WASHINGTON -- While continuing to push for repeal of the estate tax that would benefit multimillionaires, the White House yesterday again said that the deduction for state and local taxes should end because it benefits the "very wealthy."

White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders made that argument Thursday as she said President Donald Trump would push his proposal to eliminate the tax break, which provides a major benefit to New Jersey homeowners who pay the nation's highest property taxes.

""The fact is, it isn't fair and it doesn't make sense for working Americans across the country to subsidize the very wealthy in a few states," Sanders said. "The president has been clear about his position, and we're moving forward with the framework that we've laid out."

Nevertheless, more than half 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.

And six of the 10 states where residents most often used the tax deduction sent billions of dollars more in taxes to Washington than they received in federal benefits, according to data from the State University of New York's Rockefeller Institute of Government and the Tax Foundation.

On a per person basis, no state was hit harder than New Jersey, which received just 74 cents back for every $1 paid in federal taxes in 2015, according to the Rockefeller Institute.

Rep. Donald Norcross, D-1st Dist., called the break for state and local taxes "the one working man's deduction."

"This is probably the most punitive tax bill to come to New Jersey, in my memory certainly," Norcross said. "It's just going to hurt the very people you promised you were going to help."

Sanders' comments came shortly after House Republicans passed a budget resolution, the first step in a process designed to trigger a parliamentary maneuver that would allow the Senate GOP majority to avoid a Democratic filibuster and pass a tax bill with 50 votes rather than 60. It's the same tactic they used in their unsuccessful attempt to repeal the Affordable Care Act.

Trump's tax plan also calls lowering the top tax rate of 39.6 percent, paid only on income exceeding $418,400, and to repeal the estate tax, levied only on families with more than $11 million in assets.

Of the 5,400 estates projected to owe any tax in 2017, just 50, less than 1 percent, are family farms or small businesses, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a progressive research group.

Trump's heirs likely would face the estate tax; he has estimated his net worth at more than $10 billion.

To support the Republican effort, the American Action Network began a $2 million ad campaign in 28 congressional districts, including those represented by Reps. Tom MacArthur, R-3rd Dist., who supported the budget resolution, and Leonard Lance, R-7th Dist., who didn't.

"Congress must keep pushing forward; working families across this country deserve relief," American Action Network Executive Director Corry Bliss said.

AAN is a nonprofit that does not disclose its donors. It has ties to a super political action committee linked to House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis.

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