Providence, RI – With President Obama set to unveil a plan this week to help create jobs in America, U.S. Senator Sheldon Whitehouse and Providence Mayor Angel Taveras today visited a local business to discuss the economy and urge the President to include in his plan tax incentives for businesses that hire. In June, Whitehouse introduced the Job Creation Tax Credit Act, which would provide refundable tax credits to businesses that hire.
“I’ve heard from Rhode Island businesses that are looking to expand, but just aren’t sure they can afford to do so,” said Whitehouse. “Providing tax credits for hiring can give businesses the help they need to put Rhode Islanders back to work. I hope President Obama will include strong hiring incentives in his jobs plan, and I will continue to make the case for these incentives in the days ahead.”
Whitehouse and Taveras today toured Umicore, a producer of thin film-coating technology in Providence. After the tour the Senator and Mayor participated with Umicore employees in a roundtable discussion about job creation. Earlier this year, Umicore announced that they plan to create about 100 new manufacturing jobs.
“As the Mayor of Providence, there is no single issue more important to me than putting people back to work and growing our economy. Senator Whitehouse’s Job Creation Tax Credit Act would do just that, helping businesses across Providence, the state of Rhode Island and our nation to start hiring and get our economy moving again,” said Mayor Taveras.
Whitehouse’s Job Creation Tax Credit Act would provide businesses refundable tax credits of 15% of wages paid in 2011 and 10% of wages paid in 2012 for qualified new hires – those who have been unemployed for at least 60 days. The refundable nature of the credit means that struggling businesses can benefit from it even if they aren’t currently making profits.
President Obama is scheduled to unveil his jobs plan during a speech to Congress this Thursday night.
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