A $32,000 house in 1961 would have been a pretty nice house.
Well that is if it had been somewhere other than Northern New Jersey.
Worked on a case a few months ago where the target lived in a home in NJ valued at 1.6M. His property taxes were over $27,000 a year! I just thought “wow” that’s more than a lot of people make in a year. Hell no wonder everyone is fleeing the state.
Yes, this is a story that happens over and over and over again in states like this. I find it curious that the author never once mentioned how his father ever voted, did vote or who he might have supported.
An 81 year old man forced to move under the circumstances described has my sympathy. But his life getting to that age was pretty darn good and he has much of which to be proud. I am like him-—not as old-—but much to look back at with happy thoughts but not so much because of government when it comes to the future. I shudder for my kid and grandkids.
In my state, depending on which town you live in, the school portion of your property taxes is dropped once you reach 62, 65 or whatever age the town sets. That’s about 90% of your total tax bill.
Doesn’t New Jersey even charge an “exit tax” to get every last dime out of taxpayers leaving the state?
My parents are going to pull up stakes and gtfo of New England when my Dad retires. Which is soon. Their state doesn’t have an exit tax, yet, but a few months back my Dad showed me what death, er, estate taxes were going to do to his wealth if they were still residents when they passed. AND how much will be left in their new state of residency.
I happened to notice from the article that the man had been Superintendent of Public Schools. And now he moves because the schools spend too much money and the taxes to support them are too high. Sounds like Frankenstein is crying over the monster he created.
Play SimCity for a while.
I used to live in north Jersey and it was a pretty good place to live until Democrat Jim Florio became governor.
Florio raised taxes, passed a bunch of expensive local regulations and drove so much industry either out of state or out of business that it caused a local recession in the northeast US.
“he took the plunge with his young bride and purchased his first and only home, for $32,000, back in 1961”
During the peak of the housing boom the price of that house probably shot up to 15 or more times that. Back in 1970 my father bought a house in Queens NY for $19,000. At one point during the peak similar houses were going for around $400,000.
After all the taxpayers are driven out, thery can be replaced with new immigrants, legal and illegal, who will overburden the state's welfare system so severely that it will follow California, and Illinois into bankruptcy.
Moving state to state still not as hard as what the pilgrims did. And they were just fleeing religious persecution. England allowed non church of England religions, but they were taxed/fined for not belonging to COE. The justification being that COE members were contributing to the hat so non-members needed to pay up too.
We actually have a similar situation federally w/commie care. Folks will be taxed/fined for their “non healthy” lifestyle.
When I was ready to move, I left Monkey County MD not only due to taxes, but to get away from all the damn speed cameras. I only went to Nona, so didn’t get that much diff in taxes, but the qual of life was immediately noticeable. Gov in MD is too in your face. Can’t even get away from it at the grocery store where you’re always asked “would you like a bag for that?” (bag tax).
All these little straws added up to break my back. I had been in MoCo about 40 years and had the unfortunate ability to watch the tyranny develop there over time. Glad I’m out.
My wife and I lived in Bloomfield NJ from 1962 til 2002. We then moved to Belvidere NJ when we took in my elderly inlaws. My mother in law passed away last Nov. at the age of 100. Now circumstances (high cost of living in NJ) will drive us out. Even with all of the problems we have had a great life here. Where we live does not look like what people think NJ is. It is beautiful here. But we will have to go elsewhere.
Trying to tell these liberals, socialists and communists that high taxes means the total destruction of a civil society is an impossible task. The best thing to do is leave the state. Eventually, there won’t be any one to tax, and that’s exactly what they want to do. The only ones left in the state will be those being supported by the state that has no more money.
Government at all levels is dominated by the former 60's radicals who desperately wanted those jobs, and nearly devoid of the economically literate...who abhorred such jobs. The fix may eventually come when the radicals die off and are replaced by Reagan's generation. The job of conservatives is to expose and attack Communist thinking, wherever it is found. I don't think John and Mitch are up to it.
Born and raised in Leonia, NJ (1 mile from the GWB) and lived there most of my life. Despite a college degree and a job as a software engineer, I could not affort a house in that part of NJ (my wife and I were looking about an hour or so away from the area until we got fed up looking at the slim pickings that passed for 200K homes. In fact, just after we left, the Bergen Record newspaper had an article in it that was titled “The Last of the $300K Homes”).
In 2005, we moved to NC, bought a house for $172K (that would easily have sold for $750K in northern NJ at the time we bought it). Taxes on the house were under $1100 per year (we used to laugh at how our total mortgage payment would not have covered the monthyly tax bill on the house if it were in NJ!).
As I look at what I’ve just written, it saddens me. Critical life-choices now boil down to dollars and cents—nothing more. There are memories I have of my early life that are forever locked away (in some union boss’s cash box, no doubt), and exist in some past life, now gone, removed by a distance of almost 600 miles and thousands and thousands of dollars.
For someone who makes their living as a writer, he should be a little more concerned with editing.
Not if they bring their foolish voting patterns and bad manners with them.
The crappy gun laws alone in the fascist State of New Joisey would have driven me out long ago. It's no wonder they restrict firearms so heavily for private citizens. They want to keep them unarmed so they can continue to rob them blind. Some armed citizens might get uppity and quickly end their sweet scams.