In Support of Fairness in Taxation to Reduce the Racial Wealth Gap Through Federal Tax Policy: Restoring the State and Local Dedication

WHEREAS, redlining of urban neighborhoods combined with appraisal bias, actions from housing lenders, and the systematic exclusion of Black homebuyers from post-World War II suburban housing markets produced a disproportionately unequal distribution of property tax revenues and burdens between Black and White homeowners; and

WHEREAS, an economic analysis published in 2020 by the Washington Center for Equitable Growth of over 118 million homes across the United States, found that Black and Hispanic homeowners face an average 10 to 13 percent higher property tax burden when compared to similarly-situated White homeowners; and

WHEREAS, scholars have identified regressive patterns of taxation in jurisdictions throughout the United States that impose a comparatively higher tax burden on communities of color, shifting the burden of subsidizing public services to communities that also receive fewer public services and less historic investment in public infrastructure; and

WHEREAS, the state and local tax deduction reduces the effects of regressive tax policy in the federal tax code through property tax relief that encourages and preserves homeownership for Black and Brown homeowners by reducing tax delinquencies and predatory tax sales; and

WHEREAS, progressive tax policies within states reduce the racial wealth gap through distributional policy such as levying higher tax rates on top earners, providing stronger renter tax credits, child tax credits, and earned income tax credits.

THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the NAACP urges the United States Congress to restore the deductibility of state and local property taxes in the federal tax code for the purpose of reducing tax delinquencies, predatory tax sales, and preserving homeownership for people of color.