Mississippi Furniture Association Working For Tax Break

Posted by MCC on March 23rd, 2009 at 10:14pm

Mississippi Furniture Association representatives met with House Speaker Billy McCoy to talk about legislation that would help struggling furniture manufacturers through a tax break. The new legislation would provide manufacturers with a $2,000 tax credit for each one of their cut and sew jobs.

A lot of these jobs are being lost to foreign manufacturers where their employees work for a much lower rate. Although, the outcome is yet to be seen, McCoy did say that they were giving the matter full consideration.

However, House Ways and Means Chairman, Percy Watson, questioned just how effective the tax credit would be in actually helping the struggling furniture industry. He also stated that he didn’t expect to be bringing the new legislation up for consideration.

If passed, the legislation could save as many as 5,000 cut and sew jobs in the state and help in creating an additional 1,500. The credit could also generate around $4.2 million in net gain for the state. Although, there is no guarantees that it would save jobs or generate the estimated amount of revenue.

Under Furniture News