Zeldin 1 of 12 in G.O.P. to Vote Against Tax Bill

At a press conference last month, Representatives Lee Zeldin, center, Peter King, left, and Tom Suozzi, right, and other state and local officials and business interests highlighted their concerns about the proposed tax bill.

Dec. 21, 2017

Christopher Walsh

Representative Lee Zeldin of New York’s First Congressional District was 1 of 12 Republicans in the House of Representatives to vote against the Republicans’ sweeping overhaul of the tax code on Tuesday. The House voted 227 to 203 to pass the plan, which resolved differences between the House and Senate versions of the bill.

The Senate, in a 51 to 48 vote, passed the plan in the early hours of yesterday. A second House vote yesterday, necessary after Senate Democrats said that three provisions in the bill violated Senate rules and had to be removed, passed in the House 224-201. It now awaits President Trump’s signature. No Democrats in either chamber voted in favor of the bill.

The legislation would cut taxes for corporations. Taxes would also be reduced for individuals, though most of those changes would expire in eight years.

Representative Peter King of the Second Congressional District also voted against the tax bill, as did three other New York Republicans. Eleven of the 12 Republicans voting no represent congressional districts in New York, New Jersey, and California.

A provision in the bill limiting the deduction for state and local taxes to $10,000 was behind the 12 Republicans’ dissenting votes. The original bill called for eliminating the deduction altogether.

Mr. Zeldin never wavered from his opposition to the plan. The reinstatement of the state and local tax deduction, capped at $10,000, did not go far enough, he said.

In a release issued on Tuesday, he reiterated his opposition, calling it “a geographic redistribution of wealth, taking extra money from a place like New York to pay for deeper tax cuts elsewhere.” He said that while he does like aspects of the final plan, including a reduction in the corporate tax rate, that “should not be done on the backs of any hard-working, middle-income taxpayers.”

He called the final bill “a massive missed opportunity” for taxpayers “who also desperately needed tax relief and ended up getting screwed by the handicap of rigid ideological blinders and a countdown clock that really wasn’t yet at zero.”