Neal shops a 3-year extender bill, and more. Politico reports that House Ways & Means Committee Chair Richard Neal is shopping a bill to restore and extend a pile of special interest tax provisions for three years. Neal also would expand the Earned Income Tax Credit, the Child Tax Credit, and the Child and Dependent Care Tax Credit. He’d pay for it all by raising the estate tax and boosting corporate tax rates. Politico says House and Senate Republicans rejected it out-of-hand. The Senate Finance Committee has been working on a two-year extender bill, with no pay-fors.
Treasury issues final SALT guidance. And it isn’t much better for blue states than the draft version. The regs effectively block states from letting taxpayers avoid the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act’s cap on the state and local tax (SALT) deduction by turning partially-deductible taxes into fully deductible contributions to state-run charities. The final regs also appear to continue to curb a practice where contributors to private K-12 school voucher programs get both a federal charitable deduction and a 100 percent state tax credit. That program was not initially a target of Treasury but became collateral damage from the SALT regs.
Trump’s $4.5 billion border request to get a vote… but… The Senate Appropriations Committee plans to mark up the request next week. Chairman Richard Shelby said he wants the bill to be “clean,” addressing only humanitarian aid. While the panel likely will approve the bill, it will need 7 Democratic votes to avoid a filibuster on the Senate floor. Meanwhile, House Democrats have advanced a Homeland Security spending bill with no money for President Trump’s border wall.
A meeting postponed. The Senate GOP and the White House have postponed a meeting designed to get on the same funding page before the October 1 deadline to avoid a government shutdown. Shelby said a meeting with Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin would be rescheduled soon. Lawmakers must pass 12 appropriations bills. So far the Senate committee has passed none, since there’s no agreement on whether to lift defense and non-defense spending caps. The Democratic House has been making slow but steady progress on some of its spending bills.
Massachusetts lawmakers may vote today on a graduated income tax today. A graduated income tax could be considered today by state lawmakers. This version would go further than an earlier plan to impose a 4 percent surtax on individuals with annual incomes above $1 million. Republican Governor Charlie Baker is opposed to the idea while the Democratic legislative leaders have not yet taken a position.
Maryland’s Republican Governor Larry Hogan makes the case for Harriet Tubman on the $20 bill. He asked Treasury Secretary Mnuchin to reconsider delaying the release of the Tubman twenty-dollar bill. The new bill was to be released in 2020, the year Maryland planned to celebrate the centennial of women’s suffrage. To bipartisan dismay, Mnuchin has delayed the release of the new bill until 2028.
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