SALT Is No Good for Americans

In “Why Lawmakers Should Pass the SALT” (op-ed, Aug. 15), John Tamny argues that eliminating the limit on the SALT deduction will help limit government control over the U.S. economy. But there is no reason a person making $100,000 in Pennsylvania should pay more federal income tax than an equivalent earner in New York or California.

The higher state and local taxes levied in those states go to cover services which benefit only people living in those states. They voted for those services. Why should that get them a discount on federal income tax, which goes toward a different basket of federal services from which we all benefit?

A SALT-deduction discount inevitably becomes a low-tax state’s federal tax premium to cover the federal tax shortfall. The shortfall will be filled by someone. Supporters for increasing the SALT deduction simply want more of the burden to fall to low-tax states.

Steven Capolarello

West Chester, Pa.

Mr. Tamny’s premise is that less federal revenue would reduce federal spending. I wish he had included some evidence. Congress regularly spends more than its collected revenue. Spending in this fiscal year is headed for another large deficit, perhaps double last year’s. It’s hard to see how returning federal tax revenue to the states is going to help the federal deficit problem. More likely, future deficits will simply be larger.

Freedom Caucus representatives are right now being excoriated in the press and by Democrats for proposing real spending cuts. If Mr. Tamny is going to advocate cutting federal revenue by eliminating the SALT legislation, he should include spending cuts to match.

Julian Spratt

Melbourne, Fla.

The five New York Republicans in Congress take a page from the Democratic playbook to defend changing the SALT cap (Letters, Aug. 15), “especially since New York continues to be a donor state, paying more in federal taxes than it receives from Washington.”

When did that become the objective? They make it sound like the role of the federal government is to redistribute all funds in a fair and equitable manner. Sorry guys, we send our tax dollars to Washington to pay for essential services like national defense, not to have it parceled out again to the states in equal portions.

John Gimmy

Chesapeake City, Md.

The New York lawmakers’ argument bears considerable similarities to Mayor Eric Adams’s demands for federal assistance to take care of the illegal immigrants his city invited. Talk about moral hazard. Both amount to pleas from politicians for federal relief from the consequences of their own state or local governments’ policies and, as such, should be summarily denied.

Jim Fitter

Leesburg, Va.