The Interim Committee on Commerce and Economic Development seems to have focused almost entirely on the biomedical device industry during their interim meetings. See, this draft final report of the committee. That was the task assigned to it by the Legislative Council. I’m not sure whether they have discretion to go beyond legislative council assignments. They produced this draft resolution urging tax breaks for the biomedical device manufacturers. Specifically, the resolution expresses grumpiness about the federal medical device excise tax. To counter this, the resolution suggests reworking of the patent income tax exemption and the venture capital income tax credit as well as passing a “new markets jobs act providing for a state income tax credit” available to the medical device and biomedical industry.
None of this is necessarily bad policy (maybe it is – I’m just not informed enough to know) or nefarious, but it does give an example of how money begets money. You use your economic influence to get law and policymakers to focus on the well being of your economic interests in a way that’s not available to those with fewer resources.
Dog, your point is well taken, money buys influence, influence buys legislative favors.
The wisdom of the tax is addressed in this http://www.cbpp.org/cms/?fa=view&id=3684
I tend to think, based upon my health law experience, is that tax will reduce healthcare costs. We tax what we wish to discourage. The DME industry (durable medical equipment) is an industry where the retailers are engaged in some of the greatest overuse and fraud in the healthcare delivery business.
Carlito – this is a tax on the medical device industry, not the durable medical equipment (DME) industry.
Medical devices are things like heart valves, coronary stents, etc – while durable medical equipment is
any medical equipment used in the home to aid in a better quality of living – think wheelchairs, or hospital beds. (There can be some overlap between the two – urinary catheters being one example.)
I wonder how much Lilly had to pay for that one. Sure enough, whatever they paid, that investment will earn lots of dividends. You know that our legislators aren’t smart enough to wake up one morning and say out of the blue, “I have an idea! Let’s cut the taxes on biomedical devices!”
Stuart, also, there are numerous large medical device manufacturers in an and around Warsaw, Indiana.
So there is some real gold in those hills.
It is a sad indictment of this country when capital “invested” in politicians’ reelection campaigns gets a higher return than capital invested in one’s business.