North Country Rep. Elise Stefanik, a Republican, has added her signature to a letter with six House Republicans from New York objecting to the proposed elimination of the deduction for state and local taxes (SALT) from federal taxes returns.

The letter was sent to U.S. Secretary of Treasury Steve Mnuchin urging him to reconsider the proposed elimination of the federal deduction for state and local taxes, which is included in the Trump administration’s proposed tax changes.

“State and local tax deductibility has been a feature of our system since the first three-page income tax in 1913,” the letter to Mnuchin says. “A century later, it continues to make just as much sense to avoid a crowding-out ‘double-tax.’ The deduction supports principles like homeownership, lower middle-income taxes, local school funding, tailored social services, and incentives for people to live where local government stewards the public money.”

“I am committed to pursuing fundamental tax reform to grow our economy, and I applaud President Trump for making this a top priority for his Administration,” said Stefanik in a press release. “As the details are worked out between Congress and the White House, I join my colleagues in calling attention to the importance of maintaining the state and local tax deduction for families in the North Country and across New York. Eliminating this deduction would slow the growth of our economy and cost our state jobs,” she said.

The letter from the House members from New York says “the deduction for state and local taxes matters for all Americans, but it affects New York disproportionately. The state has 3.2 million residents who claim the deduction, and New York’s itemizers make up primarily lower- and middle-income households: 85% of those who claim the SALT deduction earn less than $200,000 in annual income. The vast majority of those people are homeowners.

The National Association of Realtors said eliminating the deduction would ‘nullify the current tax benefits of owning a home for the vast majority of tax filers.’ In fact, New York proudly pays more than its fair share to the federal government. The state has been a net payer to the federal government for decades, and while New York City residents pay $96 billion in personal.