Tax relief could be on the way for New Jersey property taxpayers.
According to multiple sources in the room, veteran Trump pollster Jim McLaughlin informed attendees at Saturday’s State Republican Leadership Summit luncheon in Atlantic City that he believes the President’s final tax cut package will include SALT relief. Republicans on Capitol Hill are currently in the process of finalizing what they hope will be a successful push to enact President Trump’s promised tax cuts, utilizing the reconciliation process as a fast-track approach.
The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) of 2017 capped the federal and state deduction for state and local taxes (“SALT”) at $10,000. Lawmakers representing high-tax states (like New Jersey, where the average property tax bill alone hit $10,000 in 2024) have been agitating for a change in the law. Most of the TCJA (including the cap) is set to expire at the end of 2025. It’s believed that more than 10 million taxpayers could recoup a few hundred billion in tax deductions if the cap is eliminated or, more likely, significantly raised.
8 of the 16 U.S. counties with the highest average property tax burdens are in the Garden State (Bergen, Essex, Hunterdon, Monmouth, Morris, Passaic, Somerset, and Union counties).
“In calendar year 2023 (the most recent data available), New Jersey had the highest effective rate on owner-occupied property at 2.23 percent, followed by Illinois (2.07 percent) and Connecticut (1.92 percent),” explained the Tax Foundation in a recent analysis. “Hawaii was at the other end of the spectrum with the lowest effective rate of 0.27 percent, followed closely by Alabama (0.38 percent), Nevada (0.49 percent), Colorado (0.49 percent), and South Carolina (0.51 percent).”
A legislative proposal to double the cap died on the vine back in February. Back in September 2024 while on the campaign trail, Trump appeared at the Nassau Coliseum in Uniondale, New York and pledged to address SALT.
“I will turn it around, get SALT back, lower your Taxes, and so much more,” Trump told attendees. “I’ll work with the Democrat Governor and Mayor, and make sure the funding is there to bring New York back to levels is hasn’t seen for 50 years.”
