Municipal Groups: Protect the municipal bond tax-exemption ...

Five groups representing local governments are urging Senate Finance Committee leaders to maintain the federal tax-exemption for municipal bonds?

?25 muni market groups urged committee leaders to maintain the tax-exempt status of muni bonds, claiming they are a vital low-cost financing tool for development of infrastructure, schools and affordable housing needs.

The groups made their pleas in two separate letters sent just before Wednesday?s Senate Finance Committee hearing and how tax reform affects state and local government fiscal policy.

The seven-page letter from local groups was sent by Governmental Finance Officers Association, National League of Cities, U.S. Conference of Mayors, National Association of Counties and the International City-County Management Association to committee chairman Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., and ranking minority member Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah.

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The groups also strongly urged lawmakers to ?consider the impact any [tax] changes will have on critical infrastructure that residents in all local communities have come to depend on,? arguing that the elimination of tax-exempt muni bonds would significantly increase costs to taxpayers. It would also ?force local governments to delay the financing of essential projects that create jobs and economic growth,? they said.

Read more at the Bond Buyer http://www.bondbuyer.com/issues/121_79/preserve-federal-tax-exemption-muni-bonds-senate-finance-1038935-1.html

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