Ford, Centex would be winners under US Senate stimulus bill

Ford Motor Co and Centex Corp., the second-largest US homebuilder by sales, would be among the biggest winners under the $838 billion stimulus measure the US Senate is poised to pass on Tuesday. The Senate is more generous to automakers and homebuilders than the House was in the $819 billion measure it passed last month. Alternative-energy companies and closely held builders such as Sundt Construction Inc. in Tempe, Arizona, fare less well under the Senate bill.

President Barack Obama, who has said he wants stimulus legislation on his desk by the weekend, is counting on the plan to help revive an economy that has lost 3.6 million jobs since December 2007, sending the unemployment rate to the highest level since 1992.

The plan would trigger the biggest burst of public works spending since the interstate highway system was started in the 1950s.

Where the money goes will help shape the fortunes of companies and communities, said Rogan Kersh, associate dean of New York University's Wagner School of Public Service. "In a bill this big, there are countless private-sector winners and losers," Kersh said. The Senate cleared a procedural hurdle yesterday by voting 61 to 36 to end debate on the measure, with three Republicans siding with Democrats. Senate approval of the bill today would force the two chambers to work out their differences.

Ford, General Motors Corp. and Chrysler LLC, along with overseas-based rivals that produce vehicles in the US, would benefit from an $11 billion provision in the Senate bill that would let car buyers deduct interest on auto loans and local sales taxes from their income taxes. "Tax deductions on auto loans are very beneficial to a customer," Mark Fields, Ford's North American chief, told reporters on Feb 4.