Since 2017 the federal income-tax deduction for state and local taxes has been limited to $10,000 a year, prior to that it was unlimited. In an article in the November 19th edition of the Times Herald-Record titled “SALT cap increase approved by U.S. House, now heads to Senate. What may change” the piece notes that our local Democrat Representative, Antonio Delgado along with some other tristate Democrats, “vowed to get the SALT cap adjusted to help their districts”.

The current bill that passed in the House with only Democrat support would raise “SALT cap from $10,000 to $80,000 through 2026 would almost exclusively benefit the highest 20% of tax filers, who are households earning more than $175,000 a year, according to an analysis Thursday by Urban-Brooking Tax Policy Center, a Washington D.C. based, left-leaning think tank.”

The “Effective Tax Rate Analysis” table on Page 41 of the “Ulster County 2020 Real Property Date Report” lists the Town of Marlborough with a combined County/Town General/Town H’way/Primary School rate of 3.81%. Based on this 3.81%, the combined taxes for a homeowner in Marlborough with an assessment of $200,000 would calculate to $7,620. In order for someone in the Town of Marlborough to need an $80,000 deduction in their federal taxes their property would have to be assessed almost $2.1 million. Scanning thru the 2021 Final Assessment Roll for the town I wasn’t able to locate a single-family residence, property class code 210, with an assessment of one million dollars much less than one assessed at $1.2 million.

The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget estimates the SALT change will give a $285 billion tax cut for the rich. For the Democrat Party to claim they want the wealthy to “pay their fair share” this change to the SALT deduction sure isn’t aimed at the average homeowner. I guess Nancy Pelosi will make use of the increased SALT deduction since in her district the average SALT deduction claimed by those households $62,769. Some other Democrats districts that would benefit from this increase are Rep. Anna Eshoo from California’s 18th district ($83,313), Rep. Jerrold Nadler from New York’s 10th district ($109,395) and Rep. Carolyn Maloney’s New York’s 12th ($109,935). Looks like Rep. Delgado is taking care of the Democrat machine and not his constituents.