Pay your taxes today, New Jersey, but keep working until May 13th!

By Matt Rooney | The Save Jersey Blog

Ronald Reagan famously quipped that “Republicans believe every day is the Fourth of July, but the democrats believe every day is April 15.”

chains prisonerThe calendar is even stranger here in the Garden State, Save Jerseyans, where Tax Freedom Day doesn’t arrive until May 13th; that’s the date calculated by the Tax Foundation when New Jerseyans, collectively, have generated enough revenue to satisfy the year’s cumulative tax liability.

And we’re second-to-last, by the way, trailing only Connecticut for worst (def. the latest tax freedom date) in the nation. Trenton takes a healthy piece of the pie; according to TF, “New Jersey’s 2011 tax burden of 12.3% ranks 2nd highest out of 50 states, and is above the national average of 9.8%” based on the fact that “New Jersey’s taxpayers pay $6,675 per capita in state and local taxes.”

Does any of the money sent down I-95 come back? Sure, but less than most states recoup. New Jerseyans paid $111,377,490,000 to the federal government in 2012, or $12,564.31 per capita. It’s a master-servant relationship.

Not everyone in Trenton thinks it’s a sane, sustainable or acceptable situation. “We are the most overtaxed state in the country and for us, today is a bad dream that will keep re-occurring for another four weeks,” observed Assembly Deputy Republican Leader Anthony Bucco, a member of the Assembly Budget Committee, in a Tax Day 2015 release. “Too many of our residents move to another state because it is so unaffordable to live here. We pay taxes the first day we start work, and keep paying them even after we die. Income taxes, property taxes, sales taxes, estate and realty transfer taxes are enough of a reason for people to move.”

But what looked like a bipartisan push to end the “death tax” has stalled, and geniuses on both sides of the aisle are presently preparing to coalesce around either a gas tax hike or new borrowing which, as we know, ultimately results in higher taxes when the bill comes due.

Your only options? (1) take it, (2) fight it, or (3) escape it.

Anyone who’s tired of option #1 but not quite ready (or able) to play out option #3 is welcome to join me at the polls this November when all 80 Assembly seats are on the line.

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Matt Rooney
About Matt Rooney 8686 Articles
MATT ROONEY is SaveJersey.com's founder and editor-in-chief, a practicing New Jersey attorney, and the host of 'The Matt Rooney Show' on 1210 WPHT every Sunday evening from 7-10PM EST.

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