New Jersey On Edge of Collapse; Governor Proposes to Tax “Everything”


New Jersey is the latest poster boy for the failure of liberal/socialist economics. You cannot substitute sound fiscal policies with programs to buy votes and expect the economy to thrive. In fact, you can expect the eventual collapse.

This is right where New Jersey is. The only surprise is that we do not have more states that are following such disastrous economic policies in the same boat. But we wait with patience, knowing that the day of reckoning will come for them as well.

Here’s New Jersey’s solution to its financial crisis: Tax everything.

Unfortunately, being the not so proud owner of the most distressed and underfunded public pension fund in the US is just the start of New Jersey’s monetary woes, and as Bloomberg reports, New Jersey’s fiscal situation is so dire that new Governor Phil Murphy has proposed taxing online-room booking, ride-sharing, marijuana, e-cigarettes and Internet transactions along with raising taxes on millionaires and retail sales to fund a record $37.4 billion budget that would boost spending on schools, pensions and mass transit.

The proposal which is 4.2% higher than the current fiscal year’s, relies on a tax for the wealthiest that is so unpopular it not only has yet to be approved, but also lacks support from key Democrats in the legislature, let alone Republicans. It also reverses pledges from Murphy’s predecessor, Republican Chris Christie, to lower taxes in a state where living costs are already among the nation’s highest.

Honest analysis trumps political expediency on these pages. The truth is that Christie did not get the job done. Debate the reasons for his actions, but the state is in a mess. Perhaps we are too hard on Christie, but we expect results. And it is very unlikely that his Democratic replacement is going to do any better. In fact, he might hammer the final nail in the state’s financial coffin.

Murphy, a Democrat who replaced term-limited Christie on Jan. 16, said his goal is to give New Jerseyans more value for their tax dollars; instead he plans on bleeding them dry. He has promised additional spending on underfunded schools and transportation in a credit-battered state with an estimated $8.7 billion structural deficit for the fiscal year that starts July 1.

“If we enact another budget like the one our administration inherited, our middle class will continue to be the ones shouldering the burden, while seeing little in return,” Murphy said Tuesday in his budget address to lawmakers. His solution? Socialist wealth redistribution: “A millionaire’s tax is the right thing to do –- and now is the time to do it.”

A better way of putting it, as Bloomberg has done, is that New Jersey’s budget “would raise taxes on almost everything.”

Good liberal that Murphy is, he would never consider getting rid of excessive spending. So he is going to tax the daylights out of everyone with two nickels to rub together. Yet he is either ignorant of, or just dismisses one important fact: Money goes where it is treated the best.

There is nothing magical about New Jersey. It is convenient to New York City, but we now have this thing called the internet and a zillion applications that make location all the more irrelevant.

Millionaires and billionaires can afford financial experts who will move their money to jurisdictions where their clients will be safe from Mr. Murphy’s proposed confiscatory taxation.

He’s got an appropriate last name, this new governor. How does Murphy’s Law go? “What can go wrong will go wrong”

Governor Murphy is about to give great support to that saying. All at the expense of those in New Jersey who are about to suffer mightily.

This was Christie 2 years ago:

Source: ZeroHedge

Image: Phil Murphy



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  1. Craig Bennett
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