East Palestine gets its disaster tax relief

The IRS announced that many payments for people affected by the train derailment last year in East Palestine, Ohio, will be tax-free.

That’s a win for vulnerable Ohio Democrat Sen. Sherrod Brown, who urged the Biden administration to declare that derailment-related payments qualify for disaster tax relief.

It also takes away one incentive that Senate Democrats might have had to hold a vote on the Wyden-Smith tax bill or a separate House-passed package of disaster tax relief measures.