SALT cap repeal, offshore wind energy among top LI priorities, business group tells Trump

A Long Island business group in a letter to President Donald Trump Thursday urged his administration to make tax reforms and allow the Island's renewable energy sector projects to continue, citing that the issues are "critical to Long Island’s economy." 

The Long Island Association asked Trump to repeal the federal cap on state and local taxes — referred to as SALT — to help spur local spending and highlighted "the importance of offshore wind to our economy."

“These are two issues that are so important, both to Long Island’s current viability as well as our future,” Matt Cohen, president and CEO of the LIA said in a phone interview Thursday, adding they are tied to Long Island’s “affordability crisis."

The letter coincides with the release of the LIA's annual agenda of priorities for governmental action at the federal, state and local levels.

The $10,000 SALT cap, part of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act enacted in 2017 under then-President Trump, put a limit on taxpayers’ ability to deduct SALT from their federal income tax liability. It is set to expire at the end of 2025, barring congressional action.

"The cap has placed an undue burden on Long Islanders and led to significant financial strain,” the letter signed by Cohen said.

Local economists say a repeal of the cap would spur spending in the region. 

”It affects the local business person pretty significantly," said Steven Kent, economics professor at Molloy University. A repeal "would help Long Island businesses because the vast majority of the money is going to be spent locally."

The SALT cap repeal and promotion of the offshore wind industry are among the association's top five policy priorities for the year, as voted on by its 104-member board. Newsday publisher Debby Krenek is a board member.

The LIA, which represents the interests of local businesses, said Thursday it hasn't received a response.

Cohen said he was optimistic the letter might nudge the president in the region's favor.

“The president is a New Yorker,” Cohen said. “He knows we’re a high costs region and knows that the cap on SALT disproportionately affected us compared to other parts of the country.”

White House officials did not respond to requests seeking comment.

Lawrence Levy, executive dean of the National Center for Suburban Studies at Hofstra University, said Trump's decisions are more likely to be influenced by national political concerns rather than regional woes.

“I don’t think there’s any homefield advantage for New York State or Long Island in having a president who has lived in the area and knows firsthand how expensive it is," Levy said. "This would be ... a political and fiscal calculation.”

The Trump administration delivered a potential blow to the wind-energy industry with an executive order last month that pauses new leases and permits for arrays in federal waters and on land, Newsday reported.

Trump derided wind-energy turbines as little more than "garbage in a field," while vowing to undo recently enacted oil and gas offshore drilling bans.

The association's letter said the industry has "created thousands of high paying union jobs and supported local businesses through the supply chain." 

The state has 130 megawatts of offshore wind powering Long Island’s grid, and is aiming for 9,000 megawatts by 2035. The state has the 12-turbine South Fork Wind farm, a LIPA-contracted facility off the eastern coast of Long Island.

Melville-based Haugland Group, a civil infrastructure firm, has been working for months on a 17½-mile, land-based cable for the Sunrise Wind project, expected to go online in 2026 and will connect to Smith Point.

Currently, the state has plans to get all of its power from wind and green sources by 2040.

Among the LIA's other top priorities are advancement of the Las Vegas Sands casino project proposed for the Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum; development of the Ronkonkoma Hub project; and the creation of a state office on the Island responsible for coordinating housing development.