WASHINGTON-Treasury Secretary John Snow acknowledged that creditunions' tax exempt status is “teed up for a good debate,” but hedid not back away from the administration's position supportingcredit unions' tax exemption. In clarifying the administration'sbacking of credit unions' tax exemption to America's CommunityBankers Government Affairs Conference, Snow said, “The obviousreason is we are not in favor of new taxes on business.” Moregenerally, the Treasury secretary commented that even though theBush tax cuts have not done all the administration had hoped for,the country is much better off with them. “The worst possible thingwe could do at this time in my mind is raise taxes,” he said.Though the economy is on the rise, Snow admitted that job growth isstill slower than expected, but community banks are helping createnew jobs by making loans to small businesses. He agreed with anaudience member that there are disincentives for hiring right now,including in banks, partly because of high health care costs andpayroll taxes.