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Democratic Long Island Rep. Laura Gillen and Republican Hudson Valley Rep. Mike Lawler are putting their partisan differences aside to try to give residents of New York and other high-tax states and cities some relief.
The Cost of Living Tax Cut Act would require Uncle Sam to tailor income tax brackets to the cost of living in each region of the country.
“We have an unfair tax system,” Gillen told The Post. “You can make $75,000 in a low-cost area like Mississippi, and that goes a heck of a lot further than it will go in a place like Long Island, where that’s barely enough to make ends meet.”
“This bill is aimed at making sure that we are adjusting the taxation brackets for people in higher cost of living areas, so that they are not unfairly penalized for living in those areas.”
The proposal would require the feds to use the Commerce Department’s Regional Price Parities indexes to develop a formula to adjust each threshold on the federal income tax, rounded to the nearest multiple of $50.
Under the proposal, an individual on Long Island earning $105,000 per year could save as much as $1,100 on their federal taxes, according to Gillen’s office.
The Democrat’s team argued that the legislation is necessary because New Yorkers have historically paid more in federal taxes than they receive.
The cost of living on Long Island is roughly 32% higher than the national average, according to Gillen’s office. In Nassau County, which encompasses part of her district, the average cost of a house is $850,000, more than double the $412,000 national average.
Lawler and Gillen, who both represent competitive seats in the 2026 midterm elections, have teamed up on bipartisan legislation in the past.
The two have strongly advocated for increasing the state and local tax deduction (SALT) cap, which Lawler insisted on including in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act Trump signed into law last year.
“Families in the Hudson Valley face some of the highest costs of living anywhere in the country,” Lawler said in a statement. “This legislation recognizes economic reality and helps ensure taxpayers in high-cost areas like New York aren’t unfairly penalized simply because of where they live.”
The bill faces an uphill battle in Congress with elections nearing, but the two are hoping to raise awareness of the concept.
“Every piece of legislation that I’ve introduced in this Congress has been with a Republican co-sponsor,” Gillen explained. “I believe that our best chance of bringing good legislation to the floor is to try to get buy-in from the other side.”
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