Christian Science Monitor: In Blue States, ‘Tax the Rich’ Isn’t So Simple Anymore

The upset that governors like Cuomo and others are voicing is understandable, says Meg Wiehe, deputy director of the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, a left-leaning research group. These states see they’re getting the short end of the stick from the federal law, and they suspect that Republican motives were at least partly political. (In a bill that largely showered tax cuts on individuals and businesses, the SALT deduction was one of the few moves designed to add some offsetting federal revenue. And it’s a deduction that most affects these blue states with high income and property taxes.) Cuomo of New York has called it an attack on his state.

At the same time, Ms. Wiehe sees irony and perhaps confusion in the Democratic response. The highest-earning taxpayers already will be big beneficiaries of the Trump tax cuts – even if they live in states like New Jersey – and now state-level Democrats are jumping through hoops trying to help them even more. Read more