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Those of us in the Hudson Valley pay more than our fair share of taxes.  Middle class families today are being squeezed from all sides by ever-increasing costs. From 2000 to 2006, the median household income in New York rose by less than 1%, meaning many New Yorkers today earn about what they made a decade ago. Meanwhile, property taxes, health insurance, gasoline, housing and home heating, and college costs have all increased. A top priority for me as your Representative is to lower the overall tax burden  on the people of the 19th district, enabling them to keep more of their hard earned income.

 

The Alternative Minimum Tax, or AMT, was created to prevent the wealthiest Americans from using loopholes to circumvent federal taxes.  But now tens of thousands of middle class families across the Hudson Valley are being ensnared by this tax that was never intended for them. 

 

The Hudson Valley is disproportionately affected by the AMT. In 2005, over 30,000 families paid the AMT in New York's 19th Congressional District.  According to the House Ways and Means Committee, that number has ballooned to over 103,000 families this year.  That means only 12 Congressional Districts in the country have a larger number of families that will pay the AMT this year. 

 

Taxpayers in the 19th District pay an average of close to $4,000 more in federal taxes because the AMT still encompasses significantly more families than it was designed to.

 

Comprehensive, permanent AMT reform is one of my top priorities in Congress.  Working families should not have to pay a tax intended for millionaires. I have written to the Chairman and Ranking Member of the Ways and Means Committee, urging them to use the power of the House’s tax writing committee to permanently fix the AMT problem.  I'm going to continue working with my colleagues to solve this problem.

 

Property Taxes
Property taxes in the Hudson Valley are too high and escalating annually.  Within the last decade, property tax levels in parts of the 19th Congressional District have increased by as much as 80%, and in other areas they are three times the national average. Property taxes are set at the local level; however, there are ways we can ease the overall tax burden by making what we pay in federal taxes better take into account the local tax burden. I am a cosponsor of the Property Tax Relief Act of 2007 (H.R. 3726), which will allow all taxpayers to deduct the amount of money they spend on local property taxes from their federal tax return. This would enable those who take the “standard deduction,” not just people who itemize on their federal income taxes, to save money.

 

Making College More Affordable
College tuition and fees have soared in recent years. In the four years following the 2000-2001 school year, the average cost of tuition, fees, room and board at both public and private colleges in New York increased over 20%. An increase of that much in just about the time it takes a student to graduate is too much for most families to bear.

 

To help alleviate this situation, I have cosponsored H.R. 2411, comprehensive education credit and deduction legislation that would give education tax breaks to all families. Families making up to $160,000 could deduct all college-related expenses, including tuition and fees, room and board and textbooks. Families exceeding those levels would be given a fully refundable credit for college-related expenses up to $1500 and half of all expenses up to $4000.

 

Tax Benefits for the Middle Class
I’m a cosponsor of the H.R. 2902, the Middle Class Opportunity Act, a collection of tax cuts to help hard-working American families.

 

To help people care for their children and elderly relatives, the bill doubles the child tax credit and expands the dependent care credit to include expenses associated with caring for parents or grandparents. To increase access to higher education, the bill creates one simple, easy-to-understand education tax credit. The bill also extends AMT relief to stop the AMT from hitting millions of additional taxpayers.