49% of New Jerseyeans Want To Leave New Jersey?

I don't consider this to be all that surprising as I've long railed against the high tax burden here in the New York metro region. (HT: Hot Air, who discusses the ramifications of the choice of moving out of the state versus attempting to change the political situation here.) The political situation here is so entrenched that it would confound even Hercules. People are giving up rather than trying to fight for lower taxes and lower spending. I'm not one of them.

New Jersey has the highest tax burden in the nation, with crushing property, income, and sales taxes. Many people move to New Jersey to escape the high tax burdens and cost of living in New York (especially New York City, which tacks on additional taxes on top of the already high New York State taxes), while maintaining jobs in New York City.

Even New Jerseyans can't stand living in New Jersey, according to a new poll that said nearly half of adults residing in the Garden State want to pull up stakes.

The Monmouth University/Gannett New Jersey Poll, released Wednesday, found 49 percent of those polled would rather live somewhere else.

New Jersey already is suffering from an image problem and bears the brunt of jokes because of its corruption and pollution problems. But 58 percent of those residents polled said the heavy financial burden of just living in the state is no laughing matter, and that's why they want to leave.

Poll participants cited high property taxes (28 percent), the cost of living (19 percent), state taxes (5 percent) and housing costs (6 percent) as the main reasons they want out. The poll also found that 51 percent of those who expressed a desire to leave planned to do so, with adults under the age of 50 making between $50,000 and $100,000 the most likely to flee.

"If you have the ability to leave and you don't see any possibility for change with the way the state is run — and that's the No. 1 issue here — you have to vote with your feet," said Patrick Murray, director of the Monmouth University Polling Institute.

There is some rumblings in Trenton that GOP legislators want to move for a sales tax holiday to help people during these troubling financial times. It would be a 3.5% rate (1.75% in enterprise zones) through the holiday season.

Republican leaders planned to announce the proposal today at an afternoon news conference.

Two Republican officials familiar with the plan said it would jump-start the economy by allowing customers to pay less for merchandise and increasing retail sales.

The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because legislation to enact the plan was still being prepared for introduction in the Assembly on Thursday, said most of the estimated $500 million in lost tax revenue would be offset by the increased business activity. They said the rest could be recouped through budget cuts.

The Republicans seem to understand that high taxes deter people from spending their own money since more of it ends up in government coffers, but have never had the numbers to get the state to spend less money for a sustained period. I don't see the sales tax holiday happening because of the property tax burden and poor fiscal shape of the state. Gov. Corzine and the Democrats will complain that the state can't afford the reduction in sales tax revenues, even though it would help consumers greatly. The GOP will claim that the increased sales revenues will spur higher tax collections across the board - as businesses do better business. However, if they wanted to make the state more competitive and spur economic development, they should make the reductions permanent, rather than hold it for a limited time. The state would get increased traffic from Pennsylvania and New York as consumers there flock to New Jersey stores to spend more on goods and services in the state. It would be a boost for the local economy, especially at places the Route 17-4 shopping corridor, Woodbridge, and the outlets in Jackson and Flemington, among others.

I think it's instructive to see how Trenton has handled the property tax burden in the past. The state and municipalities are heavily dependent on property taxes to fashion their budgets. Taxpayers want property relief, so Trenton passes a temporary gross income tax (personal income tax). 30 years later, and that tax is still with us, but it doesn't provide sufficient revenues to cover property tax relief, so along comes Gov. Jon Corzine who increases the sales and use tax by a percentage point to provide property tax relief. Don't expect any property tax relief as a result since municipalities continue getting waivers to increase their taxes above the mandated caps.

State spending in New Jersey is out of control, and no one in Trenton appears willing or capable of taking on the unions or the state workforce to control costs, reduce featherbedding, waste, graft, corruption, or properly allocate resources to what is essential. Instead, the state spends hundreds of millions on pet projects that the state could do without. Corzine and the Democrats are preparing plans to cut state spending by $500 million, which is a drop in the bucket, especially considering the billions spent every year on debt financing for out of control spending done in years past. Corzine added to that with billions in new debt for school construction this year, and watch for his to call for more state spending on infrastructure projects as a way to spur the economy (shades of the New Deal).

The problems with the high tax burden get increased as those who are most capable of leaving are also those who have among the highest incomes - they're not sticking around while their saving accounts get drained by insatiable taxing authorities.