GOP Budget Holdouts Demanding Higher SALT Cap Hold Up Tax Relief for All Americans

It’s no secret: New York state and New York City taxes are too high. Low-income families suffer. Spending money shrinks. Albany and New York’s City Hall don’t fix the problem. Instead, they look to Washington, D.C., for a bailout. Cue Representatives Nick LaLota and Mike Lawler, both Republicans, holding up tax relief for the whole country just to paper over bad state and local tax and spending decisions in New York. A proposal under consideration in the U.S. Congress would raise the benefit of the State and Local Tax deduction from its current cap at $10,000, to instead be $30,000 but with firm limits. It would cut taxes for 93 percent to 97 percent of the two representatives’ constituents.Yet the Republican holdouts — Messrs. LaLota, Lawler, and their friends from New Jersey and California — wanted an even more generous deal. A more expansive deduction, say allowing up to $80,000 in SALT deductions by a married couple, would reduce federal revenues by $356 billion over 10 years. That would be a budget buster that doesn’t help renters, working-class families, or small-business owners. Late Tuesday, Speaker Johnson and the SALT holdouts moved closer to a deal that would raise the SALT cap to $40,000, with some income limits on eligibility.If Congress agrees to raise the SALT cap, whatever the increase, though, we would encourage something terrible: The higher a local government hikes its property taxes, the more its wealthiest taxpayers benefit. Maybe residents of places like Scarsdale, Great Neck, and Westfield won’t mind higher property taxes, but we should be encouraging property tax reductions elsewhere, not increases. After all, $356 billion is a lot of money, even for the federal government. For that amount, the New York City Department of Public Works could gold-plate all the roads in the congressional districts of Messrs. LaLota, Lawler, and their friends. The 4,000 miles of roads in Mr. Lawler’s district, multiplied by 24 feet wide and 1 micron thick plating, would require 2 million pounds of gold, or, at current prices, $93 billion.With the federal revenue foregone by the SALT deduction, America could double our fleet of aircraft carriers. Right now, the United States Navy has 11 aircraft carriers, with the current Gerald R. Ford-class nuclear-powered aircraft carrier program replacing retiring carriers. A brand new aircraft carrier costs $13 billion, according to a 2023 report by the Congressional Research Office. The cost of the aircraft onboard is about just as much, meaning $356 billion could buy 13 brand-new aircraft carriers and a full complement of aircraft for each. We could even name five of them for the SALT holdouts: United States Ship Mike Lawler? Caution: Major projects overseen by the Pentagon are plagued by cost overruns, delays, and poor performance, so members of Congress should be careful about lending their names to this exercise.If military spending isn’t your thing, $356 billion could build a million new homes, enough to ease housing shortages in every state, including in New York, where affordable housing is as scarce as parking.Or we could pay down some of the national debt, avoiding $67 billion in interest payments. Think of where that money could go. Also, $356 billion could get us 435 brand-new hospitals, 435 new universities, and 435 seasons of the “Andor” TV series, a great package of amenities for each congressional district. All for the same price tag as this one tax deduction.Or we could actually double the economic growth from the pending tax bill with one smart, simple change: make permanent the policy known as full expensing. It allows businesses to deduct their equipment purchases when they make them, rather than over time. That gives businesses the confidence to invest in new equipment, technology, and facilities, and would create 153,000 new jobs. That’s how you build long-term growth and wealth for working families.The SALT cap is one of the only things pushing Albany and City Hall to get serious. Undo it or weaken it and they have no incentive to correct their bad habits.New Yorkers shouldn’t have to pay more and get less. It’s time to reform the state tax system to be more efficient, less wasteful, and more accountable to the people who pay the bills. Stop holding national tax reform hostage for a break that helps the few, costs a fortune, and dodges the real problem.

GOP Budget Holdouts Demanding Higher SALT Cap Hold Up Tax Relief for All Americans

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