SACRAMENTO (Oct. 28, 2016) — The California State Treasurer's Office has awarded more than $190 million in tax exemptions to recycling businesses within the state, according to the California assemblywoman who sponsored the bill granting those exemptions.
Passed 78-0 in the California Assembly in September 2015, California Assembly Bill 199 extends the sales and use tax (SUT) exclusion under the existing California Alternative Energy and Advanced Transportation Financing Authority (CAEATFA) to purchases of equipment used primarily to process recycled feedstock or make products from recycled material.
The bill's sponsor, Assembly Member Susan Talamantes Eggman (D-Stockton), said California exports 20 million tons of recyclables annually, worth nearly $8 billion.
“With AB 199, the state would help incentivize the recycling sector to invest more in manufacturing,” Ms. Eggman was quoted as saying in a California Assembly analysis of the bill.
“Keeping more of these valuable materials in-state would allow Californians to share in both the environmental and the economic benefits of their recycling,” Ms. Eggman said.
Eggman issued a press release Oct. 20 announcing the first tax exemptions for recycling businesses under the revised CAEATFA.
One of the businesses that received tax breaks was CRM Rubber. CRM received its exemptions for establishing a crumb rubber facility at the Port of Stockton which employs more than 20, the Ms. Eggman release said.
“Assembly Member Eggman's bill was extremely helpful in bringing our company to the Stockton area,” said Brian Wong, chief financial officer for CRM rubber, in the release.
“We had been considering an additional tire recycling plant in northern California for some time, and the promise of a sales tax exemption in AB 199 was important in that decision,” Mr. Wong said.