Masonry Magazine June 2011 Page. 34
MCAA LEGISLATIVE CONFERENCE
Rapidly over the next decade under current law. By 2010, the AMT will affect 33 million taxpayers - about one-third of all tax returns, up from 1 million in 1999. Last year, Congress approved a "patch" for the AMT. The patch increased the AMT exemption, which is basically a standard deduction for taxpayers hit by the alternative minimum tax. The masonry industry supports repeal of the AMT or appropriate indexing of the AMT to its original date of enactment or the date of enactment of the new AMT bill.
In addition, several groups discussed concern over union pension obligations and general economic concerns. For the most part, all the meetings were well received, and most of our concerns were heard. We are confident that we will make significant headway on at least two of our four major issues this year.
The MCAA also presented our annual Freedom and Prosperity awards. The recipients of the awards this year were Con. Heath Shuler (NC), Con. Paul Ryan (WI), Sen. Mark Pryor (AR) and Sen. John Cornyn (TX). You can learn more about these recipients in the "Government Affairs" column on p. 10 of this issue. We are thankful to our recipients for their support of small business concerns throughout the past year. For a full description of all MCAA position papers, please go to www.masoncontractors.org, click "legislative," and then choose "position papers." If you are interested I attending future conferences, please feel free to contact the MCAA office, so we can contact you in 2012. IMAS
Jeff Buczkiewicz is Executive Director of the MCAA.
About 45 people attended this year's Legislative Conference.
Senator Mark Pryor (left) Congressional aide, and Paul Odom rig
John Smith and Danian Langdiscuss the day ahead of visits The L
Congressman Tom Latham addresses a small group of MCAA members at the Capitol Hill Club
32 MASONRY
June 2011
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