38° and Clear
Image
To the Editor:
I was most intrigued by James C. Johnston, Jr.’s recent letter about growing income inequality. It reminded me of something I stumbled upon back in 2015. You may recall that was when both Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump were running for President, both as populist insurgents in their respective parties. Sanders’ message was about income inequality and Trump’s was about immigration. Both messages were resonating strongly with the electorate. Being a curious person I started looking up data about both historical immigration trends and income inequality and I was a little bit shocked by the result of my inquiries which showed a strong correlation between the two when put together as shown in the graph above.
Now correlation does not necessarily equal causation but it certainly is interesting to see high levels of immigration tracking side by side with high levels of income inequality.
Mr. Johnston makes the suggestion that only the first twenty thousand dollars in local property tax on a primary residence should be tax deductible. The Big Beautiful Bill passed last year increased the State and Local Tax deduction to $40,000 from $10,000 at the insistence of House Members from high-tax districts in New York, New Jersey and California. They successfully argued that the lower cap unfairly penalized their taxpayers. I would call them pay through the nose taxpayers. But Johnston can make the case that blue state taxpayers are not already doing their fair share if he likes.
Johnston’s next suggestion is that renters should be able to deduct their rent. I guess you could make a case for that but it certainly would have to be different than the rationale that they have already paid extra taxes.
As it is, Massachusetts has generous housing benefits -- 10% of Massachusetts renters live in Section 8 housing alone. Rough estimates for the various subsidized housing assistance is $3-$4
billion annually in Massachusetts.
Johnston thinks that the first twenty thousand dollars of income should be exempt. Things have moved in the right direction on that since the standard deduction was increased last year for both
single and joint filers and is now $31,500 for joint filers.
One thing I can’t understand since Mr. Johnston is concerned about making life more affordable for families is why he would want to phase out tax breaks for larger families and stay at home moms in particular.
We need more children, and thankfully our tax code recognizes the importance of that. The current Big Beautiful Bill increased the Child Tax Credit to $2,500 and also indexed it for inflation going
forward. Ronald Reagan first introduced Child Tax Credits, and they have received bi-partisan support by every President since for good reason.
I look at my six adult children who are all married now and have children of their own. All of them used to pay their own rent and now pay mortgages – and I wonder how they do it. But I do know
one thing -- the American Dream is alive and well. Just ask the millions who flock here every year to find it.
-- David Brennan
