Three county executives who represent the New York City suburbs signaled they are making yet another push to rescind the $10,000 cap placed on state and local tax deductions.
But the push from the county executives, Democrats all, to repeal a provision from the Trump-era tax cuts is also a sign of how doing so could be a heavy lift in Congress.
"The result of that tax act is essentially the largest middle-class tax increase on homeowners in history," said Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone during a virtual news conference on Thursday.
Bellone, considered a potential statewide candidate in 2022, said he would launch a statewide effort to push back against the limit on deductions. The effort dovetails with Rep. Tom Suozzi, who announced many of the House Democrats from New York would not vote in favor of any tax legislation that does not address the cap and with Gov. Andrew Cuomo's ongoing complaints about the measure.
The cap affects high tax states like New York and homeowners where property taxes are especially costly.
Nassau County Executive Laura Curran called the cap "a gut punch for the downstate suburbs."
Democrats have made gains electorally in what had once been Republican strongholds on the local and state level. But the cost of property ownership remains a key issue for the downstate suburban counties, who can play an outsized role in statewide elections.
"There is not that much difference between White Plains to Mineola to Riverhead," said Westchester County Executive George Latimer.
At the same time, a repeal of the cap would have to be balanced against the revenue lost. Congress is considering a tax increase on corporations in order to fund a $2 trillion infrastructure package being sought by President Joe Biden's administration.
Still, New York officials are seeking to make the basic fairness argument with the push to repeal the cap.
"By taxing that circumstance you are doing something that hasn't been done in 100 years," Latimer said. "It was done in a mean spirited way. It was done in a one-party way."