THREE STATES PLAN TO SUE OVER TAX LAW

The governors of New York, New Jersey and Connecticut said Friday they are forming a multistate coalition to sue the Trump administration over the 2017 tax bill, challenging the constitutionality of a provision that limits Americans’ ability to deduct their state and local taxes from their federal bill.

The law sets a new cap of $10,000 on the amount of state and local property and income taxes that can be deducted from federal taxable income. That will disproportionately harm their residents, the governors said in a conference call, and is motivated by politics rather than sound fiscal policy. Residents most affected by the provision live in states run by Democrats that tend to have higher state and local tax rates, they said.

“The new federal tax law destroyed a century-old tax structure between the federal government and the states,” New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said on Twitter.

The lawsuit will be filed in federal court, the governors said. They also said they are talking to other states about potentially joining the coalition.

About 44 million Americans a year take advantage of the tax break to collectively save an estimated $60 billion.

Conservatives have long complained that the deduction is a windfall for high-tax, liberal-leaning states at the expense of lowtax, conservative-leaning states. According to the conservative Tax Foundation, taxpayers in six states — California, Illinois, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania and Texas — claim more than half of the dollar value of the deduction.