[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 59 (Friday, April 11, 2003)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5357-S5358]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Ms. LANDRIEU:
  S. 903. A bill to amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to allow 
employers in renewal communities to qualify for the renewal community 
employment credit by employing residents of certain other renewal 
communities; to the Committee on Finance.
  Ms. LANDRIEU. Mr. President, the Renewal Community Program has been a 
tremendous success in promoting economic growth in my home State of 
Louisiana. It has boosted local economies and cut unemployment in areas 
that need it most. The Department of Housing and Urban Development 
designated 40 urban and rural areas around the country as renewal 
communities, under the Community Renewal Tax Relief Act of 2000.
  Renewal communities can take advantage of wage tax credits, tax 
deductions, capital gains tax exclusions, and bond financing to 
stimulate job growth, promote economic development, and create 
affordable housing. This assistance goes to areas with poverty rates of 
at least 20 percent, and unemployment rates that are one-and-a-half 
times the national level. Households in renewal communities have 
incomes that are 80 percent below the median income of households in 
their local jurisdictions.
  One of the most beneficial business incentives under the program is 
the wage tax credit an employer can receive for hiring and retaining 
residents of renewal communities. Businesses can receive up to a $1,500 
Federal tax credit for every newly hired or existing employee who lives 
and works in the Renewal Community.
  Louisiana has four renewal communities. One is in New Orleans and the 
remaining three cover a large portion of the Central and Northern parts 
of the State. These three renewal communities have common borders. This 
is a tremendous benefit for Louisiana, but it also creates some 
problems. Under the rules of the program a business in one renewal 
community cannot receive the wage tax credit if they hire someone who 
lives outside that renewal community, even if that person lives in the 
renewal community right next door.
  A good example of what I am talking about is in the northern part of 
the State. The Ouachita Renewal Community which covers the City of 
Monroe in Ouachita Parish is surrounded by a number of parishes that 
fall into the North Louisiana Renewal Community--Morehouse Parish to 
the north, Richland Parish to the east, Caldwell Parish to the south, 
and Lincoln Parish to the west. The borders of these two renewal 
communities are literally two or three miles apart. Monroe is the 
economic hub of that part of my State. People from Morehouse, Caldwell, 
and Richland Parishes will naturally look for work there. But under 
current law, a company in Monroe cannot get a wage tax credit for 
hiring someone who lives in the renewal community right next door.

[[Page S5358]]

  The situation in Louisiana is fairly unique. I am not certain whether 
Congress really anticipated that one State would receive more than one 
renewal community designation or that those renewal communities would 
be so close together. I certainly understand the desire to promote 
economic development in specific areas. That can work if renewal 
communities are far apart. But when they are so close together as they 
are around Ouachita Parish, or a little further south in the middle of 
my State, where the Central Louisiana Renewal Community borders the 
North Louisiana Renewal Community, then we need to make the program 
more flexible. A person living in Franklin Parish near the border with 
Catahoula Parish does not necessarily know that both parishes lie in 
two different renewal communities. If the closest job is in Catahoula 
Parish, that is where a Franklin Parish resident is going to go. The 
problem is that a business in Catahoula Parish would not receive the 
tax break for hiring the worker from Franklin Parish--only a few miles 
away.
  We need to add some common sense flexibility to the Renewal Community 
program. Today I am introducing legislation that will allow the 
employers in one renewal community to hire employees from an adjacent 
or nearby renewal community and still receive the wage tax credits 
granted under the Act. This legislation essentially treats renewal 
communities that are within five miles of each other as one. This bill 
will make a small change in the Renewal Community program, but it will 
make a big difference to the people of my state.
  This legislation will make a very important program more successful 
for Louisiana and other states like it. I urge my colleagues to support 
this bill. I ask unanimous consent that the text of the bill be printed 
in the Record.
                                 ______