Republicans Pass Tax Reform, Heitkamp Responds with Misleading A ack

AFP-ND Calls Out Senator Heitkamp for misleading her cons tuents on impact of tax reform

BISMARCK Americans for Prosperity-North Dakota (AFP-ND) is calling out Senator Heidi
Heitkamp over her erroneous statements regarding the impact the Republican tax reform plan will
have on North Dakotans. Heitkamp issued a statement announcing, North Dakotans will see an
Average Tax Increase of almost $10,000 in 2027. Heitkamp repeated the charge on Twi er.

Her statement is factually incorrect. Heres why.

In her statement, Heitkamp cites a report by the Ins tute on Tax and Economic Policy (ITEP) as the
source for her almost $10,000 gure. The exact number used in the report is $9,900 and can be
found on pages 7 and 32. Two things about this number. First, it is not an average of anything
and is not listed or described as such. It purports to describe how much more North Dakota
taxpayers as a whole would pay in 2027. Second, the true number isnt even $9,900, its $9.9
million. Examine the tables on pages 7 and 32; they are both labelled thousands, as in
thousands of dollars. So Heitkamp is not only wrong about what the number describes, shes also
wrong about what the number actually is.

Heitkamp should have known her charge was ludicrous by looking at the what the $9,900 gure
was for other states. For example, the corresponding number for Florida (see page 7) is
$1,090,600. In Heitkamps interpreta on of the data, the average Floridian would face a $1 million
tax increase in 2027.

If Heitkamp wanted to nd an average, the report has them. If you scroll to the right of the North
Dakota table on page 32, you will nd several columns that contain tax averages and they are
labelled as such. That table shows the combined average tax hike on North Dakotans in 2027
would be just $30. We should note here that the report also es mates the Senate tax bills impact
in the year 2019. For North Dakotans, ITEP es mates an average tax cut of $1,760 (see table on
page 18).

The Senates arcane budget rules forced it to make the tax cuts temporary; Heitkamp knows this.
Congress can, of course, renew these tax cuts just as it renewed the Bush tax cuts when they were
set to expire. Republicans have pledged to do just that. The bo om line is that no tax hike would
occur in 2027 unless Heitkamp (or her successor) allows it to happen!

State director, Mike Fedorchak released the following statement:

Senator Heitkamp should immediately retract her patently inaccurate statement, delete her
tweet, and apologize to North Dakotans for misleading them on such an important issue. Its bad
enough she didnt vote for tax relief for her cons tuents, but it is even worse that she has been
spreading disinforma on to her cons tuents. The ques on for Heitkamp is simple: Will she now
pledge to support renewing the individual tax cuts beyond 2025, or will she con nue to deny
North Dakotans the tax relief they need?