An article in the NY TIMES today about the tax overhaul  bill that the US Congress is set to approve next week had some disappointing news.  On page A12 there is a paragraph that reads "In a pre-emptive move against accounting maneuvers in high tax states such as New York and California, the bill prohibits taxpayers from prepaying next year's state and local income or property taxes in order to deduct them from 2018 taxes. that form of tax planning would have allowed taxpayers to benefit from the full state and local deduction this year before it is capped next year."

In recent weeks I have been working with other municipal officials trying to persuade the Governor to call a special session of the NY State Legislature to authorize partial payments of the 2018 taxes in 2017.  I also tried to persuade the County Executive's office to issue the warrant on the 2018 taxes so that next years property taxes could legally be collected by the Receiver of Taxes.

I have received hundreds of phone calls and many e mails from residents who wanted to prepay their property taxes before the end of the year. This is a very disappointing action.

I think it's horrible that the President and Congress have a drop dead NY, drop dead blue state attitude.  The loss of the deduction will cause significant hardships to many residents and to the entire county.  I thought that the purpose of going into government is to help people, not hurt taxpayers.

PAUL FEINER

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