Bailout Package To Benefit Mother Lode

Washington, D.C. -- By a margin of 263 to 171 the $700 billion bailout package passed the House of Representatives this morning along with plenty of earmarks.

The immediate benefit to the Mother Lode will be approximately $3 million going to Tuolumne and Calaveras Counties through the Secure Rural School and Community Self Determination Act.

Tuolumne County will receive $2.6 million in the first year of the program that is scheduled to phase out in four years. Schools will receive $1.1 million, $1.015 million will be allocated for roads and the balance will be earmarked for the Resource Advisory Committe.

In Calaveras County $150,000 will go to schools, a similar amount to roads and the remaining $50,000 will to the Resource Advisory Committee.

Earmarks are plentiful in the package. From the San Francisco Chronicle a tax break for the manufacturer of specific wooden arrows for children will cost taxpayers $2 million over 10 years thanks to Oregon Senators Ron Wyden (D) and Gordon Smith (R), rum producers in Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands will receive a rebate on excise taxes worth $192 million over two years, the extension of a tax break for film and television production companies worth $478 million over 10 years, a reduction in tariffs for U.S. makers of wool fabric that use imported yarn worth $148 million over a five year period and the list goes on and on totaling $112 billion in earmarks to the base $700 billion amount.

Written by Bill Johnson