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Governor Andrew M. Cuomo launched Wednesday a nationwide campaign to fight for tax fairness following yesterday's meeting with President Trump on the devastating impact of the elimination of full state and local tax deductibility, which disproportionately impacted New York and other predominantly Democratic states.

"For the first time ever since the tax code went into effect under President Abraham Lincoln, the federal government says, we will also tax the tax you paid to the state government and the local government," Cuomo said. "So they now tax the tax that you paid. First ever tax on tax. So what does it mean? It means if you pay taxes of $100,000, you are taxed on that. If you pay property taxes of $20,000 you're now taxed on that. We have worked for seven years to reduce the tax burden on people. We have a two percent property tax cap every year, which means property taxes can't go up more than two percent. If you now tax people's property taxes, that's like a 30 percent increase."

Earlier this month, Cuomo and State Comptroller DiNapoli delivered an update on State revenues, after the Division of the Budget observed a decline by $2.3 billion in estimated payments of Personal Income Tax receipts in December and January, which the Governor and Comptroller attributed to the federal tax legislation's elimination of full state and local tax deductibility.

To fight back against this economic assault, the Governor will work with Governors of the other impacted states, the New York State Congressional Delegation and Speaker Pelosi to immediately restore full SALT deductibility and restore fairness for millions of hard-working American taxpayers.

"The disgraceful federal tax assault stole from 12 Democratic states to give to Republican states, and it was a gross injustice," Cuomo said. "This is about money, plain and simple. As Governor of New York, I'm going to rally the other Governors and the other states to say it was a theft and to restore economic equity and fairness."

New York State is already the number one donor state in the nation, contributing $35.6 billion more to the federal government than it receives back. The cap on SALT deductions will cost New Yorkers an additional $15.3 billion.

According to the Government Finance Officers Association, New York has the highest average deduction for state and local taxes, followed by:
  • Connecticut
  • California
  • New Jersey
  • Washington, D.C.
  • Massachusetts
  • Minnesota
  • Maryland
  • Oregon
  • Illinois
  • Rhode Island
  • Vermont

While other states have experienced the detrimental impacts of SALT, as the number one donor state, New York continues to feel the disproportionate effect of the deduction in the following ways:

52 of New York's 62 counties have average SALT above $10,000. The average New York taxpayer has SALT deductions that are more than twice the $10,000 cap. New York has the largest percentage of taxpayers getting a tax hike of any state. New York represents 7.3% of the pre-cut tax base but gets 5.1% of the cuts, by far the worst relative share of any State.

In February 2018, Cuomo launched the Tax Fairness for New York Campaign to combat the combat the anticipated impacts of the federal tax law. As part of this campaign, the Governor launched a website to inform New Yorkers of the State's efforts to fight the tax law, including a lawsuit against the federal government, a repeal of the law, and an overhaul of the tax code.

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