High-Tax States Shouldn’t Socialize Their Policy Costs: Jonathan Williams in Forbes Magazine
The SALT deduction is a mechanism for socializing the costs of big government policies in a few states across the rest of the nation.
Jonathan Williams, ALEC President & Chief Economist, was quoted in a recent piece for Forbes Magazine on how the SALT deduction unfairly forces residents of low-tax states to subsidize the costly policies of high-tax states like New York and California.
“While politicians in states like New York and California point to the SALT deduction as a middle-class benefit, the numbers tell a far different story,” contended Jonathan Williams, president and chief economist at the American Legislative Exchange Council. “The SALT deduction is a mechanism for socializing the costs of big government policies in a few states across the rest of the nation.”
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“The political incentives are clear enough — elected officials from high tax generally, blue states want to shield their constituents from the consequences of their state’s policies without doing the hard work of reducing spending or reining in tax burdens at the state level,” Williams added.
“If residents of New York or California want expensive government services, of course, that’s their right. But they should pay for it themselves, directly and transparently. They should not expect working families in Texas or Tennessee or Indiana to subsidize their choices through higher SALT in the federal tax code.”