Originally published on March 15, 2023, by Aquiles Suarez for NAIOP.
President Joe Biden submitted his proposed fiscal year 2024 federal budget to Congress on March 9. While the term “March Madness” is usually associated with the NCAA’s college basketball tournament, you could be forgiven if you thought it might also apply to this budget proposal. That’s because it contains numerous tax increases that repeatedly failed to clear the House of Representatives and Senate when these chambers were controlled by Democrats. With the House now in the hands of a Republican majority, chances are low that a majority of these recycled provisions will make it into legislation.
But the president’s budget submission makes sense if you acknowledge that its primary purpose is as a political messaging document, meant to provide a contrast between his administration and Republicans in advance of the 2024 presidential election. It was somewhat predictable, therefore, that tax proposals which were part of the Biden “Build Back Better” agenda would resurface in the 2024 budget version. Anticipating this would be the case, earlier this year NAIOP members attending our Chapter Leadership and Legislative Retreat in Washington, D.C., met with their elected representatives on Capitol Hill, with tax policy a top NAIOP legislative priority discussed at their meetings.