FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: Ciro Riccardi | ciro@lawlerforcongress.com | (845) 642-6569
CAIT CONLEY’S PLAN FOR TACKLING THE HUDSON VALLEY’S CRUSHING TAX BURDEN? “ABSOLUTELY NOTHING”
It should come as no surprise that Cait Conley, who pays no property taxes in the 17th Congressional District, would believe “nothing” is the right move on SALT. Cait’s tax plan would massively benefit the top filers in the country with unlimited SALT while crushing middle- and working-class Hudson Valley families with a halved standard deduction, taxes on tips and overtime, and a child tax credit cut in half.
Suffern, NY — October 8, 2026 — Democratic nominee Cait Conley got a harsh education on the issue that hits Hudson Valley homeowners hardest at Wednesday’s Spring Valley NAACP Candidate Forum at Rockland Community College. After telling the audience the best thing Congress could have done for New Yorkers’ taxes was nothing, she was met with laughter and a fact-check from Congressman Mike Lawler, who walked Cait through what doing nothing would have cost families in this district. Conley tried to cut in at the end with a false claim about this year’s tax refunds that drew laughter from the room.
“The best thing that Congress could have done for New Yorkers was absolutely nothing and just letting it go away,” Conley said, referring to the $10,000 cap on the state and local tax (SALT) deduction. Letting the cap fully expire would have disproportionately benefitted the absolute top tax brackets, including the billionaires Cait Conley claims she doesn’t support.
“Unfortunately, my opponent doesn’t really understand this, in part because she doesn’t pay taxes here,” Lawler responded. “The fact is that if we did what you want and what you’re advocating for, to let the tax bill expire, it would have been a $4 trillion tax increase on the American people. Every family in this district would have paid $5,000 more. Why? Because the standard deduction would have been cut in half, the child tax credit would have been rolled back. All of the rates would have gone up.”
The 2017 tax law’s individual cuts were set to expire at the end of 2025. Had Congress let them lapse, the standard deduction would have been cut roughly in half, and the child tax credit would have dropped from $2,000 to $1,000 per child.
“The reason I negotiated the deal the way we did was to make sure that taxes didn’t go up. I stood up to the president. I stood up to my own party. There were only five of us out of 220 that wanted to get this done,” Lawler said. “We delivered the single largest tax cut in the entire bill, raising it from $10,000 to $40,000. Ninety percent of my constituents were able to fully deduct their state and local taxes, and in the Hudson Valley, over a $4,000 tax refund in your pocket this past April.”
Conley interrupted him: “And that would have also happened if you did nothing.”
“No, it wouldn’t,” Lawler replied, as the room laughed at Conley’s pathetic response.
The SALT fight in the Hudson Valley comes down to property taxes. Homeowners in Rockland and Westchester counties pay some of the highest property taxes in the country, and they use the SALT deduction to write those taxes off their federal returns. Many of these are due to unfunded mandates passed down by Kathy Hochul and Albany Democrats, who support Cait Conley to the hilt.
Cait Conley doesn’t understand this because she owns no property in the district and pays no property taxes. The only house on the financial disclosure she filed with the Clerk of the House in May is in Lee County, North Carolina, where she collected between $15,001 and $50,000 in rent last year.
“Cait Conley told voters at Rockland Community College that the best thing Washington could have done about their taxes was absolutely nothing. Then she told them the bigger refund they got this spring would have come anyway, and they laughed, because they know she’s lying,” said Lawler for Congress spokesman Ciro Riccardi. “Mike Lawler stood up to his own party to quadruple the SALT cap so Hudson Valley families could deduct the property taxes they pay. Cait Conley doesn’t own property here, doesn’t pay a dime in property taxes here, and has no idea what it’s like to pay New York’s crushing property taxes – all thanks to Cait’s best friend, Kathy Hochul.”
“Cait Conley can continue to claim she knows best on taxes, but it’s clear when she’s asked this question in the future, she should take her own advice and say nothing,” concluded Riccardi. “At least that would save her the embarrassment of rooms full of Hudson Valley voters laughing in her face.”