OPINION: Future wildfire victims will pay for this bill

Dec. 15--There is one item in the tax reform bill rolling through Congress right now that I haven't seen a whole lot of news coverage about, and yet it would have a considerable impact around here.

Among the many popular deductions that the Republicans' tax legislation would kill is something called the casualty loss deduction. That's the deduction that allows victims of wildfires, floods, tornadoes and earthquakes to claim uninsured losses. We don't get too many tornadoes or earthquakes in North Central Washington, but we are well acquainted with fire.

The House-passed version of the tax bill would eliminate the deduction going forward, but it would keep the tax breaks for victims of this year's hurricanes. Too politically sacred, I guess. The Senate version of the bill allows the loss deduction only if the president officially declares a federal disaster, which doesn't often happen in the case of wildfires. This is one of the differences between the two bills that must be resolved in the final version currently being negotiated.

Both of Washington's senators happen to be on the committee negotiating the final bill, though both of our senators also happen to be Democrats, which means their influence on that committee is not exactly overwhelming. And it sounds like the work is mostly done now. A final bill is coming soon. For what it's worth, though, Sen. Maria Cantwell and Sen. Patty Murray both stand opposed to eliminating the deduction.

Sen. Cantwell's statement:

"Eliminating this deduction for casualty losses will make it harder for middle class and low income families to recover after a wildfire. We cannot have a tax bill that gives tax breaks to corporations and the wealthy on the back of families recovering from a disaster."

And a similar statement from Sen. Murray:

"I'm urging Republicans to slow down and have a real debate over whether we really should be cutting taxes for the ultra-wealthy on the backs of everyone else, including those who lost their homes in a wildfire."

From a 2014 Wenatchee World report:

"The majority of people who lost homes in the Carlton Complex fire were either uninsured or under-insured. ... 44 percent of the families whose homes were destroyed or damaged in the fire had no insurance at all. And of those who did have insurance, 34 percent of them didn't have nearly enough to cover their losses, with less than 60 percent of their losses covered..."

Fire will come to this place again, licking the edges of suburban sprawl, whipping embers up and over the rooftops in the heart of our cities. Eliminating the wildfire loss deduction will hurt our neighbors. It will hurt Americans who just lost most or everything they own, who are either uninsured or under-insured. And according to the Los Angeles Times, that's at least 80 percent of homeowners in the United States. It will hurt fire victims who, while living in somebody's basement guest bedroom, now face a mountain of paperwork before they see a dime of insurance money for a policy they paid into for years, who are collecting and recording every receipt in a cardboard box, who just lived through what was likely the worst year of their lives.

The casualty loss deduction is not a special interest loophole. I'm not sure who the constituency for eliminating it would even be. And it's not a budget breaker. Taxpayers nationwide deducted $1.6 billion in 2015 for losses from national disasters. So eliminating the deduction will save the government from paying out a couple billion dollars a year. Terrific. The rest of the Republicans' tax bill will add more than a trillion dollars to the national deficit.

This is a terrible, cruel idea. All four Republican House members from Washington state -- including Dave Reichert and Dan Newhouse -- voted for this.

Kelli Scott's column appears Wednesday through Friday. Reach her at (509) 661-5205 or [email protected].

Reach Kelli Scott at 509-661-5205 or [email protected].

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