Tax reform heats up in the other Washington – SALT on the table

As Congress grapples with reforming the federal tax code, one proposal under serious consideration is eliminating the deduction of state and local taxes (SALT) for individual taxpayers. All members of Congress need to hear from mayors, councilmembers and other city officials from throughout the state of the importance of preserving the full deduction.

We urge you to call your member of Congress immediately and tell them about the importance of SALT to cities and towns. Click here to find contact information for Washington’s delegation. A special thanks to mayors and others in Congressional District 8 for reaching out to Representative Reichert to urge him to oppose these changes as a member of the House Ways & Means Committee.

The messages we all need to deliver:

1. Cities and towns strongly support the preservation of the full deduction for state and local taxes, and urge you speak out in favor of SALT and vote against any tax reform plan that eliminates, restricts or modifies this deduction.
2. SALT has been a fixture of the federal tax code and our nation’s fiscal federalism for more than 100 years in order to guard against double taxation of households, and to protect the fiscal integrity of state and local governments. It should remain in the tax code without limitation.
3. Any limitation, restriction or change to SALT would undermine these fundamental principles of our federalism and create a “slippery slope” that would subject SALT to continued erosion whenever Washington, D.C. needs more money – at the expense of 44 million middle class households and homeowners nationwide who now claim this deduction.
4. The elimination of SALT is one of the largest sources of revenue in the proposed tax plan, estimated at $1.3 trillion dollars taken from 44 million households. Thus, any compromise and anything less than preserving the full deduction will cause millions of taxpayers to pay higher taxes and undermine funding for state and local government and the services we provide.

For more information, see this fact sheet prepared by the National League of Cities (NLC). If you have questions, please feel free to contact Peter King or Dave Williams at AWC.