NY GOP lawmakers vow to sink Trump budget over SALT dispute

Dave Goldiner, New York Daily News on May 13, 2025

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Republican lawmakers from the New York suburbs are vowing to sink President Donald Trump’s sprawling budget plan over their demand for a much higher cap on deducting state and local taxes, or SALT.

Westchester County Rep. Mike Lawler and Long Island’s Rep. Nick LaLota say they plan to vote against Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill because it only includes an increase in the SALT cap to $30,000, much lower than the $62,000 or more they say is fair to the middle-class and affluent communities they represent.

LaLota Tuesday said Republican leaders could increase the SALT cap without blowing through their estimates for losing revenue from a range of tax cuts.

“Plenty of room for a SALT fix,” tweeted LaLota, who represents the pricey East End of the island. “Let’s get it done and pass the One Big Beautiful Bill.”

“Still a hell no,” LaLota declared to reporters on Capitol Hill.

A handful of other so-called blue state Republicans, including Rep. Andrew Garbarino, Rep. Elise Stefanik and Rep. Tom Kean Jr., are also opposed to the $30,000 cap, which also includes a $400,000 income cap.

All the lawmakers have repeatedly vowed to force Republican leaders to either eliminate or significantly increase the SALT cap, which was implemented in the 2017 Trump tax bill. The current cap is $10,000 but it would disappear altogether if no new bill is passed, a fact that the GOP rebels believe gives them leverage.

Staten Island Rep. Nicole Malliotakis, the only Republican lawmaker in New York City, says she is satisfied that the new number is fair to homeowners in her middle-class district.

Despite the tough talk, some insiders believe the suburban lawmakers will eventually cave and vote for the bill if House Speaker Mike Johnson makes a last-minute decision to sweeten the deal a bit.

Johnson can likely only afford to lose three Republican votes to pass the bill, due to the slim GOP majority. The SALT dispute is just one of several competing demands hi is juggling from factions in the fractious GOP caucus.

Democrats are already slamming the Republican lawmakers for failing to get the SALT cap eliminated altogether. They have signaled they will target the suburban lawmakers, most of whom represent competitive swing districts, in the 2026 midterms.

Trump and his Republican allies are seeking to use a parliamentary sleight-of-hand known as reconciliation to renew his signature tax cuts and enact big spending cuts. It requires the House and Senate to pass an identical bill to avoid a filibuster in the upper chamber, giving individual lawmakers outsized power.