A Little Help for Some Friends
When Congress took up its deficit-reduction package last week, few of the legislators knew precisely what they were voting for. Buried in the 1,000 or more pages were dozens of mysterious provisions inserted by key lawmakers during closed-door committee sessions. Known euphemistically as "rifle shots," they are lucrative tax breaks for legislators' home-state industries and campaign contributors. They will cost the Treasury untold millions in lost revenue. In most cases, the provisions are so artfully worded that not even tax experts or congressional aides can determine for certain which companies or industries will benefit from them. Pending eventual publication of all the fine print, word leaked out on a handful of special favors for those who gave.
THE DEVIL IS IN THE DETAILS
A VINTAGE DEAL
Republican Bob Packwood responded to pleas from the Oregon Winegrowers' Association to fight an 18 cents-per-bottle tax increase on wine. Packwood delivered: vineyards that produce less than 150,000 gal. a year will be exempt from the increase, and those that turn out up to 250,000 gal. will be partly spared. Roughly 1,000 of the 1,400 wineries in the nation, including 80 in Oregon, will get the breaks. Packwood has received $7,000 from the industry's political-action committees (PACs).
A NICE CATCH
Commercial fishing is important in Democratic Congressman Gerry Studds' Massachusetts district. Starting in 1988, owners of small fishing boats who pay crewmen with a share of the catch were required to withhold income tax and Social Security fees. Studds arranged to restore the crews' previous immunity from withholding, which means they may not fully pay their taxes. He has collected $10,475 from fishing PACs.
FLYING WITH BOB
Senate Republican leader Bob Dole has two builders of small aircraft, Cessna and Beech, in his state of Kansas. They employ 12,300 people and contribute more than $1 billion to the state's economy. Thus when a 10% tax on the purchase of all small planes was proposed, Dole took off. He got the surcharge limited to those costing more than $250,000, which exempts virtually all of the ones built in his state. Dole has received at least $4,250 from the two manufacturers. Dole also got special treatment for an old friend -- Dwayne Andreas, president of the Archer-Daniels-Midland Co. ADM produces 70% of the country's ethanol, a gasoline substitute distilled from corn. The Senator protected an existing 60 cents-per-gal. tax credit that goes to the firms that turn the ethanol into the gasohol used in cars. Andreas and ADM's PAC have contributed $10,000 to Dole.
JUST A GOOD BUD-DY
House Democratic leader Dick Gephardt is a defender of Joe Six-Pack, who would have been stung by a Republican proposal to raise the excise tax on beer to 32 cents a pack. But Gephardt has another reason to be one of the boys: Anheuser- Busch Co. headquarters are in his St. Louis district. Gephardt bellied up to the task of holding the beer tax to 16 cents per six-pack. He has received $12,850 from beer industry PACs.
RIGGING THE YACHTS
A plan to slap a similar luxury tax on almost all yachts alarmed boat builders all the way from Maine to Texas. So they turned to many coastal-state legislators, including such congressional powers as Senate Democratic leader George Mitchell, top, and Texas' two Senators, Democrat Lloyd Bentsen, left, % and Republican Phil Gramm, for assistance. The pressure on the lawmakers was highly effective; the additional tax will apply only to yachts with price tags higher than $100,000.