WASHINGTON – Here’s how Maine’s members of Congress were recorded on major roll call votes in the week ending April 30.

HOUSE Marriage penalty’

Voting 323 for and 95 against, the House on April 28 passed a bill (HR 4181) to permanently repeal provisions that cause tens of millions of couples who file jointly to pay higher income tax rates than if they were single. A temporary repeal now in force is scheduled to be scaled back next year and expire in 2010.

The bill, which awaits Senate action, expands the 15 percent bracket to include more married filers, sets the standard deduction for couples at twice that for singles and expands the Earned Income Tax Credit to include more married filers among the working poor. The cost of $105 billion over ten years would be added to the national debt (next issue).

A yes vote was to pass the bill.

Rep. Tom Allen, D-1, voted yes. Rep. Michael Michaud, D-2, voted yes.

Pay as you go’

Voting 199 for and 220 against, members on April 28 refused to subject HR 4181 (above) to pay-as-you-go rules to keep it from adding to the national debt, now at $7.1 trillion. Under “pay-go” discipline, the bill’s $105 billion, 10-year cost would have to be offset by spending cuts or tax cuts elsewhere in the budget.

A yes vote backed “pay as you go.”

Allen and Michaud voted yes.

Democrats’ plan

Voting 189 for and 226 against, the House on April 28 rejected a Democratic plan to make HR 4181 (above) more beneficial to middle- and low-income taxpayers and to pay for the overall bill through tax hikes totaling $207 billion over 10 years on singles earning above $500,000 and couples earning above $1 million. The plan sought to ease the impact of the Alternative Minimum Tax on middle-income payers and make the Earned Income Tax Credit more quickly available to more of the working poor.

A yes vote backed the Democrats’ plan.

Allen and Michaud voted yes.

SENATE

Internet tax plan

Senators on April 29 passed, 93 for and three against, a bill (S 150) to ban state and local taxation of Internet access and certain other services until Nov. 1, 2007.

However, the bill allows taxation of traditional telephone service and does not bar states from seeking to collect taxes on online sales. Seven states that began taxing Internet access before 1998 can continue to do so for the next four years, while 17 states can continue to tax digital subscriber lines (DSL) for two more years. After that, DSL joins cable and other broadband media as tax exempt. The bill resumes an overall Internet tax ban that expired last November.

George Allen, R-Va., said that given the boom generated by the Internet, “when you look at the effect of the localities and states not being able to tax this interstate commerce, you find that it actually has been beneficial for the economy.”

Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J., said “three economists at the University of Tennessee compared Internet access rates in jurisdictions with Internet taxes and jurisdictions without any such taxes. The access rates were the same. In other words, the moratorium may not be having any beneficial effect.”

A yes vote was to pass the bill.

Sen. Susan Collins, R, voted yes. Sen. Olympia Snowe, R, voted yes.

DSL taxation

Voting 59 for and 37 against, the Senate on April 29 killed a bid to allow jurisdictions in 17 states to continue taxing digital subscriber lines (DSL) for four years under S 150 (above). As later passed, the bill allows the states only two more years of DSL taxation.

George Allen, R-Va., said “defeat of this amendment will be a protection to consumers, and it also will be a vote to expand economic opportunity and prosperity….”

George Voinovich, R-Ohio, said “states are in trouble” and need “an extra two years so they can make the adjustment in terms of losing these dollars….”

A yes vote backed only two years of DSL taxation.

Collins and Snowe voted yes.

Ethanol subsidies

Voting 40 for and 59 against, the Senate on April 29 rejected an amendment to promote ethanol, a corn-based fuel additive, as part of a bill on Internet taxes (S 150, above). The amendment called for tax breaks and other incentives to double ethanol use in the United States, to five billion gallons, by 2012. The amendment also sought to ban the fuel additive MTBE, which has been found to contaminate groundwater, and to allow suits against MTBE manufacturers.

A yes vote backed the amendment.

Collins and Snowe voted no.