US Taxpayers Face Higher Tax Bills With House Budget

by Mike Godfrey, Tax-News.com, Washington

15 May 2007

The typical American taxpayer could be paying $3,026 more in federal income taxes five years from now under the budget resolution adopted recently by the US House of Representatives, according to free market think-tank, the Heritage Foundation.

The new state-by-state and district-by-district report by the Foundation estimates that the House plan's other downstream costs would result in an average loss of $502 in annual personal income; slowing of employment growth amounting to almost 1 million lost jobs; and a $100 billion hit to economic growth.

These are among the sobering calculations of a report titled 'Tax Increases Ahead', Heritage's analysis of what the House budget resolution will mean for each of the nation's 435 congressional districts. The report arrives as House and Senate conferees meet on the budget.

The report suggested that New York residents would lose the most in 2012. That state's congressional districts hold down the first five spots on a Top 20 list of the hardest-hit districts nationwide. Taxpayers in Rep. Pete King's District 3 face the biggest tax hikes, with an average annual increase of $5,740, nearly double the national average.

New York districts hold two other slots — for a total of seven — in the Top 20 by size of tax increase. The remaining 13 most-taxed districts, where taxpayers will receive average increases of more than $4,600, are located in New Jersey (four districts), California (three) Illinois (two), Connecticut, Virginia, Georgia and Colorado.

Adopted March 29 by a vote of 216-210, the House budget resolution does not contain a detailed tax plan, although the Heritage Foundation believes that the resolution puts the budget on track to collect an additional $894 billion in taxes over the next five years, and $3.3 trillion over 10 years.

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