Supporting State and Local Tax Deduction

Floor Speech

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Mr. ZELDIN. Mr. Speaker, tax day is approaching on April 15, and I again rise to state my support for the State and local tax deduction.

There were many positive aspects to the tax bill that I voted against.

I support reducing the corporate tax rate, but it should not have been done by increasing personal taxes on any hardworking middle-income Long Islander in my district.

The $10,000 cap that was made to the SALT deduction was a punch in the gut to middle-class taxpayers in my district.

There were positive aspects, as I said, of the tax bill: expanding the medical expense deduction, preserving education and student deductions, doubling the child tax credit, the AMT changes.

And as I stated, changing the corporate tax rate helps make the United States more competitive globally, to improve our business climate, to help create more jobs, but it should not be done by raising taxes on the personal income side.

I have been working closely with colleagues on both sides of the aisle to address this issue. I have been working with Democratic Representative Josh Gottheimer of New Jersey. I cosponsor legislation between Peter King, a Republican, and Tom Suozzi, a Democrat, H.R. 257. Nita Lowey introduced a bill that I cosponsor, H.R. 188.

Mr. Speaker, I encourage all my colleagues in this Chamber to work together to address this important issue, because it is important to deliver tax relief to all Americans.

Now, I do have an important message, though, to the Governor of New York, the mayor of New York City, those who are running State and local governments in States like mine. The reason why our State and local tax deduction was as high as it was is because our State and local taxes are as high as they are.

So everybody needs to look in the mirror and figure out what we can do to do our part, because all levels of government need to deliver tax relief.

My home State of New York has some of the highest taxes in the entire country. It is ranked as the second worst State in the entire Nation to do business. You couple that with the loss of the SALT deduction, and it has only sped up the amount of businesses and individuals who are choosing to leave our State.

It was very upsetting to see an effort by elected officials, some here in Congress, others in the State legislature to push away 25,000 good-paying Amazon jobs that would have been coming to Long Island City.

Now, we all must do our part. The State and local tax deduction has been around in some way since, you could say, Abraham Lincoln's administration. He used the State and local tax deduction to help keep this union together and fight the Civil War.

It was a tough debate a little over a year ago now when the tax law was passed through both Chambers and signed by the President, but next month, as April 15 approaches and people have to pay their taxes, they are going to be seeing less in their return, many will be seeing less in their return where I am from. Some will be getting more, and that is great.

I didn't oppose this bill because all of my constituents were going to see a tax increase. It was that too many were going to see a tax increase.

Now, all, when they are getting their tax return need to understand that throughout the year, money was added to their paycheck because of a change in the way that taxes were calculated with withholdings through the year. So that is something else to factor in when trying to figure out the impact of the tax bill. Again, some people will be seeing less that they owe, others will be seeing more.

In this Chamber, in the halls of the New York State capitol, in the halls of State capitols everywhere, in city halls, in county and town governments all throughout America, we all need to do our part to deliver tax relief.

Because at all levels of government, really, it is not a revenue issue that has been leading to the situation that we face as a country and in our local governments. It has been an expenditure issue.

Whether you could save a dollar, a million dollars, a billion dollars, wherever you can find money to save, we need to get better at how we tax and spend the people's money. We need to spend it as if it is our own.

Mr. Speaker, there is a message here to my colleagues in this Chamber. I ask for their support of this legislation, multiple bills that have been introduced. I make that plea to the Senate, to the administration, and also to all those representatives of State and local governments responsible for the fact that the reason our deduction was as high as it was, was because our State and local taxes were as high as they were. But we need to do our part here in this Chamber.

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