Earlier today, Governor Andrew M. Cuomo and Governor Phil Murphy called on the federal government to repeal the unlawful and unprecedented cap on the deduction for state and local taxes, known as SALT, that was implemented by the Trump administration to target New York, New Jersey and other predominantly Democratic states.

VIDEO of the two governors' remarks is available on YouTube here and in TV quality (h.264, mp4) format here.

AUDIO of today's remarks is available here.

A rush transcript is available below:

Governor Cuomo: To rebuild and recover we need help from the federal government. This has been a national pandemic. It's a national economic crisis and no state can recover on its own and we need federal help and it's in the nation's best interest to help the states recover. 

What you go state and local relief has been debated for over a year. The prior administration was against providing states and localities with relief. President Biden said when he was running for election that if elected he would provide state and local relief. He was true to his word. He proposed $350 billion. It was accepted by the House, it was accepted by the Senate, so this is really good news. We've been waiting a long time for it. How the federal government ever thought the nation was going to recover if the states did not recover was always beyond me. The federal government is only a compilation of the states. You can't have a federal recovery without a state recovery but President Biden stepped up and did what he said he was going to do. 

Now the question is fairness in the distribution of the $350 billion. That $350 billion goes to Congress. They'll come up with a formula to distribute the $350 billion and that's the next chapter in this story, what is the fair distribution of the $350 billion, and i believe that it is factually inarguable but that New York, New Jersey, Connecticut paid a higher price for COVID than other states and other parts of this country. That is just a fact. COVID came to United States from Europe, not from china, and those flights landed in New York and New Jersey and they populated the tristate region. That's why we had the explosion in the numbers early on. That's why we had deaths here before they even had COVID tests, because the virus was coming for three months in the federal government had no idea. It was negligence by the federal government and when you talk about fairness, the federal government should allocate funds in a way that is fair and fair to this crisis. When a state gets hit by a hurricane that state gets relief. It's not that every state gets relief. The places that paid the highest price with the emergency, and our state and our region paid the highest price for the emergency.

We also need fairness in the tax policy. What happened during the Trump administration is it was highly political and they used taxes to actually hurt certain states and take from certain states.

They took tax money from New York, New Jersey, other Democratic states and they transferred it to Republican states. That's what the quote/unquote SALT provision was all about. SALT is technical and confusing, state and local taxes. But they for the first time ever taxed the taxes that people pay. It was the first double taxation in history and it was a pure redistribution of wealth, saying we're going to take from the richer states and give to the poor states. They took from New York, they took from New Jersey, they took from Connecticut, they took from California, and they redistributed that money to Republican states. We still have an open litigation on it. 

So we say to the Congress now, be fair. Repair the damage that was done with a hyper-political administration that preceded President Biden and be fair in the distribution of the COVID relief funds and fair is to distribute the COVID relief funds proportionate to the damage of COVID. That's the next step. Repeal SALT because every day that SALT is still in place, you have people paying more in taxes that they shouldn't be paying, and it hurts this state and it hurts other states that were victims of the SALT attack and distribute the COVID relief proportionate to COVID relief.

I want to welcome our friend and our neighbor, great colleague of mine, someone who we've worked hand and glove with all through this. Long, long year that really tested all of us and tested government, tested our individual strength to the core, but you got to see what people were made of and I got to be in the trenches with Governor Murphy and i can tell you that this is the kind of person you want to be in the foxhole with. He's been a great neighbor, a great friend, and an extraordinary public servant and I'm pleased to be with him today. Governor Murphy good to see your face.

Governor Murphy: Good to see you, Governor Cuomo. Thank you very much for having me on today and same right back to you, period, full stop, not just for these 342 days that takes my breath away, but for the past three years since I've had the honor of serving as governor of New Jersey. I could not have had, we could not have had as a state a better partner across the Hudson then you and your team representing the Empire State, everything from tax fairness to battling the virus. People say, gosh, we don't see you, you guys as visibly with each other as we did in the spring and early summer. That may be true but I want to echo what you said. The partnership with you personally, with your team continues as strong as it has ever been, and it has been invaluable and that partnership has saved lives without question on both sides of the Hudson. I want to just echo very briefly two points that you raised, Andrew.

Number one, the state and local aid, we desperately need it and I won't repeat your great comments in terms of not just the need which is inarguable but also the way that the need should be apportioned. We were clobbered with and Connecticut and Ned Lamont done a great job there and the metro New York region and that must be taken into not only getting the state and local over the goal line which I know President Biden is committed to. I spoke with Speaker Pelosi earlier in the week. The great news is the leadership in Congress gets this, but also the way that it is apportioned.

And then secondly repealing the cap on the state local tax deduction, which was done as you suggest not for any practical purpose, but completely based on politics and New York and New Jersey were already disproportionately giving more Washington than we get back from Washington to begin with. Also we're happy to do that if it's a fair deal but this deduction cap made that deal a very unfair deal, double taxation to subsidize other parts of the country ahead of our region, prioritizing the biggest corporations over working families, so it is high time that this thing gets taken off the books. The longer it stays on, the more people are going to get hurt. I think in New Jersey alone, Governor, I believe it's been an increment of $3 billion out of the pockets of our homeowners in the state. It's high time we got this thing off the books. I'm honored to be working on that with you and on so many other fronts and thank you again for your extraordinary partnership and leadership.

Governor Cuomo: Governor, it's been my pleasure and it really has been, you know, so frenetic that we haven't had a chance to go back and study or analyze. But I feel the same way. I couldn't have had a better partner and if our delegations lock arms on this appropriation under $350 billion and how it's distributed and if they lock arms on the repeal of SALT which by the way every representative of New Jersey and New York stood up when SALT was passed and every one of them said it was unfair. Every one of them said it needed to be repealed. So now it's just a question of when and our point is time is of the essence. We'll get through this we'll be the better for it and I want to thank you personally for everything you've done.

Governor Murphy: Same right back to you, Andrew. God bless you.

Governor Cuomo: Thank you. God bless you, Phil.  Thank you. Governor Murphy mentioned the cost. Our cost per year of just SALT is over $12 billion dollars. Our cost per day is $ 34 million dollars. Every day that SALT is not repealed is another $34 million that is taken from the taxpayers of this state. Think about that, and that's why time is of the essence. $34 million dollars a day, New Yorkers are spending - and that's why I focus the way I focus and that's why we're going to continue to keep the pressure on until SALT is repealed.