Ed Driscoll, posting at Instapundit, links to Lee Habeeb’s article, Fleeing New Jersey, and Its Crushing Taxes, for a Better Life
The home my father thought he owned outright had a co-owner: the local city council and school board. And it was a co-owner with an appetite for spending. Home ownership may have had its privileges, but it became a burden he could no longer afford.
The local property-tax bill alone was enough to make him move. On top of that, New Jersey went from having no state income tax to having one of the highest in the country (8.97 percent for the highest earners, and 6.4 percent for the middle class), and from having no sales tax to having one of the highest rates in the country (7 percent, almost as high as California’s, which is the highest sales tax in America, at 7.5 percent).
Let’s not forget the estate tax, and the inheritance tax, too.
When you sell your house, you have to pay a tax on the total sale (not on the profit; on the total sale), which in my case was an exit tax.
As a result,
New Jersey led all 50 states in one tragic category: creating refugees. Last year, the Garden State lost more residents as a percentage of its overall population than any other state in the country, according to a 2014 National Movers Study commissioned by United Van Lines of St. Louis.
I remember last year I was in Rick Moran’s podcast with Jazz Shaw, who asked, why did I moved from New Jersey? When I truthfully replied, “because of the taxes,” Jazz diverted the conversation and asked another guest whether taxes were an important election issue, who, if memory serves, said they weren’t.
Having voted with my feet, I can assure you, New Jersey taxes ceased to matter the moment I moved away.
