Rep. Elizabeth Esty: GOP tax plan will hurt Connecticut residents

U.S. Rep. Elizabeth Esty said that her office was “flooded” with messages by Connecticut residents who “are extraordinarily concerned” by the tax reform plan presented by Republicans in the House of Representatives.

In an op-ed column published in Sunday”™s Danbury News-Times, the Connecticut Democrat identified herself as working “for Connecticut families who feel stretched to the limit” and accused the GOP of creating a tax plan that benefits “corporations and the wealthiest Americans.” She argued that Connecticut residents will be severely impacted by the Republican plan”™s goal of eliminating state and local tax deductions.

“The average family in Connecticut deducts close to $20,000 a year in state and local taxes,” she wrote. “We”™ve allowed families in Connecticut and throughout the country to deduct these taxes since the creation of the tax code in 1913 for a reason ”” nobody should pay taxes twice on the same dollar. Nonetheless, the House tax plan would eliminate your ability to deduct state income taxes and cap your property tax deduction. I”™m absolutely opposed to this attempt to tax us just for living in Connecticut.”

Esty, whose 5th Congressional District covers northern Fairfield County, also insisted that “many workers would pay more from the loss of specific deductions,” citing teachers who pay for school supplies out-of-pocket. She also lamented that the House tax plan “is expected to be passed out of committee without a single hearing or a single expert”™s testimony” and compared that rush to passage with the lengthy, bipartisan effort that went into the 1986 tax reform process.

“Let”™s scrap this partisan tax plan and start over on a bipartisan approach that helps our families and creates jobs here in America,” she wrote.