After a bill raising the State and Local Tax (SALT) deduction cap for married couples failed to clear a key procedural hurdle in the House yesterday, Rep. Tom Kean Jr. (R-Westfield) and his likely Democratic opponent, Sue Altman, are trading blows over where the blame lies.
In order to allow for consideration of the SALT Marriage Penalty Elimination Act, which would have raised the SALT cap from $10,000 to $20,000 for married joint filers, the House needed to pass the rule, a procedural move allowing for consideration of the bill on the floor. Thanks to opposition from most Democrats and a few Republicans, the rule – which also applied to a separate anti-Biden resolution – failed on a 195-225 vote.
Kean, a co-sponsor of the bill, voted for the rule, but Altman said that he and his Republican colleagues should still be held accountable for their inability to pass SALT reform.
“[Kean] has once again failed to deliver tax relief for NJ, a problem Trump created when he retaliated against us to give tax breaks to big corporations,” Altman said last night on Twitter. “When I’m in Congress you better believe I’ll fight for New Jerseyans and put us first.”
This morning, Kean shot back that it was Democratic representatives, including those from New Jersey, who bore the responsibility for the bill’s failure.
“Tom Kean, Jr. is standing up for SALT and NJ Democrats are standing in the way,” Kean campaign manager Kean MacLelland said. “Sue Altman’s deranged statement demonstrates her lack of ability to serve as the independent leader this district needs. She will always be a radical activist that puts her out of step ideology before the priorities of NJ-07 residents.”
The SALT cap is a massive issue in the 7th congressional district, where Kean and Altman are set to face off in this year’s most competitive New Jersey House race. The cap most greatly affects higher-income taxpayers in high-tax states – a population that the 7th district is chock-full of.
And both parties bear some blame for the cap’s continued existence. It was first implemented by a GOP-led Congress in 2017 (over the objections of most New Jersey Republicans), but Democrats did not take the chance to repeal it in 2021 or 2022, when they had full control over the federal government.