Suozzi calls on New Yorkers to stop supporting pols who oppose restoring SALT deductions

New Yorkers who contribute to politicians opposing restoration of the full State and Local Tax deduction are "consciously undermining our state and contributing to our demise," Rep. Thomas Suozzi said Monday.

When the 117th Congress is seated in January, Suozzi and other Democrats plan to resubmit legislation calling for a full repeal of the SALT cap, the Glen Cove Democrat said during a Zoom news conference in which he urged New Yorkers not to financially support lawmakers who oppose the bill.

By April 2021, Suozzi said he will issue a report identifying New Yorkers who contributed at least $1,000 to members of Congress opposing the SALT deduction repeal.

"Anybody who supports the cap of the SALT deduction is hurting New York," Suozzi said. "I am calling on New Yorkers to stop funding those politicians killing our state; killing our city; killing New York. We need to make sure we hold them accountable."

The GOP's $1.5 trillion tax reform bill, which narrowly passed the House and Senate in 2017, limits deductibility of state and local income and property taxes to $10,000 on federal tax returns.

More than 250,000 families, or 43% of households in Suozzi's Third District, which covers most of Long Island's North Shore and parts of Queens, claim the state and local tax deduction at an average rate of $18,300, Suozzi staffers said.

On Long Island, where residents pay among the highest property taxes in the nation, roughly 530,000 homeowners, or more than a third of all tax filers in Nassau and Suffolk, are affected by the cap.

The Democrat-led House of Representatives has passed legislation repealing the cap but the measure was blocked in the GOP-led Senate and it has become a major point of contention amid talks on the COVID-19 stimulus bill now being negotiated.

Republicans have said the SALT deductions benefit high earners and primarily benefit the wealthy in high-tax and mostly blue states.

President-elect Joe Biden has indicated support for repealing the cap, Suozzi said.

"We need to rally together and fight for New York," Suozzi said, urging other states affected by the cap, including California, Illinois and Massachusetts to make similar pushes. "This is an issue we need to all get together on."

In 2019 and 2020, more than 7,800 New Yorkers combined to contribute in excess of $35 million to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky), Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), and GOP-associated Senate political action committees — all of whom oppose repealing the SALT cap, Suozzi said.

From 2015 to 2019, New York sent $116 billion more to the federal government that it received back in state aid while during that same period, Kentucky received $148 billion, and South Carolina $87 billion more than they contributed, Suozzi said.

Suozzi on Monday cited a recent Bloomberg report that Goldman Sachs' $8 billion asset-management division is considering relocating to Florida, which has no state income taxes. Hedge funds run by Paul Singer and Carl Icahn have made similar office relocations in recent months.

Suozzi called the report a "red alert" for New York.

By Robert Brodsky

robert.brodsky@newsday.com@BrodskyRobert

Robert Brodsky is a breaking news reporter who has worked at Newsday since 2011. He is a Queens College and American University alum.