Members Hearing on SALT Impact

Ways and Means , Subcommittee on Select Revenue Measures, Members’ Day Hearing focused on the recent changes made to the  federal tax treatment of state and local taxes, June 25, 2019

Next week we present our views on the SALT deduction and why it may be more a crisis for donors than for state and local government. Please allow us to turn the tables and provide questions to ask members who testify before the subcommittee this afternoon. Feel free to circulate these to your colleagues in advance of the hearing. 

Did your state or local governments increase tax rates after the Great Recession in order to maintain service levels as property values decreased? 

What was the result of doing so or not doing so? 

Have services been cut in your state or region since the passage of the TCJA? 

Have property values increased or decreased since passage, in line with the general trend nationwide? 

Has your state or local government increased income taxes to claw back tax cuts given to high-income taxpayers by the TCJA? 

Have higher income residents been selling or abandoning their residences in your district or state in order to seek lower tax jurisdictions? 

Have state and local office holders felt donor pressure to reduce income and property tax rates since the limitation of the SALT deduction took effect? 

Have you or fellow members been feeling the heat? 

If tax reform shifting most current funding of domestic civil, military and entitlement spending to consumption taxes, would you favor having any surtax on income be relatively free of deductions? (note that an asset VAT for the same purpose would only be offset for sales to a qualified Employee Stock Ownership Plan). 

Please see the Attachment regarding our debt crisis. Does this information change your mind about reinstating the SALT to its former levels?