Hillary Clinton tax plan aims to boost manufacturing in Arizona, other states Hillary Clinton, the 2016 Democratic front-runner, is proposing a new tax credit to help save manufacturing jobs and help create new ones in Arizona and other states.

Dan Nowicki | The Republic | azcentral.com

Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton on Tuesday will announce a tax-incentive plan aimed at resuscitating the manufacturing industry in Arizona and other states.

Clinton's "Manufacturing Renaissance Tax Credit," part of a broader plan to revive U.S. manufacturing, would encourage financial investment in depressed areas that have seen manufacturing production and employment evaporate or are at risk of closings and layoffs, according to her campaign.

“My plan will help spur reinvestment in communities right here in Arizona that have lost jobs because of factory closures,” Clinton, a former U.S. secretary of State, said in a written statement to The Arizona Republic. “By strengthening our manufacturing sector for the future, we can help create the next generation of good-paying jobs and put more people back to work in Arizona and across the country.”

Clinton's campaign is set to release details of her pro-manufacturing plan in New Hampshire, which hosts the first-in-the-nation presidential primary in February. Clinton is expected to discuss it at a town-hall meeting in Salem, N.H.

The pro-manufacturing tax credit would allow communities to seek tax relief when a major facility shutters or lets workers go. The Clinton campaign says the idea is partly based on the existing "New Markets Tax Credit" program, which allows similar tax incentives to encourage private financing for certain projects in economically hurting areas.

U.S. Rep. Ruben Gallego, D-Ariz., a Clinton supporter who represents a Phoenix-based congressional district, applauded her proposal.

“Our community has been hit hard by the loss of manufacturing jobs in Arizona,” Gallego said in a statement to The Republic. “I am thrilled to see that Hillary Clinton’s jobs plan includes incentives for new industries to reinvest in communities like ours. When we can attract new innovators and keep the sharpest minds in our states with a strong job market, we are positively shaping the future of our economy for generations to come.”

The Clinton campaign is spending a month focusing on jobs. She already has released a major infrastructure plan.

Clinton faces competition for the Democratic presidential nomination from Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont and former Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley, who is expected to appear in Phoenix later this week for a Thursday event in support of immigration-detention hunger strikers.