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© Trump Vance Transition TeamPresident-elect Donald Trump
'It's got to go'

President-elect Donald Trump said he's on board for scrapping congestion pricing and lifting the cap on state and local tax deductions, The Post has learned.

In a Saturday night meeting with Republican members of New York's House delegation at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, the incoming commander in chief agreed he would help try to nix the city's first-in-the-nation congestion tax.

"He wants to kill it," Staten Island Rep. Nicole Malliotakis (R-NY) told The Post.

"He did agree it's got to go," Rep. Mike Lawler (R-NY) said after leaving the meeting.

"So we're going to work through how his administration can do so," he added.


Comment: All the tax has done so far is privilege those who can afford it, and kill small businesses:



Full text:

Allow me to share what I've seen in NYC one week after the congestion tax began:
- a consistent ~65% decrease in cars
- a consistent ~35% - 50% less people

Everywhere.

You will see the pro-tax people celebrating nothing changing. Their posts boast about all the people. What they don't tell you, because you may not know, is while there are people, there are soooo many fewer people.

I cycled down 5th Avenue from the 70s to downtown around 2:30pm today, Saturday, past the shopping and Rockefeller areas -- a ridiculously low number of people compared to usual.

In Washington square park now, while there are people, there are far fewer people. It's midday on a not frigid Saturday. This is abnormal.

As soon as one leaves Times Square, the volume of people dies down to far less numbers as well. I walked into several businesses to ask how this week was and I received eye rolls followed by "don't even ask."

In trying to please the a small group of progressives, the city has begun the process of uprooting that which has made a home here.

@GovKathyHochul @NYCMayor you have both failed us miserably.

Trump, 78, also said he supported the Republican pols' effort to raise a cap on the amount of state and local taxes New Yorkers can deduct from their federal taxes known as the SALT cap, the pols said.

"He's fully on board with lifting the cap on SALT," Lawler said.

"The president reiterated his support for lifting the cap on SALT and talking to us about the need to come up with a number and work through it and build consensus in the House," he added.

"He said that he understands the plight of New Yorkers who are being abused by our mayor and our governor who treat them like ATMs, and he wants to provide SALT relief," Malliotakis said.

"We need to work out what that number is going to be."

The Republicans in the meeting said they didn't expect they would be able to lift the cap, only raise it from its current amount of $10,000.

New York's House Republicans are pushing for lifting the SALT cap as part of an upcoming legislative package that would also include a renewal of many of Trump's signature tax cuts under the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. The SALT cap was implemented as part of the 2017 legislation.

Trump's comments come a week after the MTA started tolling drivers a phased-in $15 toll to enter Manhattan below 60th Street.

A federal judge swatted down a last-ditch attempt to stop the toll from going into effect after several courts cleared other legal challenges in the run-up to its Jan. 3 start date.

Malliotakis and other members say they're hopeful that the Federal Highway Administration under Trump could unravel the program's authorization.

Gov. Kathy Hochul meanwhile continues to suggest that Trump is really supportive of the tax.

Asked to respond to Trump's apparent commitment to try to scrap the toll, a Hochul spokesperson referred The Post to the governor's Friday interview with PIX11 News.

"This has been very litigious. President-elect Trump has said that, but I also know he's a New Yorker," Hochul said Friday.

"I think he'll understand that. Let's give this a try. It's brand new. Let's see what happens to the region. So, I'm always willing to work with anyone who wants to help our city," Hochul continued.

The Governor also took to X Sunday morning to complain that Lawler and the Republicans shouldn't settle for anything less than a full repeal of the cap.

"New Yorkers deserve a full repeal of the SALT cap. Anything less is a failure โ€” and you know it, Mike," Hochul wrote.