A $392 million tax break for District businesses is one of many policies that could be lost if the Senate scraps a minimum wage/estate tax bill.
Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., and his allies were working furiously to break a Democratic filibuster of the bill, which would raise the minimum wage while cutting the estate tax.
But neither side expected Frist to be successful.
Among the many incentives tacked onto the bill is a 10-year tax break for businesses that invest in the District.
The House hurriedly passed the minimum wage/estate tax bill on its last day of work before recessing Friday. Critics have accused both sides of a cynical pandering to the electorate by pairing the minimum wage to an estate tax bill.
Neither side has done much to deny the charge.
In his condemnation of the bill last week, Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., closed with an appeal “to change from a Republican Congress that puts the wealthiest Americans first.”
A spokesman for House Majority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, meanwhile, said successful passage of the estate tax bill “will allow Republicans to claim another agenda victory as we head towards November.”
The D.C. tax break is just one of several sweeteners thrown into the bill to attract stubborn senators. Among other perks are the $382 million in tax deductions to oil companies that have been ordered to clean up contaminated sites, a nearly $5.7 billion break that would allow restaurant owners to double their deductions for renovating their properties, and a $59 million break that would allow business travelers to deduct the cost of bringing their spouses with them.
There might even be more costs if the bill doesn’t pass. Frist announced Tuesday that if the filibuster can’t be broken, he won’t call a vote on the pension bill, which enjoys broad-based support.
Whatever they think of the proposals in the bill, many good government groups were dismayed by the way it was put together.
“It’s worse than political blackmail,” said Gary Bass of the liberal group OMB Watch. “What’s abhorrent is that there are items in there to get conservatives to vote for the minimum wage and to getliberals to vote for the estate tax. It’s just not the way government should run.”
