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Sunday, March 31, 2013

Ryan Plan ends up Raising Local Property Taxes to make up for Federal Cuts.

Just more ammunition for a Paul Ryan opponent in 2014 (hopefully it Rob Zerban). The numbers make all the sense in the world:
Demos: Here's a winning slogan for the GOP: "Higher Property Taxes Now!" It turns
out House Republicans recently did vote, effectively, to jack up property taxes nationwide, although that fact has gotten very little attention. According to a recent analysis by the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities:
The Ryan budget would further shift costs to states by imposing deep cuts in funding for a wide range of other state and local services … the Ryan budget would cut non-defense discretionary funding by an average of 18% below the tight funding caps in the 2011 Budget Control Act (BCA) over the next ten years. About one-quarter of non-defense discretionary funding goes for grants to state and local governments to support services that states and localities provide, such as education, law enforcement, and water treatment facilities. Such a cut would mean that states and localities would lose nearly $25.2 billion in 2014, on top of the cuts they will absorb as Congress shrinks funding for such grants … States and localities would lose $256 billion over the ten years from 2014 through 2023 - an 18 percent cut - in addition to the cuts they would absorb due to the BCA caps (These figures do not include additional cuts that the Ryan budget would make in highway, mass transit, and other transportation spending, as explained below.)
So here's an obvious question with two obvious answers: What are localities going to do as billions of dollars in state and federal aid starts to dry up? They will a) cut spending, particularly for education; and they will b) raise property taxes. House Republicans have not actually come out and called for higher property taxes, even though that's what the Ryan budget will mean. 

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