New Jersey Taxes, Economy, and Outmigration

  • Don't Be Fooled: After Taxes and Living Costs, New Jersey Teachers Earn Less Than Teachers in Georgia and Texas 12/06/2024

    New Jersey teachers are not nearly as well paid as the NJEA's parent, the NEA, claims.  According to the NEA, teachers in states with collective bargaining (like New Jersey) have 26% higher salaries than teachers in states without it.  The NEA ranks New Jersey 6th, while the two largest states without collective bargaining - Georgia and Texas - rank 20th and 29th respectively.

    But the NEA data is flawed: it does not account for the real world of taxes and cost of living that New Jersey teachers actually live in. Sunlight found that once New Jersey's very high taxes and cost of living are accounted for, teachers in Georgia had 4.2% higher salaries, and Texas 3.2% higher.

    By misleading teachers with claims of higher salaries, the NEA does New Jersey teachers a disservice. Teachers should know that their salaries are not nearly as high as claimed and that they are actually underpaid compared to other states like Georgia and Texas.  

  • No, Governor Murphy, New Jersey Is Not Growing: The Data Show It Is Shrinking 02/23/2023

    In Murphy’s road-to-the-White-House narrative, New Jersey is growing, but back in the real world, New Jersey has one of the worst outmigrations of people and wealth in the nation.  This has been a long-term problem, and several 2022 surveys show that New Jersey continues to lose people and wealth to other states.  Over the past two years, its population has actually shrunk.

    Likewise, Murphy claims New Jersey is a great place to locate a business, but for every year he has been in office, the state’s business climate has ranked dead last in the nation.

    This all bodes ill for the state’s economic and fiscal future, but rather than address New Jersey’s most difficult problems and make the state more hospitable to people and businesses, Murphy is content to maintain the status quo and keep his government union supporters happy.  It sure looks like Murphy sees New Jersey as a stepping-stone for his political ambitions, nothing more.

  • Beware The Downward Spiral: The Economic Consequences Of New Jersey’s Special-Interest-Dominated Status Quo 10/01/2019

    “If I were relocating to some state that had a huge unfunded [public sector] pension plan I’m walking into liabilities. I say to myself, ‘Why do I want to build a plant there that has to sit there for 30 or 40 years?’ Because I’ll be here for the life of the pension plan, and they will come after corporations, they’ll come after individuals … they’re going to have to raise a lot of money.”

    – Warren Buffet, 2019. 1

    If Warren Buffet is asking this question, then American businesses are asking this question.

  • NJEA: Higher Taxes, Who Has Been Complaining About The Sales Tax Anyway? 06/28/2019

    “Increasing the gas tax makes sense. But it’s irresponsible to negotiate a deal that raises this tax while reducing other state revenues … And who has been complaining about the sales tax, anyway?”

    — NJEA Executive Director Ed Richardson, 2016.

    Apparently not Richardson. After all, he is a multi-millionaire, himself, having been paid $2.98 million of taxpayer dollars from 2013-2016. Maybe Mr. Richardson has forgotten that gas and sales taxes are the least progressive taxes. They are the same for everyone and thus hit middle-class New Jerseyans much harder than they hit a one-percenter like Richardson. Perhaps that is why he totally disregards their impact on middle-class New Jerseyans – including teachers, who make $76,000 a year. Where is the tax “fairness” in that?

    There’s a reason why the NJEA has constantly pushed for higher taxes.