HOLLAND TWP., MI (WHTC) - It may not have been an overt political move by Debbie Stabenow in the hometown of perhaps her strongest challenger this fall, but the irony couldn’t have been more evident.
The two-term Democratic US Senator from Lansing, chair of the Senate Agriculture Committee, came to the Michigan State University Bioeconomy Institute in Holland Township this morning to unveil an initiative aimed at creating a new tax cut for companies that invest in new facilities or purchase equipment to manufacture bio-based products, but it hinges on passage of the farm bill this fall that her proposals will be a part of.
It includes strengthening the biopreferred program, spurring the commercialization of new agricultural innovations, increasing access to capital for bio-based manufacturers, and creating a 30 percent tax credit to help finance investments in this field. Senator Stabenow added that a recent US Agricultural Department analysis puts the potential market share of bio-based plastic and chemical products at over 20 percent by 2025, with the creation of more than 100 thousand American jobs as a result.
Former Holland Congressman Pete Hoekstra is currently ahead in recent polling among Republican challengers to Senator Stabenow this fall.
