This year’s Republican candidate for Congress, George Santos, is utterly unqualified to serve for a host of reasons. He has openly discussed personally offering financial support for Jan. 6 rioters, compared abortion to slavery, and has a suspicious financial background that includes his former employment at an investment firm the SEC charged to be operating a Ponzi scheme, which could explain why he hasn’t filed his required candidate financial disclosures. However, Santos should be further rejected by voters from across the political spectrum due to his failure to stand against tax increases for those he seeks to represent.

In 2017 Republicans in Congress passed a tax reform bill that lowered federal corporate and income tax rates while severely reducing deductions afforded to taxpayers for state and local deductions. The plan offered a windfall for taxpayers in states like Texas, where there is no state income tax, as well as corporations that had their taxes lowered, but significantly increased the tax burden for New Yorkers.

Democrats uniformly voted against the bill and a handful of Republicans, including former GOP Long Island representative Peter King joined them in opposition. King blasted the law, saying the benefits to others were being “done at the expense of New York” and served as “a tax cut to many of the red states.”

Apparently blind to partisan allegiances, Santos has come out in favor of increasing taxes on those he seeks to represent. Santos described the deduction as a “handout” in a November 2021 tweet, tweeted in support of Republican Mick Mulvaney after a CNBC debate with Congressman Tom Suozzi, who was arguing to reinstate the deduction in December 2020, and tweeted that the change “mainly affects high earners” in January 2021.

These positions are misguided, as analyses have shown that the majority of taxpayers in the 3rd District benefited from the deduction, clearly indicating the deduction provided value to more than just high earners. Moreover, the change pulls massive amounts of resources out of New York that would be used to stimulate our economy and sends them to other states. This was the key point former Congressman King was making and appears to be completely lost on Santos.

Democratic candidate for Congressman Robert Zimmerman has been unequivocal in his opposition to the tax change and in his support for a full restoration of the state and local tax deductions. He is an owner of a successful small business himself in Great Neck and has the good sense to know what will actually help those he seeks to represent. With voters rightfully concerned about rising inflation and potentially stormy waters ahead for the economy, Robert Zimmerman offers the far stronger option to represent us.

I am proudly supporting Robert and encourage Democrats, Republicans, and Independents to do the same.

Peter Fishkind

Great Neck