Lawmakers hope tax credits will revive industry as trust in media plummets.
House Democrats are offering more than $1 billion in subsidies to local newspapers as part of a massive spending proposal released this week, even as polls show record levels of distrust in the media.
The $3.5 trillion spending plan includes up to $25,000 in payroll tax credits for each journalist on a local newspaper's payroll. The carve-out will cost $1.3 billion over the next decade, according to the Joint Committee on Taxation. To offset this and other tax credits included in the bill, Democrats are proposing $2.9 trillion in tax hikes through higher corporate, capital gains, and personal income tax rates.
Democrats hope the proposal will rescue local newspapers, which saw employment fall by 57 percent from 2008 to 2020. More than 1,800 newspapers have shut down since 2004 amid a shift away from print advertising and the rise of online media. Confidence in the media has also waned. Just 21 percent of Americans said they had "great confidence" in newspapers, according to a recent Gallup survey. Only television news, big business, and Congress had lower confidence ratings......snip~
House Dems Propose $1 Billion in Subsidies For Local Newspapers (freebeacon.com)
Code for the Democrats want to get their tools some money. The good news is.....they were hoping on the 3.5 trillion spending package. That Manchin and Sinema crushed their hopes on.