01-22-18 City Council Agenda Packet

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COMPREHENSIVE TAX REFORM PRIORITIES As the House and Senate conference on the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA), the United Front partners request your help to preserve important tax provisions and programs. The United Front partners are grateful that the tax exempt treatment of municipal bonds and the low-income housing tax credit (LIHTC) are preserved in both current versions of the House and Senate TCJA bills. While we understand it is difficult to rewrite the tax code, especially when its impacts can diverge based on location of an individual or company, the United Front feels some of the provisions being eliminated are critical to our constituents and need to remain in place. There are several provisions in the House and Senate TCJA bills that we feel will make it more difficult to serve our community effectively. The provisions of concern include: State and Local Tax Deduction: The repeal of the ability for an individual to claim a deduction for state and local income, property or sales taxes, utilized by many of our middle-class tax filers, could negatively impact the tax burden on families and impact our ability to fund critical services like law enforcement, infrastructure projects and education costs. ACA Repeal: The Senate decided to add the provision that would eliminate the tax penalty for Americans who do not have health insurance. This was not in the House bill but if it's included in final passage we have significant concerns that it could further disrupt the insurance market, cause millions of people to lose their health care and increase the cost of health care premiums. Private Activity Bonds: The termination of private activity bonds (PABs), included in the House TCJA but not the Senate bill, is detrimental to local governmental entities because many PABs are used to finance projects in the areas of affordable and low-income housing, major infrastructure projects (surface and air) and some hospitals.