CUNA Helps Bankers to a Plate of their own Foot

WASHINGTON-Bankers put their own feet in their mouths; CUNA just exploits it. It may seem illogical, but the more banks achieve for themselves on Capitol Hill, the better off credit unions may be. “We don’t go up to Capitol Hill and say we’re opposed to lessening the burden on banks under CRA. We don’t go up to Capitol Hill and say we oppose further tax breaks for banks,” CUNA Vice President of Legislative Affairs and Senior Legislative Counsel Gary Kohn said. “In fact, the more of that they get, the better off we are,” he said, explaining that the more tax breaks and CRA relief they get, the less they can justify their two primary attacks on credit unions. “We’re just pointing out that when they start jumping into our issues.and expose their hypocrisy.” CUNA Senior Vice President for Governmental Affairs John McKechnie said that lawmakers very much appreciated CUNA’s approach to the bill last year that expanded banks’ eligibility to file as Subchapter S and avoid the corporate income tax. Legislators pointed out to him that credit unions did not try to derail the Sub S bill last year, but were still able to get their point across “in a very effective way.” “We wrote the speaker of the House and couple other key members saying, look, the banks are trying to increase their tax breaks and pay for it on the backs of credit union members,” McKechnie detailed. -