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Wednesday, March 14, 2018

New Jersey Prepares To Raise Taxes On "Almost Everything" As It Nears Financial Disaster

Last week we noted that in what was a radical U-turn to what other public pension funds have been doing in recent years - most notably Calpers - the struggling New Jersey public pension system decided that instead of lowering its expected rate of return, it would raise it, from 7% to 7.5%.

The simple reason behind this odd increase in projected returns was an accounting sleight of hand which would allow the state of New Jersey to save some $238 million in pension contributions as a result of the higher discount rate applied to the fund's liabilities. And with a pension funding level of only 37% for the 2015 fiscal year, the worst of any state in the US, New Jersey would gladly take even the most glaring accounting gimmickry that would delay its inevitable death.

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.

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10 comments:

  1. How about > The Air you Breath ? Good idea !!!

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  2. toilet paper > by the square !! make alot of $$$$$ !!!

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  3. New Jersey already has more landfills than any other state, lets just turn the whole state into a dump, (Salisbury is already), and they can charge for garbage dumping.
    They can even fly in trash from other countries. This trash could include people from shit hole countries too!

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  4. Democrats destroying America.

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  5. thats because everyone with money has LEFT - the POS are moving South... All Democrap run cities, people are bailing WHY is that?

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  6. They will be asking the Federal Government to bail them out instead of cutting pensions to $40,000 per year and they have to pay their benefits. That is common sense. Democrat leadership knows nothing about responsible spending tax dollars.

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  7. wtg cris christie.

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  8. Make the Mob pay all the taxes , plenty of it in Jersey !!!

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  9. They're going to miss Christie.

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