Anyway, here are some of the tax breaks and other goodies included in the bill. I'm not making these up. You, too,
can read them here, if you have a few hours to spare:-cover over of rum excise tax to Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands until Jan. 1, 2010, applies to distilled spirits brought into the U.S,
-excise tax for certain wooden arrows designed for use by children – language says the tax "shall not apply to any chaft consisting of all natural wood with no laminations or artificial means of enhancing the spine of such shaft..." (seriously?!)
-benefits for litigants in the Exxon Valdex litigation (as a reminder, that spill happened in 1988)
-amends the 1977 Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act
-"Heartland and Hurricane Ike Disaster Relief" provides temporary tax relief for areas damaged by 2008 storms, tornadoes, flooding; tax exempt bond financing for low-income housing tax relief for damaged areas
-reporting requirements relating to disaster relief contributions
-energy production incentives for renewable energy sources, including a one-year extension for wind and refined coal facilities, until Jan. 1, 2010; two-year extension for certain other facilities until Jan. 1, 2011; production credit for electricity produced from Marine renewables
-credit for steel industry fuels (also defines "coal waste sludge")
-electric restructuring policy
-carbon mitigation and coal provisions (including expansion of coal-gasification investment credit); expansion and modification of advanced coal project investment credit, from $1.3 billion to $2.55 billion
-temporary increase in coal excise tax; funding of black lung disability trust fund
-tax credit for carbon sequestration
-transportation and domestic fuel security provisions, inclusion of cellulosic biofuel in bonus depreciation for biomass ethanol plant property
-hybrid plug-in credits
-modification of energy efficient appliance credit for appliances made after 2007 ($45 for dishwasher made in 2008 or 2009 "and which uses no more than 324 kilowatt hours per year and 5.8 gallons per cycle") and $75 for dishwasher made in 2008, 2009 or 2010 which uses "no more than 307 kilowatt hours per year and 5 gallons per cycle"
-green building and sustainable design projects bonds
-increase and extension of oil spill liability trust fund tax from 5 cents a barrel to 8 cents a barrel of crude oil or other petroleum products entering the U.S. before Jan. 1, 2017
-The "Tax Extenders and Alternative Minimum Tax Relief" section includes: deductions for teacher expenses; additional standard deduction for real property taxes for non-itemizers; Indian employment credit; accelerated depreciation for business property on Indian reservations; railroad track maintenance; 7-year cost recovery period for motorsports racing track facility; enhanced deduction for qualified computer contributions; tax incentives for investment in the District of Columbia; extension and modification of duty suspension on wool products, wool research fund, wool duty refunds.