1. Did you know that New Jersey’s wealthy already shell out a big portion of that tax? The richest 1 percent fork over something like 35 percent of the total collected. The state Treasury Department keeps data on this, in case you’re interested.

2. Ever hear of a concept known as “private property”? We suggest you look it up. After you do so, proceed to point No. 3.

3. Nothing in the state or federal constitutions, nothing in state or federal statutory law and nothing in historical tradition authorizes you to grab other people’s money. This includes even people who, in your opinion, have more money than you think they need or deserve.

4. The economy largely runs on private wealth. Affluent people, by and large, don’t stuff their money in a tin can and bury in the backyard. They typically invest some of it and spend some of it. In either case, it’s useful economic activity. It helps create or sustain jobs. Snide, sophomoric comments about “trickle-down economics” don’t change this reality.

5. Remember those things, “jobs”? You may find this an amazing revelation, but jobs are a crucial issue other than just in the bureaucracies of the public sector.

6. New Jersey’s grabby rates of taxation on the upper brackets already have driven billions of dollars of wealth out of the state. There have been studies on this. You might check them out, if you can take a break from your busy schedule of dreaming up new tax-collection schemes.

6. Try to keep in mind as you strive to put together a state budget that there are stakeholders in the process other than just NJEA, CWA, AFSCME, SEI, etc.

7. Also try to keep in mind that even though you do possess, as the legislative branch of government, authority to enact tax measures, you aren’t Hugo Chavez and New Jersey isn’t Venezuela. (Not yet, anyway.)

8. And remember this: As the results of the last gubernatorial election demonstrated, the voters are onto your scam of attending to the wishes of public-sector unions in the hope of collecting a later kickback in the form of cash and in-kind campaign contributions.

Memo to guv