Summit County Labor News

TAX MELON IS EYED BY REALTORS

If the president of the National Association of Real Estate Boards has his way, taxes paid on real estate will be deducted from federal income taxes, and rent control will be prohibited by Constitutional amendment.

While Joseph Lund of Boston was taking those positions in an address to the NAREB convention at Miami Beach, Fla., other leaders of the realtors' group said they were prepared to step up their drive against rent control anywhere, even in critical defense areas, public housing and federally-administered slum-control programs.

Under Lund's plan, a man whose federal tax amounted to $1,000, say, and who paid $300 in local real estate taxes, could have the $300 deducted from his income levy, leaving his latter bill at $700. At present, real estate taxes are deductible items which may be subtracted from a person's income before he figures his tax.

Individuals with the largest real estate holdings would benefit the most from Lund's plan.

Meanwhile other officials of the NAREB predicted that the new Congress will provide "a more favorable climate" for the industry. The group began a campaign to have Congress abolish the Housing and Home Finance Agency, which administers governmental housing activity.

"So long as there is one over-all agency directing housing matters," a convention officer said, "there will be the temptation on the part of politicians, whether Republican or Democratic, to meddle in the private enterprise field. Our position is that the least government you have in housing the better housing the people will get with the least possibility of socialization of our economy."

NAREB policy-makers made clear that they intend to be "on guard" against GOP legislators who may be inclined to support housing or rent control.

At the same time, Lund said he expected that Congress and President-elect Eisenhower would keep prices "stabilized."