President Obama, in his State of the Union address, proposed a new tax credit for small business that hire workers or raise the wages of current employees.
The proposal is part of his plan to help the economy recover and boost employment. Other pieces of the puzzle include proposals to:
- Use $30 billion repaid by Wall Street banks to help community banks lend money to small businesses,
- Eliminate capital gains taxes on small-business investment,
- Offer tax incentives for all businesses to invest in new plants and equipment.
- Extend tax breaks to companies that create jobs in the U.S.
I'm interested in how owners and managers at plastics companies feel about the proposals. Based on the non-scientific poll on the
Plastics News home page this week, it looks like many in the industry are still pretty pessimistic about the economy.
Our question this week is "Do you think this is the year for an economic recovery?" As of Thursday afternoon, 74 percent think the recovery will come in 2011 or later, and only 23 percent say they see signs of recovery this year.
Is Obama's plan the right one to get the economy back on track?
Meanwhile,
The Post Standard in Syracuse, N.Y., asked Roland Beck, president and CEO of injection molder
Tessy Plastics Corp., about Obama's plan.
Beck told the newspaper that he thought the idea of giving companies tax incentives to pay workers more was "a little odd."
Beck said he prefers to tie workers' pay to company profits, through a profit-sharing plan, rather than tying them to tax incentives.
Beck added that Tessy would take advantage of any federal tax incentives available to companies that add workers or increase salaries, adding the caveat: "Because there are no details it's hard to get excited."
