Pennsylvania Democrat Chris Deluzio is facing scrutiny after real estate records revealed delinquent property taxes.
Deluzio, who is running in a competitive House race, neglected to pay $2,976 in property taxes last year for the historic Georgian colonial in Pittsburgh that he purchased in 2020. He was fined over $100 in penalties and interest, which he paid in March 2022.
After news broke out, his campaign said that the late payment was merely a banking error.
“Chris’s bank made a mistake and did not pay the reassessed property taxes on time from escrow,” said Matt Koos, Deluzio’s spokesman. “When Chris realized this, he made the payment.”
The news could become an issue for Deluzio’s campaign, as the voting rights attorney is advocating for the “Inflation Reduction Act,” a leftist-backed reconciliation bill that could steer billions of dollars into increased tax enforcement by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).
“There are a lot great policies for #PA17 in The Inflation Reduction Act. It’s a bill that would ramp up clean energy and lower the cost of medicine, save people $ and help tackle inflation – all paid for by the ultra-rich and corporations,” Deluzio tweeted earlier this month.
The newly passed bill would allocate $80 billion to the IRS, including $46.6 billion for tax enforcement and audit activities. Tax experts are worried that the bill would make life harder for the average American amid continued economic downturn.
“Everyone is facing slightly less after-tax income in the long run,” Garrett Watson, a senior policy analyst and modeling manager at the Tax Foundation, told The Washington Post.
Over 200 economic experts have also sent a letter to the House and Senate leadership, warning that the Democrats’ bill will fuel inflation, leaving Americans worse off than they were.
“[The act] inaptly named ‘Inflation Reduction Act of 2022’ would do nothing of the sort and instead would perpetuate the same fiscal policy errors that have helped precipitate the current troubling economic climate,” the letter read.
Additionally, a recent poll from the Economist/YouGov found that 36 percent of respondents believe that the bill would worsen current inflation numbers, while only 12 percent think that it will help lower costs.
