Chris Christie’s tax plan could cost you about $17,000, report says

Chris Christie got some decent airtime at the Tuesday night's GOP "undercard" debate — and with it, laid out a tax plan that could hit many New Jersey residents hard.

Christie said he'd radically simplify the tax code, doing away with most tax breaks, except those for home mortgage interest and charitable deductions. Christie also said he looked forward to "firing a bunch of IRS agents."

But NJ.com reports that since the tax breaks include the federal deduction for state and local taxes, New Jersey could be hit harder than most other states.

It cited 2013 IRS statistics showing about 41 percent of New Jersey residents used that deduction — claiming an average $16,882.

Christie argued removing the deduction would "put more pressure on governors and on local officials not to keep raising those taxes, saying we can deduct them.

Only Maryland and Connecticut have a higher percentage of residents who claim the deduction than New Jersey, according to the report.

According to a Congressional Budget Office analysis in 2013, the Joint Committee on Taxation estimates eliminating the state and local tax deduction would increase federal revenues by $954 billion from 2014 through 2023.

"The deduction for state and local taxes is effectively a federal subsidy to state and local governments," the CBO wrote. "That means the federal government essentially pays a share of people’s state and local taxes. Therefore, the deduction indirectly finances spending by those governments at the expense of other uses of federal revenues."