Oklahoma Cities & Towns

Act to Save the Municipal Tax Exemption from the NLC

As the debate over how to reduce the deficit continues, tax expenditures—including the federal exemption for municipal bonds—are going to be on the table. We ask you to share with your congressional delegations and the public how important the exemption is for hometowns.

Several deficit reduction proposals, including Simpson-Bowles, either cap or eliminate the tax exempt status of municipal bonds. If any of these provisions become law, they will cause either a significant decrease in infrastructure investment in our communities or taxpayers will pay billions of dollars more for higher interest costs on municipal bonds.

NLC continues to lobby the White House and Congress against eliminating or capping the tax exemption for municipal bonds. We are also working the issue as part of several coalitions, including with our traditional state and local government organization partners and as a founding member of the Municipal Bonds for America coalition.

In addition, we are also making a case in the media, including an op-ed piece in today's Politico, the first in a series of op-eds we have authored with our coalition partners.

Several state leagues are have already begun to reach out to their congressional delegations and have drafted op-eds to help raise awareness of the issue, including one provided by Sam Mamet, executive director of the Colorado Municipal League, that ran in major newspapers in his state. He is also forming a collation of likeminded state public sector groups.

Please act reach out to your Members of Congress and the public to help us preserve the federal tax exemption for municipal bonds during the negotiations to address the fiscal cliff or the deficit.

Stacey Levitt
Senior Associate, Outreach
National League of Cities
Center for Federal Relations
1301 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20004
Direct: 202-626-3196
Toll-Free: 877-827-2385
Fax: 202-626-3043
Email: levitt@nlc.org
Web: www.nlc.org