As G.O.P. Celebrates House Vote, New York and New Jersey Lawmakers Say No

By Jesse McKinley

ALBANY — Amid the cheers and gavel-pounding among Republicans on Tuesday at the passage of the tax bill in the House, there was a Northeastern accent to the party’s dissenters, with nine lawmakers from New York and New Jersey bucking the consensus to vote no.

And in almost every case, the reason for that cross-Hudson opposition came down to the assertion that their two states were basically being used to pay for tax cuts in the other 48.

“It’s unfair and it’s wrong,” said Peter T. King, the veteran Republican congressman from Long Island, one of five New Yorkers to give the bill a thumbs-down. “You can’t be financing a benefit for the rest of country at the expense of Long Island and New York.”

That sentiment was echoed by Mr. King’s fellow Republican and Long Islander, Representative Lee Zeldin, who called the bill “a geographic redistribution of wealth” from so-called donor states like New York, which sends tens of billions of dollars more to Washington than it receives. And while he praised the hefty reduction in corporate taxes, he suggested that it had come “on the backs” of “hard-working, middle-income taxpayers.”

“That was totally avoidable,” Mr. Zeldin said.

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Source: The New York Times (via The Empire Report)