Pence joining NY rep to pitch tax reform

October 17, 2017 3oliver

Vice President Mike PenceMichael (Mike) Richard PenceDems face close polls in must-win Virginia Report: Trump administration officials urged furious Tillerson not to quit Authorities recover 47 firearms in connection with Las Vegas shooter MORE will travel Tuesday to Buffalo, N.Y., to make the case for tax reform alongside Rep. Chris CollinsChristopher (Chris) Carl CollinsTrump ally: Timing on Russia investigation tweet ‘could have been better’ Ethics investigators looking into GOP rep’s investment partners: report GOP rep unaware of health bill’s impact on his state despite voting for it MORE (R-N.Y.) as the White House’s plan to repeal the state and local tax deduction receives pushback from lawmakers in the Empire State.

Pence and Collins will discuss the importance of overhauling the tax code with business leaders, community leaders and local families, according to the White House. The event is one of a number of occasions where Pence and President Trump have traveled across the country to sell the GOP’s tax plan.

Collins, an early supporter of Trump, is one of several GOP lawmakers from high-tax states, such as New York and California, who have expressed concerns about eliminating the deduction for state and local taxes. The White House and congressional GOP leaders have proposed doing away with the deduction in order to help pay for lowering tax rates.

Collins and other blue-state Republicans have met regularly with House GOP leadership in an effort to find common ground on the deduction. Collins has floated one compromise: giving taxpayers a choice between deducting their state and local property taxes and their mortgage interest.

“I’m confident we’ll get the votes to get [a tax bill] passed,” Collins told reporters last week.

Last week, the Office of Congressional Ethics alleged that Collins may have violated federal law by sharing nonpublic information in the purchase of stocks in an Australian pharmaceutical company. Collins has said that he did nothing wrong.