Governor Cuomo: "SALT, State and Local Tax Deductibility, was passed by Donald Trump. It was aimed at New York. It was a political gesture. It costs New York $12 billion per year. It has cost us $35 billion. It is the first double taxation in the nation's history. Where the federal government now taxes the tax that you pay in New York City in New York State."
Governor Cuomo: "[Repealing SALT] would be a tremendous immediate economic boost to New York. Taxes would be lower than they have been in the past four years. It would be the single biggest economic shot in our arm. It's time to act."
Earlier today, Governor Andrew M. Cuomo called on the federal government to repeal the SALT tax.
VIDEO of the event is available on YouTube here and in TV quality (h.264, mp4) format here.
AUDIO of the event is available here.
PHOTOS of the event are available on the Governor's Flickr page.
A rush transcript of the Governor's remarks are available below:
And fourth, we have to reduce taxes. You have to have an answer for the economic burden in New York City, especially when you're talking to people who are in different locations. And you're trying to get them to come back to New York City. This is the fastest and fairest way to do it. SALT, State and Local Tax Deductibility, was passed by Donald Trump. It was aimed at New York. It was a political gesture. It costs New York $12 billion per year. It has cost us $35 billion. It is the first double taxation in the nation's history. Where the federal government now taxes the tax that you pay in New York City in New York State. Never been done before.
And it only hit democratic states and it hit New York harder than any other state because New York pays in more because of SALT and New York already paid in more than any state in the United States. We're the number one, what they called donor state. Every day that SALT is not repealed, it costs us $33 million.
To give you an idea of these numbers because the 12 billion, 35 billion, what does it mean? I'll tell you what it means. 12 billion annually, the whole federal COVID relief plan that we had to fight for was 15 billion. Oh, the federal government agreed to fund part of gateway. They're going to give us five billion. Second Avenue Subway, I've been fighting them for decade for funding. It would be $3 billion in federal funding. Penn station, we would need 8 billion.
They're taking 12 billion annually from SALT. They could keep all their funding and just give us back the money you took. The past six months alone of not repealing SALT, which they all promise they would do, it cost us $6 billion. $6 billion. So the priority for us, by the math, is we need SALT repealed.
By the way, everyone promised, promised - what's the politicians promise worth - everyone promised when Trump did this, it was an outrage and they would repeal it and they would repeal it immediately. Senator Schumer, state and local tax deductions are the bedrock of middle-class deductions, they help steady the cost of many middle-class families should not be eliminated or even reduced.
So we can give a tax cut to millionaires. Jerry Nadler, same thing. They wanted to punish the states, true. And they wanted to punish us for voting for Hillary Clinton. True. They wanted to coerce us, true. But they did. And you haven't repealed it. Kathleen Rice, Congresswoman from Long Island. My community has been devastated. Yes. She said that three years ago, you haven't done anything about it. Even conservative, extreme conservative Republicans from the North Country. It's a form of double taxation on hard working North Country families. True. Then, you know what? Do something about it and do your job and do it via reconciliation and do it without compromise.
It would be a tremendous immediate economic boost to New York. Taxes would be lower than they have been in the past four years. It would be the single biggest economic shot in our arm. It's time to act.