11 Jul Assembly restores additional funding for angel investor tax credits
Madison, Wis. – Setting the stage for conference committee negotiations, the Assembly Republican Caucus has restored additional funding for the Act 255 tax credit program.
The additional funding, which had been approved by the Joint Committee on Finance, was removed in a budget proposal approved last month by the State Senate Democratic Caucus.
According to the Legislative Fiscal Bureau, Joint Finance had allocated an additional $7.8 million over the 2007-09 biennium. Act 255 covers tax credits for angel and venture investing, and the maximum annual limit on total angel investment tax credits would increase from the current $3 million to $5.5 million under the Assembly bill.
The Republican Caucus also voted to modify angel investment tax credit provisions to allow qualified investments in businesses engaged in the construction of power plants that derive energy from renewable resources.
The Assembly action was part of a $56.5 million budget that is as controversial as the spending blueprint approved by the Senate. The Senate budget includes a healthcare reform plan that would provide every Wisconsin resident under 65 access to comprehensive healthcare coverage and be funded with a $15 billion payroll tax, which Republicans immediately denounced as costly and reckless.
Among the most controversial parts of the Assembly budget, which does not raise taxes, are much lower funding commitments to the University of Wisconsin System, which UW-Madison chancellor John D. Wiley characterized as an assault on higher education.
“For the last several budgets, we’ve been told to absorb cuts and wait until the next budget for critically needed investments,” Wiley said in a statement released by the university. “Assembly Republicans want us to continue waiting as Wisconsin slips into a ruinous pattern of disinvestments that has gutted higher education in other states.”
The Doyle Administration, which offered a blistering critique of the Assembly budget, has characterized the Senate’s treatment of Act 255 as a mistake and predicted the additional funding will be restored in the final budget.
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• Senate Democrats strip additional Act 255 funding from budget
• Breaking down Wisconsin’s angel capital numbers
• Sen. Ted Kanavas: A heavenly tax cut: Act 255 stimulates economic growth
• Wisconsin building toward the major leagues of venture capital
• Doyle proposes $2M for venture capital center