New Yorkers Demand Congressional Delegation Vote Against Middle-Class Tax Hike

Republican Budget Will Raise Taxes By As Much as $6,167 on Families in Upstate

Albany, NY – Community advocates, residents, and local clergy rallied in Albany today to demand that Representatives Claudia Tenney and John Katko vote against the federal budget proposal, which raises taxes on working and middle-class families and provides the richest 1% of New Yorkers with an average annual tax break of $34,130. They thanked Representatives Elise Stefanik and John Faso for opposing the budget and called on them to persuade their colleagues to vote against this proposal.

Representatives from: Citizen Action of New York; Strong Economy For All Coalition; New York State United Teachers; Capital District Area Labor Federation; New York State Council of Churches and; and representatives from Indivisible discussed how the Republican budget proposal would impact individuals, families, and communities throughout Upstate.

Local services that Upstate residents depend on, such as: HEAP, SNAP, healthcare, and education would be gutted to benefit 96,500 individuals with an average annual income of 4,425,000 million dollars. A report from the National Education Association shows that New York will face a loss of $1,402 per student per school year and that 24,628 educator jobs will be at risk under the budget proposal being voted on today.

The Republican budget slashes the State and Local Tax (SALT) deduction that is claimed by 44 million American households, a large percentage of whom are middle-class homeowners. Washington has this deduction in its crosshairs because eliminating it raises $1.6 trillion over 10 years that tax writers can use to fund other tax breaks, many of which benefit corporations and the wealthiest Americans.

President Trump and Congressional leaders have proposed huge cuts to services that working families rely on to pay for their massive tax cuts for the wealthy and corporations. The budget resolution approved by Congress would cut $1.3 trillion from Medicaid and other health care programs and $470 billion from Medicare over 10 years. It would also cut over $650 billion from income security programs, which may include cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, or food stamps), Supplemental Security Income (SSI) for disabled individuals, and tax credits for working families.

Also at risk are:

• 6,416,900 people are covered through Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP)

• 3,480,100 people are enrolled in

• 2,920,700 people rely on SNAP

• 471,900 college students benefit from Pell Grants Pell Grants and other financial aid to help students afford college.

“The GOP tax plan hurts working New Yorkers, middle-class New Yorkers, low-income New Yorkers, students, seniors, and people with disabilities–all to give massive tax breaks to billionaires and multinational corporations.  Every single member of the New York House delegation should vote against this bill, and they should keep voting no until the right-wing Republicans that control Congress stop working for their wealthy campaign contributors and start working for regular New Yorkers,” said Michael Kink, Executive Director of the Strong Economies for All Coalition.

“The tax bill being considered in Washington will massively shift wealth away from the poor and middle-class to pay for a large tax cut for the rich. Many New Yorkers will see their taxes rise—significantly,” said Reverend Peter Cook, Executive Director of the New York State Council of Churches. “This shift in wealth comes at the expense of people who will have their health care and finances compromised by large budget cuts to health care, housing and other programs so vital to our welfare as a country. This bill is immoral and must be stopped.”

“These tax reform bills are moving at the speed of light because Congress is trying to pull a fast-one on hardworking Americans. They are giving massive breaks at the wealthy and sticking working families with the bill,” said Jess Wisneski, Deputy Director for Citizen Action of New York. “Not only are these proposals devastating to most taxpayers, but they will gut critical programs and now the Senate is adding insult to injury by tying yet another attempt to repeal the Affordable Care Act to the budget process. Representatives Tenney and Katko must vote no today,” Wisneski continued.

An analysis prepared by the National Association of Realtors (NAR) found that homeowners with Average Gross Income (AGI) between $50,000 and $200,000 would see their taxes go up with an average increase of $815 under such a proposal, even if the standard deduction were doubled. Furthermore, NAR also found that housing values could drop about 10 percent because tax reform would increase the after-tax cost of housing and dampen demand.

The Government Finance Officers Association (GFOA) analyzed the impact of the proposal on four Upstate congressional districts and found that individual and family taxpayers (married with two children) in these congressional districts would face sizeable tax increases. Individuals who own homes appear to be hit in larger numbers than families in these districts, in large part because the Brady tax plan provides a new family and child tax credit.  However, the tax increases for families will increase significantly once the new family credit expires after 2022.

Among the findings:

• Most single-filers in NY-22 will face a tax-increase, nearing 8% for some.

• NY-19 is the hardest hit New York district analyzed with middle-class tax increases as high as $6,167.

• The second hardest hit district is NY-21 with middle class tax increases as high as $3,481.

• In all four of the New York districts analyzed, average homeowner would face higher tax bills in more than half of the zip codes.

 

The analysis is based on modelling by the Government Finance Officers Association (GFOA) of the 2015 IRS Statistics of Income (SOI) which provides actual tax data down to the zip code level. Using this model, GFOA examined the taxes paid by both individuals and families of four who earned between $50,000 and $200,000 and own homes in these congressional districts, and compared their tax liabilities under current law with the Brady plan. To determine tax liability under the Brady plan, the GFOA model took account of its lower rates, higher standard deductions and child and family credits, the elimination of state income and sales deductions, and the cap on property taxes. One of the limitations of this analysis is that only aggregate and average data per zip code can be analyzed. As a result, taxpayers in many zip codes not counted in the above tables could still face tax increases, but are excluded from this analysis because the average individual or family would not face an immediate increase.

1. Average of the zip codes with tax increases

2. Highest dollar increase among zip codes with tax increases

3. Highest percentage increase in zips with tax increase

4. Highest dollar increase among zip codes with tax increases plus expiration of family flexibility credit