The longshoremen have never done a thing for mariners, except throw them under the bus.
Short sea shipping, especially by tug and barge should be super competitive with trucking, but instead the longshoremen have made short sea shipping non competitive, with a few niche exceptions: inland towboats, and places not on the road system that trucks cannot reach: Alaska, Hawaii, Puerto Rico.
The longshoremen have been taking food out of mariner’s mouths for a long time. They are not our allies.
There is a lot of Jones Act employment in most states. A lot of small vessels builders and repairers in most states. Maritime businesses have been organized to fit the Jones Act for over 100 years, that creates a lot of inertia to keep it. That’s also a lot of Congress Critters to vote to keep the Jones Act
As a person who only benefits from gains made by unions and doesn’t contribute anything to achieving those gains, I don’t expect you to agree.
As I described above, it requires one to not solely focus on what benefits you directly but what benefits the bigger picture cause.
Very interesting ideas. A couple questions:
-Regarding the ‘Capacity Trigger’, as written, wouldn’t it encourage these companies to build a 10000 ton “token ship” at a US yard then use their 2 reflags on the “real ships”? Why not have it say that the foreign reflags must be less than or equal to the US build?
-Regarding the income tax incentive scheme, I think it needs to be layered to promote the positions needed on militarily useful ships (unlimited ratings/licenses). A dude with an AB-limited on a crew boat shouldn’t get the same tax benefits as an unlimited Chief Engineer. Stagger it to provide incentive for people to upgrade their license. (i.e., 25% tax break for limited ratings up to 100% tax break if you hold an unlimited management level license for example).
Other than that, I thought you/your AI presented some really good and outside the box ideas
Thank you. For the capacity trigger, I think I put something in about foreign built vessels must be equal to or greater in value/tonnage than the domestic build. I like your income tax idea. It provides a good incentive to keep filling positions as the fleet potentially grows larger.
This is just a rough draft, I have revised it a couple more times. I added another pillar about amnesty vessels being sold to Marad for the RRF at the end of their 10 year grace period. This would also include legacy Jones act vessels and allows companies to get a tax break or credit on a new modular build if they sell to Marad for the RRF.
I have gone down the rabbit hole on this, trying to make it airtight and as much of a win/win for the entire maritime industry.
