[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 142 (Tuesday, October 21, 1997)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E2024-E2025]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




             LOWER TAXES ON INCOME AND HELP THE ENVIRONMENT

                                 ______
                                 

                        HON. FORTNEY PETE STARK

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                       Tuesday, October 21, 1997

  Mr. STARK. Mr. Speaker, I will be introducing legislation to 
gradually lower and even eliminate the payroll tax on wages.
  The tax revenue lost by reducing the payroll tax rates will be 
replaced by an equal and gradually rising tax on energy and pollutants, 
thus helping the environment and reducing the disruption that may be 
caused by global warming.
  This tax will fall heavily on imported energy and will help gradually 
reduce our dependence on unstable sources of foreign oil, as America 
becomes more energy efficient in response to higher energy prices.
  By lowering the tax on labor, we will encourage full employment and 
the movement of people off welfare. By raising the price of energy and 
nonrenewable resources, we will encourage innovation and new products 
that will help make America the leader in the types of production 
needed in the 21st century.
  By phasing in these tax shifts gradually over 20 years, the proposal 
avoids disruption and

[[Page E2025]]

gives time for adjustment. Some of the money raised by taxes on energy 
and pollutants will be returned to the regions of the country that are 
primary producers or users of energy and nonrenewables, so that those 
communities will have extra money to transition to new forms of cleaner 
production or more energy efficient homes and workplaces. Those on 
fixed retirement income will be kept whole by special attention to 
ensuring that price increases in energy related items are fully 
compensated through cost-of-living adjustments.
  To repeat, under this proposal, there will be no net increase in 
taxes. There will be a shift in taxes off of things we value--labor--
and onto things we want to discourage--wasteful use of energy and 
nonrenewable resources. People will see the price of gasoline 
increase--at the same time they see the tax on their income decline.
  This proposal is a 3-fer: it lowers the payroll tax; it discourages 
pollution and helps the United States in its international negotiations 
on global warming; it increases our national security by reducing our 
dependence on the Middle East and other unstable regions.
  I hope that my Republican colleagues who support sales taxes and/or 
value added type taxes will take a look at this proposal. Their 
proposals would increase the taxes on energy and nonrenewables along 
with all the other things sold or manufactured in our society. But 
rather than set up elaborate new sales tax or VAT collection systems on 
millions of businesses and production centers, with all the potentials 
for evasion and abuse, this proposal would concentrate tax collection 
on just a few thousand sources of production, freeing millions of 
others from paperwork and IRS hassels.
  Republican leaders from Texas, who have been proposing various tax 
reforms, may at first object to concentrating the new system of 
taxation on energy, because Texas is such a major producer of energy. 
But I urge them to work with me to return extra amounts of the revenue 
raised by this proposal to their region to help it transition to a 
cleaner and higher-paying form of production.
  I hope to introduce this bill before the recess, and I invite 
comments and ideas on how to make it a smooth transition for America.
  To repeat: this is a chance to ensure a cleaner environment for 
future generations, increase America's security, reduce taxes on 
employment, and encourage the production of a new generation of 
products.
  This is not a tax increase. It is a tax shift from things we don't 
want to tax onto things we should want to discourage.

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