Business corporate executives in the State of Virginia were surveyed for their viewed importance of the investment tax credit and the accelerated cost recovery system on their decision making for new equipment. The executives were divided into groups based upon the reported amount of expected future unused capacity of their firms. The statistical analysis of the groups indicates that decision makers operating relatively close to full output capacity view investment tax incentives as more important than do all others. Consistent with much of the past research, the findings of this study show that the impact of tax incentives on decision making is only modest. However, the-findings also indicate that the viewed importance of investment tax incentives by decision makers is lowest during the period of an economic recession. This suggests that public policy decision makers currently are using investment tax incentives during a period when they will have the least impact. / Ph. D.