Posted on

New Study : People in New Jersey pay Massively Higher Taxes than Anywhere Else

gov phil murphy nj generic 041518 1523813414516 5330616 ver1.0 640 3601

the staff of the Ridgewood blog

Trenton  NJ, a new study on Taxes from SELF , comes in with the same old conclusion , people in New Jersey pay massively higher taxes than anywhere else, yet state services and quality of life, wealth gap and racial equality all continue to decline.

Continue reading New Study : People in New Jersey pay Massively Higher Taxes than Anywhere Else

Posted on

Commerce and Industry Association of New Jersey , “If approved, this budget will further impede our economic recovery resulting in additional job losses and businesses closing

store closing

the staff of the Ridgewood blog

Trenton NJ, CIANJ President Anthony Russo commented on the Governors budget address, “In these uncertain and unprecedented times, the Commerce and Industry Association of New Jersey (CIANJ) was disappointed that the Governor’s proposed nine month FY21 budget includes new taxes, extensive borrowing and limited reductions in state spending,” said Anthony Russo, President, CIANJ. “New Jersey has never been in a more dire economic situation with nearly a million and half New Jerseyans filing for unemployment and businesses suffering significant losses.”

Continue reading Commerce and Industry Association of New Jersey , “If approved, this budget will further impede our economic recovery resulting in additional job losses and businesses closing

Posted on

Reader points out the Obvious Dipping RHS ratings and Higher taxes will lead to less interest in Village of Ridgewood

for sale Ridgewood_Real_Estate_theRodgewopodblog

file photo by Boyd Loving

Local Taxes are not exempt anymore, this makes taxes expensive for everyone, Higher Taxes do not make a community more inviting, balance need to be restored, We have high taxes and if Schools outperform, that’s the only win-win situation, dipping RHS ratings and Higher taxes will lead to less interest in Village of Ridgewood .

Posted on

What Phil Murphy has Planned for you !

Phill Murphy -Sara Medina del Castillo

Leave New Jersey to find a better life

Published 12:04 a.m. ET July 14, 2017 | Updated 12:04 a.m. ET July 14, 2017

Please keep a copy of this before you vote in November and if you vote for Phil Murphy, keep this as an I-told-you-so.

If you think New Jersey is in bad shape now, here’s what Phil Murphy has planned for you. He wants to raise the sale tax to 8 percent. The estate tax was going to end in January, but Murphy wants to keep it in effect and will bring it back.

Democrats in Trenton are already drawing up the following laws so they are ready to be signed into law if Murphy wins in November. Illegal immigrants will be able to get driver’s licenses, which will make it hard for the boards of election to check if they are legal citizens when it comes time to vote. Marijuana will be legalized. Those are just two laws that will pass because Democrats have control in Trenton.

https://www.dailyrecord.com/story/opinion/letters/2017/07/14/murphy-taxes-new-jersey-governor/103673090/

Posted on

Higher Taxes and Congestion Likely from New Ridgewood Apartment Complexes

high density housing CBD

May 4,2017

the staff of the Ridgewood blog

Ridgewood NJ, The massive new 66 unit, multi-retail store complex coming to Franklin and Broad sets off a chain reaction of traffic problems in Ridgewood. As always, taxpayers will be left holding the bag for nearly a million dollars worth of needed traffic signal upgrades alone.

In the zoomed in version of developer John Saraceno’s “rendering” above we see the Franklin & Broad intersection which will be drastically impacted by the new 5 story building and the nearby 4 story Chestnut apartments. The archway on the right is one of two entry/exit for the 150 new parking spots on Franklin. The current lot is private and not open to the public. There will be a great deal of new traffic at one of the most important, dangerous, and crowded intersections in the village.
The new light at this intersection will cost $300k, Saraceno has offered to pay 25% [which is more than the law requires]. The bigger problem is how other, non-upgraded intersections will handle the traffic flow. By law, developers of Ridgewood’s 4 new high-density buildings only have to pay a small fraction of any needed new lights.
Listen here to the village’s traffic expert, Andrew Feranda: https://youtu.be/ENr_LFZAQuQ?t=10238
As northjersey.com reported:

The board also spent considerable time with its own traffic professional, Andrew Feranda, further discussing the Franklin Avenue thoroughfare.  They looked specifically at the coordination of traffic lights in the area. Feranda recommended coordinating the timing of the lights on Franklin Avenue at Broad Street and Oak Street to ensure more efficient traffic flow.

Voigt said any traffic improvements made to those intersections, the two closest traffic lights to the development, could necessitate changes at all lights from Wilsey Square to Maple Avenue. Feranda agreed the corridor would be more efficient with all the lights working in tandem.

“It certainly doesn’t move traffic efficiently if they’re not coordinated,” said Feranda.

Feranda said his layout would look “similar” to the plans put forth by the applicant. He cited the use of the signalized intersection at Broad Street and Franklin Avenue, and the fact that the driveway, on Chestnut Street, was about as far away from Franklin Avenue as possible.

 https://www.northjersey.com/story/news/bergen/ridgewood/2017/04/19/ridgewood-housing-hearing-focuses-franklin-ave/100647038/
All 4 of the high-density developments downtown are allowed thanks to controversial laws championed by Ridgewood resident Saraceno and then-mayor Paul Aronsohn.
Posted on

THE COMING FEDERALIZATION OF NJ PENSION AND BENEFITS CRISIS

money-printing-press

ANDREW SIDAMON-ERISTOFF | FEBRUARY 23, 2017

Notwithstanding the 10th Amendment, the federal government has repeatedly stepped in when the states’ political systems failed to bring about necessary action

Andrew Sidamon-Eristoff

Prediction: Sometime in the foreseeable future, the federal government will step in to address the self-inflicted crisis in state and local government pension and health-benefits funding. The only real question for us in New Jersey is whether it will happen soon enough to save us from ourselves.

How and why? Let’s review where we are:

First, state and local governments in the U.S. face a multi-trillion-dollar shortfall in public sector pension and health benefits funding. This is a genuine and growing financial crisis that clearly threatens our nation’s long-term economic prosperity.

Second, although some Democratic states with powerful public-sector unions like New Jersey and Illinois are comparatively worse off, few if any states can afford to relax and ignore the problem, especially if the analysis considers local government liabilities, rising healthcare costs, and unfunded post-retirement health benefits alongside pension liabilities.

Finally, the existing political environment, in which public employees are by far the most active and powerful constituency in state and local government, means that most blue states and many red states lack the political capacity or will to “solve” their benefits funding crisis on their own.

Unfortunately, New Jersey provides a convenient case study. By some calculations, New Jersey’s unfunded liability for state and local pensions and state health benefits combined tops $178 billion, among the worst in the nation. Further, 2017 is a gubernatorial election year. The Democratic frontrunner (and thus likely next governor) has secured the support of the state’s public-sector unions in part by rejecting a bipartisan commission’s well-regarded reform recommendations. Those reforms include a proposal to use savings from aligning public employees’ health benefits with Obamacare “Gold” level benefits to help fund the state’s annual pension contribution. Instead, the frontrunner would fully fund pensions along with an ambitious spending agenda by increasing taxes on “millionaires” and closing corporate tax “loopholes.” Trouble is, as even the multimillionaire frontrunner might admit in private, New Jersey’s economy and voters do not have an infinite tolerance for higher taxes, even on corporations and the rich. The likely result will be half measures to keep the ship afloat a while longer and continued deferral of comprehensive reform.

Cue federal intervention. Notwithstanding the 10th Amendment, over the course of history the federal government has repeatedly stepped in when the states’ political systems failed to bring about necessary action. An early example is the Compromise of 1790, whereby the federal government assumed the former colonies’ Revolutionary War debts. A more recent example is federal civil rights legislation made necessary by many states’ demonstrated political incapacity (refusal) to extend the rights of citizenship to all their citizens.

Today, New Jersey and many other states have political systems that are failing to address the escalating benefits-funding crisis. As the crisis begins to restrict and ultimately bar some cities’ and states’ access to the capital markets, exposing the national economy to widespread risk, the federal government will be forced to intervene. Although I cannot predict precisely when or how this will happen, I’ll throw out some ideas to stimulate thinking.

What form will federal relief take? There are many possibilities, but it’s safe to say that rescuing pension systems will be the first priority because rating agencies and current government counting rules place a greater emphasis on unfunded pension liabilities, often protected by state constitutions, than on unfunded retirement health benefit obligations. (Look for that to change soon, but one thing at a time!)

One option would be to extend the federal Pension Benefit Guarantee Corp.’s pension-insurance programs for private employers to public employers. However, the PBGC’s insurance only supports a statutorily defined maximum guaranteed benefit, which in practice results in substantial reductions to middle- and-higher income retirees’ benefits. Moreover, the PBGC is already functionally bankrupt and the model of providing insurance to pay pension benefits on behalf of terminated private employer plans may not be readily transferable, or appropriate, for state and local public employers.

In the absence of a new federal insurance scheme, the most likely option is federal assistance that helps state and local government pension systems refinance their unfunded accrued liability (UAL). For instance, the federal government might lend the states the money on favorable terms, or it could provide a debt-service guarantee in support of state and local pension-refinancing bonds. Either approach would be tantamount to nationalizing state and local pension liabilities, and as such would be controversial. Not impossible, but highly unlikely.

A more limited, and perhaps more politically palatable, approach would be to provide a federal interest subsidy for pension-refinancing bonds. There is precedent. The federal Build America Bond program, part of the 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, subsidized 35 percent of the interest on state and local bonds issued for capital expenditures.

https://www.njspotlight.com/stories/17/02/22/opinion-the-coming-federalization-of-nj-pension-and-benefits-crisis/

Posted on

Gottheimer Wants to Tax More of Your Hard-Earned Dollars

Josh Gottheimer

August 22,2016

the staff of the Ridgewood blog

Ridgewood NJ,  Garrett for Congress released the following ad, which will air district-wide in New Jersey’s Fifth District.

Josh Gottheimer is just another tax-and-spend liberal Democrat. He lies to taxpayers, deceiving them into thinking he is a fiscal conservative, but the reality is, Josh Gottheimer wants to send more money to Washington, DC from hardworking New Jersey taxpayers.

Josh Gottheimer released a so-called “tax plan” that shows he will blindly support Hillary Clinton’s trillion dollar tax increase, which The Tax Foundation finds would weaken the economy, reduce wages, and result in fewer jobs.  Simply put, you will be taxed more and paid less in the Gottheimer/Clinton tax plan.

Josh Gottheimer wants higher taxes so he can reward his special interests with New Jersey tax dollars.  What New Jersey families want and deserve is a congressman that will fight to keep more of your hard earned money in your own pocket.

This is why Rep. Garrett has been such a strong proponent of keeping our taxes as low as possible. He voted against President Obama’s increased taxes on the middle class.  Every time someone advocates higher income taxes, it actually means that more of our money goes to Washington, where bureaucrats decide how to spend it.

Rep. Garrett has always fought to protect your tax dollars, and he will continue to do so next Congress.

Posted on

Democrat Senator Raymond Lesniak Pushes Higher Taxes to Fund Transportation Trust Fund

Democrat Senator Raymond Lesniak

Lesniak Drops Millionaire’s Tax Proposal into TTF Debate

In an effort to offset the revenue lost to the phase out of the estate tax that is part of the plan to renew the Transportation Trust Fund (TTF), Senator Raymond Lesniak (D-20) today introduced legislation to impose a millionaires tax that was in place until 2001. Max Pizarro, PolitickerNJ Read more

Posted on

Reader says high density housing will only result in MORE children in school AND HIGHER taxes for services to support those children

clock ridgewood NJ

It’s been said before and should keep being said, we all want seniors to be able to stay in town if they would like. Apartments currently exist for that purpose and a few more can and maybe should be built within the current density levels.

But the worst thing that could happen to seniors who would like to stay in their homes would be for hundreds of new apartments to be built. Either families would occupy those apartments OR the homes vacated by seniors moving into apartments. Either way the result is MORE children in school AND HIGHER taxes for services to support those children (school budget is by far the largest % of our tax bills). We NEED to find ways for people without children in school to stay in their homes and increasing the school budget is not the way to do it.