COLUMBUS, Ohio — The Republican campaign to reduce the tax burden on Americans has crossed a fine line with Senate candidate Bernie Moreno's pledge to limit federal taxes on police officers and other first responders.
“If elected, I will immediately introduce legislation to cap police officers' income taxes at 5 percent,” Moreno said Friday during a press-only address on police and immigration reform. “This isn't just about police officers. It's about firefighters and other emergency workers, too.”
Moreno, accompanied by about 30 Ohio sheriffs, said the money for these tax cuts could be “easily” recouped by cutting federal funding to states, cities and “unscrupulous prosecutors” who “don't play by the rules” on immigration.
“The U.S. government can never tax you more than 5 percent if you put your life on the line for us,” Moreno stressed. “We're going to stop the government from stealing money from emergency workers.”
His declaration is part of a larger trend this year among Republicans, who have dangled the possibility of exempting tips and overtime from taxes and increasing the child tax credit in an effort to galvanize inflation-weary Americans at the ballot box.
And it seems to be working.
“I used to be a Democrat,” Scioto County Sheriff David Saloman, 60, told The Post, “but we're short-staffed right now. We've lost a lot of people from law enforcement jobs. Instead of focusing on Republicans or Democrats right now, we should all be focused on the staffing crisis.”
Sorowman said Moreno's federal income tax limit would “undoubtedly” be a big help in getting more men and women into the military.
“If we cut that, it would mean a huge pay increase for basically every police officer,” he said. “We want to hire people, and they want to protect people, but this administration won't allow that.”
Greene County Sheriff Scott Unger pointed to his fellow sheriffs from the podium. “This is just a small sample,” he said. “The vast majority of sheriffs in this state support Bernie Moreno.”
Despite this local support, the practical operation and constitutional legality of Moreno's plan remain unclear.
Chris Devine, a political science professor at the University of Dayton, told The Washington Post that to make this happen, Republicans in Washington would have to overcome some very “complicated” hurdles.
“I think this is similar to the proposal first proposed by Donald Trump and then supported by Kamala Harris to eliminate the tip tax,” Devine says. “In both cases, certain types of workers qualify for tax cuts, which is unusual because tax rates are typically set by income level, not by type of occupation.”
Moreno and Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown are in a very close race that could determine which party controls the Senate.
