Via Insider New Jersey, Blue New Jersey opposes the SALT cap, whereby Federal income tax deductions of state and local taxes are capped at $10,000. Needless to say, this hits high tax Blue States (like New Jersey) very hard.
Complains Congressman Mikie Sherrill (D):
Sherrill criticized the cap throughout the 2018 campaign, contending that the average resident in the 11th District paid almost $20,000 in state and local taxes. That means an additional $10,000 is now subject to federal taxes. It’s always hard to know why people vote the way they do, but it seems clear that the SALT cap helped Democrats win all but one congressional seat last year. But the problem is that as we come to the end of 2019, the cap remains. And that is what Sherrill says she’s trying to change. She said in her statement that she plans to be on the House floor “every day” until Congress leaves for the holidays “highlighting the impact of SALT on my constituents and on Americans across the country.”
Why on Earth would low tax Tennessee, New Hampshire, Iowa or Texas care about New Jersey's high tax problem? If you were paying around $10,000 in property taxes a year down south, how much acreage would you own?
Yes we took a hit. A small one. We don't care.
From one New Jersey resident to another, Ms. Sherrill. You're a Democrat. You like taxes. Pay 'em.
There are two ways to traverse New Jersey north to south: the New Jersey Turnpike which will take you from NYC all the way down to the Delaware Memorial Bridge, and the Garden State Parkway which runs from the Tappan Zee Bridge south to Cape May.
Both nail you with tolls.
And it costs $15 to take the GWB into Manhattan, which is just another reason for us not to go to Manhattan.*
Bob Hennelly at Insider New Jersey says blame the Feds:
So, what happens when the Federal government refuses to return some of the billions we send Washington back in the form of infrastructure upgrades?
“It is a big problem,” Port Authority Executive Director Rick Cotton told me at a press conference. “The Federal government had been a critical partner with local transportation agencies in providing top priority resources. What we have seen is multiple examples, probably the leading one is the Gateway Project where the Federal government has backed away from its historic role of supporting major regional transportation projects.”
The bottom line is “the entire burden on the residents of the community to finance the project” he added.
This has been the state of affairs for so many years, that the Port Authority’s latest proposal to raise tolls feels like the movie “Ground Hog Day.” Anyone who has lived long enough to see a Port Authority Chairman indicted and convicted, knows that this is how the bi-state shakedown machine works.
Actually this article covers a really boring Port Authority meeting which we won't get into. You're not having trouble getting to sleep are you?
*You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy. Be cautious.
Insider New Jersey reports that President Trump congratulated Senate leader Steve Sweeney and the NJ legislature for standing strong against Governor Murphy and his virtue signaling millionaire's tax:
The legislature is run by machine Democrats, including Speaker Craig Coughlin and Senate President Steve Sweeney, who together are locked in an ongoing political fight with progressive Democratic Governor Phil Murphy.
At various junctures of the budget battle, which ended yesterday on the last day of the month when Murphy signed the legislature’s $38.7 billion budget rather than force a government shutdown, the governor and his rivals each attempted to paint the other as the more Trump-friendly side of the divide.
Murphy repeatedly pointed out that Trump’s tax policies and SALT deduction freeze punished New Jersey’s middle class, which could benefit from a state millionaire’s tax in the name of tax fairness.
Machine Democrats.
Do we detect a taste of sour grapes from editor Max Pizarro?
