Biden ‘Social Infrastructure’ Singles Out News Orgs for $1.7B in Tax Breaks

A provision in President Joe Biden’s Build Back Better bill would give payroll tax credits to local newspapers, costing $1.7 billion over the next five years.

The tax credit is justified as helping keep jobs in an industry that eliminates newsroom jobs regularly and leaves communities without access to critical information, according to the Associated Press.

About one-quarter of the country’s newspapers have closed and half of local journalism jobs have disappeared in the past 15 years, according to research from the University of North Carolina, leaving about 1,800 communities with no local newspaper, the AP reported.

The tax credit would be available for newspapers, digital news outlets, and radio and television stations – up to $25,000 the first year and $15,000 the next four years for up to 1,500 journalists.

Republicans have derided the $1.7 billion credit as a handout and even some journalists “acknowledge that it’s awkward to receive financial assistance from a government they cover independently,” the AP reported.

The credit is supposed to help small papers, but it will help some larger companies, including Gannett, one of the nation’s largest remaining newspaper chains, which could gain as much as $127.5 million over five years, according to an analysis by the AP.

“One basic question is why journalists deserve a subsidy more than, say, nurses or teachers?,” The Wall Street Journal editorial board asks. “Both of those professions make contributions to the public good, and we wouldn’t want to do without either one.”

While working off outdated information about the tax credit — initially, it was limited to publications with no more than 750 employees and would amount to $50,000 annually for each journalist on staff —the WSJ still makes a good point.

Why single out an industry less popular than Congress to receive tax credits?

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