Latest news with #Malliotakis
Business Insider
18-05-2025
- Business
- Business Insider
State and local taxes are at the center of the fight over Trump's big bill. Here's what taxpayers in every state pay.
A tax deduction known as SALT that helps affluent residents of high-tax states is standing in the way of President Donald Trump's " big beautiful bill." A small group of Republicans is fighting to raise or abolish the $10,000 cap on the amount of state and local taxes you can deduct from your federal return that was originally introduced in Trump's 2017 tax law. Lifting that cap would allow high-earning taxpayers in states and cities with high taxes to cut down what they owe to the feds. "It is a Republican principle to allow hardworking taxpayers to keep more of their hard-earned money," Rep. Nicole Malliotakis, a Republican from New York and member of the SALT caucus, a group of bipartisan representatives from states that would benefit from lifting the cap, said. "And that is the point that I have made over and over again in every room that I've been in on this discussion." Whether or not you care about SALT depends on how much you pay in state and local taxes. Americans in higher-tax states, like New York or California, would benefit from being able to deduct more from their federal taxes, while residents of states like Tennessee and Florida have a much lower local tax burden. The map below shows the per capita amount residents in each state pay in state and local taxes. In fiscal year 2022, the most recent year available, Washington, DC, had the highest tax collections per capita. High rates are mainly due to the need to maintain federal property, the Tax Foundation said. New York and California followed DC in the ranking. States with the lowest collections per capita were mainly in the South. The Tax Foundation said people making above $100,000, concentrated in six states, including Texas and New York, claimed 91% of the SALT benefit before the $10,000 cap was created in 2017. Now, SALT is in Congress's crosshairs, with House Ways and Means Committee members voting for provisions that would raise that cap to $30,000. Marc Goldwein, the senior vice president and senior policy director for the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, said that the figure "gives a bigger tax cut to people that already got a pretty big tax cut" under the 2017 legislation. Even so, the $30,000 already drew ire from SALT hawks, who want even more relief. Malliotakis said it wasn't easy to triple the deduction in this iteration, but now they're in negotiations to see what they can do to balance varying SALT interests. Meanwhile, hardliner GOP members shot down the first iteration of the bil l, saying they wanted deeper cuts in federal spending and to not increase the deficit — a big contrast to the Republicans hoping to deliver more relief in high-tax states. Malliotakis said that they're in active discussions with the chairman, speaker, and other committee members "to figure out if we can sweeten the pot a little bit." Discussions have touched on a higher deduction number, income limits, and the length of time the deduction will be in place. "At least we have a framework of what will satisfy the SALT caucus members or what potentially can satisfy the low-sodium members, as I like to call them," Malliotakis said. "And we will hopefully get to a good spot."
New York Times
15-05-2025
- Business
- New York Times
Why a $10,000 Deduction Is Blocking the G.O.P.'s $3.8 Trillion Tax Bill
A year ago, as New York Democratic groups strategized about how to connect with voters in an up-for-grabs special House election on Long Island, they expected Israel to be a major talking point and prepared accordingly. But all voters wanted to talk about was their high tax bills. The pivot came quickly. Gabby Seay, a Democratic organizer, recalled how canvassers were given talking points about how the Democratic candidate, Tom Suozzi, supported lifting a $10,000 cap on SALT deductions — the amount of state and local taxes that can be written off on federal tax returns. 'Most voters cannot talk about taxes with sophistication because it's complicated,' she said. 'But not SALT. It is part of the ethos of Long Island and the suburbs writ large. Voters remember when you take money out of their pockets.' The SALT deduction has become an outsize stumbling block for Republicans trying to pass a $3.8 trillion tax proposal that would extend President Trump's 2017 tax cuts and roll back subsidies for clean energy, among other things. A group of Republican House members, mostly from New York, New Jersey and California, have vowed to vote no on the package unless the cap, which helped pay for the 2017 cuts and expires this year, is raised or abolished. And even among the holdouts, there is dissension — something that drew attention on Tuesday night during a Republican caucus meeting with Speaker Mike Johnson. Some of the New York congressmen representing suburban districts, including Representatives Mike Lawler, Nick LaLota and Andrew Garbarino, asked that their colleague, Nicole Malliotakis, leave the meeting. Ms. Malliotakis represents a New York City district and supports raising the cap to $30,000; her colleagues want it abolished or raised significantly further. Hours later, the House Ways and Means Committee approved a measure early Wednesday morning to raise the cap to $30,000. Mr. Johnson said the issue had not been resolved, and talks were expected to run into the weekend. 'I do understand my colleagues' frustration,' Ms. Malliotakis said on Wednesday. 'I do understand that their districts are a bit different than mine,' she said, adding that she expected the cap could be raised in the coming days. 'Property taxes in Long Island and Westchester are much higher than in my district.' The issue is precarious for these Republicans, especially Mr. Lawler, who represents parts of Rockland and Westchester Counties and is considering a run for governor next year. He and most of the others represent districts where registered Democrats outnumber Republicans, but they have embraced President Trump and much of the MAGA movement. At the same time, the SALT issue seems to cross party lines, and New Yorkers may seek to blame officeholders if they fail to deliver sufficient relief to voters who pay some of the highest local and school taxes in the country. Polling in one of these competitive New York congressional districts showed that 72 percent of voters were more likely to back a candidate who supported legislation 'to restore the ability for New York taxpayers to deduct state and local taxes on their federal tax return.' 'It is a very salient issue that matters to people all across the spectrum,' Mr. Lawler said. 'It's a question of double taxation and fairness,' he added. 'Folks should not be penalized because they live in a high-tax state.' Mr. Lawler previously supported raising the cap to $100,000 for single filers and $200,000 for married couples. Raising the cap to $20,000 for individuals or $40,000 for couples would cost the federal government about $600 billion in lost tax revenue over the next decade, according to the Tax Policy Center. The tax bill House Republicans rolled out this week set a new, $30,000 cap on the deduction, with the limit shrinking for people making more than $400,000 per year. Several Republicans quickly rejected the offer, insisting that the House amend the bill to raise the cap even further, with the group at one point floating a cap as high as $124,000 for married couples. The standoff is critical for House Republican leadership. They can afford to lose only three votes and still pass the sprawling fiscal package, but a group of six House Republicans have so far insisted on a higher cap. At $3.8 trillion, the cost of the tax cut could still grow before running into the House's self-imposed ceiling of $4 trillion. 'We were pleased to see the reporting on the current Ways and Means bill, and they have a couple hundred billion dollars in room,' Mr. LaLota told reporters on Tuesday after the meeting with Speaker Johnson, Republican of Louisiana. Interviews with nearly two dozen residents of New York and New Jersey underscored the core argument of their Republican lawmakers: The value of their homes and the corresponding tax bills have quickly outpaced their middle-class salaries. Sean O'Connor, a police officer with the Orangetown Police Department and a Rockland County native, estimated that he paid about $20,000 a year in school and property taxes. His wife, a teacher in the local school district, is from Long Island, and he joked that they needed a loan to cover the costs of driving to visit their family each month. 'I wonder often how my kids will be able to stay here. It's just the cost. I don't know,' he said. 'How are my kids going to afford homes around here? What will the taxes be?' Because of the region's high costs, Michelle Urso, 70, and her husband were preparing to leave West Babylon on Long Island for a suburb of Charlotte, N.C. They stayed only because their daughter, who lives nearby, became pregnant and Ms. Urso feared being 'relegated to second-favorite grandma.' Ms. Urso, a retired nurse, said her family lost out on thousands of dollars in deductions after the 2017 change and continues to feel squeezed by the rising costs of essentials. Her husband is a Republican, and she is a Democrat. But they both agree the cap needs to be lifted or raised considerably. 'People think everyone on Long Island is rolling in dough, but we are not,' she said. 'We pay our bills, and we can go out to dinner or on an occasional vacation. But when I am going to the grocery store I look for items on sale.' Ms. Urso added that she had recently called the district office of her representative, Mr. Garbarino, to applaud his opposition to the cap. Matt Cohen, chief executive of the Long Island Association, described a recent event his organization hosted at which Long Island's four House members — two Democrats and two Republicans — all said they wanted the cap repealed in some form. The deductions have historically softened the blow of high housing costs and allowed teachers and other middle-class workers to maintain a foothold in the community, he said. 'It is a problem nationally, but nowhere is more acute than here when it comes to affordability issues,' Mr. Cohen said. 'This deduction was one of the great equalizers to reduce the tax burden for Long Islanders.' Even with the cap, New York had the country's highest average SALT deduction in the 2022 tax year, according to an analysis of I.R.S. tax data by the National Association of Realtors. In Mr. LaLota's district, for example, about 47 percent of taxpayers took the deduction in the 2017 tax year, compared with just 16 percent in 2022. Over the same period, the average deduction taken by taxpayers in the district dropped by about $10,000. A similar trend played out in Mr. Garbarino's and Mr. Lawler's districts. Both Ms. Malliotakis and Mr. LaLota were quick to blame local elected officials like Gov. Kathy Hochul, a Democrat, for the state's high taxes and spending. Ms. Hochul's recently passed state budget included billions in funding for tax cuts, school aid and other efforts to tackle affordability in the state. 'Governors like mine don't help at all when they continue to tax and overregulate,' Mr. LaLota said in an interview. 'Nevertheless, New York is a donor state that sends way more to Washington than we get back. SALT is something that make that issue a little more digestible for voters.'
Yahoo
08-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Republicans fall further apart on Trump's ‘big, beautiful bill'
House Republicans are falling further apart in negotiations on a reconciliation package that represents President Trump's first-year legislative agenda, with just weeks to go before their self-imposed deadline. GOP lawmakers on Wednesday sent conflicting signals on how to cut Medicaid, indicating they were no closer to a deal on one of the biggest points in their internal negotiations. On another key issue, raising the state and local tax (SALT) deduction cap, they lost ground in talks to reach a compromise. Republicans said they would pass a package Trump has described as his 'big beautiful bill' by the Memorial Day recess, which was always seen as an ambitious goal. With the first full week of May nearly at a close, they appear to have their work cut out for them. 'There's a lot of different parameters and there's a lot of different opinions,' said Rep. Nicole Malliotakis (R-N.Y.), a member of the SALT Caucus and Ways and Means Committee. 'And so we just got to figure it out.' Leaders of the House Energy and Commerce Committee and Ways and Means Committee met separately with their respective members on Wednesday to go over the pain points holding up agreements — SALT for Ways and Means, Medicaid for Energy and Commerce. The co-chairs of the SALT Caucus who want to raise the cap to benefit their constituents in high-tax states — Reps. Andrew Garbarino (R-N.Y.) and Young Kim (R-Calif.) — joined the Ways and Means meeting to discuss the deduction cap. But one SALT Caucus member who got a readout, Rep. Nick LaLota (R-N.Y.), gave a dismal assessment: If negotiations were on the 25-yard-line with 75 yards to go before, now they're on the 15-yard-line. In a sign of the work that must be done, Malliotakis said the SALT caucus did not present a number for their ideal deduction cap during the meeting. Kim, however, told Spectrum News that her ideal cap is $62,000 — a number that Malliotakis was coy on. 'I'm gonna try to get as high of a number as I can,' Malliotakis told reporters when asked about the figure. Meanwhile, House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Brett Guthrie (R-Ky.) gave a signal that appeared to contradict the one Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) sent a day earlier on Medicare cuts. Guthrie said the portion of the bill his committee is crafting may include 'per capita caps' on people in the Medicaid expansion population. Johnson on Tuesday night said Republicans would likely rule out making that controversial change as well as nix a plan to directly reduce the enhanced federal match for states that expanded Medicaid, known as the Federal Medical Assistance Percentage (FMAP). 'I wasn't in that meeting, so I don't know exactly what was said,' Guthrie said of Johnson's remarks while emerging from the meeting. He said it his 'understanding' that per capita caps 'were still kind of alive.' Guthrie said he still needs to talk to leadership about it. Asked about the disagreement Wednesday night, Johnson was coy but deferred to Guthrie. 'He's the chairman, they're working through it,' the Speaker said. 'I said likely for a reason because it's not a final decision and I'm, at the end of the day I defer to my chairs but we've got to build consensus around all the ideas so we'll see.' Guthrie's comments came after Johnson met with moderate Republicans worried about changes to Medicaid on Tuesday. Amid the uncertainty, hardline conservatives are also making a show of force in demanding deficit reductions. Rep. Lloyd Smucker (R-Pa.) led a letter with more than 30 other members on Wednesday warning House leaders from veering away from the House targets for cuts in the budget framework, as the Senate set lower targets. It is unclear how those differences would be reconciled. 'We reaffirm that our support depends, at minimum, on the bill's strict adherence to the House framework for instructions contained in the concurrent budget resolution,' the letter said. Both the Ways and Means and Energy and Commerce Committees are aiming to mark up their pieces of the legislation next week so that the House can meet its Memorial Day deadline. But neither markup has been officially scheduled. 'We're still hoping, for sure,' Guthrie said of the markup timeline. 'We're still working through all the provisions, still discussing.' Rep. Buddy Carter (R-Ga.), the chairman of the Energy and Commerce health subcommittee, said no decisions have been made on the details of the legislation. 'We have not put anything in yet, we have not taken anything out,' Carter said. Trump has insisted he does not want to cut Medicaid benefits. On Sunday, he again pledged to protect Medicaid, insisting that Congress wasn't planning to cut it. Republicans do have general agreement on other Medicaid changes like instituting federal work requirements; excluding noncitizens from eligibility; and letting states make eligibility checks more frequently. But Guthrie's committee is tasked with finding $880 billion in cuts to help reach the larger spending cut target of at least $1.5 trillion — and reaching that number without entertaining the more controversial measures would be incredibly difficult. Adding to the obstacles for lawmakers, a Congressional Budget Office analysis released Wednesday found millions of people would lose health insurance under the proposals Republicans are considering. For instance, a cap on Medicaid spending for beneficiaries in the expansion population would save $225 billion and result in 1.5 million additional people being uninsured by 2034. Moderate Rep. Mike Lawler (R-N.Y.) responded to news about the CBO estimates by reaffirming his opposition to per capita caps and other controversial Medicaid changes. 'As I have said throughout, I'm against any changes that would take away benefits from eligible recipients. I'm a no on per capita caps, changes to FMAP, or changes to the provider tax, among other proposed changes,' Lawler posted on X. Both per capita caps and an explicit reduction in federal match have been red lines for a number of moderate and vulnerable Republicans, while hard-line conservatives said deep Medicaid cuts were a necessity. 'I just don't think you get the necessary deficit reduction without keeping a lot of things on Medicaid table,' Rep. Andy Harris (R-Md), chairman of the ultra-conservative House Freedom Caucus, said Wednesday. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
The Hill
08-05-2025
- Business
- The Hill
Republicans fall further apart on Trump's ‘big, beautiful bill'
House Republicans are falling further apart in negotiations on a reconciliation package that represents President Trump's first-year legislative agenda, with just weeks to go before their self-imposed deadline. GOP lawmakers on Wednesday sent conflicting signals on how to cut Medicaid, indicating they were no closer to a deal on one of the biggest points in their internal negotiations. On another key issue, raising the state and local tax (SALT) deduction cap, they lost ground in talks to reach a compromise. Republicans said they would pass a package Trump has described as his 'big beautiful bill' by the Memorial Day recess, which was always seen as an ambitious goal. With the first full week of May nearly at a close, they appear to have their work cut out for them. 'There's a lot of different parameters and there's a lot of different opinions,' said Rep. Nicole Malliotakis (R-N.Y.), a member of the SALT Caucus and Ways and Means Committee. 'And so we just got to figure it out.' Leaders of the House Energy and Commerce Committee and Ways and Means Committee met separately with their respective members on Wednesday to go over the pain points holding up agreements — SALT for Ways and Means, Medicaid for Energy and Commerce. The co-chairs of the SALT Caucus who want to raise the cap to benefit their constituents in high-tax states — Reps. Andrew Garbarino (R-N.Y.) and Young Kim (R-Calif.) — joined the Ways and Means meeting to discuss the deduction cap. But one SALT Caucus member who got a readout, Rep. Nick LaLota (R-N.Y.), gave a dismal assessment: If negotiations were on the 25-yard-line with 75 yards to go before, now they're on the 15-yard-line. In a sign of the work that must be done, Malliotakis said the SALT caucus did not present a number for their ideal deduction cap during the meeting. Kim, however, told Spectrum News that her ideal cap is $62,000 — a number that Malliotakis was coy on. 'I'm gonna try to get as high of a number as I can,' Malliotakis told reporters when asked about the figure. Meanwhile, House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Brett Guthrie (R-Ky.) gave a signal that appeared to contradict the one Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) sent a day earlier on Medicare cuts. Guthrie said the portion of the bill his committee is crafting may include 'per capita caps' on people in the Medicaid expansion population. Johnson on Tuesday night said Republicans would likely rule out making that controversial change as well as nix a plan to directly reduce the enhanced federal match for states that expanded Medicaid, known as the Federal Medical Assistance Percentage (FMAP). 'I wasn't in that meeting, so I don't know exactly what was said,' Guthrie said of Johnson's remarks while emerging from the meeting. He said it his 'understanding' that per capita caps 'were still kind of alive.' Guthrie said he still needs to talk to leadership about it. Asked about the disagreement Wednesday night, Johnson was coy but deferred to Guthrie. 'He's the chairman, they're working through it,' the Speaker said. 'I said likely for a reason because it's not a final decision and I'm, at the end of the day I defer to my chairs but we've got to build consensus around all the ideas so we'll see.' Guthrie's comments came after Johnson met with moderate Republicans worried about changes to Medicaid on Tuesday. Amid the uncertainty, hardline conservatives are also making a show of force in demanding deficit reductions. Rep. Lloyd Smucker (R-Pa.) led a letter with more than 30 other members on Wednesday warning House leaders from veering away from the House targets for cuts in the budget framework, as the Senate set lower targets. It is unclear how those differences would be reconciled. 'We reaffirm that our support depends, at minimum, on the bill's strict adherence to the House framework for instructions contained in the concurrent budget resolution,' the letter said. Both the Ways and Means and Energy and Commerce Committees are aiming to mark up their pieces of the legislation next week so that the House can meet its Memorial Day deadline. But neither markup has been officially scheduled. 'We're still hoping, for sure,' Guthrie said of the markup timeline. 'We're still working through all the provisions, still discussing.' Rep. Buddy Carter (R-Ga.), the chairman of the Energy and Commerce health subcommittee, said no decisions have been made on the details of the legislation. 'We have not put anything in yet, we have not taken anything out,' Carter said. Trump has insisted he does not want to cut Medicaid benefits. On Sunday, he again pledged to protect Medicaid, insisting that Congress wasn't planning to cut it. Republicans do have general agreement on other Medicaid changes like instituting federal work requirements; excluding noncitizens from eligibility; and letting states make eligibility checks more frequently. But Guthrie's committee is tasked with finding $880 billion in cuts to help reach the larger spending cut target of at least $1.5 trillion — and reaching that number without entertaining the more controversial measures would be incredibly difficult. Adding to the obstacles for lawmakers, a Congressional Budget Office analysis released Wednesday found millions of people would lose health insurance under the proposals Republicans are considering. For instance, a cap on Medicaid spending for beneficiaries in the expansion population would save $225 billion and result in 1.5 million additional people being uninsured by 2034. Moderate Rep. Mike Lawler (R-N.Y.) responded to news about the CBO estimates by reaffirming his opposition to per capita caps and other controversial Medicaid changes. 'As I have said throughout, I'm against any changes that would take away benefits from eligible recipients. I'm a no on per capita caps, changes to FMAP, or changes to the provider tax, among other proposed changes,' Lawler posted on X. Both per capita caps and an explicit reduction in federal match have been red lines for a number of moderate and vulnerable Republicans, while hard-line conservatives said deep Medicaid cuts were a necessity. 'I just don't think you get the necessary deficit reduction without keeping a lot of things on Medicaid table,' Rep. Andy Harris (R-Md), chairman of the ultra-conservative House Freedom Caucus, said Wednesday.
Yahoo
07-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
SALT deal elusive as moderates, hard-liners dig in
House Republicans have yet to strike a deal on how to address the state and local tax (SALT) deduction cap, a lingering hang-up that has emerged as one of the biggest sticking points in the party's bill full of President Trump's legislative priorities. Reps. Andrew Garbarino (R-N.Y.) and Young Kim (R-Calif.) — co-chairs of the SALT Caucus — huddled with members of the House Ways and Means Committee during their weekly lunch meeting on Wednesday to discuss the deduction cap, which Republicans from high-tax blue states wants to raise, but deficit hawks are skeptical of. Leaving the gathering, key lawmakers said an agreement was still elusive. 'I don't think there's any deal,' said Rep. David Schweikert (R-Ariz.), who sits on the Ways and Means Committee. 'Not yet.' Rep. Nicole Malliotakis (R-N.Y.), a member of the SALT Caucus and Ways and Means panel, said the group is 'still working it out,' adding: 'We have been discussing a whole bunch of options inside, so we don't have any particulars just yet.' 'It's one of the, I think, the stickiest points of the entire reconciliation,' she added. Malliotakis said the SALT Caucus did not present a number for the new deduction cap in the meeting, and instead the group is 'working within the committee to see what we can come up with that is reasonable and can actually get the votes in that room before we worry about everyone else,' referring to the House Ways and Means Committee. She noted that they are 'getting there little by little,' but a number of hang-ups remain, including what the new deduction cap would be, whether the so-called marriage penalty is addressed, if there will be an income cap and whether they allow second homes to be deducted, among other questions. Schweikert also said the panel does not have 'the interaction numbers yet,' pointing to data based on what the new deduction cap would be. Even with the lingering issues, Malliotakis said she was hopeful the group could 'settle' the debate over the SALT deduction cap on Thursday. 'We're gonna go through every provision that we expect to be in the bill and settle on what the committee's gonna agree to on SALT,' she added. Wednesday's meeting marked the latest gathering between House Republicans over the SALT deduction cap, which has been the subject of heated debate for months. Republicans in high-tax blue states — including New York, New Jersey and California — are demanding that the cap, which currently sits at $10,000 for federal deduction, is raised in the Trump agenda bill. Hard-line conservatives, meanwhile, are pumping the brakes, raising concerns about how such a move would impact the deficit. The disagreement is stalling the Trump agenda bill. Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) had said he wanted all committees of jurisdiction to advance their parts of the package by the end of this week, but the Ways and Means Committee has not yet scheduled a markup. The SALT Caucus has not said what its ideal deduction cap would be, but a number of lawmakers in the group have introduced their own bills in recent years. Rep. Mike Lawler (R-N.Y.), for example, introduced a bill in January that would increase the SALT deduction cap to $100,000 for single filers and $200,000 for married couples who file jointly. Rep. Nick LaLota (R-N.Y.), meanwhile, has a bill that would hike the cap to $15,000 for single filers and $30,000 for married people filing together. Hard-liners, however, are skeptical of some of those proposals 'What is their magic number that they are happy with?' said Rep. Ralph Norman (R-S.C.), a member of the conservative House Freedom Caucus. 'The $100,000 figure I'm not for.' Despite the lack of an agreement, GOP leaders are arguing their plan has not gone awry. 'We're right on track,' House Ways and Means Committee Chair Jason Smith (R-Mo.) told reporters after the meeting. 'Everything is what we've always planned and anticipated.' Some lawmakers, however, are skeptical that there will be any immediate movement. Schweikert, who has served in the House since 2011, hearkened back to 2017, when congressional Republicans took months to enact the Trump tax cuts package. 'Grow up,' Schweikert said. 'This is the nature when you're doing complexity.' Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
