Tuesday, January 06, 2009
Feel my pain
Lawhawk has much more on New Jersey's budget misery. Yeah, yeah, why do I live here when the government sucks so much? Well, New Jersey, because of its location, is actually an attractive place to live. Indeed, there are many attractive places to live, and a great many of them have horrible governments -- California, New York, Massachussetts, and Florida, to name a few. It is almost as though state politicians and bureaucrats know they can abuse their citizens more if there are strong non-governmental reasons that keep people from moving away.
9 Comments:
By 
Cardinalpark, at
Tue Jan 06, 04:52:00 PM:
Hey, that's kind of tough on Florida, don't you think? No state tax, and I think the legislature only meets for like 60 or 90 days during the Talahassee summer heat - encouraging them to do their business and go home. Florida ain't so bad, and certainly not like NY, CA, NJ or MA.
By 
, at
Tue Jan 06, 05:00:00 PM:
Yeah, leave Florida alone. My father in law pays miniscule real estate taxes on his similarly sized house, compared to me.
Lawhawk says, "Corzine is looking to make the pension timebomb in New Jersey even worse by calling for cuts there. Don't hold your breath to see that happen though; the unions would never allow that to happen. The unions also will not discuss givebacks or reductions to their gold plated benefits packages going forward either, despite the fact that the state cannot afford them."
Since you pointed us to the post I'll post a comment here as well as there. The state is not legally obligated to make these pension contributions unless the legislature appropriates the money in any particular year.
The state may believe itself to be morally "obligated" by it's union agreements to make the contribution. The state may receive the ire of it's unions over a failure to make the payments. But the unions don't have a legal leg to stand on, and politically the unions are going to have a very tough time getting sympathy from beleagured New Jersey taxpayers when they don't get their "gold plated benefits packages".
I say to Corzine, "Good for you." Don't make the payments.
By Psota, at
Tue Jan 06, 05:17:00 PM:
My experience in California has taught me some things about the relationship between horrible state gov't and attractive places to live:
1. the population here is very transitory. People move to CA, live here for a few years, and strike out for the territories. People like this vote just as much as everyone else, but often don't have to live with the consequences.
2. People here literally have no clear grasp of just how big the CA state government is. DC and the feds get plenty of attention re: size of gov't, but that tends to distract CA residents from the fact that CA's state agencies (not to mention the regulations promulgated by those agencies) are huge and extensive. The average Californian knows about as much about CA gov't as the average Kansan knows about KS gov't.
3. The activists who live off of state gov't, on the other hand, know exactly where to go to get their nut.
The result a huge, poorly run state that got that way in plain sight, but while no one was looking.
By Eowyn, at
Tue Jan 06, 05:30:00 PM:
Washington. Add Washington to the list. No state income tax, sure, but even without it, we're the third most highly taxed state in the nation.
And that's only ONE of the problems.
By , at
Wed Jan 07, 09:16:00 AM:
New Jersey is a great place to live because of its location. If you get really depressed living there, go east and float off or drown yourself in the Atlantic! If you're not the depressive type, go west and get lost somewhere in Pennsylvania, it's a win-win!
By , at
Wed Jan 07, 05:30:00 PM:
Add Michigan. Outside of Detroit and Flint, it's a great place to live, and probaly run as poorly as anywhere.
By Dawnfire82, at
Wed Jan 07, 07:49:00 PM:
Ah, Washington. Did they ever make up their minds about if they were going to tax rain?
By , at
Fri Jan 09, 08:31:00 AM:
Oh, Connecticut is easily the #1 state for abusing it's citizens.
Highest Tax Burden in the Country,
Only state to have fewer businesses than 20 years ago,
Highest exodus of 18-34 year olds in the Country,
Among the highest electric rates in the Country,
Highest Gas Tax in the Country,
A state shrinking in Connecticut Born American populations (our average height is shrinking because of all the Asians/Indians coming into the state),
Ranked at or near the bottom of job growth and business climate,
The Real Estate Conveyance Fee (leaving CT tax),
The Business Entity Tax and, The Gross Receipts Tax (13%) on heating oil.
CT is a failed state model. I think our only hope is to merge with Mass or NY or a combination of the two.
We have Billions in red ink and they can't agree on $300 Million in cuts. Our New Speaker of the House is a former community activist who looks to Obama for guidance.
God help us, we can't.
CtTaxed.com
By , at
Sat Jan 10, 02:29:00 AM:
Florida's government is, unfortunately, getting worse.
1) Crist is a RINO who drinks the global-warming koolaid. He wants to introduce cap and trade, carbon taxes, smart growth, and other such things as will demolish the FL economy. He also wants to ban offshore drilling because it might (I say might, CA still has lots of tourists and they have oil rigs off their coast) offend tourists, but he doesn't seem to get that tourism is a low-value business compared to oil.
2) Too many Democrats have escaped from states like MA and NJ, but once here vote for politicians who want to introduce the same policies to FL that induced them to leave in the first place.
