News from Newsday.com:
By MICHAEL GORMLEY
Associated Press Writer
ALBANY, N.Y. -- State tax credits to encourage the purchase of "hybrid" fuel cars by individuals and companies are scheduled to lapse Dec. 31, alarming health and environmental groups who fear a setback in clean air efforts.
"The mere act of breathing can put the over 1 million New Yorkers with asthma at risk for hospitalizations and can diminish the quality of life for others with lung disease," said Elizabeth Miller of the American Lung Association of New York State. "It is important for the Assembly to come back to Albany to protect the health of all New Yorkers by passing this legislation to renew these tax credits," she wrote in a letter to Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver on Wednesday.
The state Senate has already approved an extension of the personal income tax credit for vehicles partly operated by electricity, which advocacy groups want to see maintained. The tax credit for businesses that operate clean air fleets also will end Dec. 31. The effort to renew the tax break for fleets died in the Legislature earlier this year, a victim of the state's multibillion deficits.
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