There is an effort by Republicans elected in deep blue states to increase the state and local taxes (SALT) deduction that is currently capped at $10,000.

Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul of New York is publicly supporting the N.Y. Republicans push to include this proposal in the upcoming Trump tax bill. The rest of the Republican party should reject this.

The current SALT deduction is an itemized deduction that allows up to $10,000 per year, consisting of property taxes plus state income or sales taxes, but not both.

For most taxpayers, they take the standard deduction, and itemized deductions don’t apply to them.

However, before 2017 when the SALT deduction had no cap, in certain states, state and local taxes were high enough in states like N.Y., N.J., and Calf. where the SALT deduction was higher than the standard, and many taxpayers took it.

Therefore, taxpayers in these states had to pay less in federal taxes because they elected leaders who jacked up local taxes. The rest of us had to subsidize it with an increased national deficit.

In 2017, the SALT deduction was capped, angering many people in these blue states.

Republicans, especially those from rural areas, should oppose any increase to SALT.

Rather than expecting the rest of us to bail them out, people in blue states should elect Republicans that lower their local rates.

The goal of the Trump tax bill should be to lower rates across the board for everybody. By increasing the SALT cap, it would prevent them from lowering rates further, and that means higher taxes for the rest of us.

Any bill containing changes to SALT should be known as the “Kathy Hochul Bailout Act,” and it should be rejected.

Matthew Kearney

Cresson