David Michael Miller
Mayor Paul Soglin began his Sept. 20 press conference with a deep sigh.
“We ricochet from one Donald Trump adventure to the next. It doesn’t stop,” the mayor said. “Right now, there is a monumental effort in Washington to ruin the lives of millions of Americans and hundreds of thousands of families right here in Wisconsin.”
What upset Soglin is the elimination of two tax deductions included in several GOP proposals: The State and Local Taxes (SALT) deduction and the mortgage interest deduction. The mayor says local governments, which rely on property taxes, will be hard hit if these deductions are eliminated.
Soglin has often used his bully pulpit to criticize legislation coming down from state and federal lawmakers, but he’s spending even more time there these days. In 2017, he has called 27 press conferences, with more than half to complain about federal and state actions.
“I’ve never — including during the Nixon years — seen [the city] on the defensive against such horrendous legislation. [Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals], SALT and the assault on the Affordable Care Act has kept mayors around the country on ready-alert. Not to mention Trump’s tacit support for neo-Nazis,” Soglin later tells Isthmus. “In the past, we had to speak out against part of a [federal] program being cut. Now we have to fight for the entire program.”
In other recent news conferences, Soglin denounced Gov. Scott Walker’s Foxconn deal and an amendment to the state budget that eliminates the ability of local municipalities to use eminent domain to build sidewalks and bike paths.
Soglin says eliminating SALT “is going to have a major impact on every homeowner in the city…. And my guess is 98 percent of the people of this state have no idea this is going on. It’s very sad.”
Since 1913, taxpayers have been able to deduct state and local taxes from their federal income filings. It’s seen as an indirect federal subsidy to cities because it enables them to collect more from property taxes. Without it, Soglin predicts “tremendous pressure” to cut city services. A majority of taxpayers do not itemize their taxes, opting for the standard deduction. So proponents of eliminating the SALT deduction say it primarily benefits higher earners who are more likely to itemize. But Soglin counters that it will leave local governments paying for tax cuts for corporations and billionaires. If the mortgage interest deduction is eliminated, too, he says it’s a double-whammy to the city’s coffers.
“It would significantly lower the value of single, owner-occupied family residences which, in turn, means we would have to increase the mill rate to maintain existing revenues,” Soglin says, adding that homeowners would have to pay an average $3,700 more in federal income taxes.
“This is so important and nobody is talking about it. This may be one of the biggest ripoffs in the country’s history,” Soglin says. “Why don’t we have members of Congress reporting to their constituents what they are contemplating here? Why isn’t the governor explaining the enormous impact this would have on the state?”
Trump and Walker have left Soglin at times feeling defenseless. “I wake up every day and it’s something else. It just doesn’t stop. The state is now considering a bill for concealed carry where there are absolutely no licensing or testing requirements,” Soglin says. “There’s a lot of mayors who share my concerns. The difference is cities like Boston and San Francisco are in blue states. So at least, they are not being sabotaged by their state governments which, in effect, are trying to destroy everything from the transportation system to the schools.”
Soglin vows to keep sounding the alarm, even though some of his conferences get scant coverage. At the end of his Sept. 20 presser, he urged Wisconsin homeowners — especially voters living miles away in the districts of U.S. House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Janesville) and Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner (R-Menomonee Falls) — to remind their representatives that there will be “consequences” for their actions.
“This is part of my job. I’m doing my job,” Soglin says. “Let’s hope that Rep. Sensenbrenner and Speaker Ryan do theirs.”
