12 OCTOBER 19, 2017 RIDGEWOOD TIMES WWW.QNS.COM
EDITORIAL
THE HOT TOPIC
STORY:
These are the 6 most haunted spots
in western Queen
SUMMARY:
There are rumors and ghost stories
in every city, and Astoria is no
exception
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ESTABLISHED 1908
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VICTORIA SCHNEPS-YUNIS
JOSHUA SCHNEPS
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ROBERT POZARYCKI
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MARLENE RUIZ
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ANTHONY GIUDICE
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SNAPS
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Tax Scam
Since its release, the Trump tax
plan — or the CliffsNotes version
of it, which is all anyone
has yet seen — has raised eyebrows
particularly as it aff ects middle- and
working-class people in high tax states.
Such changes as lowering the top tax
rate from 35 to 20 percent and doing
away with the estate tax — payable
only when a person’s estate exceeds
$5.49 million — clearly benefi t the
rich, who are already doing quite well,
thank you very much.
Other provisions are targeted at
easing the tax burden of businesses
under the guise of helping to grow
the economy.
But such changes come at a cost,
and it’s one we think is untenable as
it aff ects New York residents, particularly
homeowners, so much so that
Governor Andrew Cuomo has called
the proposal “a death blow to New
York.”
Not only would the federal defi cit
skyrocket, according to many economists,
but we here in Queens would be
hit particularly hard even as we watch
government services decline.
For decades, both mortgage interest
and state and local taxes have been deductible
on one’s federal tax form, the latter
under the theory that people shouldn’t
be taxed twice on the same money.
While the Trump plan would keep
the mortgage interest deduction, it
would do away with the deduction for
state and local taxes, which has the
potential to hit New Yorkers — who
already pay more in taxes than most
Americans — particularly hard.
The reality is that we not only pay
state and city income taxes — we also
dig deeper into our pockets to pay continually
rising real estate taxes, all to
fi nance local government services, in
part because we send so much more in
tax revenue to Washington, D.C., than
we get in return.
The reason for that turn of events is
simple — disproportionate amounts
of our federal taxes are being sent to
the low-tax states whose government
services we are in eff ect helping to
finance, while their residents are
spared the need to pay their fair share
for their state’s upkeep.
The reality is that, while residents of
low-tax states — already the benefi ciaries
of an inequitable system — might
see their federal income tax decrease,
the opposite would be true here, as many
New Yorkers’ federal tax bill would
likely go up as a result of losing the
deduction, squeezing hard-working
Queens residents even more.
“What it really is,” Cuomo said, “is
Washington's attempt to cut taxes in
other parts of the country by using
New York as a piggy bank. And that
is something that we cannot allow
to happen. It would literally change
the competitiveness of this state
overnight.”
That’s just not right or fair, and our
elected representatives of both parties
must do whatever it takes to prevent
such a turn of events.
