D.C. Delegate Rejects Federal Flat Tax Plan

WASHINGTON – D.C. Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton said she doesn't think a proposed federal flat tax has much of a future in the nation's capital.

Congress would have to give up billions of dollars in federal income taxes under the proposal, Norton said.

Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kansas, introduced his proposal for the optional tax for D.C. residents at a hearing last week. It could be an experiment for further national tax reform, Brownback said.

The plan would tax most D.C. residences at a single rate, and deductions, credits and exemptions would be eliminated. A family of four earning 28,000 a year would pay no federal taxes.

Norton said the plan would still hurt the city's poor and middle class residents and force many of them out of the city.