New York Republicans reject House's SALT deduction cap

(The Center Square) — Republican members of New York's congressional delegation are fuming over a House federal budget proposal that caps state and local tax deductions at $30,000, calling the plan "insulting" and saying they won't support it.

House Republicans are hammering out a budget that calls for cutting $1.5 trillion in spending to help offset the cost of extending President Donald Trump's 2017 tax cuts. House Speaker Mike Johnson, a Louisiana Republican, has said he wants Congress to pass Trump's “big, beautiful bill" by Memorial Day weekend.

However, New York Republicans, who had lobbied the Trump administration to increase the SALT cap, said they won't vote for the budget plan unless it includes a higher SALT cap.

In a joint statement. U.S. Reps. Mike Lawler, Elise Stefanik, Nick LaLota and Andrew Garbarino criticized the House Ways and Means Committee for "unilaterally" setting a lower cap with no notice, saying House budget writers proposed a cap "they already knew would fall short of earning our support."

"It's not just insulting — it risks derailing President Trump's one big bill," the GOP lawmakers wrote. "New Yorkers already send far more to Washington than we get back — unlike many so-called 'low states' that depend heavily on federal largesse. A higher SALT cap isn't a luxury. It's a matter of fairness."

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. In January, GOP lawmakers met privately with Trump at Mar-a-Lago to make their pitch for raising the cap.

Lawler and other Republicans have filed a bill that calls for lifting the cap on SALT to $100,000 for single filers and $200,000 for married couples. The cap is set to expire on Dec. 31, absent action by Congress.

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul has also called 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. A 2021 report by the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget said repealing the SALT cap would cost the federal government about $900 billion.

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.

New York Republicans also signed onto a letter from a dozen swing-district and centrist House Republicans warning Johnson that they won't vote for a budget reconciliation package that makes deep cuts to Medicaid.

Johnson responded with a statement that House Republicans "will strengthen, sustain, and secure Medicaid so we can preserve it for the vulnerable American populations it was designed to serve."