FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 2, 1999
CONTACT: Lisette McSoud Mondello
SENATOR HUTCHISON BRIEFS MARTIN COUNTY COMMUNITY MEETING
ON EFFORTS TO GET MAJOR TAX RELIEF FOR OIL AND GAS INDUSTRY
STANTON, TX -- Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison briefed a community meeting Thursday on her successful effort to get the Senate Finance Committee to include three major provisions targeting the oil and gas industry in tax relief legislation approved in July.
"The Senate realizes how important it is to prevent further erosion of America's energy production capabilities," Senator Hutchison said. "Our tax code needs some fine tuning to accommodate the rapid changes the oil and gas industry is experiencing."
The Finance Committee's actions came on the heels of a letter from 15 senators, organized by Senator Hutchison, urging Chairman William Roth to include the energy industry in tax relief legislation.
The committee approved, as part of its overall tax relief package, three provisions designed to help the ailing oil and gas industry. Those provisions would allow deductions for business losses to offset taxes paid up to five years previously, and allow oil and gas exploration costs and rental payments to be deducted in the year in which they are incurred, rather than in the year when the oil and gas actually is extracted.
"These changes are warranted on their merits as sound tax policy," Senator Hutchison said. "While the price of oil has begun to rebound, the industry -- and local economies that the industry supports -- have not."
Successful effort to keep tobacco settlement funds in state --
$87,528 for Martin County Hospital District
Senator Hutchison also announced the allocation of more than $87,000 from the State of Texas' tobacco settlement fund to the Martin County Hospital District.
"The children of this community had a big stake in this debate. These funds will help to ensure 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 passed into law as part of a larger emergency spending bill signed by the President on May 21. The federal government had announced it was going to withhold as much as 60 percent of the states' Medicaid allocations as its share of the states' tobacco settlements. This would have limited the payments to Texas counties, which are in line to receive more than $2 billion, including a lump sum payment of $300 million from the fund this year.
A $1.8 billion permanent trust account has been established by the state so that each county will get its share, every year, in perpetuity.
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