Tag: taxes

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Congressman Garrett Visits Local Bergen County Tech Company Crestron

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By Paul Nichols
Monday, Feb 22, 2016

Congressman Scott Garrett, the U.S. Representative for New Jersey’s 5th congressional district, met with employees of Crestron on Monday to tour it’s the company’s Experience Center located at its headquarters in Rockleigh, New Jersey.

Crestron, a global organization with more than 90 offices around the world, employs 1,500 employees from Bergen County and the surrounding area at its worldwide headquarters and campus in Rockleigh, New Jersey.

The campus includes the Experience Center, Research Center, manufacturing plant, pre-production facility, and distribution center.

The tour provided Garrett with an in-depth look into the world of Crestron and its award-winning, advanced control and automation technology. Crestron’s solutions have led the way for over four decades, supporting Fortune 500 companies, government organizations, leading hospitals, universities and prestigious homes.

The Crestron Experience Center combines the finest design with cutting-edge technology, for the ultimate immersive demonstration of its innovative solutions. Congressman Garrett saw firsthand how the company has evolved from a pioneer in A/V and control systems, to the world-class enterprise management company it is today.

https://bergendispatch.com/articles/37754650/Congressman-Garrett-Visits-Local-Bergen-County-Tech-Company-Crestron-.aspx

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The Village of Ridgewood the Largest Municipal Government in Bergen County

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file photo by Boyd Loving

February 23,3016

the staff of the Ridgewood blog

Ridgewood NJ, While we looked away village expenses are now up 181%. We also now have the largest municipal government in Bergen County .  Our village manager has hired a director of finance, a director of human resources and there are other hirings of part-time employees to fill in positions. Our village manager has not only a secretary but a full-time assistant. Some of the other positions also have assistants. Things must be good. We should expect a major tax increase down the line.

https://www.northjersey.com/…/village-reps-talk-numbers-1.15…

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GROUP’S REPORT WARNS THAT NEW JERSEY IS IN MIDST OF MILLENNIAL OUTMIGRATION

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JOHN REITMEYER | FEBRUARY 16, 2016

Business-lobbying organization says brain drain makes it hard for state to attract cutting-edge companies that need younger, skilled employees

New Jersey loses a portion of its senior population every year to less-expensive — and less snowy — states like Florida and North Carolina. But a new study of outmigration trends issued by the New Jersey Business & Industry Association raises new alarms about the number of so-called millennials who have also been leaving the state.

Of all the age groups in New Jersey that experienced a net loss in population from 2007 to 2014, the highest rate was among people between the ages of 18 and 34, according to the business-lobbying organization.

That brain drain hurts the overall New Jersey economy and makes it harder for the state to attract the type of companies that rely on young, skilled workers, the association said.

The new data on millennials leaving New Jersey was included in NJBIA’s broader outmigration study, which concluded that the state had a net loss of 682,062 residents between 2005 and 2014. And from 2004 to 2013, New Jersey lost $18 billion in net adjusted gross income, the NJBIA said.

The organization blamed New Jersey’s high taxes and overregulation for that loss of wealth and residents, and it offered a list of recommendations that ranged from tax reform to better workforce development and making higher education more affordable as remedies.

https://www.njspotlight.com/stories/16/02/15/new-report-warns-that-new-jersey-is-in-midst-of-millennial-outmigration/#

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Garrett: President’s budget reads like a how-to guide for debt, deficit, and taxes

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February 16,2016
the staff of the Ridgewood blog

Ridgewood Nj, Rep. Scott Garrett (NJ-05), a senior member of the House Budget Committee, released the following statement after President Obama unveiled his Fiscal Year 2017 budget proposal to Congress today:

“President Obama’s budget proposal reads like a how-to book on creating debt, raising taxes, and crippling the economy. Unfortunately, the final edition of this wildly unpopular story is full of broken budget policies that hurt New Jersey families and—spoiler alert—it still never balances. And as soon as hardworking families were starting to feel some relief at the fuel pump, the president’s budget proposes a new tax on oil that will increase costs for all Americans.

“It’s unfortunate that, after years of an underperforming economy and a nearly $20 trillion national debt, the president still feels that the best solution is more spending and higher taxes. I’ll continue to fight to rein-in wasteful spending and create a government that is efficient, accountable, and effective so everyone can have the opportunity to get ahead.”

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Obama’s $10 oil tax proposal would Primarily Hurt the Poor

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file photo by Boyd Loving

Nathan Bomey, USA TODAY9:26 a.m. EST February 5, 2016

Consumers will likely pay the price for President Obama’s proposed $10 tax per-barrel of oil, an administration official and a prominent analyst said Thursday.

Energy companies will simply pass along the cost to consumers, Patrick DeHaan, senior petroleum analyst for GasBuddy.com, which tracks gas prices nationwide, said in an interview with USA TODAY.

Obama is set to propose the tax when he reveals his budget next week, as part of an effort to reduce carbon emissions and generate billions of dollars for mass-transit investments and self-driving vehicles. The new tax would be phased in over five years, and would apply to both domestic and imported oil.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2016/02/04/president-obama-oil-tax-gasoline/79835274/

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N.J. Democrats propose massive gas tax increase to replenish transportation fund

New Jersey Democrats Move to Raise Taxes

What happened to the STIMULUS Money ?

Time to audit the Transportation Trust Fund

FEBRUARY 3, 2016, 5:20 PM    LAST UPDATED: WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 3, 2016, 6:12 PM
BY JOHN C. ENSSLIN
STATE HOUSE BUREAU |
THE RECORD

New Jersey’s Democratic legislative leaders said Wednesday they are close to working out a proposal to fix the state’s dwindling Transportation Trust Fund.

Senate President Steve Sweeney, D-Gloucester, and Assembly Speaker Vincent Prieto, D-Secaucus, each said they just have a few details to work out on a proposal to replenish the fund – which pays for improvements to the state’s roads and bridges – runs out of money by June 30. Neither offered details of their plan.

But the two Democrats sparred with their Republican counterparts before an audience of several dozen mayors over the timing of such legislation.

Sweeney and Prieto said first they want to hash out a deal with Governor Christie – something they said has not yet happened – rather that pass a measure that he will veto.

“I don’t think anybody is going to go for something knowing the governor is not going to sign it,” Sweeney said during a panel discussion during the New Jersey League of Municipalities’ annual Mayors’ Legislative Day.

https://snip.ly/Xvs8#https://www.northjersey.com/news/n-j-democrats-say-proposal-to-replenish-transportation-fund-nearly-finished-1.1505096

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New Jersey, 67 percent of moves were outbound

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file photo by Boyd loving

What the Top 5 States People Are Moving From Have in Common

Salim Furth / @salimfurth / January 06, 2016

Salim Furth, Ph.D., researches and explains how public policy affects economic growth as a research fellow in macroeconomics at The Heritage Foundation’s Center for Data Analysis.Read his research.

Americans are moving to places with affordable costs of living and strong labor markets (or good retirement communities). The top destination states of 2015could hardly be more different geographically and culturally: Oregon and South Carolina. What they have in common is that both states are relatively affordable places to live.

The data on moving comes from United Van Lines, which ranks the states based on the proportion of interstate moves that were inbound or outbound.

In Oregon, 69 percent of moves were inbound. The state with the worst ratio was New Jersey, from which 67 percent of moves were outbound.

The top five outbound states of 2015 were:

New Jersey
New York
Illinois
Connecticut
Ohio

In metro Portland, Ore., the average owner-occupied home cost $305,402 in 2013, compared to $380,420 in Seattle or a budget-busting $730,156 in San Francisco. But even in Portland there is room for improvement: Easing regulation a bit could make the average house $39,000 more affordable.

In South Carolina, homes are even cheaper, with free-market competition keeping the price of a new home close to the actual construction cost.

Where urban and suburban land use regulation is modest, builders can meet demand with new supply. In places like San Francisco and Boston that lack that flexibility, people leave despite those cities’ high wages and dynamic economies.

Moving patterns show how important cost of living is to American families. With perfect weather and a booming, high-tech economy, California ought to be the #1 destination. Instead, more moving trucks are leaving the state than entering.

The top five inbound states of 2015 were:

Oregon
South Carolina
Vermont
Idaho
North Carolina

Policymakers can lower the cost of living by removing unnecessary regulations and licensure requirements, streamlining bureaucracy, and ending protections that have been granted to favored industries.

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New Jersey Taxpayers faced the 3rd highest state tax burden

New Jersey Democrats Move to Raise Taxes

State-Local Tax Burden Rankings

We’ve just released our annual State-Local Tax Burden Rankings. According to the report, 9.9 percent of income in America went toward state and local taxes (in FY 2012).

The report highlights the state-local tax burden on taxpayers in each of the 50 states, details how much residents pay to their state and other states, and illustrates taxburden trends over time and within each state.

New Yorkers faced the highest burden, with 12.7% of income in the state going to state and local taxes. Connecticut (12.6%) and New Jersey (12.2%) followed closely behind. On the other end of the spectrum, Alaska (6.5%), South Dakota (7.1%) and Wyoming (7.1%) had the lowest burdens.

The study’s key findings include:

During the 2012 fiscal year, state-local tax burdens as a share of state incomes decreased on average across the U.S. Average income increased at a faster rate than tax collections, driving down state-local tax burdens on average.
On average, taxpayers pay the most taxes to their own state and local governments. In 2012, 78 percent of taxes collected were paid within the state of residence, up from 73 percent in 2011.
State-local tax burdens are very close to one another and slight changes intaxes or income can translate to seemingly dramatic shifts in rank. For example, Delaware (16th) and Colorado (35th) only differ in burden by just over one percentage point. However, while burdens are clustered in the center of the distribution, states at the top and bottom can have substantially different burden percentages—e.g. New York (12.6%) and Alaska (6.5%).

It’s important to remember that a significant amount of taxation occurs across state lines, and that this shifting is not uniform. For instance, one might pay sales taxes at their local corner store, but also pay sales taxes when on vacation in another state. This shifting should not be ignored when attempting to understand the burden faced by taxpayers within a state.

 

FULL REPORT : https://taxfoundation.org/article/state-local-tax-burden-rankings-fy-2012?utm_source=Tax+Foundation+Newsletters&utm_campaign=d4f19c7dbb-Promo_Income_Taxes_Illustrated_copy_01_11_5_2015&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_8387957ec9-d4f19c7dbb-427656697&ct=t(Promo_Income_Taxes_Illustrated_copy_01_11_5_2015)&mc_cid=d4f19c7dbb&mc_eid=c834f22e2e

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For the 4th year in a row New Jersey leads in the nation on people moving out

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file photo by Boyd Loving

Where’s America Moving? Oregon Named Top Moving Destination of 2015United Van Lines’ Annual National Movers Study Shows Americans Continue to Move West and South

January 7,2015

the staff of the Rmidgewood blog

Ridgewood NJ ,  For the third consecutive year, Oregon holds on to the No. 1 spot as “Top Moving Destination,” as Americans continue to pack up and head West and South. Those are the results of United Van Lines’ 39th Annual National Movers Study, which tracks customers’ state-to-state migration patterns over the past year.

Oregon is the most popular moving destination of 2015 with 69 percent of moves to and from the state being inbound. The state has continued to climb the ranks, increasing inbound migration by 10 percent over the past six years. New to the 2015 top inbound list is another Pacific West state, Washington, which came in at No. 10 with 56 percent inbound moves.

The Southern states also saw a high number of people moving in with 53 percent of total moves being inbound. In a separate survey of its customers, United Van Lines found the top reasons for moving South included company transfer/new job, retirement and proximity to family.

The Northeast continues to experience a moving deficit with New Jersey (67 percent outbound) and New York (65 percent) making the list of top outbound states for the fourth consecutive year. Two other states in the region — Connecticut (63 percent) andMassachusetts (57 percent) — also joined the top outbound list this year. The exception to this trend is Vermont (62 percent inbound), which moved up two spots on the list of top inbound states to No. 3.

“For nearly 40 years, we’ve been tracking which states people are moving to and from, and we’ve also recently started surveying our customers to understand why they are making these moves across state lines,” said Melissa Sullivan, director of marketing communications at United Van Lines. “Because of United Van Lines’ position as the nation’s largest household goods mover, our data is reflective of national migration trends.”

“This year’s data reflects longer-term trends of people moving to the Pacific West, where cities such as Portland and Seattle are seeing the combination of a boom in the technology and creative marketing industry, as well as a growing ‘want’ for outdoor activity and green space,” said Michael Stoll, economist, professor and chair of the Department of Public Policy at the University of California, Los Angeles. “The aging Boomer population is driving relocation from the Northeast and Midwest to the West and South, as more and more people retire to warmer regions.”

United has tracked migration patterns annually on a state-by-state basis since 1977. For 2015, the study is based on household moves handled by United within the 48 contiguous states and Washington, D.C. United classifies states as “high inbound” if 55 percent or more of the moves are going into a state, “high outbound” if 55 percent or more moves were coming out of a state or “balanced” if the difference between inbound and outbound is negligible.

Moving In
The top inbound states of 2015 were:

Oregon
South Carolina
Vermont
Idaho
North Carolina
Florida
Nevada
District of Columbia
Texas
Washington

The Western U.S. is represented on the high-inbound list by Oregon (69 percent), Nevada (57 percent) and Washington (56 percent). Of moves to Oregon, a new job or company transfer (53 percent) and wanting to be closer to family (20 percent) led the reasons for most inbound moves. Nevada remained on the high inbound list for the fifth consecutive year.

Moving Out
The top outbound states for 2015 were:

New Jersey
New York
Illinois
Connecticut
Ohio
Kansas
Massachusetts
West Virginia
Mississippi
Maryland

In addition to the Northeast, Illinois (63 percent) held steady at the No. 3 spot, ranking in the top five for the last seven years.

New additions to the 2014 top outbound list include Connecticut (63 percent), Massachusetts (57 percent) and Mississippi (56 percent).

Balanced
Several states gained approximately the same number of residents as those that left. This list of “balanced” states includes Alabama,North Dakota, Delaware and Louisiana.

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The truth about N.J.’s pension crisis and how to fix it

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Next November, New Jerseyans will be asked to vote on a constitutional amendment to require the state government to make regular quarterly pension payments, which would put the state’s pension system — and the state of New Jersey itself — on the road to fiscal solvency within six years.
Mark J. Magyar. Star-Ledger Read more
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Idea of fee on N.J. hospitals is greeted with caution

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JANUARY 5, 2016    LAST UPDATED: TUESDAY, JANUARY 5, 2016, 1:21 AM
BY MATTHEW MCGRATH
STAFF WRITER |
THE RECORD

Local officials reacted cautiously to a proposal to charge hospitals a “community service” fee intended to offset, in part, property tax revenue that municipalities lose out on because of the non-profit status of most medical centers.

The proposed bill, which has cleared the state Senate but has not been posted for a vote in the General Assembly, would require hospitals to pay the towns in which they are built $2.50 per bed each day. If the bill becomes law, the fees would infuse about $2.7 million a year into six North Jersey communities that host the medical centers.

Not-for-profits are exempt from paying property taxes for certain uses. The proposal has been endorsed by the New Jersey Hospital Association, which hopes the payments will head off potential lawsuits from towns, but it is opposed by the League of Municipalities, whose members generally think they deserve more from the hospitals than the proposed law would allow.

https://www.northjersey.com/news/health-news/idea-of-fee-on-hospitals-is-greeted-with-caution-1.1485099

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Obamanomics: The rise and fall of the American middle class

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Blog Editors Note : try increasing taxes, insurance and education costs , coupled with decline of the two parent household  , decline of work ethic, and regulating small business out of existence 

By John Aidan Byrne

December 27, 2015 | 2:34am

Downward mobility is catching on fast with America’s new economic underdogs — the emerging middle-class minority.

The ranks of the American middle class have sunk to a shocking new low.

After four decades as an economic majority, middle-class Americans are no longer in that admirable place. They’re down to 49.9 percent from 61 percent of the population in 1971, with the ranks of the poor and ultrarich growing to a majority in the US.

“The fabric of income distribution is stretching thin,” Rakesh Kochhar, lead author of the recent Pew Research Center study “The American Middle Class Is Losing Ground,” told The Post.

“There’s been a hollowing out in the middle, a bulking up on the edges. The gaps are at record highs,” Kochhar said, adding that the wealth of upper-income families is now about seven times that of the middle class, compared with three times about 30 years ago.

Meanwhile, the middle-class share of US household income has plunged from 62 percent in 1970 to 43 percent today.

And for lower-income families looking to move up to middle-class status, that accomplishment is getting harder to pull off, according to new analysis.

Analysts offer no single explanation for the decline of America’s middle class.

Years of wage stagnation, the decline of unions, a skills gap, economic malaise, taxation, debt and policymaking are often cited, as is technological efficiency in a more globalized economy that rewards outsourcing. Some analysts say the Fed’s trillions of dollars in quantitative easing ended up disproportionately in the hands and wallets of bankers and other upper-middle-class Americans.

https://nypost.com/2015/12/27/the-rise-and-fall-of-middle-class-america/?utm_campaign=SocialFlow&utm_source=NYPFacebook&utm_medium=SocialFlow

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U.S. economy set to grow less than 3% for the 10th straight year

US President Obama waves from a golf cart in Kailua

Published: Dec 22, 2015 10:08 a.m. ET

The economy expanded a touch slower in the third quarter than previously reported, revised government figures show, but the path of growth is still the same: The U.S. running well below the historical norm more than six years into a recovery.

Gross domestic product — the sum of all the activity in an economy — increased at a 2% annual pace from July to September, according to the government’s latest update. Previously the Commerce Department had said the U.S. grew at a 2.1% rate after a 3.9% increase in the second quarter.

The slight downgrade was triggered by a larger trade deficit and a smaller buildup in inventories than earlier estimates showed.

The U.S. expanded at a 2.2% rate through the first nine months of the year, and the economy is projected to grow at a similar pace in the fourth quarter that ends on Dec. 31. If so, the economy will have failed to reach 3% growth for the 10th straight year, marking the slowest stretch since the end of World War II.

Historically the economy has expanded at a 3.3% rate.

The government’s second update on GDP growth reflected a somewhat worse trade picture in the late summer and early fall. Exports rose a slower 0.7% instead of an earlier 0.9% estimate. And imports climbed 2.3% instead of 2.1%.

Companies also rebuilt inventories somewhat less than the government had tallied.

The value of inventories increased $85.5 billion, down from a prior $90.2 billion estimate. Inventories had jumped by $113.5 billion in the second quarter when the economy expanded at a much faster 3.9% clip.

Spending on home construction rose at a faster 8.2% pace in the third quarter instead of 7.3%, the revised Commerce Department figures show.

https://www.marketwatch.com/story/third-quarter-gdp-growth-trimmed-to-2-2015-12-22

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Christie: Union ‘pigs will be charging’ to Statehouse if Democrat succeeds him

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Warning that “pigs will be charging down State Street” in Trenton if voters elect a Democratic governor after he leaves office, Gov. Chris Christie on Tuesday urged New Jersey’s business community to join his fight against public employee unions. Matt Arco, NJ.Com Read more