New Jersey Governor Shocked He Can’t Tax Citizens to Death
If anyone knows “anything about New Jersey, they’re just weary of taxes.”
One would think the Democratic legislature of New Jersey would be eager to pass a tax hike on millionaires now that the state has a Democratic governor. After all, they passed the hike five times during the tenure of Republican Chris Christie even though they knew he would veto it.
Gov. Phil Murphy has proposed “$1.7 billion in new taxes and other revenue to pay for public schools, public-employee pensions and other priorities.” His fellow Democrats have “balked” at this idea along with a rise in sales tax.
The governor and legislation must “agree on a balanced budget before July 1.” If that doesn’t happen, the government could shut down. That is something both sides want to avoid. Christie received a lot of criticism last year when the government shut down after he refused to sign the budget.
The legislature has a budget in pending that will “require the government to keep state parks, benches and forests open for seven seven days in the event of a government shutdown.”
From The Wall Street Journal:
State Senate President Steve Sweeney has been particularly vocal.
“Everyone in Trenton is aware of the tax problems that we have here and that the state’s in a financial crisis,” Mr. Sweeney said in an interview. “Our goal is to come up with a solution that’s not all these taxes.”
Sweeney also said that the “state is taxed out” and that if anyone knows “anything about New Jersey, they’re just weary of taxes.”
Assembly Speaker Craig Coughlin said that he prefers the state not raise the sale tax even though he recognizes “that probably in each transaction it’s not a lot. But cumulatively, that’s a lot, and that affects people at all socioeconomic levels.”
Elaine Maag at the Tax Policy Center stated that candidates have an easy time gaining “popular support for the millionaire’s tax on the campaign trail, since most people wouldn’t be impacted by it.” But once they get into office, they encounter a pushback because those millionaires “tend to be very well politically connected and vocal.”
The Wall Street Journal detailed what Murphy wants and why Sweeney rejected it:
Mr. Murphy has proposed raising the state sales tax to 7% from 6.625%, which his administration estimates would generate about $597 million in new revenue. He also wants to impose a 10.75% state tax on income over $1 million, which his administration projects would bring in an additional $774 million in revenue for the state. The current top income-tax rate in New Jersey is 8.97% for income over $500,000.
Mr. Sweeney previously voted for a millionaire’s tax, but said he changed his mind after the federal tax law was passed in December. The law capped previously unlimited annual state and local tax deductions at $10,000 for individual and married filers, and Mr. Sweeney said he is concerned an additional millionaire’s tax could drive people out of the state.
“I think that people that have the ability to leave are leaving,” he said.
Sweeney prefers to raise the “top corporate income tax to 12% from 9%, but only on businesses earning more than $1 million annually.” He also put together “a legislative panel to review the state’s tax and fiscal policy.”
This could become tricky, though, since Murphy won the governorship by double digits in November and polls show that the millionaire’s tax has strong support in New Jersey. A Quinnipiac University poll in 2017 showed “that 74% of respondents backed a millionaire’s tax if the money went to public schools.”
Tom Moran has an op-ed at NJ.com about his one hour visit with the governor. In the meeting, Murphy said that “[W]e will reclaim the progressive soul of this state.” Moran believes that the state has “already seen the best of the Murphy era” and it can “get ugly fast.” He wrote:
Because all signs say the Legislature is going to murder his budget next month by refusing to raise the sales tax, leaving him a whopping $581 million short. Legislative leaders say that in public, and they emphasize it in private. And Murphy has built no reservoir of good will to fall back on.
They don’t like him. They don’t fear him. And they are convinced he’s mistaken about the state’s progressive soul — at least when it comes to raising taxes.
Moran said that Sweeney “clenches his jaw when you mention Murphy’s name.”
Sweeney did admit that “[I]n fairness to Phil Murphy, he didn’t cause all these problems,” but he also believes that “he’s one of the people who can fix it.”
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… pay for public schools, public-employee pensions and other priorities.
When pensions—which by definition are payments to an ever-expanding crowd of people who are performing no work—are in your “priorities” list, you’re already in a death spiral.
Yeah, who here actually believes that once the pensions are bailed out, there’ll be a dime or a penny left for the schools themselves?
This is the same state that wants to make “smart” guns (that fail) mandatory in 3 years.
https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/City-pension-pays-more-than-average-worker-earns-2367116.php
“The average retiree from San Francisco city government earns an annual pension of $46,272, according to the San Francisco Employees’ Retirement System. The average retiree who worked at least 30 years in city government earns an annual pension of $76,981.
…But city retirees are doing pretty well compared with working San Franciscans. Census data show the median family income in the city is $86,546. Per capita income is $44,373.”
Yes, this is sustainable.
I was born and raised in kali. But then I’m 55 years old. And when I grew up it was actually sane. Although, maybe not really, as the writing was on the wall before a was out of my teens. Jerry Brown was elected twice in the ’70s. And he pushed for and got passed a law that allowed public employees to unionize and then do collective bargaining. Which was accurately called the beginning of he end. It’s only fitting that he’s again the governor, so he can supervise the end of the end.
We did still have occasional, sputtering bursts of sanity. We voted to amend the state constitution to limit property tax increases in ’78, and we voted the state supreme court chief justice, Rose Bird, out of office in ’86. The only state supreme court chief justice ever voted out of office in the history of the state. I think we booted three other supreme court justices at the same time. Because, get this. The final straw was when she refused to uphold the death penalty for a murderer who killed an infant. Her reasoning if you can call it that was that although (and I may be getting some of the details wrong as this was thirty years ago) the state could prove the murderer intended to stab the eighteen month old sixteen times, they couldn’t prove he intended to kill the infant.
She reviewed several dozen death penalty cases during her tenure. Every single time she voted to overturn the death penalty. Finally we got sick of it. I know my fellow Texans hate it when people from what they imagine to be a far left h3llhole move here. I didn’t bring any liberal mental defects. There are conservatives there. Or, the were. For instance, I can do math. And math doesn’t care about your feelings, and really neither do I. In 2016 kali’s birth rate hit an historic low of 12.42 births per 1,000 women. In 1995 it was 75.5 babies per 1,000 women. And SF and San Mateo counties have even lower birth rates than the state average. To be fair I’ve read other reports that say the birth rate was rising. But when it falls that low, you can expect it to rise on occasion. It’s statistically insignificant.
Who is going to pay for all those exorbitant SF city/county pensions? I don’t know many young people who see a future in kali. And certainly not in SF.
The voters of SF voted to increase the minimum wage to $14/hr by July of last year, and it’s going up to $15/hr this July. Immediately fast food restaurants put up signs saying they could no longer offer budget-priced items. The five dollar meal deal at Subway? Not anymore in San Francisco.
So, the geniuses in SF just couldn’t figure out what anyone could have told them. If the price of labor goes up, the price of everything goes up. And the price of automation becomes more attractive. Minimum wage workers, say hello to your replacements, the ordering/payment kiosk and the computerized burger maker.
What is the real minimum wage? $0/hr. It was one of the most bizarre things I’ve ever witnessed. I saw business owners being interviewed on TV saying they would vote to raise the minimum wage. But then they’d have to close as they were already operating on the razor’s edge of insolvency. I saw one university professor saying she was totes in favor of raising the minimum wage. But then she’d have to fire her lab assistant.
These people are nucking futs. Can nobody in Kali connect the economic dots anymore? People keep voting for ATMs to give them more money. Then they wonder why the ATMs aren’t spitting out all the cash they want; so they vote themselves more money.
Try explaining rent control to these morons, and how it means that nobody wants to build all the “affordable housing” they keep voting themselves. You’d have to be crazy to invest in rental real estate in SF. And why existing landlords jack up the rent if someone does move out and they get a new tenant. Because that tenant might stay twenty years, and the landlord has to calculate what a worthwhile rent will be in twenty years. And then charge it now. A friend of mine sublet a studio apartment in SF back in the 90s. At the time the rent was $2500. And the funny thing is that people there will joke about the high cost of living. Like it’s just something that happens, like a natural phenomenon, like the weather. They can’t figure out they keep voting to live in a high priced s***hole. And I mean that literally. The stench of feces and urine on Market Street is eye watering and mind numbing. Of course, you have to keep your eyes as dry as possible so you can spot the hypodermic needles and avoid stepping on them. Street lights have been known to collapse because the vagrants have peed on them so many times they rust through.
Meanwhile the median price of house in the Castro district has topped one point two million last I checked. Not like I’m interested really. Everything about SF disgusts me. When I visit family and friends in Kali I usually fly into the SF airport. But then I get the h3ll out as soon as I can. I don’t want to get hit by falling urine soaked street lamps or tiptoe through the hypodermic needles and feces. I used to hop on BART and head home but I refuse to do that anymore. The BART stations have devolved into homeless encampments where people openly shoot up. And even worse, they have a massive problem with flash mobs of “wilding youths” bursting on the trains, robbing and beating up the passengers. And you know what course of action the BART administration brain trust decided on? Don’t install security cameras on the trains. Because that might lead to racial profiling.
So I take a cab. I’m getting too old to fight forty teenagers at once.
Those two-faced democrats in New Jersey remind me of the two-faced republicans in congress.
Wrong man at the wrong time. What is wrong with you NJ? In the past you gave us criminals like Jim Florio and Corzine, and then there was that sleeze McGreevey. Are you folks smoking the fumes from the refineries along the turnpike? Wake up!
The voters are easily manipulated by the media. They vote for leftists, and taxes, then complain, but will vote for the same each time.
My youngest brother is about to take his $$ and leave NJ in September when his youngest starts college outside of the state. He’s headed to FL, of course.
where he will vote for exactly the same. anti-second, pro-lgbt politicians…..who also happen to be in favor of taxes
Do you know Dave’s brother well enough to say these things?
Do you in fact know Dave’s brother at all?
/thought not.
What he was likely getting at is the fact that a lot of political and factual imbeciles, who will blindly vote democrat, are fleeing liberal states because of high taxes and failed economic and social policies.
The imbeciles, after settling in conservatives states where taxes are low and social policies are intelligent, will likely again vote against lock-step their own interests and turn their new homes into the dumps they left.
Two cases in point:
Illinois and Silicon Valley CA.
I think it is a generalization, no need to get all emotional.
Do you know Dave’s brother well enough to know this?
Do you know Dave’s brother at all?
/that’s what I thought.
To LI: sorry about the double post; not sure what happened.
“Governor Murphy wants to bring value to New Jersey with taxes”
Sure worked well in Connecticut where the rest stops are only open from 8:30 AM to 3:30 PM. Before or afterwards, if nature calls and you happen to be traveling through, you literally have to defecate on Connecticut.
Number 48 among the states in geographic area, but a rather robust number 20 in the number of illegal alien invaders inside its borders. Democrats working assiduously keeping that pool of Democratic voters perpetually full
Because history proves that the government spends money so more efficiently than the private sector.
If you are welfare-dependent and don’t work, NJ just might become your CA paradise of the Eastern shore under this imbecile Murphy.
Murphy’s law. How ironic.
“[W]e will reclaim the progressive soul of this state.”
There is no such thing. Only ‘progressive’ appetite.
This isn’t the first state or first time that Democrats wrangled over how and where to raise taxes, of course, but what is striking is that you never, ever see or hear a suggestion to *cut spending* instead of raising taxes. No way to pay off supporters when you cut spending, you see.
Why cut spending when you see rich people making money? The politics of envy is very strong on the left. And you know that as soon as any effort might begin to be more responsible, a lot the Jersey media will quickly do a compare and contrast. Look at this poor family of 4 affected by state “austerity”. Now look at these fat cats over there……That plot is played nearly every time.
If the voters want to raise taxes on the rich, I say do it! Let’s see the New Jersey lab results. It will be instructive to all other states.
The voters might also learn the real priorities once the less than anticipated tax collection increase is distributed. Where might it go first since lower than planned…….schools??? LOL!!
What I find humorous is that the millionaires tax might have been almost viable, except for the Trump Tax Cuts, that were partially paid for with capping the state and local tax deduction. If the Democrats had worked with the Republicans on the tax cuts, they likely could have salvaged some, if not most of that deduction. But, of course they didn’t, and as a result the high tax Blue States are now in a vice, because they can no longer raise taxes on their high earners with impunity, with the feds (I.e. the rest of us) picking up much of the tab. The other side of the vice are those pensions for their #1 constituency – govt workers.
Besides, who wants to live in NJ, if you can afford to novel elsewhere?
I thought that was a brilliant move. I wasn’t aware that they were gaming the federal tax to subsidize their Blue State insanity.
Remember all those bogus studies about Red States not paying their fair share? Bet they left that part out.
No, they didn’t. The whole concept is bogus, of course, but they did use total federal receipts, which means after this deduction was claimed.
Even Geraldo has packed up his money and moved – going to see the rich continue to go.
A rotting, smelly, dying swamp creature.
Pew!
Mr. Sweeney said he is concerned an additional millionaire’s tax could drive people out of the state.
Of course, this triggers the New Jersey “Exit Tax”.
This is a tax on the sale of a home (it is refunded if you buy another home in New Jersey).
To keep people from leaving, maybe NJ can build their own ‘wall’?
They can name it the East Berlin Wall.
Is NJ the new Canada?
Read this if you love laughing.
nationalpost.com/news/politics/inflatable-boats-felt-pens-and-beer-kegs-heres-what-canada-targeted-with-tariffs-and-why
Dems are colluding with Canada to steal the mid-terms.
Go ahead and pass the tax increase on millionaires. They will all move to Florida where they will do exactly what they did in New Jersy and elect tax and spend liberals! Wouldn’t you think they would have learned something by now? I guess the old saying that people never change is pretty accurate.
This shit didn’t happen when Tony Soprano was governor.
Hey, I learned everything that I needed to know about PDX .gov from Tony Soprano. You name it, they will get their taste.
There’s a great quote I have forgotten if anyone has it. Something close to “when they talk of taxes it’s always for roads, police and schools. But it always goes to some guy in a leather chair that no one has heard off”
I’m really mangling it.
I live in Tennessee and we have essentially no state income tax and a sales tax of 7%. I live on a five acre property that was appraised at $250,000 and I pay $650/year is property tax. Our state finances are in good shape so why does NJ have such a difficult time with their tax system?
Unions, liberals, graft!
To me New Jersey is the 2nd worst state after California as far as stupid government destroying their own state.
Why people live there I’ll never know.
What a dump.