By Billy House
Media General News Service
Media General News Service
A new study requested by Sen. Charles Grassley of Iowa (shown above at a news conference earlier this month) shows that State and local taxes paid by undocumented immigrants fail to offset the cost of public services provided to them.
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WASHINGTON -- State and local taxes paid by undocumented immigrants fail to offset the cost of public services that state and local governments provide, says a new study done for Congress.
The same report says state and local officials can do little to avoid or minimize some of these costs because they are limited by rules governing federal programs, court decisions, and state laws or constitutional requirements.
The non-partisan Congressional Budget Office report does not estimate how much more money, exactly, is spent nationally on public services for the estimated 12 million undocumented immigrants than the amounts taken in through their tax dollars.
But it said these costs are concentrated in programs that make up a large percentage of total state spending, particularly in the areas of education, health care, and law enforcement.
“The result is probably a modest negative impact on state and local budgets,” said Congressional Budget Office Director Peter Orszag, explaining the study's findings on the CBO's Web site.
By most estimates, spending for unauthorized immigrants accounted for less than 5 percent of total state and local spending for those services, the study said.
The study was done at the request of Sen. Charles Grassley of Iowa, the ranking Republican on the Senate Finance Committee, which writes tax legislation.
Previous studies have found that the fiscal impact of both legal and unauthorized immigrants is slightly positive for state and local governments – that the tax revenues they generate exceed the cost of government services they use.
But this new study instead focuses solely on the fiscal impact of undocumented immigrants.
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The study’s researchers acknowledged their work was difficult and imprecise. Differences in benefit programs and mixes of sales taxes, personal property taxes, real property taxes and income taxes vary greatly.
Meanwhile, advocates for immigrants complain that such studies produce merely snapshots in time – they don’t account for immigrants who move up the socio-economic ladder over time and, therefore, eventually pay higher taxes.
“Over time, these same immigrants increase their earnings, succeed, marry, buy homes, create businesses and naturalize, like immigrants have done throughout the history of this country,” said Angela Kelley, director of the Immigration Policy Center of the American Immigration law Foundation.”
The Social Security Administration has concluded that undocumented immigrants “account for a major portion” of the billions of dollars paid into the Social Security system under names or social security numbers that don’t match administration records; payments from which immigrants cannot benefit while undocumented.
And the Internal Revenue Service estimates that about 6 million unauthorized immigrants file individual income tax returns each year. Other studies have found more than half of the undocumented immigrants in the nation pay income, Medicare and payroll taxes.
In Florida, there was no immediate reaction from GOP Gov. Charlie Crist.
But Tampa Bay area U.S. Rep. Ginny Brown-Waite said the study’s findings should not come as any surprise.
“If you ask any county commissioner or mayor in my district, they could have told you this without the benefit of a CBO study,” she said. “Illegal immigrants frequently use emergency room care without insurance, send their children to local schools and drive on Florida’s highways, while paying few or no taxes to local municipalities that provide those services,” she said.
The report says these costs on local and state governments are no longer limited to the handful of states like Florida, Texas, California and New York that have been traditional first destinations for new immigrant populations.
It notes that the Pew Hispanic Center and other groups have noted marked increases since 1990 in the number of undocumented immigrants settling in such states as Georgia, North Carolina and Tennessee.
In its report, the Congressional Budget Office makes no recommendations.
"It is unfortunate that Congress has been unable to address the growing problem of illegal immigration,” said Grassley, in response to the study. “This report clearly shows that our state and local governments will pay the price of our continued inaction.”
Reporter Billy House can be reached at bhouse@mediageneral.com or at 1 (202) 662-7673.
The same report says state and local officials can do little to avoid or minimize some of these costs because they are limited by rules governing federal programs, court decisions, and state laws or constitutional requirements.
The non-partisan Congressional Budget Office report does not estimate how much more money, exactly, is spent nationally on public services for the estimated 12 million undocumented immigrants than the amounts taken in through their tax dollars.
But it said these costs are concentrated in programs that make up a large percentage of total state spending, particularly in the areas of education, health care, and law enforcement.
“The result is probably a modest negative impact on state and local budgets,” said Congressional Budget Office Director Peter Orszag, explaining the study's findings on the CBO's Web site.
By most estimates, spending for unauthorized immigrants accounted for less than 5 percent of total state and local spending for those services, the study said.
The study was done at the request of Sen. Charles Grassley of Iowa, the ranking Republican on the Senate Finance Committee, which writes tax legislation.
Previous studies have found that the fiscal impact of both legal and unauthorized immigrants is slightly positive for state and local governments – that the tax revenues they generate exceed the cost of government services they use.
But this new study instead focuses solely on the fiscal impact of undocumented immigrants.
.
The study’s researchers acknowledged their work was difficult and imprecise. Differences in benefit programs and mixes of sales taxes, personal property taxes, real property taxes and income taxes vary greatly.
Meanwhile, advocates for immigrants complain that such studies produce merely snapshots in time – they don’t account for immigrants who move up the socio-economic ladder over time and, therefore, eventually pay higher taxes.
“Over time, these same immigrants increase their earnings, succeed, marry, buy homes, create businesses and naturalize, like immigrants have done throughout the history of this country,” said Angela Kelley, director of the Immigration Policy Center of the American Immigration law Foundation.”
The Social Security Administration has concluded that undocumented immigrants “account for a major portion” of the billions of dollars paid into the Social Security system under names or social security numbers that don’t match administration records; payments from which immigrants cannot benefit while undocumented.
And the Internal Revenue Service estimates that about 6 million unauthorized immigrants file individual income tax returns each year. Other studies have found more than half of the undocumented immigrants in the nation pay income, Medicare and payroll taxes.
In Florida, there was no immediate reaction from GOP Gov. Charlie Crist.
But Tampa Bay area U.S. Rep. Ginny Brown-Waite said the study’s findings should not come as any surprise.
“If you ask any county commissioner or mayor in my district, they could have told you this without the benefit of a CBO study,” she said. “Illegal immigrants frequently use emergency room care without insurance, send their children to local schools and drive on Florida’s highways, while paying few or no taxes to local municipalities that provide those services,” she said.
The report says these costs on local and state governments are no longer limited to the handful of states like Florida, Texas, California and New York that have been traditional first destinations for new immigrant populations.
It notes that the Pew Hispanic Center and other groups have noted marked increases since 1990 in the number of undocumented immigrants settling in such states as Georgia, North Carolina and Tennessee.
In its report, the Congressional Budget Office makes no recommendations.
"It is unfortunate that Congress has been unable to address the growing problem of illegal immigration,” said Grassley, in response to the study. “This report clearly shows that our state and local governments will pay the price of our continued inaction.”
Reporter Billy House can be reached at bhouse@mediageneral.com or at 1 (202) 662-7673.