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El Paso County commissioners report takeaways from NACO conference including tax, SNAP and infrastructure concerns
Summary
Several commissioners summarized meetings at the National Association of Counties conference in Washington, D.C., raising concerns about an expiring 2017 tax provision, SNAP overpayments, farm-bill impacts and local infrastructure projects.
Multiple members of the El Paso County Board of County Commissioners reported on their trip to the National Association of Counties (NACo) conference in Washington, D.C., describing sessions on federal policy and meetings with congressional staff.
Commissioner Wysong said the 2017 federal tax provisions are set to expire this year and called for making the changes permanent, warning they could materially increase tax burdens. He said the potential impacts include estate-tax changes, higher taxes for sole proprietors and a reduction of the child tax credit from $2,000 to $1,000.
Commissioner Applegate said he attended sessions for large counties and met with members of Colorado’s congressional delegation. Commissioner Williams said he attended NACo’s Department of Human Services Committee and highlighted discussion about the U.S. farm bill; he repeated a statistic he heard at the conference that there are an estimated $5 billion in SNAP overpayments nationwide, which participants said is diminishing resources for other agricultural priorities.
Another commissioner described meetings with congressional staff about specific county infrastructure projects and repeated remarks that some federal officials have criticized sanctuary-city policies and their fiscal impacts. Commissioners said they also discussed SNAP benefits, infrastructure, and opportunities to attract federal or state offices to El Paso County.
All commissioners described the trip as productive and thanked county government affairs staff for coordinating meetings and briefings.
