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Garrett Gazette - October 3, 2006


Washington, Oct 3 -  

Dear Friends:

Yesterday’s USA Today featured the headline “Income Tax Cuts Benefit All Payers,” with details of a new study by the non-partisan research group, the Tax Foundation. According to that analysis, “everybody’s tax rates have fallen.”

For instance, a taxpayer who was earning $35,000 in 2000 would have paid 8.54% of that income in Federal taxes. In 2004, that taxpayer’s tax burden had dropped by 40%. In addition, millions of lower-income Americans earning $25,000 annually or less, have been taken off the Federal tax rolls altogether. Between 2000 and 2004, about 14 million Americans were taken off the tax rolls, for a total of roughly 43 million Americans in 2004.

The dark lining on this silver cloud, however, was that savings to millions of middle-income American families were limited by the Alternative Minimum Tax, or AMT.

The AMT is a parallel tax universe that was initially established to keep high-income taxpayers from avoiding a significant portion of their tax liability. But, the arcane structure has spread into the middle class and applied to more than 4 million families in 2005. These are solidly middle-class families, such as couples that make more than $58,000 a year and itemize their deductions. The AMT has a particularly strong impact on those taxpayers with high state and local taxes, such as New Jersey taxpayers face.

While I’ve been proud to support the tax relief that has led to lower taxes for millions of American families and small businesses, the AMT must be reformed now. In fact, I introduced legislation to provide for an AMT deduction for state and local taxes to give middle-income families real relief from this outdated tax. In addition, in December, I supported the Stealth Tax Relief Act to maintain higher income thresholds for the AMT in 2006, providing some relief. I also supported the Tax Relief Extension Reconciliation Act to allow taxpayers to continue claiming personal tax credits like the home mortgage interest credit, dependent care credit, and Lifetime Learning credit against the AMT. Without these reforms, as many as 19 million Americans could be affected by the AMT. This means a family of four earning $75,000 could lose $1,035 in tax reductions.

Rest assured that I will continue to work to reform the AMT so that middle-class families are not unfairly penalized by this outdated law.

Sincerely,

Scott Garrett

Member of Congress

ISSUE OF THE WEEK: RINGWOOD DUMP GOES BACK ON SUPERFUND NATIONAL PRIORITIES LIST

Last week, the toxic waste dump in Upper Ringwood in Passaic County was re-listed as part of the Superfund National Priorities List (NPL). The dump was removed from the NPL in 1994, but the clean-up was clearly incomplete. Regrettably, the environment of Ringwood and the health of its residents have suffered ever since. Now that it is re-listed, Ringwood holds the dubious distinction of being the only Superfund site ever returned to the National Priorities List.

As a re-listed site, new technical assistance grants and other resources will be available to ensure that the clean-up this time is fully accomplished. I was pleased to be joined last night at my monthly Mobile Constituent Service Hours session in Ringwood by officials from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) who were on-hand to answer questions from residents about how the re-listing will help the clean-up effort.

Ever since I first toured the site last year, it has been clear that a full-court press was needed to meet the needs and concerns of Ringwood residents. I called for the site’s re-listing in numerous meetings with and letters to Federal officials, as well as for Ford Corporation, named as the party that dumped car paint sludge at the site, to be responsible for the costs of the clean-up. I have also worked closely with officials from the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) as they took the first steps toward assessing the health effects of the site on Ringwood residents. ATSDR has now begun to design a detailed health study that was called for in their assessment released in May, and I submitted detailed comments on that draft that I hope will be addressed in the final health study.

This coming Thursday, October 5th, Federal investigators from the EPA’s Office of the Inspector General will be at the Ringwood Library to meet with residents as part of an on-going environmental justice study related to the Superfund site’s unfinished clean-up. I encourage residents who want to provide input for this study to meet with these Federal investigators some time between 10:30 am and 3:30 pm or between 6:00 pm and 8:00 pm.

I will not rest until this matter is fully and completely addressed. The residents of Ringwood, and indeed all of North Jersey, deserve no less.

CONGRESSMAN SCOTT GARRETT’S OFFICE COMING TO A TOWN NEAR YOU:

Congressman Garrett’s staff will be holding Mobile Constituent Service Hours in a number of Fifth District towns this week. The Congressman’s Constituent Service Officers are trained to act as your liaisons with Federal agencies. But, it’s not always easy to make it out to one of the Congressman’s district offices – in Paramus and Newton – to meet with one of them, especially when you are dealing with government red tape. These Mobile Constituent Service Hours sessions bring the Congressman’s office to you. So, if you are having trouble with a Federal program, such as Medicare, veterans benefits, Social Security, or more, please feel free to come by. And, please bring copies of any relevant paperwork with you to facilitate their work.

Tuesday, October 3rd

Phillipsburg

10:00 am to noon

Town Hall, 675 Corliss Avenue

Tuesday, October 3rd

Woodcliff Lake

10:00 am to noon

Borough Hall, 188 Pascack Road

Wednesday, October 4th

Midland Park

10:00 am to noon

Library, 250 Godwin Avenue

Wednesday, October 4th

Upper Saddle River

1:00 pm to 3:00 pm

Borough Hall, 376 W. Saddle River Road

Thursday, October 5th

West Milford

10:00 am to noon

Borough Hall, 1480 Union Valley Road

Thursday, October 5th

Rochelle Park

1:00 pm to 3:00 pm

Library, 151 W. Passaic Street

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