Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer rips up a paper representing the SALT Cap as Senator Kirsten Gillibrand looks on.
Photo by Dean Moses
A slew of prominent New York lawmakers urged incoming President Donald Trump on Sunday to remove the SALT property tax deduction cap a day before he takes office.
The Empire State’s two senators — Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand — joined Reps. Jerrold Nadler, Laura Gillen and Dan Goldman at a Jan. 19 press conference where they lambasted the federal SALT program as an onerous burden on New York taxpayers.
“SALT is just an anchor around the necks of New Yorkers, middle-class New Yorkers, firefighters, police officers, teachers, government workers, and small business owners. They all have to pay more taxes because of what Donald Trump and the Republican Senate did in 2017,” Schumer said. “Let’s not forget there was Donald Trump and congressional Republicans who created the SALT cap in 2017 to begin with.”
SALT was a federal program that allowed itemizing filers to deduct state and local tax payments from their federal taxes, putting money back in their pockets. The cap was instituted in 2017 as part of Trump’s tax cut plan that year, which largely benefited the wealthiest Americans.
Gillibrand did not mince words Sunday when taking aim at the incoming president, putting the blame on Trump and fellow Republicans for keeping the SALT cap and costing New York taxpayers of all political stripes their hard-earned money.
“We are calling on President-elect Donald Trump and the congressional Republicans to fix the problem they created that has taken money out of New Yorkers‘ pockets for years,” Gillibrand said. “In 2017, Republicans imposed a $10,000 cap on SALT deductions, essentially robbing middle-class families in states like New York to pay the tax cuts for the uber-wealthy. The SALT production cap has cost New Yorkers as much as $12 billion every year since it took it back to 2018.”
Gillibrand charged that in order for Trump to take action on the tax, he would simply have to let the cap expire at the end of the year.
According to Politico, Trump may not go as far as eliminating the SALT cap, but he is open to reducing its burden. He reportedly told New York Republicans he is willing to negotiate a “fair number.”
“The president certainly wants to increase the deduction for SALT to provide more relief, because he knows that our mayors and governors are crushing taxpayers,” Brooklyn/Staten Island Republican Rep. Nicole Malliotakis told Politico.
Meanwhile, Goldman is urging Republicans to put their money where their mouths are and keep promises made on the campaign trail.
“With Trump’s Republican Party in full control of Washington, it is up to New York House Republicans to stand by their campaign promises and permanently reinstate the full SALT deduction,” Goldman said. “There are no excuses: you either deliver for your constituents, or you don’t.”