Tire associations not hopeful about House business stimulus package

WASHINGTON (Oct. 26)—The Rubber Manufacturers Association, Tire Association of North America and International Tire and Rubber Association all support the business stimulus package passed by the House of Representatives, but aren't sanguine about its chances for getting through the Senate unscathed. The $99.5 billion package—which would repeal the alternative minimum tax, refund those payments to corporations retroactive to 1986, and increase expensing of certain capital expenditures—passed along strict party lines and faces strenuous opposition in the Democratic-led Senate. "What sort of compromise we're going to get is just too difficult to say," said Becky MacDicken, government affairs director for TANA.