Asks Teachout:  How much did you pay?

Kinderhook, NY — September 21, 2016 … John Faso and his wife Mary Frances paid a total of $12,598 in local property taxes in 2015, the Faso campaign today announced.

In releasing his 2015 tax payments, Faso — who built a reputation in the state Assembly as a fiscal hawk because he cut spending and balanced budgets — wants residents to know that he understands the burden of property taxes and is committed to reform.

“I know how hard it can be for residents in this district to pay their rising property taxes and bills while their wages remain stagnant or are shrinking,” Faso said.  “There are clear distinctions between me and Professor Teachout.  I support the property tax cap; she opposes it.  I have proposed a plan to finally address New York’s Medicaid mandate on property taxpayers. Teachout made a lame attempt to copy this plan but isn’t serious about property tax reform.”

Included in the breakdown were: $8,210 to the Ichabod Crane School District; $3,334 to the Town of Kinderhook and Columbia County; and $1,054 to the Village of Kinderhook where the Fasos have lived for the past 33 years.

In addition to paying property taxes and living in this district for more than three decades, Faso has long advocated for a property tax cap. Professor Zephyr Teachout, on the other hand, not only opposes such a cap but supports rolling it back.

“Professor Teachout is clueless about living in upstate New York and the burden property taxes impose on homeowners and small businesses. She is clueless because she just moved here and has never had to pay property taxes,” Faso added. “Had she lived here and been more involved in this community, she might understand; but she doesn’t.”

Faso has a long record of cutting taxes and closing budget deficits that go back to his tenure as Minority Leader in the Assembly, where he developed and pushed proposals that led to real balanced budgets – including the first reduction in state spending in decades while closing a $5 billion deficit. He championed legislation that made a difference for tens of thousands of families such as the STAR program and education and real property tax reform. A former board member of the Rockefeller Institute of Government, Faso also served for three years as a member of the Control Board that worked to fix the financial and managerial issues of the City of Buffalo and its school system.

Faso is running on a platform centered around key reform principles to help small businesses, notably simplifying the tax code, ending corporate welfare, investing in small businesses and ending Washington’s regulatory madness.

John Faso (R-Kinderhook) is former Republican leader of the state Assembly and candidate for Congress in the 19th Congressional district. To learn more about Faso, visit johnfaso.com.

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