NJ Taxes - What's up with that dude?

In this humorous spoof letter in the Tri-Town News, we get an equal comedy treatment on the two candidatates.

You'd no doubt like to go first this week, so you could pole ax me with the fact that John McCain couldn't remember how many houses he has, in answer to a question by some smart-aleck reporter. Could be seven, maybe more, and he suggested that nosy reporters check with his staff.

That's the only problem with marrying a beer distributor heiress who is worth $100 million. You forget about little things, like houses.

But he doesn't hold his fire just to McCain.

I think it's funny when the pundits try to contrast McCain's houses with man-of- thepeople Barack Obama, living in hardscrabble Hyde Park in Chicago, scrimping by on $4 million a year, in a $1.5 million mansion. Poor Barack. I bet he had to split rails to buy that house. Now there's a guy who can relate to my predicament!

But the real joke in this article is the following slam on New Jersey:

I bet you folks in New Jersey - which, congratulations, just moved into the No. 1 spot in the annual Tax Foundation survey of total tax load by state - have no problem remembering how many houses you own.

What I can't figure out is why you keep electing Democrats. Every map I see shows New Jersey as blue as blue can be. Do you really think tax-raising Barack Obama is going to make things better in New Jersey? You're not buying that crock, are you, Old Pal ? At least the Republicans have the common decency to lie to you about not raising taxes. The Democrats won't even make the effort to lie! What' s up with that, dude?

Yeah. What IS up with that?

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NJ legal climate dropping like a stone! Patronage vs Business.

From Fox Business:

The U.S. Chamber Institute for Legal Reform (ILR) today announced that New Jersey's legal climate has dropped nine spots to number 35 in Lawsuit Climate 2008: Ranking the States, an annual assessment of state liability systems conducted by Harris Interactive, a leading national market research firm.

"New Jersey's legal system is headed in the wrong direction," said Tom Donohue, president and CEO of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, "largely as a result of the plaintiff-friendly bias in a handful of trial courts, particularly in lawsuits aimed at pharmaceutical manufacturers."

It is somewhat amazing that New Jersey is trending anti-business in every possible category. Additional taxes, piling on for insurance, family leave and now a poor legal climate. And worse yet, the negative legal climate is directed the way of one of the last remaining industries still in the state, Pharmaceuticals. But is it fair?

New Jersey has also gained a reputation for allowing "junk science" to be admitted into the courtroom, dropping from a rank 13th to 35th in the handling of technical and scientific evidence.

Does anything not think that these legal issues are not the result of political patronage?

Read the entire article here.

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New Jersey: Exemplary Government

Exemplary of what, though?

We don't have to look far to see where that [i.e., including additional spending in plans for new taxes] leads. New Jersey adopted legalized gambling (Atlantic City) to lower property taxes. Then it adopted a sales tax to lower property taxes. Then it adopted an income tax for education to lower property taxes. Today, New Jersey has the highest per capita property taxes in the country as well as an income tax and a sales tax.

This came from the Union Leader newspaper of New Hampshire. And the same article gives some very sound and obvious advice:

Voters concerned about property taxes should consider cutting spending, not adding more taxes. Spending goes up every year much faster than inflation does, so property taxes go up.

Maybe we should be looking to others for examples.

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