House candidate calls for tax change

Democratic congressional candidate Robert Daskas on Monday said that if elected, he would work to cut taxes on middle-class Nevadans while increasing taxes on the wealthy.

"When it comes to taxes, most of us share a pretty basic view, and that is we'd like to pay a lot less," Daskas said in a news conference at a union hall in Henderson. "But when we do have to pay taxes, I think we should be entitled to expect that our tax dollars are spent wisely."

The first-time candidate charged that Rep. Jon Porter, the Republican who represents the 3rd Congressional District, has voted to dole out billions in subsidies to "big corporations and special interests" while doing nothing to relieve economic pressures on working families.

Daskas repeatedly tied Porter to President Bush, seeking to paint him as a yes-man for Republican economic policies such as the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts, which he said directed $500 billion to the wealthiest 1 percent of Americans.

"The priorities in Washington, D.C., are simply wrong," he said. "When did it become OK to fight for 1 percent of Americans at the expense of the other 99 percent? That's why we need change, and that's why I'm running for Congress."

Monday's news conference at the International Union of Painters and Allied Trades building, timed to coincide with today's tax filing deadline, represented the first unveiling of policy proposals by Daskas, on whom local and national Democrats have pinned their hopes of unseating Porter after several close losses in the district. Congressional District 3, which encompasses mostly suburban areas of Clark County in a ring around the urban Las Vegas core, is closely divided between Democrats and Republicans.

Daskas said his work as a Clark County prosecutor has given him a sense of fairness and of right and wrong.

He said he would repeal subsidies to big oil companies and to companies that outsource jobs to other countries. He also pledged to promote the development of renewable energy sources.

Daskas presented several specific economic proposals that he said he would support if elected. He said he would increase the child care tax credit from $1,000 to $2,000, a departure from the Democrats' current proposed budget, which would cut it to $500.

Daskas said he would increase the college tuition tax deduction for families making less than $100,000 to $10,000 per year, from its current level of $4,000. He said he would support expanding property tax and mortgage interest deductions for homeowners, allowing military families to count combat pay toward the earned income tax credit, and giving tax breaks to small businesses that offer health insurance to employees.

Daskas said he would work to find a permanent fix for the alternative minimum tax and make permanent the provision that allows Nevadans to deduct state and local sales taxes from their federal taxes.

While Daskas said he supported extending some of the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts, such as those for married couples and small businesses, he would let others -- those he sees as handouts to "the ultra-wealthy" -- lapse.

A spokesman for Porter said the incumbent has been supportive of many of the family-friendly measures Daskas would seek to enact.

"The congressman has spent six years in Congress bringing tax relief to middle-class families," Matt Leffingwell said.

In his first term, Porter proposed legislation to make the child tax credit permanent, Leffingwell said. In the budget debate currently under way, Porter, a member of the House Ways and Means Committee, has offered an amendment to bring that credit back up to $1,000 and another to extend the state sales tax deduction; both amendments were voted down by the Democratic majority, he said.

Porter also previously sponsored legislation to make college tuition deductible, Leffingwell said.

Porter supports the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts in full, including those that apply to the rich, he said.

"The congressman has worked hard for comprehensive tax cuts," Leffingwell said. "He has worked hard to provide tax cuts for the middle class, and he has also worked hard to provide tax cuts for employers, whether they are small businesses or manufacturers or the industries Southern Nevada's economy relies on."

Contact reporter Molly Ball at mball@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2919.