(The Center Square) — Republican members of New York’s congressional delegation are set to meet with President-elect Donald Trump this weekend and push for an increase to the federal deduction for state and local taxes.
Reps. Mike Lawler, Nicole Malliotakis, Nick LaLota and others are expected to join GOP lawmakers from California and New Jersey to huddle privately with Trump on Saturday at Mar-a-Lago to make their pitch for raising the cap on the federal deduction for state and local taxes as part of the sweeping tax reform package Republicans hope to pass in the new legislative session.
“We’re going to go over the impact SALT has had in each of our districts, how many people take SALT versus the standard deduction, what are the income levels that are affected,” Malliotakis told Politico earlier this week. “I think that’s a big sticking point for the members that will be there.”
Ahead of the meeting, Lawler has re-introduced a bill that calls for lifting the cap on SALT to $100,000 for single filers and $200,000 for married couples.
“With so many families struggling to navigate a crippling affordability crisis, having to pay a tax penalty just for being married adds insult to injury,” Lawler said in a statement.
On the campaign trail, Trump pledged to “get SALT back” by restoring the deduction that was mostly eliminated from the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, which capped the deduction to the first $10,000 in local and state tax payments.
The cap is set to expire on Dec. 31, absent action by Congress.
Lifting the SALT cap is a key priority for New York Republicans and Democrats, who say it disproportionately hurts taxpayers in blue states like New York, New Jersey and Massachusetts, where property and state income taxes are relatively high. Lawler and other Republicans have vowed to oppose any tax relief bill that didn’t include lifting the cap.
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul has called on the state’s GOP congressional delegation to push for a full repeal of the SALT cap, saying anything less than that is “unacceptable.” She said the cap has cost New Yorkers up to $12 billion a year since it took effect in 2018.
“The New York Republican delegation owes middle class New Yorkers a full repeal of the SALT cap,” the Democrat said in a statement. “Republicans have drained billions directly from the pockets of their own constituents, and now it’s time for them to deliver. No excuses. No half measures. It’s all or nothing – New Yorkers deserve a full repeal.”
A 2021 report by the nonpartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget estimated that a complete repeal of the SALT cap would cost the federal government about $900 billion.
