February 22, 1984 EXTENSIONS OF REMARKS 3023 EXTENSIONS OF REMARKS AVIATRIX SETS RECORD WITH No education-no decent job. adds that the phenomenon is "enor­ UNICEF ESSAYS No decent job-depending on your parents. mously revealing of the problems of Depending on your parents-never growing fashioning sensible economic and up. budget policies." Because Samuelson's Never growing up-afraid to try somPthing HON. CHARLES McC. MATHIAS, JR. new. analysis is particularly insightful, I am OF MARYLAND Afraid to try something new-never learn- entering his column in the RECORD. I IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES ing. would also like to take a moment to Never learning-limited life. elaborate on his suggestion. Wednesday, February 22, 1984 Limited life-finding a dead end. As an economist, Samuelson views e Mr. MATHIAS. Mr. President, it is Finding a dead end-starving. the IDB controversy in terms of effi­ not often that children have an oppor­ Starving-dying. Dying-never living life. ciency. His first question: "Are we allo­ tunity to participate in a historic cating our tax dollars efficiently?" is event, but this month students from answered with an unequivocal: "No." my State of Maryland had that UNICEF 1984 VALENTINE'S DAY ESSAY "The new bonds erode the Federal tax chance. Maryland grade-school chil­ CONTEST WINNERS base and raise interest rates on public dren, together with their counterparts FROM MARYLAND purpose bonds," he says. He calls the in the District of Columbia and Virgin­ <1 > Emily To pf, Sidwell Friends School. idea that we are promoting much eco­ ia, participated in the second annual <2> Athena Kopsidas, The Rev. Thomas nomic development farf etched, and he UNICEF essay contest, expressing Daniel's Greek Orthodox Parochial School. goes so far as to say that most borrow­ their concern for the welfare of the <3> Jay Quash, Sidwell Friends School. ers do not need the subsidy, and be­ world's children. Their essays then (4) Georgia Kalapothakos, The Rev. Thomas Daniel's Greek Orthodox Parochial cause most localities have them they traveled around the world with avia­ no longer create a competitive edge. trix Brooke Knapp as she broke the School. world speed record, flying around the FROM WASHINGTON, D.C. As a discouraged political analyst, (1) Todd Johnson, Murch Elementary Samuelson worries that "economic in­ globe in 45 hours, 32 minutes, and 53 efficiencies are politically irrelevant," seconds. School. <2 > Maria Degretzikos, The Rev. Thomas and he points out that no one seems to Mrs. Knapp and her crew stopped in Daniel's Greek Orthodox Parochial School. care whether the investment of our London, Moscow, Novosibirsk-the (3) Rebecca Davis, Murch Elementary tax dollars is "misallocated and ineffi­ Soviet Union's atomic research city, School. cient." "Groups * * * " he says, "de­ Peking, and Tokyo, in addition to their <4> Thea Joselow, Murch Elementary plore Federal deficits one day and American destinations. Wherever the School. (5) Adam Feinstein, Murch Elementary defend the proliferation of tax-exempt plane landed, Mrs. Knapp was greeted bonds the next." by children who accepted the essays School. and letters from American children. <6> Ayanna E. M. Dunn, Washington Mr. Speaker, I am sympathetic to Those children also gave her letters International School. Mr. Samuelson's discouragement and artwork to bring back to the FROM VIRGINIA about the confusion we face when United States. O> Greg Hunter, Jamestown Elementary making economic decisions. To an School. economist and even to the casual ob­ Brooke Knapp's good-will mission in <2> Kate Connally, Jamestown Elementary server the decisions appear so obvi­ behalf of the world's children, togeth­ School. ous-if we have a deficit we cut spend­ er with a previous transpolar flight, is <3> Drake Witham, Jamestown Elementa­ ing or we increase revenues; if we have expected to raise about $500,000 in ry School. a program that is inefficient and is gifts and pledges to UNICEF. <4> Karen Massa, Jamestown Elementary growing out of hand, we place reasona­ Mrs. Knapp's flight set a diplomatic School. <5> Mary Lu, Norfolk Academy.e ble limits on it. To those of us entrust­ record, too. Her Gulfstream III plane ed with such decisions the issues are was the first private American plane often more complex, yet I still insist to be cleared to fly across the Soviet that the facts are not so confused as to Union in 40 years. At a time of INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT condone inaction. strained American-Soviet relations, it BONDS Mr. Samuelson's article follows: is reassuring that a flight for UNICEF can open the airways and give life to HON. JOHN J. LaFALCE [From the Washington Post. Feb. 22, 1984J authentic concern for the world's chil­ OF NEW YORK TAX-EXEMPT BONDS: A STUDY IN POLITICS dren. IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES <By Robert J. Samuelson) The young writers from Maryland Wednesday, February 22, 1984 House Ways and Means Chairman Dan and those from the entire metropoli­ Rostenkowski CD-Ill.> is the latest legislator tan area should be proud to have par­ e Mr. LAFALCE. Mr. Speaker, within to discover the politics of tax-exempt bonds. ticipated, through their essays, in such the coming months the House is going Last year, he proposed curbing the prolif­ a historic event. I ask to enter the win­ to return to a difficult legislative issue: eration of the bonds. You might think that ning Maryland essay and the names of tax changes, and, in particular, indus­ a bill intended to cut federal deficits and re­ all the essay contest winners in the trial development bonds <IDB's). The direct tax-exempt financing away from pri­ CONGRESSIONAL RECORD. IDB controversy interrupted work on vate projects such as shopping centers and tax legislation in 1983, and it is likely toward traditional public works such as The material follows: roads, sewers and schools would pass Con­ that conflict will again be a stumbling gress by acclaim. It didn't. MARYLAND WINNING ESSAY: "THE LAND block to easy agreement on essential WHERE THERE WAs No ScHooL" Anyone trying to fathom the deficit dead­ tax matters. lock can profit by Rostenkowski's experi­ <By Emily Topf, Sidwell Friends School, Robert J. Samuelson, writing in the ence. The tax-exempt-bond explosion is a grade 4> Washington Post, has described the modern marvel-a phenomenon interesting Kenya-children working. tax-exempt bond explosion as "symp­ in its own right but also enormously reveal­ Children working-no education. tomatic of larger confusions," and he ing of the problems of fashioning sensible e This "bullet" symbol identifies statements or insertions which are not spoken by the Member on the floor. 3024 EXTENSIONS OF REMARKS February 22, 1984 economic and budget policies. It's a case pose bonds. Higher rates only can hamper lis Urban League, marks a significant study in the economic inefficiencies caused the job of providing good roads, water sys­ point in the acid rain debate. The by practical politics. tems and jails. Fifteen years of skimping on Urban League, a nonpartisan, interra­ The bonds have defied both political con­ repairs has left a large backlog of public trol and economic conditions. Despite works projects. cial, nonprofit community organiza­ higher interest rates, bond volumes have To some extent, these traditional respon­ tion dedicated to the economic ad­ jumped 85 percent since 1979 to $89.5 bil­ sibilities suffer as local officials attempt to vancement of black Americans and lion. The lure is simple enough. Because in­ offset federal cutbacks in other areas. When other minorities, recognizes that the terest payments aren't subject to tax, afflu­ Congress trimmed hospital, housing, eco­ costs of acid rain controls will fall ent bondholders can accept lower rates and nomic development and student loan pro­ most heavily on the needy in.the Mid­ come out ahead. Tax-exempt rates have tra­ grams, states and localities-with the self­ west-the poor, the elderly, those on ditionally been 20 to 35 percent below rates serving assistance of bond lawyers and un­ fixed incomes who rely on Federal on comparable taxable bonds. derwriters-responded with new forms of What underlies the bonds' explosive tax-exempt financing. programs. growth is the availability of this inexpensive The resulting system escapes both politi­ The Urban League points out: credit for a growing list of private purposes. cal and economic discipline. Because most Acid rain may or may not be a prob­ Traditionally, tax-exempt bonds were issued new tax-exempt borrowing falls outside lem, scientists offer widely differing by state and local governments, which local budgets, neither voters nor legislators views on this issue, but before you ask repaid the bonds from local taxes and used need to decide how to spend scarce loan Indianapolis' unemployed and poor to the proceeds for public construction. But funds. But, of course, the funds are scarce: help foot the bill, you must be abso­ private-purpose bonds-used, for example, Loans made for one purpose almost certain­ lutely sure that it is a problem and not to finance industrial projects, stores, home ly divert funds from other purposes. mortgages and student loans-now account Congress could end this sham by limiting just speculation. The Indianapolis for the majority. the tax-exempt authority to narrow public Urban League wants a clean environ­ Since 1975, their share of all new tax­ purposes. But so far it has been unwilling to ment. It supports additional research exempt bonds has jumped from 29 to 56 per­ confront powerful local lobbies. Even Ros­ to answer the questions concerning cent, according to the Treasury. The newer tenkowski's bill imposed only mild restric­ acid rain that are still unanswered be­ bonds typically are issued by special agen­ tions.