Legislation watch
2003 House Bill 5331 (Tax breaks for "start-up business") (House Roll Call 344)
Passed in the House (104 to 2) on May 18, 2004, to concur with the Senate-passed version of the bill. [History, Amendments & Comments]
The vote was 104 in favor, 2 opposed, and 3 not voting
(House Roll Call 344 at House Journal 43)
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The following legislators supported 2003 House Bill 5331 (Tax breaks for "start-up business"):
The following legislators opposed 2003 House Bill 5331 (Tax breaks for "start-up business"):
| Hopgood (D) | Meisner (D) |
The following legislators did not vote on 2003 House Bill 5331 (Tax breaks for "start-up business"):
| Plakas (D) | Reeves (D) | Stallworth (D) |
Most Recent Comments
1) Rep. Meisner's "no vote explanation" [by Admin003 on May 19, 2004]Rep. Meisner, having reserved the right to explain his nay vote, made the following statement:
"Mr. Speaker and members of the House:
I continue in opposition to this legislation on the basis that it, like so many others, will make worse the instability of our budget situation by piling tax exemptions on top of the billions in breaks we give away each year without any notice given to the effectiveness of previous efforts."
Reply
Rep. Hopgood, having reserved the right to explain his protest against the passage of the bill, made the following statement:
"Mr. Speaker and members of the House:
I voted no on the package of bills deemed to assist 'start-up' businesses (HB 5331, 5335, 5341-43, 5345; SB 863, 865, 867, 872, 875) because they will actually amount to very little in terms of tax relief to business but will cost the state treasury up to $15 million at a time when, if revenues are not increased, significant reductions will have to take place in programs to seniors, education and health care.
The bills also have the potential of undermining existing economic development programs and incentives and pitting local units against each other in the race to land businesses. Local units will again be forced to choose."
Reply
Introduced in the House on December 2, 2003, to exempt for five years a "qualified start-up business" from any single business tax (SBT) liability in a year in which it does not make a profit. (Note: The SBT is a tax on the value added by a firm in producing a product, which means that a firm may owe SBT tax even though it makes no profit.) A "qualified start-up business" is defined as a firm that has fewer than 25 full-time equivalent employees, has annual sales of less than $1 million, has research and development expenses that make up at least 15-percent of its annual expenses, and is not publicly traded. This does not necessarily apply only to new firms, and the five year exemption is not necessarily the firm's first five years of operation
The vote was 103 in favor, 4 opposed and 2 not voting
(House Roll Call 277 at House Journal 34)
Click here to view bill details.
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