Schumer stands against repeal of local tax deductions

Visits Rockville Centre homeowners to oppose Republican plan

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U.S. Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer rallied against the repeal of state and local tax deductions in Rockville Centre on Oct. 12.
U.S. Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer rallied against the repeal of state and local tax deductions in Rockville Centre on Oct. 12.
Ben Strack/Herald

Joining a Rockville Centre family of five in front of their home on Marlborough Court on Oct. 12, U.S. Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer urged House members to oppose the repeal of state and local tax deductions included in a plan set forth by Republicans.

“It’s a great community,” Schumer said of the village, “This block symbolizes how New York has done well, and many New Yorkers have.” Behind Schumer were Rockville Centre homeowners Maureen and Jeff Orosz — with their son Jude, one of three children — who pay over $20,000 in property taxes per year.

“People work hard to own and maintain a beautiful home like this and they work hard to come to great neighborhoods like Rockville Centre because they have great school systems,” Schumer said. “But part of that means that you pay significant property taxes.

“The one bit of grace in the property tax is at least you get to deduct it from your federal taxes,” he continued. “Here’s the bad news: a tax reform plan coming down the pike would eliminate state and local deductibility. Eliminate it entirely.”

Under the current federal tax system, taxpayers who itemize deductions on their federal income tax returns can deduct state and local real estate and personal property taxes as well as either income taxes or general sales taxes. State and local income and real estate taxes make up roughly 60 percent of local and state tax deductions while sales tax and personal property taxes make up the rest.

 About 44 million taxpayers — about one-third of all taxpayers across the country — take the state and local tax deduction. The Tax Policy Center estimated that the elimination of this deduction would force state and local governments across the country to raise taxes or cut spending by $135 billion per year. 

 Under the Republican Tax Reform Framework, taxes would rise for approximately one-quarter of taxpayers, the Tax Policy Center says, including 30 percent of those with an income between $50,000 and $150,000 and 60 percent of those with an income between $150,000 and $300,000. The increase in taxes on middle-class families would primarily result from the loss of the state and local tax deduction and the personal exemptions under the plan. 

Laureen Harris, president of the Association for a Better Long Island, called the tax plan a “Category 5 disaster for Long Island.” According to an article by USA Today published earlier this year, each of the country’s 84 million single-family homeowners paid an average of $3,296 in property taxes. The Orosz family’s property taxes exceed $20,000, she noted.

“Eliminating this deduction will impose statutorily a permanent housing recession in this geographic area,” Harris said. “It will eliminate and erode the equity that these fine people — the Oroszs are a dual-working family — have worked on to afford this nice home.”

The reductions would hit Long Island especially hard, Schumer said, due to the high cost of owning a home. “This is life or death … for the economic vitality of New York,” he said. “It’s time for every House member, from Buffalo to Montauk, Ogdensberg to Binghamton, from city, suburbs, upstate, to say, ‘I will not vote for any plan unless we have local deductibility.’ That will kill it.”