Scott Van Voorhis

Who could have imagined that President Donald Trump’s version of “tax reform” would turn out to be nothing more than a massive stick-up of blue states like Massachusetts? It’s not like the guy is vindictive or anything.

Trump and his toadies in Congress say they want to slash the corporate tax rate in bid to kick the economy into higher gear. And the economy could certainly use some pumping up after years of stop-and-go growth following the Great Recession. But their plan to stick Democratic strongholds like Massachusetts with the bill effectively smears the proposal with a thick layer of partisan muck.

The Trump tax plan takes aim at key breaks that help make life in fast-growing but expensive blue states like Massachusetts and California, including deductions for mortgage interest and state and local taxes. However, that’s not the worst of it. No, what’s really galling is that the Bay State and other blue states already bigly subsidize Trumpland.

It’s an often underreported fact that Massachusetts, California, New Jersey and other states with more progressive leanings are paying more into the federal till then they are taking out. As you’ve already guessed, the money is going to pay for all sorts of benefits the Trump-loving red states love to bash, things like food stamps and Medicaid.

And the numbers are not small. Massachusetts was No. 3 on the list of the top donor states the last time the Tax Foundation, a nonpartisan think tank, ran the numbers a decade ago.

Bay State tax payers were paying over $9,792 per capita to Uncle Sam and getting only $8,677 back in federal aid. That’s just 82 cents for every dollar in federal taxes paid.

Trump-loving Alabama, by contrast, paid just $5,434 per capita in federal taxes, but received $9,263. That’s $1.66 back from Washington, D.C., for every $1 sent in for a state that appears poised next month to elect Bible-thumping ignoramus Roy Moore to the Senate. Not exactly a great exchange there.

The Givers And The Takers

A recent survey by Wallet Hub found that not much has changed in the past 10 years, with the blue states giving and the red states taking.

Kentucky, Mississippi, New Mexico and Alabama are the states most dependent on federal dollars, while Massachusetts is one of the least dependent, along with New Jersey and California.

But Trump’s tax scheme – let’s call it for what it is, for it’s not “reform” – would make this gap between the givers and the takers, between Massachusetts and Alabama, even wider.

Capping the mortgage interest deduction at $500,000 may seem generous in states where the median price hasn’t even broken $200,000, but it’s hardly a secret that it can cost well over half a million to buy anything habitable even in middle-class suburbs like Natick, Waltham and Watertown.

Wiping out the deduction for state income and sales taxes – and capping the deduction on property taxes at $10,000 – will also raise taxes on more than a few hard-working families in the middle-class across Massachusetts. Just repealing the deduction for state taxes alone could hike payments for more than 30 percent of families across Massachusetts, according to Vox, with probably an even higher percentage in Greater Boston.

Beyond the fairness issue – and it’s a big one – forcing blue states to pay more to underwrite a big corporate tax break fails miserably on a couple other key counts.

Massachusetts and California and a number of other blue states have led the way out of the Great Recession, so why now punish some of the most productive, dynamic and creative parts of the country? You are supposed to reward success, not penalize it.

It’s also hard to see – if this big mess of a tax bill ever gets passed – how doubling down on the robbery of the blue states and sending the money to red states is politically sustainable in the long run.

There is already a push for succession bubbling in California, with polls showing 30 percent support for breaking away from the union. Fortunately, there’s no similar movement in Massachusetts, but it’s a worrisome development in a state known to be a national trendsetter.

Succession is just about the worst idea out there, but getting fleeced by the Trumpster will only fuel such fringe movements. Here’s hoping the Trump tax bill goes the way of the Obamacare repeal.