Rep. Mike Lawler brought House Speaker Mike Johnson to Rockland County on Oct. 27 to make a closing argument aimed squarely at Westchester wallets: the state and local tax (SALT) deduction cap he helped raise from $10,000 to $40,000.

Election Day in the NY-17 race is Tuesday, Nov. 3. The SALT deduction is a pocketbook issue for Bronxville, Scarsdale and Eastchester homeowners.

Westchester County carries one of the highest median single-family property tax bills in the country, at approximately $14,670, according to a 2026 analysis of county property tax data. In premium communities, bills run far higher.

At the Orangeburg event, Lawler appeared alongside a senior couple who, the Yonkers Times reported, saved over $6,000 on their taxes this year under the Working Families Tax Cut Act.

That law raised the SALT cap for filers making under $500,000 and kept the 2017 tax cuts from expiring.

"The SALT caucus worked together and got the cap raised from $10,000 to $40,000," Lawler said, according to the Yonkers Times. "Now that's significant money for people paying some of the highest property taxes anywhere in the country."

Johnson praised Lawler's role in the negotiations. "Mike Lawler is the secret sauce in what has been one of the smallest margins in U.S. history," the Speaker said, according to Monsey Scoop.

Democratic challenger Cait Conley has a different take. At an Oct. 7 NAACP forum at Rockland Community College, Conley said of the expiring SALT cap, "The best thing that Congress could have done for New Yorkers was absolutely nothing and just letting it go away," according to the Yonkers Times.

In an ABC7 report, Conley called the increase temporary. "They did a temporary bump up to $40,000 that comes crashing back down to $10,000 in 2030," Conley said.

The higher cap does carry an expiration date. Under the law, the $40,000 cap lasts only through 2029 and reverts to $10,000 in 2030, according to the Yonkers Times.

The original $10,000 SALT cap was enacted in 2017 under the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, years before Lawler first ran for office. He took office in 2023 and pushed Republican leadership to raise it.

Both sides are expected to spend about $60 million on the race, which most polls show within the margin of error, ABC7 reported.

Polls open Tuesday, Nov. 3, across Rockland, Westchester, Putnam and Dutchess counties.