WATCH: House Republican says leadership still negotiating tax legislation
A House Republican told The Hill on Wednesday that Republicans are “making progress” on a tax reform plan but leadership still needs to “grapple” with concerns within the party.
Rep. Tom MacArthur (R-N.J.), who is fighting to increase the number of property tax deductions in the legislation, said that GOP leadership can’t balance the tax cut package on income from a handful of high-taxed states.
“We need to make sure that every American gets the tax break … that includes in high taxed and high cost states, like New Jersey. … It has to be fair, we can’t balance tax cuts on the backs of five or six states,” MacArthur told The Hill Wednesday afternoon.
House Republicans delayed the rollout of their much-anticipated tax reform bill by 24 hours in order to solve outstanding issues among members of their conference, including the state and local tax deduction matter.
MacArthur described the current back and forth between Republican leaders and the nearly two dozen GOP lawmakers who represent high-taxed, high-cost states who would get hit with an increase in taxes as “fluid, but we are making progress.”
MacArthur said that Ways and Means Chairman Kevin Brady’s option to restore “property tax deductibility” was “an improved first step” but cautioned that “the devil is in the details.”
“At what level does it get capped is a big question and we’re still talking about that,” he said.
As of Wednesday afternoon, MacArthur said “a number has been proposed that I think is still too low.”
He added, “I think leadership is trying to grapple with the fact that they’ve got to make this right in states like mine.”
Watch the video above to hear MacArthur in his own words.
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