SALT: Watch the SF Comicle's spin

The spin emanating from the SF Comicle is a daily occurrence, but some cases are so egregious that we just have to marvel at them.  Back in December, we looked at some of the non-mortgage costs that are driving up housing costs and the "affordability crisis".  Another factor in the Total Cost of Home Ownership are taxes separate from property and school taxes.  The State and Local Tax (SALT) deduction off of one's federal tax calculation has been in flux since 2017--"flux" in a bad way as the deduction was capped at $10,000 and not even inflation-adjusted.

Today's big, front-page headline above the fold was "Trump tax bill details: Measure passed by House to have outsize impact on Californians" by Shira Stein, Washington Correspondent.  She's supposed to be one of the Comicle journalists with some financial background and knowledge.  After numerous paragraphs, and I do mean numerous, about the bill's effect on Medi-Cal without describing the scam that sits at the core of the federal funding of state's Medicaid ploys, she gets around to the SALT changes:

Bay Area taxpayers would also see disproportionate effects from Republicans’ permanent cap on how much of the taxes paid to state and local governments can be written off on federal taxes.

Before 2018, taxpayers could deduct their state and local taxes from their federal income. With the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, Congress capped that at $10,000 each year through 2025. The bill passed by the House on Thursday makes that cap permanent and increases it slightly, to $40,000, for people who make less than $500,000 a year — a cap that would grow 1% annually.

Dear Shira, in what universe does quadrupling something and adding an annual inflation factor constitute a slight increase?  The fight over the SALT deduction was brutal with low tax states' politicians asking why they are subsidizing high tax profligate states (like ours).  It's a strong argument, but the arm-twisting that goes with a big bill landed on the quadruple change.  When someone talks about "disproportionate effects" it is generally bad effects.  Not here courtesy of Shira.  Where are the calming words that Bay Area homebuyers just caught a break?  And the $500K limit means everyone up to $500K which is a lot of people, even here.  Why the spin?  I'll bet if the Comicle quadrupled her expense account she would be over the moon.

Comments

[Joe]

Here's one more bit from the article that brings it home to SM County:

The average deduction in 2017, before the cap, was about $13,000 nationwide, according to the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center. Only eight counties had an average deduction above $30,000 — with half of them in the Bay Area: San Francisco, Santa Clara, San Mateo and Marin.

That's the third paragraph from the end of a long article. That's called burying the lead.