On Jan. 10 A contingent of bank executives belongs to the New Jersey League of Community Bankers paid a visit to the Journal Square offices of Rep. Bob Menendez (D13th Dist.) giving him a petition with 17,000 signatures in an effort to win his support for a tax incentive savings plan for small savers.
These signatures were collected from all of New Jersey’s 13 Congressional districts as part of a support campaign.
The bank executives informed Menendez about the League’s support for a tax exemption for the first $1,000 of interest on savings accounts.
Menendez, who serves as Chairman of the Democratic Caucus and as a member of the International Relations, Transportation and Information committees in the House of Representatives, said he agreed with the concept and wished that the Bush Administration had opted for this plan for providing people with incentive for savings than the huge tax cuts that mostly benefited the wealthy.
Menendez, however, cautioned the bankers, saying that the huge federal deficit incurred under this Bush Administration forces him to take a closer look at even positive items such as this that might reduce the ability of the federal government to meet its financial obligations.
“We are not going to be leaving Iraq any time soon and that war is costing us $1 billion a day,” he said.
In order to support the bankers’ request, Menendez said he would need assurances from the federal General Accounting Office that the effort would not greatly negatively impact the efforts to get federal spending under control.
In urging support for the proposal, NJ League President Sam Damiano said, “savings provides the capital that keeps our economy running. Today’s low level of consumer savings impedes economic growth.”
Damiano said the tax incentives could raise the level of savings, increase the wealth of savers and generate economic activity that will lead to growth in employment. Savings, he noted, are very important to community banks.
Menendez agreed that the proposal had merit, and noted that community banks were particularly in touch with people and communities, and are often at the heart of a community’s economy.
The petition is part of a grass roots campaign to gather signatures from customers of community banks throughout the state. Community banks in nearly every voting district put ballot boxes, petitions and posters in their lobbies in order to garner the signatures. Menendez assured the bankers that he would seek a report on the impact and that he would throw his support behind their initiative if the General Accounting Office showed that the impact would be minimal.
“I agree that this is a more positive way to approach helping people than the tax cuts the President pushed through Congress,” he said.
Contact Al Sullivan at asullivan@hudsonreporter.com