl was forced to withdraw the amendment after critics, including ACEC and several of his colleagues in the Senate, argued that temporarily suspending taxes would negatively affect important infrastructure projects, many of which draw their funding from federal gas levies. Does that mean Obama would be a stronger proponent of the nation’s infrastructure? Not necessarily, says Peter J. Morici, professor of logistics, business and public policy at the University of Maryland, College Park. Morici says the engineering industry probably “is going to get more attention paid to infrastructure over the next two years out of Obama than with McCain, but McCain would still fund infrastructure programs, simply because there’s going to be so much pressure to prime the pump.” tax reform and the economy Tax reform and economic revitalization have bottom-line impact on engineering firms. Again, the candidates have different approaches to business issues. “McCain’s policies are designed to reward companies that are already doing well, while Obama’s policies are designed to strengthen the overall business environment and create new opportunities for business,” says John S. Irons, research and policy director for the Washington, D.C.–based Economic Policy Institute. “McCain has proposed to reduce the corporate tax rate, maintain all of the Bush tax cuts, and alter depreciation rules that would result in even lower effective tax rates for corporations,” Irons says. “Obama aims to create new jobs in manufacturing and end tax loopholes that reward firms for sending jobs overseas. He also is proposing eliminating some capital-gains taxes on small businesses to help new startups prosper.” Obama has pledged to provide a $1,000 tax credit to working families across the board to offset payroll taxes. For families bringing in more than $250,000, Obama would raise the top two income-tax brackets back to the 36 percent and 39.6 percent rates that were in effect in the Clinton years. He also is seeking to raise the capital gains tax rate from 15 percent to 20 percent for those Americans making more than $250,000 per year—the lowest rate that existed in the 1990s and the rate President Bush proposed in his 2001 tax cut. “A 20 percent rate is almost a third lower than the rate President Reagan set in 1986,” said Obama advisors in The Wall Street Journal. Obama also proposes to raise taxes on oil and gas companies, tax the gains of private equity partners as regular income rather than at the lower capitalgains rate they now pay, and target overseas tax havens and income earned overseas. McCain’s Jobs for America proposal would provide relief to families hit hard by high gas and food prices through a reintroduction of his gas tax holiday, which some estimates say could have saved consumers $6.8 billion in taxes during the summer. He also would repeal the 54-cent-per-gallon tax on imported sugar-based ethanol and roll back cornsEptEmbER / oCtobER 2008 ENGINEERING INC. emmanuel DunanD/aFP/Getty ImaGeS 15
Engineering Inc. - September/October 2008

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Engineering Inc. - September/October 2008
