Press RoomPress ReleaseFor Immediate Release
May 2, 2006
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George Cooper, (202) 508-3421 Hunting, Fishing and Conservation Groups Urge Strengthening of Conservation Tax Incentives Nineteen of the country’s leading hunting, fishing, and conservation groups today delivered a letter (click here to see letter) to Congress expressing their strong support for conservation tax incentives and a provision currently under consideration in the tax bill reconciliation process. The letter was sent to tax reconciliation conferees as they attempt to finish ironing out differences in tax bills produced by the Senate Finance Committee and House Ways and Means Committee. The Senate’s version includes important new incentives and reforms affecting voluntary conservation tax incentives including easements. “Voluntary incentives for conservation easements are one of the best conservation tools we currently have at our disposal,” the letter said. “Improving the utility and availability of these tools as outlined in the Senate bill not only makes good fiscal sense, it makes good land stewardship sense, giving us a better shot at insuring that future generations are able to enjoy the open spaces of our great American landscape.” The letter is signed by 19 organizations including the Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies, BASS/ESPN Outdoors, Ducks Unlimited, Izaak Walton League of America, North American Grouse Partnership, Pheasants Forever, Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership, Trout Unlimited and the Wildlife Management Institute. In the letter, the groups point out that many of the nation’s 40 million hunters and anglers are intimately familiar with the benefits of conservation tax incentives and the way the groups they belong to have used them to benefit fish and game species and a wide variety of other wildlife. The Senate’s conservation tax incentive provisions allow for the expansion of voluntary, landowner-chosen conservation by extending the carry-forward period for tax deductions from 5 to 15 years and raising the cap on conservation deductions from 30 percent of a donor’s income to 50 percent—and for farmers and ranchers, to 100 percent It is also important to note that the Senate bill addresses isolated cases of abuse with much-needed appraisal reforms and other sensible targeted remedies. *** The Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership is a coalition of leading conservation organizations and individual grassroots partners, working together to conserve fish and wildlife and their habitat, increase funding for conservation and management, and expand access to places to hunt and fish. |