Almost all of New York's House Democrats draw a hard line on state and local tax deductions
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
Nearly every Democrat in New York's House delegation said Tuesday that they won't back tax hikes to fund President Joe Biden's infrastructure package without a full repeal of the $10,000 cap on state and local tax deductions.
© Susan Walsh/AP Photo Capitol Hill
That powerful bloc, representing 17 out of 19 Democrats in the delegation, sent a letter to House leaders to outline their position on the issue, known as SALT, as negotiations intensified across Washington this week on Biden's next major legislative priority.
"We stand ready to work with you on this critical issue, and we will not hesitate to oppose any tax legislation that does not fully restore the SALT deduction," the New Yorkers' letter, led by Reps. Jerry Nadler and Tom Suozzi, reads.
Every Empire State House Democrat except Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Kathleen Rice signed the letter, a copy of which was obtained by POLITICO.
The group is part of a growing chorus of Democrats calling to roll back the tax deduction cap instituted to help pay for the GOP's costly tax-cut package in 2017. Supporters of that push include Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who told reporters earlier this month that she hopes to secure the restoration of unlimited SALT deduction in the broader package.
"I think we're building momentum and we're continuing to build momentum," Suozzi said in an interview Tuesday.
Rolling back the SALT cap would give relief to taxpayers in blue states, who pay the highest rates of state and local taxes across the U.S. But the policy hasn't been without controversy in the party. Some progressive Democrats, including Ocasio-Cortez, have argued that rolling back the deduction — which would cost tens of billions of dollars the first year alone — would only help the wealthiest taxpayers.
"A lot of progressives support this, certainly from New York delegation, other states as well," Suozzi said, when asked about some of the liberal pushback on the proposal.
"When this was done by President Trump and the GOP, they weren't trying to be progressive, I can assure you on that. This had the biggest negative impact on progressive states," Suozzi said.
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The Salt deduction was a favorite way for high tax states to steal revenue from the federal government. I support the SALT cap, 10,000 is a reasonable deduction. I feel bad for people who are being over taxed by their state and local governments but the Salt deduction had become a backdoor subsidy with no means testing.
This would be the Democrat's version of "tax breaks for the rich."