To the editor:
Under current law, you don’t have to pay federal income tax on money that you paid for state and local taxes — money that buys things like police, streets, schools.
Our representative to the United States Congress, Erik Paulsen, thinks that’s wrong. He voted this month for a tax law change that will make you pay federal income tax on some of the money you already spent on state and local taxes.
He wants to tax you twice. Won’t that be nice?
What does Paulsen want to do with this increase in your taxes? give it to major corporations by cutting their taxes. Paulsen’s cover story for this change is that if corporations have more money they’ll create more jobs. But the “more jobs” argument sounds fake. Unemployment is as low as it’s been in 17 years. More jobs won’t make it lower.
And in many industries, companies have jobs but no one trained to fill them — everything from truck driving, to manufacturing, to software engineering. People need the training that state and local taxes help provide. Not in Paulsen’s world.
Paulsen is rushing to complete this law change before the end of the year, in time to start his double taxation plan January 1. But let’s make it a happy new year. Let’s vote him out of office next November.
Dave Bender, Edina
Eden Prairie Sun-Current, November 30, 2017