Pascrell Castigates Latest Trump Treasury Travesty

Treasury Department moves to force New Jersey residents to pay more taxes

PATERSON, NJ – Today, Representative Bill Pascrell, Jr. (D-NJ-09), the only New Jersey member of the House Committee on Ways and Means, reacted angrily to a Treasury Department move blocking New Jersey relief measures for the Trump administration’s unfair cap on State and Local Tax Deductions.

“Trump and congressional Republicans have made sport in trying to hurt New Jersey and citizens in the Northeast. Angry at those places that didn’t support Trump in 2016, they want to shake down ‘blue’ states for cash. In the failed GOP Tax Scam, Republicans stole a crucial lifeline for our state’s taxpayers that has been around since the Civil War. And today, they’ve pulled the rug out from under us once again.

“Using precedents from states and cities throughout the nation, Governor Murphy and the New Jersey legislature came up with a sensible proposal to address this new cap on state and local tax deductions. The administration had been content to allow charitable deductions to be used in similar ways in other states – until now. That Trump wants to block our state from seeking relief to their bad policies is an outrage. None of us will take it lying down. We promised them we would see them in court if they tried this, and I am already consulting with Governor Murphy and my colleagues on our options, including studying tax solutions passed by other states. Trump and Mnuchin can’t push New Jersey around to score cheap political points.”

Last month, Pascrell ripped into House Republicans for their tax plan 2.0 which would again attack Garden State taxpayers by making permanent the cap on state and local taxes. In November 2017, Rep. Pascrell offered an amendment in the Ways and Means Committee which would have restored the State and Local Tax deductions, but it was voted down by Republicans in a party-line vote.

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