As business owners, do you think something like this would truly motivate you to hire additional employees?

As potential employees, do you think this is the best the government could do on your behalf to promote additional hiring?

Tell me what you think.  Is this a good idea or a bad idea? Will it make any difference at all? Is it a long term solution or is it just one more meaningless tax incentive offering a short term solution with not enough real benefits on either side of wall?

Here is a short description of the story by The Slatest

————————————————————

Momentum Grows for a Job-Creation Tax Credit    

It’s a tool that was last tried in 1977, but now there seems to be growing support for awarding a tax credit to businesses that create new jobs. The measure was actually included in the stimulus package, but it was jettisoned before it was approved due to concerns that companies could exploit the system. Now, more politicians seem to believe that while a little abuse might be inevitable, it could still be a good, and relatively cheap, way to create jobs at a time when the unemployment rate is inching closer to 10 percent. When the same system was tried in the late 1970s, there were questions about whether the jobs that were created were permanent, and many doubted that the companies would have created the new jobs eventually without the credit. Now advocates of the system say that they can learn from the mistakes of three decades ago to make sure a job-creation tax credit has a bigger bang this time around. But, of course, it seems inevitable that the credit would help companies that would be hiring whether there’s a tax break or not. Whatever ends up happening, lawmakers need to either pass the measure quickly or drop it completely because companies might delay hiring if they think the tax break is in the pipeline.

———————————————————-

Read a full article on the subject at NYTIMES.COM.  One important issue from the report is a description of the actual benefits that will be seen by businesses in one of the proposals currently being reviewed by the legislature:

Under the proposal from Mr. Bartik and Mr. Bishop, the credit in the first year would equal 15.3 percent of the cost of adding an employee. In the second year, it would fall to about 10.2 percent.

For example, hiring a worker might cost a small business $50,000 annually. But with the tax credit, the cost would fall to $42,350 in the first year, and then be $44,900 the next year. After that, the cost would return to $50,000.

The credit would apply only to the portion of an employee’s salary under $106,800. Lowering the cap further, however, could provide an even greater benefit to low-wage, unskilled workers.

Join in on the conversation by going to the Ventress Enterprises Page on Facebook and clicking on Discussions.  Or Click Here to log on and make your comment.

At this point, no one knows. The intricacies of this legislation are being changed and tweaked as needed and the details are ambiguous at best.  But, this in no way alleviates the need to know how this will effect businesses and one business owner got the opportunity to seek answers.

Patty Brigulio and President Obama courtesy of Stephen Crowley/NYTimes

Above is a shot of business owner Patty Brigulio and President Obama sharing words over the question she was able to ask at one of the many open forum town hall style meetings that President Obama is holding across the United States to talk about health insurance reform.

————————————-

Obama Meets the Businesswoman: The Story Behind the Photo

It turns out The Agenda is not alone in thinking President Obama may have a public relations problem with small business. Patty Briguglio, who can be seen above, and on the front page of today’s Times, exchanging a wagging finger with the President, agrees and she should know: She runs a public relations firm, MMI Associates, in Raleigh, N.C. She’s also a small-business owner.

Ms. Briguglio pays for much of her 19 employees’ health insurance, though she doesn’t offer a group plan. Because her staff is so young, it is cheaper to simply provide an allowance for them to purchase individual policies. The President was in town to talk up health care, and earlier at the town hall event, he called on Ms. Briguglio. She asked, “What current long-term social program created and run by the government should we look to as a model of success and one that we as taxpayers should be confident that a new government-run health care system would be better than the current system in place?”

The President suggested both Medicare and V.A. hospitals, which, he said, “have very high satisfaction rates.” Further, he added, “Medicare costs have gone up more slowly than private sector health care costs.” The answer didn’t fully satisfy Ms. Briguglio. “I’ve never associated any government program with ‘cost-effective’ or ‘efficient,’” she said in an interview today. “I don’t believe that the government will be a better steward of the money that I set aside for health care for my employees than I will be.”

This was only one of several questions she hoped to ask the President. Of even greater concern, she says, is the tax hit she will take. And that’s the story behind the photo. At that moment, as the President made his exit, Ms. Briguglio pressed him on the issue and got a response: “He said to me, ‘The tax credits would more than offset any tax increases,’ ” she recounted. “And I said, ‘I’m holding you to that.’ And he laughed and said, ‘O.K.’ And I said, ‘No, I mean it — I expect you to keep your word on this.’”

————————————–

Read the full article by Robb Mandelbaum at NYTimes.com