ALBANY (TNS) — Two potential New York gubernatorial challengers helped negotiate a federal provision to quadruple the contentious $10,000 cap on the amount taxpayers can deduct from their state and local taxes — a provision known as SALT.

U.S. Reps. Elise Stefanik and Mike Lawler advocated for sweeping relief from SALT, which has an outsize impact on high-tax states like New York, the Times News of Albany reported. But President Donald J. Trump soured on a repeal of the $10,000 cap last week — forcing the pair of Republicans to balance their loyalties to the president with the gubernatorial campaigns they’re both considering for 2026.

”I was especially proud to work with my New York Republican colleagues to lead on delivering significant tax relief for New Yorkers by increasing the state and local tax cap by 300%,” Stefanik said. “A win for hard-working families struggling under the weight of the highest tax burden in the nation because of Gov. Kathy Hochul’s failed far-left tax-and-spend Democrat policies.”

Stefanik and Lawler joined fellow New York Republican Reps. Andrew Garbarino and Nick LaLota in threatening to reject any proposal that did not include a meaningful increase to the existing limit, the Times News reported. Earlier this month, the coalition said a proposal to raise the cap to $30,000 was “insulting.”

U.S. Rep. Mike Lawler, R-N.Y.

Then Trump directed House Republicans to stop pressing the SALT issue in a closed-door meeting last week as he sought to corral the House support his “big beautiful bill” that would extend tax cuts he put in place in 2017. The president has supported raising the cap in the past, but last week he warned that doing so would benefit Democratic governors in blue states such as New York and California.

Stefanik and Lawler took different approaches to SALT negotiations in the wake of the president’s reversal.

Stefanik — a close Trump ally who’s remained loyal to the president even after he withdrew her nomination for U.N. ambassador to safeguard the Republican majority in the House — met with the president at the White House on May 20 to discuss SALT. Stefanik senior adviser Alex DeGrasse said her “leadership was critical in helping to lead negotiations” on the issue.

She also left her name off a joint statement that other Republican members of the SALT caucus, including Lawler, released that afternoon. That statement insisted that raising the SALT deduction was a “matter of fundamental fairness” for constituents who voted for Trump, “in part, because he promised to restore SALT.”

The SALT cap was imposed by Trump’s 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. The president appeared to pivot on the issue last September, pledging ahead of a rally on Long Island that he would “get SALT back” if elected. But Trump clashed with Lawler over his persistence on the issue this week, allegedly telling the Hudson Valley representative, “If you lose because of SALT, you were going to lose anyway,” during his meeting with House Republicans.

”While I respect President Trump and understand the importance of passing this legislation, I will not do so at the expense of my district,” Lawler wrote on X earlier this week. “For over two years, I have been abundantly clear to everyone from the president to House Leadership about the importance of lifting the cap on SALT. It is one of the reasons why I won and why we even have a House Republican Majority.”

Lawler has called for a full repeal of the SALT cap in the past. In January, he introduced legislation that would raise the limit to $100,000 for individuals and $200,000 for married couples filing jointly. House Republicans eventually settled on a less ambitious increase to the cap — raising it to $40,000 — but Lawler and other New York Republicans were quick to claim it as a victory.

A person familiar with the matter said that Stefanik was a driving force in negotiating the increase in the SALT cap with the House speaker and the members of her conference who oppose SALT.

Rep. Nick Langworthy, R-23rd District in Western New York, publicly stayed out of the SALT debate in the lead-up to the House’s passage of Trump’s tax bill.

Rep. Nick Langworthy

Langworthy touted the bill as locking in the 2017 tax cuts for families, workers and small businesses; securing the border; sustaining Medicaid through projected cost-saving measures; “unleashing” domestic energy production; and strengthening national defense.

Stefanik and Lawler targeted Hochul in their posts celebrating the passage of the spending bill, faulting her for high state spending and taxes. Hochul has also voiced her support for a full repeal of the SALT cap.

Hochul fired back, comparing the GOP members to “a bank robber who clears out the vault and expects you to be grateful for returning a few bucks.”

”Since Republicans took away the full SALT deduction in 2017, (New Yorkers) paid $72 billion — $12 billion per year — more to the feds because of unfair double taxation,” the governor said. “ Republicans in Congress could have let the cap expire. Instead they extended it, raised it to a level that barely exceeds the standard tax deduction most New Yorkers can already get, and they’re trying to convince you it’s a win.”