The Independent Community Bankers of America said Friday thatone of its three top priorities for the year will be ensuring thatif credit unions are allowed to make more business loans, they paytaxes .

In a statement listing its legislative agenda, the tradeassociation said it will strongly oppose “unwise legislation toconsiderably expand the commercial lending authority of tax-exemptcredit unions.”

The statement added, “Meanwhile, federal budget deficits areforcing more lawmakers to concede ICBA's position that the federalexemption for credit unions, particularly for large bank-likecredit unions, is no longer justified.''

John McKechnie, CUNA's former top lobbyist who now lobbies onbehalf of several credit union clients, said the ICBA's position isnot surprising, but nervy.

“It's a pretty tired agenda for the bank lobby when it comes tocredit unions, although it is interesting that they seem unaware oftheir hypocrisy in pushing for new tax breaks for banks whileadvocating higher taxes for credit union members,'' McKechnie wrotein an email.

Legislation that would raise the cap on member business loans from 12.25% ofassets to as much as 27.5% has 111 cosponsors in the 435-memberHouse and 21 cosponsors in the 100-member Senate.

Banks are pushing legislation that would give them regulatoryand tax relief.

The trade group said its other priorities are housing financereform and changes to the deposit insurance system for banks.