8 | American Short Line and Regional Railroad Association
Beyond that, there was an act passed in
2008, the Rail Safety Improvement Act, that
regulations were going to be put forth for
this, that and the other thing. So we’ve been
working to address those issues as those trans-
late into actual regulations with specifics.
I would say those are probably the two big-
gest things we’ve got going right now – the
effort to renew and enhance the short line tax
credit, which was renewed in 2004, and also
to mitigate or make work the various regula-
tions that come down the pike from the Fed-
eral Railroad Administration and other regu-
lating bodies.
BW: What are the prospects for renewal of
the tax credit? Does it look good?
MEARS: We’re cautiously optimistic. We re-
late it to the past when the credit has been ex-
tended at the last minute with other deserv-
ing tax credits, as part of a omnibus bill that
bundles them all together in what’s called a
tax expendage package. So we’re cautiously
optimistic and working hard to see that it, as
it has in the past, gets renewed.
BW: Has that been a fairly bipartisan type
of thing?
MEARS:
Yes, it has. The Senate had 49 sup-
porters and we’re confident that we can get
a majority of the Senate to support it. The
House bill, which is pretty much identical in
content, has 229 co-sponsors and that num-
ber is changing daily as our members go out
and talk to their congressmen and congress-
women about the importance of this tax cred-
it. So we have majority support in the House
and we expect that we can convince people to
get majority support in the Senate.
They say that the tax credit is amongst the
most widely supported of all of the tax credit
legislations that are out there.
BW: If we were to revisit this conversation
five years down the road, do you have specif-
ic goals for the organization? Do you have
a membership number? Are there any other
things in terms of the association that you
