Economy, Affordability and Tax Cuts

A More Affordable Long Island and America

New York is one of the most expensive places in America to live, work, raise a family, and retire. Long Islanders are squeezed by high property taxes, high state and local taxes, and the rising cost of everyday necessities.

My approach is simple: you earned it, and you should keep more of it.

That’s why cutting taxes for Long Island working families, seniors, and small businesses has been one of my top priorities in Congress.

Cutting Taxes for Long Island Families

I fought to quadruple the State and Local Tax (SALT) deduction cap from $10,000 to $40,000 and helped pass the landmark Working Families Tax Cuts, delivering significant tax relief for Long Island families and retirees.

The law provides an average tax cut of approximately $3,000 for Long Island working families, while delivering targeted relief where people feel it most.

We:

  • Quadrupled the SALT deduction cap to $40,000, providing major relief to Long Islanders burdened by New York’s high property and state taxes.

  • Cut taxes on overtime pay, allowing hardworking Americans to keep more of the extra money they earn.

  • Cut taxes on tips, helping service-industry workers keep more of every dollar they make.

  • Provided additional tax relief for seniors receiving Social Security, helping retirees living on fixed incomes.

  • Created a deduction for interest on qualifying auto loans, helping families afford an American-made vehicle.

  • Expanded tax relief for working families with children.

  • Permanently preserved the 20% small business deduction, helping local entrepreneurs invest, hire, and grow.

These aren’t tax breaks designed for Washington bureaucracies. They are tax cuts designed around the people who work, raise families, run businesses, and retire here on Long Island.

Rewarding Work

Tax policy should encourage work, not punish it.

Cutting taxes on tips and overtime means that when Americans work an extra shift, put in longer hours, or earn more through their own effort, they should keep more of that money.

At the same time, I supported commonsense reforms requiring able-bodied adults receiving certain taxpayer-funded benefits to work, seek work, or volunteer for at least 80 hours per month, while protecting assistance for seniors, people with disabilities, and Americans who genuinely need help.

It’s part of a broader economic principle I support: government should incentivize and reward work.

If you work hard, play by the rules, and contribute to your community, Washington should make it easier—not harder—for you to get ahead.

How Affordability Became a Crisis

Tax relief is especially important because Long Island families have been hit from every direction.

Under the Biden Administration, inflation reached a 40-year high as federal spending, restrictive energy policies, and supply-chain disruptions contributed to rising costs. While inflation has fallen significantly from its peak, prices remain far above where they were just a few years ago.

Here in New York, Long Islanders face another layer of costs from Albany. High taxes, expensive energy policies, government waste, and an enormous regulatory burden make it more expensive to own a home, operate a business, and raise a family.

And our nearly $39 trillion national debt is a bipartisan problem. We cannot simply tax, borrow, and spend our way to prosperity. Restoring fiscal discipline is essential to protecting taxpayers, strengthening our economy, and preserving Social Security, Medicare, and other programs Americans rely upon.

Lower Energy Costs Means More Money in Your Pocket

Taxes are only one part of the affordability equation. Long Islanders also need relief from high utility and energy bills.

I support an all-of-the-above American energy strategy that responsibly expands domestic production, strengthens energy independence, lowers costs, and creates good-paying jobs. Governor Hochul should reverse policies hostile to safely developing New York’s abundant natural gas resources.

I’ve supported the Lower Energy Costs Act, Strategic Production Response Act, Protecting America’s Strategic Petroleum Reserve from China Act, and cosponsored the Certainty for Our Energy Future Act.

At the same time, I passed an amendment to protect Long Island from offshore drilling and broke with my own party to preserve clean-energy tax incentives supporting thousands of New York and Long Island jobs.

My approach is about affordability, reliability, American energy, and American jobs—not ideology.

Reining in Spending and Protecting Taxpayers

Cutting taxes must be accompanied by making government more responsible with the money taxpayers already send to Washington.

As a former Village Trustee and Budget Officer, I helped reduce local debt by more than 20%, earn multiple debt-rating upgrades, and strengthen essential services. Washington should operate with the same basic principle: respect the taxpayer.

I’ve supported measures such as the Fiscal Responsibility Act to rein in federal spending, reduce bloated government operating costs, and eliminate waste, fraud, and abuse.

We should continue moving toward a balanced budget while protecting Social Security, Medicare, Veterans’ health care, and our national defense.

You Earned It. You Should Keep More of It.

Long Islanders work too hard to watch government take more and more of every paycheck.

My affordability agenda starts with cutting taxes and letting working families keep more of what they earn. It also means rewarding work, lowering energy costs, creating good-paying American jobs, bringing federal tax dollars back home to Long Island, and demanding that government live within its means.

Whether that means working with my own party, working across the aisle, or standing up to either one, I’ll keep fighting to lower taxes, lower costs, and make Long Island more affordable for working families and retirees.

You earned it. You should keep more of it.

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