Big-business leaders talk tax code at summit

BUTTE, Mont. (AP) - U.S. Sen. Max Baucus said Monday that his effort to revamp the tax code helped attract some of the business world's biggest names to Montana for a jobs conference that touched on taxes, energy development and many other issues.

Baucus opened the Montana Jobs Summit in Butte - an old mining town almost a century removed from its heyday - with the leaders of companies such as Google Inc., Facebook, Ford Motor Co., FedEx Corp., The Boeing Co. and others.

Several thousand business people, politicians, academics and others registered to hear speeches and hobnob with the executives.

Baucus, a veteran Democrat, told reporters that he was discussing his longshot bipartisan effort to revamp the tax code with the corporate leaders.

Baucus, with Rep. Dave Camp, R-Mich., are trying to build on sentiment inside and outside of Congress that the tax code is too complicated for individuals and too onerous for businesses.

But significant differences among Democrats and Republicans over how much tax revenue the government should raise and who should pay it threaten to scuttle the effort.

Baucus said the CEOs agree with the mission to reduce tax rates and "broadening the base" by getting rid of exemptions and loopholes, and he expects to discuss the issue with other business leaders at the summit. Baucus said the top corporate tax rate is among the highest in the world.

"There is no question, if we can reform the code it will help American competitiveness in the world," Baucus said.

Business leaders agreed.

"If the people in this audience and the people of Montana and the people of the United State want to invigorate the American economy, there is a very straightforward path to do so and that is get with Sen. Max Baucus and reform the tax code," FedEx CEO Fred Smith told the audience.

He said the country needs to "get rid of all these special deals" in the tax code that he believes inhibit business-wide investment.

Ryan Lance, CEO of ConocoPhillips Co., cautioned policymakers against doing anything that would reward favored sectors or punish others.

"It is important to be industry blind," Lance told reporters. "Don't pick our winners and losers in the process."

Other issues that came up at the conference included gender equity; balancing risk when building a company; and the role the booming oil fields of the eastern Montana and western North Dakota region can play in energy independence,