FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
August 20, 1999
CONTACT: Lisette McSoud Mondello
SENATOR KAY BAILEY HUTCHISON BRIEFS
MILLS COUNTY COMMUNITY LEADERS ON TAX BILL
Provides marriage tax penalty relief,
risk management tools for farmers and ranchers
GOLDTHWAITE, TX -- U.S. Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison met Wednesday with Mills County community leaders, including County Judge Randy Wright, briefing them on the tax bill Congress approved earlier this month.
"The taxpayer refund bill Congress passed and sent on to the President provides tools farmers and ranchers can use to manage the extreme, year-to-year fluctuations in income that are a hallmark of agriculture," Senator Hutchison said. "The bill creates Farm and Ranch Risk Management (FARRM) Accounts to help stabilize farm income."
FARRM Accounts will allow farmers and ranchers to contribute up to 20 percent of their income to a tax-deferred, IRA-type account for up to five years. The bill also would allow the self-employed to deduct the full cost of their health insurance, and would phase out the death tax, making it easier to keep family-run farms, ranches and businesses in the family.
The taxpayer refund bill also contains a provision originally introduced by Senator Hutchison to phase out the unpopular and unfair marriage tax penalty beginning in 2001.
Other important provisions of the taxpayer refund bill include: Lowering tax brackets 1 percent across the board; allowing those over age 50 to make catch-up payments to pension plans (such as 401(k)s) and Individual Retirement Accounts; increasing the maximum allowable contribution to Individual Retirement Accounts to $5,000 from $2,000; providing additional personal exemptions to those providing long-term care to elderly family members and lowering capital gains taxes.
Successful effort to keep states' tobacco settlement funds – $80,000 for Mills County
While in Goldthwaite, Senator Hutchison also announced the allocation of more than $80,000 from the State of Texas' tobacco settlement fund to Mills County.
"The children of Mills County -- and all of Texas -- had a big stake in this debate. These funds will help to make sure that the health-care safety net for them, and for all Texans, is preserved," the Senator said.
Senator Hutchison earlier this year led the effort to protect the individual states' tobacco settlement funds from seizure by the federal government. The President threatened to veto Senator Hutchison's amendment but after seeing the large bi-partisan support for it, he finally gave up. Her bill was signed into law by the President on May 21. The federal government announced it would withhold up to 60 percent of the states' Medicaid allocations as its share of the tobacco settlements. This would have limited the payments to Texas counties. Texas counties are in line to receive more than $2 billion, including a lump sum payment of $300 million from the fund this year, and a $1.8 billion permanent trust account has been established so that each county will get its share, every year, in perpetuity.
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