New Jersey’s Congressional delegation unveiled a bill Monday that calls for eliminating the $10,000 cap on state and local property tax deductions — a product of the federal 2017 tax cuts opponents said will hurt taxpayers in states such as New Jersey.
The measure is called the Stop Attacking Local Taxpayers (SALT) Act of 2019, which fully restores the tax deduction — U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez, D-NJ; U.S. Rep. Frank Pallone Jr., D-6th District; and Rep. Bill Pascrell Jr., D-9th District, unveiled the measure at a Monday afternoon press conference at the Saddle Brook office for accounting firm RotenbergMeril.
“We’re just two weeks into the tax-filing season, and thousands of taxpayers across New Jersey are now fully realizing how bad the Trump Tax Law and its gutting of the property tax write-off is for them and their families,” Menendez said Monday.
The measure also drew the backing of the state’s sole Republican in Congress, Rep. Chris Smith of the state’s 4th District.
The New Jersey sponsors painted an anecdote of New Jersey residents seeing considerable increases on their tax bill this year because of the newly imposed cap, with many residents paying upwards of double the cap on their property taxes.
“The Republican tax bill lavished massive tax cuts on the largest corporations and wealthiest households, all while making many of New Jersey’s working families pay more—not less—in taxes and hurting state and local governments’ ability to provide essential public services,” Democratic U.S. Sen. Cory Booker, a 2020 presidential contender, said in a statement yesterday.
But the measure success in the U.S. Senate is uncertain, as Iowa Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley, who chairs the Senate Finance Committee, vowed to not revisit lifting the cap.
