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Dems Reach New Agreement on NJ Gas Tax Hike

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So, if I am reading this correctly the tax could, and most likely will increase beyond the 23 cents a gallon beginning in 2018.

 

If people buy less gas, and the revenue goes below $1.16 B a year the tax rate goes up.

 

Here is how it is written- 

 

"The gas tax would increase 23 cents a gallon, and the tax rate would then be adjusted each year to ensure the state collects $1.16 billion a year in additional gas-tax revenues. If gas sales decline, the tax rate would go up. If they increase, the tax rate would be reduced"

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Wow, one person on this board is happy that they raised the gas tax 23 cents. That's the problem you guys face, too many people happy to pay higher taxes.

 

Get the hell out while you can.

 

Yes, it's the same guy that -get a load of this- plans to...

 

... to move out of the Garden State sometime over the next 5-6 years, most likely to North Carolina, joining many other NJ transplants escaping the worsening population density, high cost-of living, ridiculous high real estate and other taxes, oppressive gun laws, general rude attitudes and dysfunctional state politics."

 

 

Jesus Howard Christ. So little time and so much fail.

 

For starters, why not stick around to enjoy those high taxes you support?

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Don't know why these threads weren't combined.

 

Here's an interesting perspective:

 

Paul Mulshine is New Jersey's top conservative columnist.  He writes for the state's largest circulation newspaper.   

The 23-cent gas-tax hike: Pigs will fly before the opponents find an alternative.

By  Paul Mulshine | The Star Ledger

October 06, 2016

The weather was sunny with a light breeze outside the StatehouseWednesday after the state Senate took a key vote on a package that would raise the gas tax by 23 cents a gallon.

It was perfect flying weather for pigs.

My reference is of course to that fabled Statehouse rally in 2008 at which a talk-show host from NJ 101.5-FM presided over the release of hundreds of flying-pig balloons to protest a prior attempt to bail out the Transportation Trust Fund. 

That was then-Gov. Jon Corzine's  plan to generate billions by having the toll roads run by a state-owned hedge fund that would bond against future toll hikes.

"Pigs will fly over the Statehouse before there's a realistic level of new taxes or spending cuts that can fix this mess," Corzine told the legislators as he introduced his scheme.

But the plan came crashing down to Earth when drivers learned that it called for tolls to eventually rise by  800 percent.

When those balloons rose over the Statehouse, the plan was dead – laughed to death by the voters. So score one for the guys at 101.5-FM.

But if we weren't going to fill the hole in the TTF with toll money, just what source of revenue could we use?

On that score, the talk-radio guys are all talk. The guys at NJ 101.5 have become the loudest opponents of the gas-tax hike.  But a lot of porkers will have to turn into pilots before the critics can come up with a good alternative for funding the TTF.

The three main objections to this plan simply don't make sense.

The first, which is repeated like a mantra among the radio talkers, is "It's too much money" or some variant thereof.

No, it's not. If they had implemented this tax hike when it was first proposed earlier in the year, drivers would have forgotten it by now. There would still be stations charging a bit over $2 a gallon. A few years ago we were paying almost $4 a gallon.

We survived.

Another objection is that the total package is slanted in favor of that group that liberals love to demonize: "the wealthy." The Sierra Club is one of many liberal pressure groups making that point.

"We believe in a plan to fix the TTF with a gas tax, but this would be on the backs of the middle class by tying it to two other tax cuts that benefit the wealthy," Sierra's Jeff Tittel said in a release. "This plan is a complete sellout to working families and will give a huge tax break to the wealthy."

One part  of the plan is the elimination of the estate tax, which now kicks in at the $650,000 level. The plan would eliminate taxation on pension income up to $100,000 a year for a couple.

Given the cost of living here in Jersey, that would include a lot of the middle class  as well as the  wealthy.

But the more the merrier, I say. So does state Senate President Steve Sweeney. The South Jersey Democrat teamed up with Republican Gov. Chris Christie to push the bill, which passed the Senate yesterday on a procedural vote and is expected to win final passage in both housesFriday.

Sweeney said those cuts will help keep people home after retirement.

"Those are the people who get up and move to other states," he said. "We recently had one person, David Tepper, leave and it cost us $100 million."

Tepper is the billionaire hedge-fund manager who moved himself and his business to Florida. He didn't cites taxes as the reason, but plenty of other retirees become legal residents of Florida to escape our taxes.

Oroho said his fellow financial planners have no choice but to inform retirees Florida's the best option.

"We're losing income. We're losing wealth. We gotta be competitive," he said.

Then there's the third objection. Some critics of the package argue against it on the grounds that the TTF will still have to keep borrowing even after the gas-tax hike.

That's regrettable, said Oroho. In a perfect world, we would be able to put the TTF back on the pay-as-you-go basis that existed after Gov. Tom Kean last hiked the tax in 1988.

But ensuing governors just kept borrowing money rather than raise the tax a few pennies. Now we're so far behind that returning to pay-as-you got would mean some real pain at the pump.

"If you wanted to pay off the current debt plus have no future debt,  then you'd have to raise the tax by almost a dollar a gallon," Oroho said.

Or in other words, if we want to fix this mess we don't need a flying pig.

We need a time machine.

Unless the critics have one stashed somewhere, they need to accept the inevitable.

ADD - THE REAL MISTAKE: The real mistake the Trenton crowd made was to fail to index the gas tax for inflation back in 1988. Pegging it to the price of a gallon of gas did not account for the time value of money. If it had been pegged to inflation, the tax would have slowly rose from 14.5 cents a gallon to 30.5 cents a gallon.

No one would have even noticed such a small hike and the trust fund could have remained solvent.

Instead we had the usual gutless politicians of both parties who were glad to borrow the money while pretending to be responsible by not raising the tax.

That's what got us into this mess. Judging from the comments, you readers fell for it.

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What Mulshine chooses to ignore is the  history of previous promises made by politicians regarding taxes increases offset by decreases in other areas. Sure we get the gas tax increase right now, however the cuts will come some time later in the future...maybe. Probably not.

 

And even if they came, they'll become a political rallying cry, they'll be demonized, demagogued ; tax cuts for the rich, have to close the loopholes...millionaires....billionaires...backs of the working families...blah...blah.

 

Enough of that shit. Enough already.

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Anyone honeyed think of retiring in nj is a dope

 

Oroho like other financial advisors are s bunch of charlatans. ..... have spent some of my earlier formative years prior to doing what I do now. I worked down in wall street at entry level stuff. Hated it.

 

The only thing worse that a'financial' guy is a used car saleseman. Both could care less about you and only care about the almighty dollar in thier pocket. At least the ones that I met.

 

There are so many things wrong with this state this is just one of them

I don't see how a financial planner makes any more money by eliminating one of the inheritance taxes, except that his customers stick around longer because it's less expensive to live or die here. Could say the same for restaurants, car repair, hospitals, sellers of adult diapers. That's the whole point of lowering taxes isn't it, to get people to stay?

 

Correct that this is just one thing wrong with NJ, but to 90% of us painless compared with other things. I know you drive a lot for work. 

 

BTW new car dealers are no prize package either. My brother in law, formerly of Toyota, bragged afterwards that he didn't give us the best deal on a Siena van because "we have to make money too."

 

My late bridge partner George summed it up succinctly: Everybody out there is trying to fuck you. Act accordingly.

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No, well maybe. But mostly no.

I will get his back on this- he has vetoed almost all anti 2a legislation. And we should remember that in our judgement.

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No, well maybe. But mostly no.

I will get his back on this- he has vetoed almost all anti 2a legislation. And we should remember that in our judgement.

So the only thing I can think of is in retaliation for the resurgence of Bridgegate. He had worked with Sweeney and others to come up with this "compromise" bill. Maybe he's less willing to compromise now that the Bridgegste investigation that the legislature pushed is actually causing him problems.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

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So the only thing I can think of is in retaliation for the resurgence of Bridgegate. He had worked with Sweeney and others to come up with this "compromise" bill. Maybe he's less willing to compromise now that the Bridgegste investigation that the legislature pushed is actually causing him problems.

 

 

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well, he may be formally charged

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