2013-040 Resolution - Laserfiche WebLink

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including the safe nature of these financial products; and WHEREAS, municipal bonds are the second safest investment, aside from U.S. Treasuries, with state and local governments having nearly a zero default rate; and WHEREAS, 72.4 percent of the total outstanding muni debt is held by individual investors, either directly or through mutual funds and money market funds (Source - 2010 Thomson Reuters); and WHEREAS, Congress and the President have proposed legislation to reduce or repeal the tax exemption on municipal bonds; and WHEREAS, these proposals to reduce or repeal the tax exemption would have severely detrimental impacts on national infrastructure development and the municipal market, raising costs for state and local borrowers and creating uncertainty for investors; and WHEREAS, if the proposal to cap the exemption on municipal bonds at 28 percent had been in place over the last 10 years it would have cost state and local governments an additional $173 billion in interest costs; and WHEREAS, total repeal of the exemption over the last decade would have cost state and local governments over $495 billion in additional interest costs; and WHEREAS, the municipal tax exemption has a long history of success, having been maintained through two world wars and the Great Depression, as well as the recent Great Recession, and it continues to finance the majority of our nation's infrastructure needs for state and local governments of all sizes when no other source exists to do so; NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF NORTH OLMSTED, CUYAHOGA COUNTY, AND STATE OF OHIO: SECTION L• The City of North Olmsted opposes any efforts by Congress and the White House to reduce or repeal the federal tax exemption on interest earned from municipal bonds; and SECTION 2: BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that we oppose any action that would reduce or repeal the exemption on tax-exempt bond interest, and affirm that there