Eliminating housing deduction in Kansas may be Brownback's Waterloo
Lewis DiuguidKansas Gov. Sam Brownback has taken on the real estate and banking industries at a time when housing is just starting to claw its way out of a terribly dismal, Great Recession-fed slump.
Brownback wants to eliminate taxpayers’ deductions on interest paid on home mortgages. It would be a cash bonanza for state coffers. But that perk dating back a century helps keep the homebuilding and homebuying industries humming.
Take it away, and people and families might as well stay in apartments. They wouldn’t have to put up with the hassles of repairs accompanying homeownership. Equity that homeowners count on could tank, and boom areas such as Johnson County could fizzle.
Brownback’s bulls-eye on such a sacred target has drawn hundreds of real estate folks to the Capitol to speak against the proposed elimination of the mortage interest deduction, The Kansas City Star reports. The governor would stand a better chance of confiscating all guns owned privately in the Sunflower State than taking away the deduction. And every gun owner is like Charlton Heston — Brownback would only get their guns if he peeled it out of their cold dead hands.
The fight over mortgage interest deductions has only begun, and expect the political fallout to include some lawmakers losing their seats if the legislation gets signed into law. So maybe the governor truly doesn’t have a love thing on this Valentine’s Day for the Oval Office after all.
Mark Hastert
3 months agoFunny Brownie says he’s anti tax but here he is raising taxes on home owners and retaining the 1% sales tax. The upshot is that middle & lower incomes will pay on a greater percentage of their incomes that high earners. A thinking person would be wondering whose side is Brownie on?
Matt Henry
3 months agoOkay, this is just tooooooo good. One of these guys, I’m not sure which, is gonna lose his “I care more about the poor than everybody else” Progressive membership card.
From the mouth of Yael Abouhalkah:
The home mortgage interest deduction also gets attacked because it is skewed toward providing a fat entitlement to wealthy people.
The Congressional Budget Office has noted that half the tax savings accumulated under the deduction go to less than 10 percent of American households. Remember, current law allows homeowners to subsidize their purchase of homes having mortgages of up to $1 million.
“Why should the tax code give preference to the purchase of mansions by the well-off?” asks Richard Trumka, a member of the Bipartisan Commission on Entitlement and Tax Reform and president of the United Mine Workers of America.
Read more here: http://voices.kansascity.com/entries/kill-home-mortgage-deduction/#storylink=cpy
George Hunsucker
Northland
3 months agoI realize you don’t see LEADERSHIP with zero, but Brownback is demonstrating this. Thinking people realize our tax code needs to become flatter and eliminate these preferences.
You libs just do not like the CONSERVATIVE implementation of good government when you have the example of KC/ MOstaring you in the face.
Get ready for job and tax loss to Kansas—one of the up and coming states!!!!!
Mark Hastert
3 months agoActually the Federal deduction is limited to $1million mortgages and lower. So the very well off don’t benefit beyond the interest deduction on the first $1 Million in mortgage debt. It’s no big deal to them but a pretty big benefit for the middle class buyer with a $150,000 mortgage. So Brownie the tax slayer…..isn’t.