A Response to John McKeon
Posted on 14 July 2011
John McKeon is a guest blogger at nj.com today. Among other things, he said:
[T]he governor — by once again protecting tax breaks for 16,000 millionaires and using line-item vetoes on the Democratic budget — dramatically reduced potential school aid to suburban and rural school districts throughout New Jersey….
Taxpayers and schools throughout the state, no matter their locale, deserve fair and adequate funding. That’s why the responsible budget plan we Democrats submitted was based on the simple concept of treating everyone fairly, whether living in a city or a suburb….
That’s why I sponsored legislation to increase the income tax rate on 16,000 millionaires and also, by the way, to provide a much-needed tax break to senior citizen retirement income.
This was a reasonable request. Under the bill, each additional $100,000 earned above $1 million would cost that taxpayer an additional $1,780. And this isn’t to vilify millionaires. Such success is what America can be all about, and we celebrate it. In fact, millionaires are more than willing to be a part of the solution, yet the governor again vetoed the concept.
The result: The governor cut $492 million for suburban and rural school districts.
Fewer than half of Americans pay net taxes as it is. How much more money do you want to force out of people at the top of the food chain before it’s considered “fair and adequate funding”? Is it fair to take 50% of their money? 75%? 90%?
No problem, McKeon says, because “millionaires are more than willing to be part of the solution.”
So, does the Governor’s veto prevent them from giving money to the schools? Because if it doesn’t, McKeon can spend his considerable oratorical powers (which I saw on display when he was pulling down two taxpayer-funded paychecks, as mayor of West Orange and Assemblyman) to raise funds from the willing millionaires. I’m sure some of the 16,000 would be willing to give some money to the cause.
That’s not sufficient for McKeon or his party cohort, though. They want to make sure that everyone coughs up money, whether they agree with him or not. He will not vilify millionaires, but he’s sure willing to force them to pay for the causes he likes.
$492,000,000 / 16,000 = a $30,750 average tax increase per millionaire. This would be on top of whatever additional taxes President Obama tries to force through. This is money that could be driven to the private sector through investments, purchases, and other job-creating activities. How about letting them spend it instead?
McKeon thinks Governor Christie is wrong to let the millionaires keep their money. I say that if his ideas are so great, he should be able to convince the millionaires to give it up voluntarily.
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