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Friday, August 9, 1985
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
THE JEWISH NEWS
Serving Detroit's Metropolitan Jewish Community
with distinction for four decades.
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OP-ED
Changing The Tax Code:
The Case For Deductibility
BY MARTIN HOCHBAUM
Special to The Jewish News
The U.S. Treasury Department
has proposed a major overhaul of the
federal tax code, a key provision of
which is the elimination of the de-
ductibility of state and local taxes.
Repeal of deductibility would be
harmful
to the Jewish community
PRODUCTION:
ACCOUNT EXECUTIVES:
Donald Cheshure
since it would make more difficult
Lauri Biafore
Cathy Ciccone
Allan Craig
the funding of Jewish-sponsored
Curtis Deloye
Rick Nessel
health and welfare institutions and
Ralph
Orme
Danny Raskin
exacerbate intergroup conflict.
(c) 1985 by The Detroit Jeb;ish News (US PS 275.520(
The bipartisan Advisory Com-
Second Class postage paid at Southfield. Michigan and additional mailing offices.
mission on Intergovernmental Rela-
Subscriptions: 1 year • $21 — 2 years - $39 — Out of State • $23 — Foreign • $35
tions has computed the value of de-
ductibility on a state-by-state basis.
CANDLELIGHTING AT 8:24 P.M.
VOL. LXXXVII, NO. 24 According to their data, the national
per capita average tax savings from
deductibility in 1984 was $120,
ranging from a low of $33 in Tenes-
see and South Dakota to a high of
$263 in New York State.
A substantial proportion of the
The outrage of Israeli citizens over the murders of three civilians at
Jewish population resides in the
the hands of Arabs in two separate incidents last week is understandable.
highest tax state. The ten states
But this outrage must not be translated into the kind of blind hatred that
where residents receive the highest
per capita savings from deductibility
only widens the cycle of violence, the kind of hatred that Rabbi Meir
contain 41 percent of the nation's
Kahane is feeding on with much success.
population,
including two-thirds of
Kahane is no longer dismissed as a "racist lunatic" or "fluke" in
American Jews.
Israel for having won a Knesset seat on the strength of his call for
The elimination of deductiblity
ousting all Arabs from the Jewish state. Polls show that his popularity is
would result in strong pressure to
soaring, especially among the young, and if elections were held today his
cut state and local taxes and
budgets. This would produce an in-
Kach Party would likely win six seats and become an almost irresistible
crease in conflict on the local level
coalition partner for any right-wing government.
as various groups are forced to com-
It is less difficult to analyze the reasons for Kahane's growing
pete more aggressively for fewer
popularity than it is to counter his simple "solution" to the "Arab
public dollars.
problem." He is a charismatic man who fills a post-Begin leadership
A recent paper by the Heritage
vacuum, he is articulating what is in the backs of the minds of many
Foundation applauded the notion
that loss of deductibility would make
Israelis, and he is creating an ideological justification for the deep-rooted
it harder for states to finance "pro-
fears Israelis have of Arabs.
grams of' doubtful benefits" to tax-
But Kahane's views present a real threat to the future of a
payers. The author of the Heritage
democratic Israel. His efforts to make Israel "Arabrein" mirror Germany's
Foundation report is wrong. Lower
efforts — all too successful — to make Europe "Judenrein." What is
income groups, in fact, would be se-
needed in Israel is the self-control to put morality over emotion and
htimanity over hatred by rejecting Kahane's appeal.
Dr. Hochbaum is director of the
Resisting Kahane
Commission on National Affairs of the
American Jewish Congress.
Religious Right, Rights
President Reagan is once again overstepping the invisible line
separating church and state. The President reportedly plans to nominate
a man who recruits conservative Christians for federal jobs to a position
supervising the choice of nominees for the federal judiciary.
Herbert E. Ellingwood, the expected nominee to head the Justice
Department's Office of Legal Policy, helped found a Christian "talent
bank" to place more fundamentalist Christians in federal jobs; he favors
applying religious tests to candidates for government office. If nominated
and approved, Ellingwood would. oversee the choice of nominees for
federal judges, the lifetime appointees who shape our political system.
Jewish organizations believe that Ellingwood's religious recruitment
efforts are a major affront to the millions of Americans who are not of the
Christian faith and to those who respect this nation's constitutionally
guaranteed separation of church and state.
Religious quotas are as wrong as racial quotas; we join those asking
the President to find a nominee who can keep religious preferences out of
government appointments.
verely harmed by decreasing appro
priations for such politically unpop u
lar programs as aid to the homeless
welfare and Medicaid. Moreover, th
middle class would be directly in
jured since local school boards
which in many communities are th
government bodies that taxpayer
Less assistance, an
inevitable consequence . • •
would erode the ability of
(Jewish) institutions to
carry their current
caseloads.
are most capable of influencing
would come under fierce pressure t
cut costs.
Many Jewish institutions the
service our aged and families ar
heavily dependent on substantis
government funding. Less assit
tance, an inevitable consequence E
eliminating state and local dt
ductibility, would erode the ability E
these institutions to carry their cue
rent caseloads, thus depriving man
needy individuals and families c
necessary aid.
It would be hard to draft a bei
ter scenario for encouraging ethni
and racial conflict and destroying
local coalitions. Jewish groups
partly because of demographics, ar
greatly concerned with program
that assist the aged. Blacks and
Hispanics, communities witl
younger and lower-income con
stituents, would be more likely t
emphasize programs for these
groups. Cutbacks in governmen
financing would inevitably lead t
sharp conflicts among groups fly
scarce funds.