Community groups, union leaders, and elected officials held a press conference Wednesday afternoon at Utica City Hall to urge the Senate to reject the contentious tax reform proposal currently being pushed through Congress. More than 30 local residents attended the event.
A recent report by the Congressional Budget Office confirms that the plan will result in a significant tax hike for millions of low and middle-class people, including many working families in New York State. In addition to a higher tax burden for middle-income earners, the bill eliminates state and local tax deductions, which will force local governments to make severe cuts to schools, health services, and nonprofit agencies; 35 percent of New Yorkers claim state and local tax deductions annually.
The proposal extends the bulk of its tax breaks to billionaires and large corporations. By the tenth year, the wealthiest 1 percent of Americans will receive 42 percent of the tax cuts.
The news conference was sponsored by Central New York Citizen Action, New York State United Teachers Communication Workers of America, New York State Nurses Association, New York State Employees Federated Appeal, Fiscal Policy Institute, New York State Council of Churches, New York State and Local Retirement System, and Indivisible Mohawk Valley.
The Senate is expected to vote late this week on the disastrous tax bill. The tax plan is so bad that the Senate is trying to rush it through before the American people even know what’s in it. Here’s some of what you need to know:
- The Trump tax scam raises taxes on 87 million middle-class people;
- It hands trillions of dollars in tax breaks to the richest 1 percent and wealthy corporations;
- It triggers $25 billion in Medicare cuts next year (growing to $400 billion in cuts over 10 years)
- This bill, which would repeal state and local tax deductions, will force local governments to make big cuts to nonprofit agencies, schools and local services. It would also create huge federal deficits which would have to be made up by cutting federal funding for villages, towns, and cities as well as local human service organizations. Not to mention, taxing people on taxes that have already been paid.
Speakers at the news conference urged residents to call their member of Congress at 877-795-7862 and ask them to vote against the tax reform bill.
For more information, contact the Central New York Citizen Action at 315.725.0974, cnycitizenaction@gmail.com or www.cnycia.org.
The following are quotes from the speakers at the news conference:
“New Yorkers pay more money into the federal tax system than we receive in federal funding,” said John Jacon, Common Councilmember representing Utica’s Third Ward, “and now we’re told to expect cuts to federal programs like HEAP, SNAP, community development block grants and health care spending. That’s not right, and that’s not fair.”
“The people of New York are specifically singled out in this tax reform package,” said Michael Brown, newly elected Oneida county legislator. “The Republicans are angry at New York because they’re not voting with them, they’re not voting for them. The workers in New York are specifically going to take a hit here. The removal of the tax deductions are specifically going to hit homeowners particularly hard in New York state. My big concern is health and human services. Health and human services in New York state are going to take a big hit, and the people that need those services the most, they are the most vulnerable, they are the ones who are going to pay the price.”
“We are here today because Congress is working hard to pull a fast one on working families and middle-class Americans,” said Dawn Laguerre, Central New York Citizen Action. “The Republican tax reform plan is a scam. There’s no benefit to middle-class families in upstate New York. The only benefit goes to the highest earners, very few of whom live in our area. The Congressional Budget Office said this week that the Senate bill, as written, would hurt workers earning less than $30,000 a year in short order, while delivering benefits to the highest earners throughout the next decade. That’s wrong, backward and immoral.”
“The tax bill that our Congresswoman, Claudia Tenney, voted to support, strikes both the Disabled Access Tax Credit and the Work Opportunity Tax Credit,” said Vietnam veteran Edward Jackson. “The Work Opportunities credit provides a tax credit for businesses that employ disabled people, as well as veterans. In 2013, 3,755 corporations and 60,385 sole proprietors filed for this credit, representing more than $1.5 billion in tax credited dollars. I stand with Veterans for Foreign Wars and the American Legion in speaking out against the removal of the Work Opportunity Tax Credit, which incentivizes employers to hire veterans. Shame on Congresswoman Claudia Tenney and shame on any elected official who votes against veterans. We fought for this country. The least you can do is encourage employers to hire us when we come back.”
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 tax reform proposal would also eliminate the classroom supply deduction for teachers.
“I utilized the $250 tax deduction that I was allowed for many, many years to use for school supplies,” said retired educator Gloria Koslofsky. “Many times my students did not have pencils, paper. I did not even have chalk. I would go scavenging around classrooms looking for chalk. I probably spent $1,000 a year on supplies that should have been given to me as part of the job.”
“The Republican tax reform proposal in the Senate, similar to the one passed by the House, would shatter the futures of students like me and recent graduates,” Peter Gaughan, first-year student at Utica College. “Right now, 44 million Americans have a combined 1.4 trillion dollars in student loan debt – and Congress wants to eliminate the deduction we get for interest on our student loans, which hurts students when they are most vulnerable, when they are right out of college and trying to establish themselves. They also want to tax private college endowments; this is particularly cruel because it would diminish the ability of schools like Utica College to provide financial aid for low-income students. This is depriving a disenfranchised population of one their most direct route out of their socio-economic status, education.”