Trump's Tax Plan Will Hurt New Jersey More Than Anybody, Report Says

President Donald Trump's tax plan is being pitched as a boon for the middle class. But if you're a New Jersey resident, a new report says you're likely to be hurt more than helped.

Ten of the 20 counties hardest hit by the tax plan are located in New Jersey, according to a New York University study. That's largely because the plan would eliminate deductions on local property taxes that save New Jerseyans thousands of dollars a year.

The tax plan would clobber New York state, too. Patrick Egan, a New York University professor who is the author of the study, said "it's hard to imagine a more efficient way [to] raise taxes" on the New Jersey and New York area than the GOP's plan to eliminate the property tax deductions.

Here are the New Jersey counties that would suffer the most under Trump's plan and where they rank nationally in terms of impact:

• Hunterdon (3)
• Bergen (4)
• Morris (5)
• Sussex (8)
• Somerset (9)
• Monmouth (11)
• Union (14)
• Warren (15)
• Middlesex (19)
• Gloucester (20th)

These four counties also ranked highly:

• Burlington (21)
• Mercer (23)
• Ocean (26)
• Passaic (29)

Egan also provided a map that shows which states and which counties would suffer the most:

As part of a much-awaited reform package, the Trump administration says it plans to dump the federal property tax deduction for state and local taxes that saves New Jerseyans, on average, $3,522 a year. Reports, however, said some members of the Trump administration may be willing to negotiate that part of the plan.

Republican Rep. Leonard Lance and Democratic Rep. Bill Pascrell, both from New Jersey, recently released a bipartisan congressional letter, co-signed by 68 others, asking Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin to preserve the federal deduction for state and local taxes in any plan to reform the tax code.

Both Lance and Pascrell said ditching the deduction would adversely affect New Jersey.

"New Jersey residents pay the highest property taxes in the United States. Eliminating this deduction would increase taxes on the average New Jersey taxpayer by $3,500 per year," the members wrote in the letter. "We hope you will reconsider this dramatic increase to the tax burden borne to families and homeowners in select high-cost states."

In a recent video announcing the tax reform plan, Mnuchin said the Trump administration plans to eliminate all tax deductions other than mortgage interest and charitable deductions.

Congressional representatives are reviewing the proposal, and Trump has called for approving the plan by the end of the year.

Mnuchin and Gary Cohn, chief economic adviser to Trump and director of the National Economic Council, said the financial hit property owners would take would be offset by economic growth and an overall tax cut.

U.S. Senator Bob Menendez, a Democrat from New Jersey, a member of the Senate Finance Committee, said during a recent congressional hearing that the tax deduction would hit New Jerseyans, who pay among the highest property taxes in the nation, particularly hard.

Menendez said the Trump tax plan could raise taxes on about one-quarter of all middle-class families, saying it could "force individuals and families to face double taxation while large multinational corporations are able to avoid such treatment."

"While on the campaign trail, the president promised to cut taxes on the middle class," Menendez said. "But we see that under his plan, the top 1 percent, the millionaires and billionaires would receive nearly half of all the tax cuts, getting an average of $175,000 back, while almost a quarter of middle-class families would actually see a tax increase.

Read more: New Jersey Towns With The Highest Tax Bills In 2017

Patch file photo