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I along with all of you have been interested in how the tax bill passed by Congress is going to affect me. It didn't take me long to conclude that for most people in Fremont County we're going to see benefits from the tax reduction package, including the fact that with an increase in the standard deductions more people will avoid itemizing their taxes.
I really intended to go quietly on this whole tax bill discussion, but I've tired of all the liberal whining every time I turn on the network news in the evening or read the opinion pages in the newspaper. For me, it started a few weeks ago when NBC Nightly News led with the story about how the tax bill was going to make it so much tougher on taxpayers by limiting the deduction for state and local taxes to a maximum of $10,000. As the report went on, "This is going to place a particular burden on taxpayers in New York, California, Connecticut, and New Jersey."
Since I first began my career in broadcast journalism in the 1970s, I quickly became irritated at the distorted reporting because everything is typically seen through the eyes of reporters and newsrooms headquartered in New York City. I get it. Our reporting is skewed according to the environment in which we are raised and where we live. But the national media in particular must have greater obligation to reflect the feeling of a nation New York newsrooms care little about how issues are viewed through the eyes of southerners, the Midwest, or people in the West, unless of course you're checking the attitudes of someone in L.A.
Thus I took exception when the entire NBC news piece focused solely on how much more the GOP tax bill would cost Americans in those high tax states. The question left unanswered was "Why should I here in Fremont County care that someone in a high tax state like New York can no longer deduct their entire load of state and local taxes?" Beyond that, if they choose to live in those states and pay such exorbitant state and local taxes, haven't you and I been subsidizing them in paying our own share of federal taxes so they can secure such big deductions on their federal obligations?
Then on Dec. 10, I turn on CBS 60 minutes only to listen to California Gov. Jerry Brown whining that the GOP tax bill is "evil and divisive." Brown said the tax bill is very irresponsible and very dangerous while Republicans in his own state point out that Brown's tax increases in California are irresponsible. Congratulations Gov. Brown! Your tax increases have given California a $6 billion surplus while a quarter of all the homeless people in America reside in California.
I appreciated a letter to the editor in the Dec. 12 Denver Post by Commerce City drive-in theatre owner Susan Kochevar who put into perspective what all of us hope might be realized for every small business in Cañon City, Florence, Penrose and across Colorado. In her letter, she praised Sen. Cory Gardner and Republicans in the U.S. Senate. She said, "The ability to protect nearly one-quarter of my business income from taxes will give me the ability to expand my drive-in movie theater operations, hire more employees, and give my existing employees raises ... not to mention to offset increasing payroll costs associated with Colorado's New Year's minimum wage hike."
Tuesday night NBC was back at it again focusing solely on a New Jersey homeowner who didn't know how he will be able to cope with his high state and local taxes on his $750,000 home if he couldn't deduct that full local tax bill off his federal income taxes. Really? You want my sympathy here in Fremont County?
So why don't I just quit watching NBC? I've always watched and read a variety of media because I believe diverse views aid in one's ability to render informed decisions. I discount so-called fake news. I think rather that I can recognize biased reporting when it's so apparent. During my many years as a reporter, I posted a quote from longtime CBS essayist Eric Sevaried's final broadcast in my office. He said, "ignorant and biased reporting has its counterpart in ignorant and biased reading and listening. We do not speak into an intellectual or emotional void." Words that are perhaps even more relevant today as they were 40 years ago.
So my bias tends to perceive this tax bill as how it will benefit the citizens of Fremont County and the tax burdens that they carry, which I became so familiar with during my 12 years as a county commissioner. I hope it will result in more take home pay in local pay checks, cause small businesses and local entrepreneurs to expand their businesses and hire more employees.
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi on the House floor Wednesday labeled the tax bill as "morally obscene theft." In my biased view, if this tax bill is enough to irritate Nancy Pelosi and Gov. Jerry Brown, then it's probably good for Fremont County.
Ed Norden is a former Fremont County Commissioner.
