A group of lawmakers in the U.S. House launched the SALT, or State and Local Tax, Caucus for the 118th Congress.
The SALT Caucus — led by U.S. Reps. Andrew Garbarino (R-NY), Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ), Young Kim (R-CA), and Anna Eshoo (D-CA) – was created to fight to provide SALT relief, reduce the tax burden on constituents and help make life more affordable for middle-class families.
“As tax day approaches, it marks another year of my constituents getting the short end of the stick because it’s another year that they’re not able to deduct the entirety of their state and local taxes,” Garbarino, SALT Caucus co-chair, said. “In my community, there are teachers, firefighters, and police officers whose property taxes alone far exceed the $10,000 cap. These are hard-working, middle-class Americans who are being double taxed and penalized for living in a high-cost, high-productivity area. We on the SALT Caucus stand together, united and committed to finding a bipartisan fix to an injustice that affects working-class Americans across the country.”
The SALT tax deduction was capped in 2017 as part of the Tax Cut and Jobs Act. The caucus would like to see it fully restored.
“Plain and simple: restoring SALT will get more dollars back into the pockets of hard-working families who are already struggling with high costs,” Gottheimer, SALT Caucus co-chair, said. “I’ve heard the arguments from the far right, and I’ve heard the arguments from the far left. But what they miss every time is that restoring the SALT deduction will lower taxes for millions of real, everyday, middle-class families who we represent. I literally hear about it every single time I’m out in Jersey. At the grocery store, at the post office, at our schools from parents, when I’m visiting a police station: people are always asking about SALT.”
Garbarino, Gottheimer, Kim, and Eshoo are all co-chairs of the caucus.
“Californians in my district and across my state have been burdened enough by high state taxes and rising costs of living and housing. They shouldn’t be hurt even more for state and local tax costs at the federal level,” Kim said. “There are many of my colleagues on both sides of the aisle from states across the country whose constituents are unfairly hurt by the current cap on SALT deductions. I am proud to help once again create the bipartisan SALT caucus of like-minded members so we can bring relief to middle-class families in our districts.”
The caucus includes 33 members of the House.
“The cap on the SALT deduction is an attack on the middle class, raising taxes on 200,000 families in my Congressional District,” Eshoo said. “Prior to the 2017 tax law, my constituents claimed an average deduction of $63,083, and as a co-chair of the bipartisan SALT Caucus, I’m firmly committed to restoring this vital deduction for Californians.”