SALT caucus rejects tax-writing panel's offer of $30,000 deduction cap

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: The Hill

05/08/25 6:06 PM ET


Key New York House Republicans say they are rejecting a proposal from GOP leadership to raise the state and local tax (SALT) deduction cap to $30,000 in the party’s bill full of President Trump’s legislative priorities.

The House Ways and Means Committee, which oversees the tax portions of the GOP megabill, had been discussing increasing the SALT deduction cap from $10,000 to $30,000, two sources told The Hill, as the panel looks to resolve the key disagreement ahead of a planned preliminary vote next week. The panel met for hours behind closed doors Thursday. Leadership has not released any details about what they offered.

A quartet of Republican lawmakers in the SALT caucus — New York Reps. Elise Stefanik, Andrew Garbarino, Nick LaLota and Mike Lawler — said the $30,000 proposal was a nonstarter. “We’ve negotiated in good faith on SALT from the start—fighting for the taxpayers we represent in New York. Yet with no notice or agreement, the Speaker and the House Ways and Means Committee unilaterally proposed a flat $30,000 SALT cap—an amount they already knew would fall short of earning our support,” the group wrote in a statement.

“It’s not just insulting—it risks derailing President Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill.” “New Yorkers already send far more to Washington than we get back—unlike many so-called ‘low-tax’ states that depend heavily on federal largesse. A higher SALT cap isn’t a luxury. It’s a matter of fairness,” the lawmakers added. “We reject this offer.”

Read more: https://thehill.com/homenews/house/5291274-moderate-republicans-salt-deduction-cap/

[no_hypocrisy]

1. Understand this:

In several districts of New York and New Jersey, property taxes are as high as $40,000 annually. It depends upon the size of your property and your home.

The money goes to fund public education mostly.

Do the Math: a $10,000 cap on SALT deductions on federal taxes mean even billionaires have to pay taxes on an extra $30,000. That's no tax cut, right?

And it also means you're paying federal tax on already paid municipal tax, double taxation.

But hey, you gotta reduce The Deficit somehow, some way.

[thesquanderer]

3. re: "In several districts of New York and New Jersey, property taxes are as high as $40,000 annually"

Yes, but how many non-millionaires own such properties that they are paying property tax of over $30k? And even then, this cap only taxes them on the amount of property tax that exceeds $30k. While I sympathize with your double taxation argument, I say take the win, if the risk of rejecting the $30k cap could mean no adjustment to the current SALT rules at all, leaving it at $10k, which indeed affects tons of non-wealthy residents. For example, google tells me:

"Median annual Westchester County tax bill: $12,812, $10,412 higher than the national median property tax bill of $2,400."

[bucolic_frolic]

2. That's a complicated issue. So many ways to look at it.

High cost-of-living state. Taxpayers who can afford the real estate but don't like the taxes. Republicans suddenly realize blue states fund red states. It wasn't this way when they bought their property and lifestyle.

FEMA's dead so we're so done with looking after one another, no?