Maria's Monday Memo

Maria's Monday Memo

Senator Maria Cantwell's Weekly Update for Washington State

Listening to Your Concerns About Social Security

One of the most important issues that Congress will take up this year is Social Security. Any changes that are made to the Social Security system will have profound and lasting consequences for the retirement security of generations of Americans . As the debate continues, I believe it's important for Washingtonians to be able to know how various proposals under consideration could affect them. That's why my colleague Sen. Patty Murray and I are leading a roundtable discussion this Thursday, March 31, to discuss how changes to the Social Security system will affect you and your family.

For a number of reasons, Social Security is particularly important to women, and we're fortunate that several of our fellow Senators - Mary Landrieu of Louisiana , Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas , and Barbara Mikulski of Maryland - will join us for this discussion. The event will take place at 1:30 p.m., at Town Hall Seattle, which is located at 1119 Eighth Avenue . (The entrance is on Seneca Street .) If you would like to attend, please RSVP at either (206) 220-6400 or (206) 553-5545. I hope to see many of you there, and I look forward to hearing your views.

Fighting the Connection Between Identity Theft and Meth Abuse

I continue to hear from local law police about the growing connection they're seeing in our communities between identity theft, the nation's fastest-growing crime, and the use and production of methamphetamines. The number of crimes involving both meth abuse and identity theft is growing at an alarming rate. For example, according to the Spokane County Sheriff's Property Crimes Task Force, 100 percent of the county's large-scale identity theft busts in 2004 had connections to meth. W hat Washington cops are seeing firsthand mirrors similar anecdotal evidence from around the country suggesting a strong connection between these two crimes.

This week I'll be touring our state, meeting with local law enforcement, business leaders and ID theft victims in Spokane , Seattle and Vancouver , to learn more about the interaction between meth and ID theft crimes, and their impact on communities and businesses. I have worked in the Senate to fight both of these crimes - by co-sponsoring a measure to restore funding to help local law enforcement agencies clean up hazardous meth labs, and by passing legislation to give police the tools they need to solve ID theft crimes and to empower victims to repair damage to their credit ratings - and I'll continue to work in the Senate to see that our local jurisdictions have the resources, information, and funding they need to protect our communities from both of these crimes.

Working to Extend the Sales Tax Deduction for Washington Taxpayers

Last October, Congress passed and the president signed into law my legislation that allows Washington state residents to deduct state and local sales taxes from their annual federal income tax returns. In most other states, taxpayers are allowed to deduct state income tax from their income that is taxed by the federal government. However, until my bill passed, residents of states that have no state income tax but have a higher sales tax had not been allowed to deduct their state sales tax since 1986. As a result, more than 1.2 million Washingtonian tax filers are expected to benefit from this tax cut. On average, the sales tax deduction will give state residents a tax cut of between $519 and $575 per year. The state Department of Revenue estimates that Washingtonians should save $500 million per year, giving the state's economy a substantial boost.

However, the legislation was passed for only two years - 2004 and 2005. I strongly believe that Congress must now act to make this tax cut permanent. Earlier this year, I teamed up with Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-TN) and Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX) to introduce a measure in the Senate that will do just that. Last week, I called on the leaders of the House and Senate Budget Committees to include an extension of the sales tax deduction through 2010 in next year's budget. Washington state taxpayers need and deserve greater fairness in our tax system.

http://cantwell.senate.gov/updates/weekly_update.html