Worried that the federal tax reform will negatively affect the state of New York, Andrew Cuomo told CNN that the new law may be “unconstitutional.” “We’re going to propose a restructuring of our tax code. I’m not even sure what they [Republicans] did is legally constitutional and that’s something we’re looking at now. You can change the tax code. You can’t penalize my state because of its political affiliation. There’s never been a double taxation before in the history of the nation.”
Sure there has, responds the WSJ.
States and localities are allowed to impose their own income taxes, and so can the feds since the 16th Amendment was added to the Constitution in 1913. Mr. Cuomo is upset that the feds have now limited the federal deduction for state and local taxes to $10,000, but there’s nothing in the Constitution that says Congress can’t do that.
Congress isn’t forcing New York to do anything, and the deduction cap is imposed equally on all 50 states. If New York taxpayers are hurt by the new law, the reason is because the Empire State taxes them too much. Nothing is stopping Mr. Cuomo from proposing to fix the New York code so it drives fewer rich people out of the state.
Perhaps, as the WSJ suggests, Mr. Cuomo should remember his 2010 campaign line: “New York has no future as the tax capital of the nation.”
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