{"id":95812,"date":"2018-07-17T12:04:45","date_gmt":"2018-07-17T16:04:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/?p=95812"},"modified":"2018-07-17T10:33:52","modified_gmt":"2018-07-17T14:33:52","slug":"underwood-and-cuomo-announce-lawsuit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/?p=95812","title":{"rendered":"Underwood and Cuomo announce lawsuit"},"content":{"rendered":"
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NYS Attorney General Barbara Underwood<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"\"
Gov. Andrew Cuomo<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A.G. Barbara Underwood and Gov. Andrew Cuomo announce lawsuit to protect New York taxpayers from drastic cut in state and local tax\u00a0deduction\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Drastically cutting\u00a0SALT deduction will cost New Yorkers $14.3 billion in 2018 alone; lawsuit details how new federal tax law targets \u2013 and will disproportionately harm \u2013 New York and similar states, while interfering with states\u2019 rights to make own fiscal decisions \u2026 New York Joined by Connecticut, Maryland, New Jersey in suit filed today in Southern District of New York<\/em><\/p>\n

Click Here for Video of AG Underwood Discussing the Suit<\/a><\/p>\n

New York Attorney General Barbara D. Underwood and Governor Andrew M. Cuomo announced a lawsuit to protect New York\u00a0and its\u00a0taxpayers from Washington\u2019s drastic curtailment of the State and Local Tax deduction. The lawsuit argues that the new SALT cap was enacted to target New York and similarly situated states, that it interferes with states\u2019 rights to make their own\u00a0fiscal\u00a0decisions, and that it will disproportionately harm taxpayers in these states.\u00a0Click here to read the lawsuit<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The 2017 federal tax law, which resulted from a hyper-partisan and rushed process, drastically reduced the deduction by capping it at $10,000.\u00a0An analysis by the New York State Department of Taxation and Finance shows that the cap will increase New Yorkers\u2019 federal taxes by $14.3 billion in 2018 alone,\u00a0and an additional $121 billion between 2019 and 2025.\u00a0As set forth in the complaint, the law flies in the face of centuries of precedent, which establishes constitutional limits on the federal government\u2019s ability to use its tax power to interfere with the sovereign authority of the states.<\/p>\n

For the entire history of the United States, every federal income tax law protected the sovereign interests of the states by providing a deduction for all or a significant portion of state and local taxes. This uninterrupted history demonstrates that the unprecedented cap on the SALT deduction is unconstitutional, as the lawsuit notes.<\/p>\n

This new, drastic curtailment of the SALT deduction has both the purpose and effect of harming New York, other similarly situated states, and their residents.\u00a0Among other things, the new cap will depress home prices, spending, and business sales, and result in slower growth for the New York economy and fewer jobs.<\/p>\n

The lawsuit, filed today in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, was led by Attorney General Underwood and joined by the Attorneys General of Connecticut, Maryland, and New Jersey.<\/p>\n

\u201cNew York will not be bullied.\u00a0This cap\u00a0is unconstitutional \u2013 going well beyond settled limits on federal power to impose an income tax, while deliberately targeting New York and similar states in an attempt to coerce us into changing our fiscal policies and the vital programs they support,\u201d said\u00a0Attorney General Underwood.\u00a0\u201cWe will not allow partisans in Washington to hurt our people or interfere with our policies. We\u2019ve filed suit against this unconstitutional attack on New York and our state\u2019s fundamental rights \u2013 because we\u00a0won\u2019t stand by and let Washington pick the pockets of New Yorkers.\u201d<\/p>\n

Click here for video of Attorney General Underwood discussing the suit<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe federal government is hellbent on using\u00a0New York\u00a0as a piggy bank to pay for corporate tax cuts and I\u00a0will not\u00a0stand for it,\u201d said\u00a0Governor Cuomo. \u201cToday I’m proud to announce that New York\u00a0is the first state in the nation\u00a0to take legal\u00a0action against Trump’s tax plan that benefits the 1% at the expense of middle-class families.\u00a0We will fight back at every turn\u00a0against President\u00a0Trump and the\u00a0federal government\u2019s partisan assault on to protect the people of New York.\u201d<\/p>\n

Among the other evidence cited in the complaint:<\/p>\n

Policymakers openly talked about coercing States like New York to change their policy choices.\u00a0\u00a0Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin said that the change was intended to \u201csend a message\u201d to states to get them to change their taxation and fiscal policies.\u00a0 Stephen Moore, who advised the Trump campaign on tax policy, said it even more bluntly, calling the SALT changes \u201cDeath to Democrats.\u201d<\/p>\n

The new provision will raise billions of dollars in federal taxes from New Yorkers and others in similarly situated states\u00a0– including $14.3 billion from New York alone in 2018.<\/p>\n

By depressing home values, the new provision will hurt taxpayers in New York and other states, while also reducing state tax revenues \u2013 forcing states to choose between higher tax rates or cutting investments in education, public services, and other vital programs.<\/p>\n

The new cap on the SALT deduction also violates the constitutional principle of equal state sovereignty, by targeting a handful of states for unfavorable treatment based on their sovereign policy choices.<\/p>\n

The lawsuit also highlights the enactment history of the Sixteenth Amendment, which confirms that the federal government\u2019s tax power has limits, and that it cannot be used to intrude on the sovereign authority of the states to determine their own taxation and fiscal policies.<\/p>\n

Click HERE to watch video.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A.G. Barbara Underwood and Gov. Andrew Cuomo announce lawsuit to protect New York taxpayers from drastic cut in state and local tax\u00a0deduction\u00a0 Drastically cutting\u00a0SALT deduction will cost New Yorkers $14.3 billion in 2018 alone; lawsuit details how new federal tax law targets \u2013 and will disproportionately harm \u2013 New York and similar states, while interfering […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":93740,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23814,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-95812","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-state","category-top-story"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95812","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=95812"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95812\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/93740"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=95812"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=95812"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=95812"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}