WASHINGTON -- President Donald Trump's "tax relief for middle-class workers and families" includes ending a deduction used by the middle class in New Jersey and other states.

A majority of the tax break -- $51.30 of every $100 in state and local deducted -- went to households making $200,000 or less, according to Internal Revenue Service statistics for tax year 2015 assembled by the Tax Foundation, a Washington research group.

Trump and congressional Republicans have proposed eliminating the deduction, which is especially important to residents of states with high local levies such as New Jersey, with the nation's highest property taxes.

"This wouldn't be a middle-class tax cut," said U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez, D-N.J., a member of the Senate Finance Committee that has jurisdiction over tax legislation. "This would ultimately be a tax increase."

Trump and congressional Republicans have turned their attention to overhauling the tax code and cutting taxes. The president has been meeting with members of Congress of both parties and traveled around the country to push for legislation.

"We will lower taxes for middle-income Americans so they can keep more of their hard-earned paychecks, and they can do lots of things with those paychecks," Trump said in Springfield, Mo.

The goal is to reduce deductions to make the tax code simpler and use the savings to reduce overall tax rates.

The state and local tax deduction is one of the most popular breaks, along with charitable contributions and home mortgage interest. Of every $100 in charitable contributions itemized on tax returns, $51.70 was claimed by those making more than $200,000, as was $24.00 of every $100 in mortgage interest deductions, according to the Tax Foundation.

Charitable contributions and home mortgage interest would remain under the GOP plan.

The revenue saved from eliminating the state and local tax deduction would help pay for ending the estate tax, which is levied on only on two of every 1,000 Americans, those with at least $5.4 million in assets; and reducing the top income tax rate of 39.6 percent on income of at least $418,400 to 35 percent.

The corporate tax rate would drop to as little as 15 percent from the current 35 percent.

"The reality is the Republicans plan to use the revenue from repealing the state and local tax deduction to further drop the top individual and corporate rates," Menendez said.

Trump's director of legislative affairs, Marc Short, said middle-income families would benefit from the lower rates, even without the state and local tax deduction.

"We do want to prioritize middle-income tax relief," he said at a breakfast for reporters sponsored by the Christian Science Monitor.

Supporters of ending the state and local tax deduction said wealthier taxpayers benefit from the state and local tax deduction than those with lower incomes.

While those making under $25,000 deducted an average of $3,500 in taxes in 2015, those with more than $1 million in income deducted an average of $273,825, according to the Tax Foundation.

"Even though it is provision that is claimed by many Americans, high income Americans are more likely to claim it and high income Americans benefit more by it," said Scott Greenberg, a senior analyst at the Tax Foundation.

Still, what may be high-income in Nebraska isn't in New Jersey.

"What is middle class in terms of income in the Midwest could not be sustained as middle class in the Northeast," Menendez said.

Only two other states -- Maryland and Connecticut -- had a higher percentage of filers who deducted state and local taxes in 2015, according to the Tax Foundation.

More than 4 in 10 Garden State taxpayers, 41.2 percent, deducted their state and local income and property taxes from their returns in 2015.

That included 6.9 percent of those making $50,000 to $75,000 and 27.8 percent of residents making $100,000 to $200,000.

"It's a major tax break for the middle class," said Rep. Bill Pascrell Jr., D-9th Dist., a member of the House Ways and Means Committee that oversees tax policy. "You'd have a tough time if you weren't able to deduct that particular expense."

Rep. Josh Gottheimer brought up the state and local tax deduction when he and other members of the bipartisan Problem Solvers Caucus met with Trump at the White House Wednesday.

He said that residents of states with low taxes would benefit at the expense of his constituents, who no longer could deduct their state and local levies.

"You could be giving tax relief on one hand and giving tax increases on the other," Gottheimer, D-5th Dist., said he told Trump. "It greatly favors one state over another. You're picking winner and loser states."

Editor's note: The original version of this story said 51.3 percent of households making $200,000 or less took the federal deduction for state and local taxes. Actually, such households claimed 51.3 percent of the credit.

Jonathan D. Salant may be reached at jsalant@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @JDSalant or on Facebook. Find NJ.com Politics on Facebook.