Washington, DC – Congresswoman Elise Stefanik (R-NY-21) and a bipartisan group of her colleagues have sent a letter to the Bicameral Tax Reform Conference Committee outlining a plan to achieve comprehensive tax reform that would protect the state and local tax deduction that is critical to taxpayers in high tax states like New York.
“I remain committed to providing real tax relief for hardworking families in the North Country and am pleased to join my colleague on this effort,” said Congresswoman Stefanik. “This plan would retain the critical State and Local Tax Deduction as well as other key priorities, such as medical expense and student loan deductions. I urge the conferees to seriously consider this proposal and will continue to work to ensure that any final tax package achieves real relief for families and businesses in the North Country.”
Congresswoman Stefanik voted against the House passed tax plan. Below is the text of the letter sent to the conferees. Click here to read the tax proposal that was also delivered.
Dear Conferees:
There is a bipartisan path forward to provide critical tax cuts to our constituents and businesses of all sizes. It worked decades ago for President Reagan and Speaker O'Neill, when a plan for a simpler tax system was signed into law with support from both parties. We, the undersigned Members of Congress, write to express our support for the enclosed Gottheimer-Lance Tax Cut Plan, which preserves the state and local tax (SALT) deduction in its entirety, along with several other important provisions like lowering the corporate and pass-through rates and retaining the medical expense and student loan interest deduction, while substantially reducing the impact of tax reform on the deficit.
States that will be hit hardest by the proposed House and Senate plans send disproportionately more revenue to the Federal Treasury than they receive in return. We cannot accept a tax plan that raises taxes on our constituents and businesses. Many of our colleagues have called for tax reform not to pick winners and losers among businesses and industries. We agree and believe that sentiment should be extended not to pick winner and loser states. As written, both bills clearly favor and hurt certain states.
The Gottheimer-Lance Tax Cut Plan addresses these concerns by retaining the current SALT and mortgage interest deductions in their entirety, while protecting tax cuts for businesses of all sizes and key development mechanisms like private activity bonds.
Enclosed is a copy of the bipartisan tax cut plan we support. We appreciate your review and consideration of our proposal.
Sincerely,
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