Democrat Sue Altman and GOP Rep. Tom Kean Jr. are the front-runners in New Jersey’s most closely watched House race. (Photos from Altman campaign/Hal Brown for New Jersey Monitor)
Former President Donald Trump’s recent suggestion that he backs the removal of a $10,000 cap on state and local tax deductions put in place by a 2017 tax bill he signed has candidates in the 7th Congressional District sparring over what’s known as the SALT deduction.
In the 7th, the most closely watched House race in New Jersey, Republican Rep. Tom Kean Jr. faces a first-term challenge from progressive activist Sue Altman in the state’s second wealthiest congressional district — and one of the districts most impacted by the $10,000 cap. Trump said Tuesday on his Truth Social network that he would “get SALT back” and “lower your taxes.”
Kean charged Altman’s past support of other tax policies shows she has “been on the wrong side of lowering the cost of living and lessening the tax burden for hardworking New Jerseyans.” He noted she backed growing state budgets in past years and a 2020 tax proposal that would have raised New Jersey’s sales tax from 6.625% to 7% and created a new tax bracket for residents with more than $250,000 in annual income.
“To NJ07, SALT means getting our full state and local tax deduction back. But to @suealtman and her radical allies, SALT stands for ‘Sue Altman Loves Taxes,’” Kean said on X.
Altman, meanwhile, noted the cap exists only because of a Republican Congress and administration. The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, which imposed the cap, passed both chambers of Congress without a single yes vote from Democrats and was signed into law by Trump.
“@KeanForCongress has zero credibility on SALT when he still refuses to admit Trump and GOP leadership are responsible for the double-tax on NJ families while doing nothing to fix the problem. Must be hard to fight for NJ-07 without a backbone,” Altman said on X.
Efforts to remove or ease the cap, which is due to expire at the end of 2025, have found support among lawmakers of both parties in high-tax states like New Jersey, New York, and California that are disproportionately affected by the limit.
By capping the state and local taxes residents can deduct when filing federal income taxes, the cap increases some residents’ tax base and thereby increases their tax burden.
Some rank-and-file progressives have opposed eliminating the SALT cap because doing so would disproportionately benefit wealthy residents and wealthy homeowners, in particular.
At $133,593, the 7th District’s median income is the second highest in the state, coming second only to the 11th District, where the median income is $134,648, according to census data.
GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX