Posted on 04/30/2016 10:36:42 AM PDT by reaganaut1
Our top-heavy economy has come to this: One man can move out of New Jersey and put the entire state budget at risk. Other states are facing similar situations as a greater share of income — and tax revenue — becomes concentrated in the hands of a few.
Last month, during a routine review of New Jersey’s finances, one could sense the alarm. The state’s wealthiest resident had reportedly “shifted his personal and business domicile to another state,” Frank W. Haines III, New Jersey’s legislative budget and finance officer, told a State Senate committee. If the news were true, New Jersey would lose so much in tax revenue that “we may be facing an unusual degree of income tax forecast risk,” Mr. Haines said.
The New Jersey resident (unnamed by Mr. Haines) is the hedge-fund billionaire David Tepper. In December, Mr. Tepper declared himself a resident of Florida after living for over 20 years in New Jersey. He later moved the official headquarters of his hedge fund, Appaloosa Management, to Miami.
New Jersey won’t say exactly how much Mr. Tepper paid in taxes. But according to Institutional Investor’s Alpha, he earned more than $6 billion from 2012 to 2015. Tax experts say his move to Florida could cost New Jersey — which has a top tax rate of 8.97 percent — hundreds of millions of dollars in lost payments.
Mr. Tepper, 58, declined to comment on his move. He does have family — his mother and sister — who live in Florida. But several New Jersey lawmakers cited his relocation as proof that the state’s tax rates, up from 6.37 percent in 1996, are chasing away the rich. Florida has no personal income tax.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
greater state income taxes...
higher tolls for roads...
increased property taxes...
and sales taxes...
and of course the proverbial closing down of state parks and pools because you know, its not like the public has a right to them, even if they did buy the whole dang bunch of them....
being a fireman, a soldier, a teacher, etc...used to be more vocation than money maker....now, they live like kings and queens and the govt pays them the same way even when they "retire" at age 55 or younger for military...
...and much better winters.
Quoting Geo Will (re-quoted from Neal Boortz)...
...the tax destroyed 330 jobs in jewelry manufacturing, 1,470 in the aircraft industry and 7,600 in the boating industry. The job losses cost the government a total of $24.2 million in unemployment benefits and lost income tax revenues. So the net effect of the taxes was a loss of $7.6 million in fiscal 1991...
Much of the boating construction fled offshore, and never returned although the tax was repealed.
.
ESPECIALLY State and Local Government employees!
They were about 3% of the population when I was growing up (50s, 60s). Now they're about 7% of the population. For most of them it's glorified welfare. (Let's all thank Nixon for "Revenue Sharing.")
ML/NJ
Tax the rich a little more
Tax the rich till the’re poor
Tax the rich every day
Then the rich will go away
Who do we tax when the rich are gone
Can we issue more state bonds
When the state misses the riches cash
The state will tax the middle class
He is going to cancel the F-35 purchase and buy Super Hornets instead, I hope.
He is returning the Kurdish Air Force (known in Canada as the RCAF) to its home base in Canada. I am all for the Kurds but the situation is not exactly cut and dried over there. Who exactly are we bombing over there? And, why?
He contends that he is going to help build two pipelines from the oil sands in Alberta. One to the west coast and one to the east coast. Even a liberal like JT realizes that the third largest oil deposit in the world has to be exploited and rail is not the way to move it in bulk. I guess Europe and Asia will get the oil that we wanted to sell to the US via the Keystone XL
Of course he is going to borrow billions of dollars to buy votes (there goes our AAA rating) and he is bringing in thousands of "refugees", so, yeah he is a putz.
How’s globalism working out of us?
The funny thing is that at no point did they even hint that with a big loss in revenue, they will have no choice but to cut spending.
Rush’s fault
Government wage, benefit and pension reform is desperately overdue. I’m so weary of all the “hero” talk to justify continued fleecing for military/police pay. If you jump on a grenade or single handedly save a life at great risk to your own, etc., OK, but otherwise you’re just showing up for work. Same as a coal miner or logger. Firemen are a different story; still overpaid, but probably the most utility for the money. Let’s not even think about teachers.... Perhaps the answer is to do away with pensions altogether, like almost all of the private sector. If you want to quit at 50, then retrain on your own dime and do something else or live on what you’ve saved. Maybe indexing peak government employment compensation to the average taxpayer’s wage would work. It’s a mess and taxpayers have been taking it in the neck for too long.
Did he legitimately ‘earn’ $6 billion in 3 years?
I left NJ 10 years ago.
The handwriting was all over the wall like grafitti even then.
How does one earn more than $6 billion in 4 years?!
By hedging your funds by $1.5 billion per year. I.e. playing the markets off each other.
That fat bastard Christie needs his donuts, and he needs them now.
As a retired military senior enlisted person myself, but still a taxpayer in my private sector job, I can see some of your point. However, unlike the police/firemen where I still see the artificial inflation of salaries and positions just prior to retirement, that little game just doesn’t happen in the military. You’ve got it wrong.
When I receive my pension check, I do feel lucky to have chosen the career I chose. At the same time, I vividly remember the many liberal minded, anti-American as**oles I heard tell me how stupid I was to join and risk life and limb for a capitalist country that couldn’t give a damn about me. I lived in Connecticut, where almost everyone in my family fit that description. To their credit, there were times, certainly, when the “tic tic” of bullets whizzing by, and the sudden, almost paralyzing fear of a nearby explosion, would make me doubt my choice.
When it was all over though, oddly enough, I somehow felt guilty for leaving. Not because I would be getting some relative compensation (not living like a king, couldn’t even afford my modest home without my current job) from the taxpaying public without actually being injured for it. My guilt was because of the younger troops, who I would be leaving behind and I still felt needed to be reminded to close their flak jackets and keep their goddam helmets on, even if it was 100 degrees in the shade.
You could have been there too, but I suspect you decided not to be. I don’t dog you, or consider you less of an American or citizen for not doing so (perhaps you did, I don’t know), but I do resent you for trying to make me no better than a welfare queen.
Truth is, I thank you for the deal this government made with me when I was a young man of 18. I know it adds to your taxes, and for that, I am sorry. I didn’t do it for money, but there’s no doubt that it became a factor, the longer I stayed in. As I missed those birthdays and Christmas’s I became selfish enough to think there had to be some reward, not for me, but for my family’s sake.
In the end, I’m just terrified of loud noises. I keep moving on, never asked for anything like disability, or claimed I had PTSD to increase my “take”. I’m truly sorry if you feel I don’t deserve it. When we were less concerned about budgets, we sure made a lot of promises to young men (and women) about what one would gain by re-enlisting. It was enticing. Being disparaged by our fellow citizens wasn’t on my contract, but I suppose I missed the fine print, again.
I don't know where you get your ideas of how kings and queens live, but as a retired Colonel with 25 years service, I'm sure not living in a castle.
No, I'm not living in poverty. I lead a comfortable life. I believe that being rich means you can have anything you want. Well, I don't want much, so I guess that means I'm rich. But I'm not sure anyone else would agree.
but it will never happen...we're a democracy and the takers can demand whatever they want....
I tell my kids repeatedly...go work for the govt....they will never suffer cutbacks, loss of benefits or pensions and they never get fired..
I get your point, but that’s so depressing. If the life of a swollen tick on the ass of an increasingly anemic dog is all that’s left of the “American Dream” for young people to aspire to, then all I can say is let it all burn.
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