Bernie Sanders calls for rent, mortgage freeze

[David Goldsmith]

Bernie Sanders Calls on Congress to Freeze Rent

Bernie Sanders wants Congress to freeze rent and mortgage payments as part of the next stimulus package.

therealdeal.com

Presidential candidate Bernie Sanders is calling for a freeze on rent and mortgage payments as part of the next federal relief package.
Sanders urged Congress on Friday to suspend monthly expenses, including rent, mortgage payments, medical debt and consumer debt collection, for four months, as part of a list of priorities he believes legislators should include in the next stimulus bill. The Vermont Senator is calling for these payments to be completely halted during that four-month period, rather than deferred.
“We are entering an economic downturn that could be worse than the Great Depression of the 1930s,” Sanders said. “In this unprecedented moment in modern American history, it is imperative that we respond in an unprecedented way.
The $2 trillion stimulus package signed into law last week doesn’t offer direct relief for landlords. They may, however, benefit indirectly from a few measures that could help tenants make rent payments. Individuals making $75,000 or less are eligible for a one-time $1,200 check. Unemployment insurance has also been expanded.
Still, there’s growing fear among landlords that calls for rent strikes will gain momentum. Last week, Sanders threw his support behind New York Sen. Michael Gianaris’ rent-suspension bill, which would forgive rent and mortgage payments for 90 days.
Last week, a record 6.6 million Americans filed for unemployment insurance. The next stimulus bill has yet to take shape. Speaker Nancy Pelosi has proposed rolling back the limit on state and local tax deductions, known as SALT. Lifting the cap, which bars households from deducting more than $10,000 a year in SALT expenses, would mean larger federal tax rebates for millions.

 

[David Goldsmith]

More showdown over SALT in next round of stimulus negotiations.

Chuck Schumer, Mitch McConnell Fight Over SALT Cap Removal

Removal of the SALT deduction cap would help boost the economy, Democrats say. But will they sacrifice the next Covid relief bill if Republicans balk?

therealdeal.com

Schumer v. McConnell on SALT: Who’s gonna give?
Democrats, GOP in showdown on restoring tax deduction that helps blue states

Charles Schumer badly wants another Covid relief package. The Senate minority leader also badly wants to remove the $10,000 cap on deductions of state and local taxes paid.
Mitch McConnell also wants more Covid relief. But the Senate majority leader is strongly against restoring the deduction that Republicans and the Trump administration capped in December 2017, Schumer said Sunday.
The two Senate titans are now in a high-stakes game of chicken on SALT, which is a big issue for residential real estate because deductibility of property taxes helps sell high-end homes.

Democrats’ leverage with Republicans is that another round of Covid relief cannot pass without Democratic votes. But Republicans know Democrats also want more Covid aid and are betting they will sacrifice SALT again, as they have in previous relief packages.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo, for his part, says New York’s congressional delegation should insist on SALT. But he also wants billions of dollars from the next aid package to cover the huge deficits facing his state and transit agency, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority.

During a news conference in Manhattan, Schumer said the SALT deduction cap is especially unfair to Long Island homeowners, Newsday reported. Removing the cap is worth about $20,000 a year to 700,000 households, he said. But Schumer acknowledged it was an uphill battle in Washington because of fierce opposition from McConnell.

The SALT cap measure had a visible impact on the residential real estate market in high-tax states such as New York and New Jersey, where property taxes typically exceed $10,000 and are not uncommonly several times that amount. Income taxes also tend to be higher in those and other predominantly Democratic states, and Republicans in red states oppose subsidizing them with a federal tax deduction. Democrats argue that overall, blue states subsidize red states, and that cap only made that discrepancy greater.

In reality, the alternative minimum tax in the old tax law prevented many New Yorkers from getting the full deduction for state and local taxes, but the very perception that the cap would hurt property values hurt the market, as prospective homebuyers put off purchases.

Schumer said he will resume negotiations on the relief bill with Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and President Donald Trump’s chief of staff Mark Meadows on Monday.