NJ’s State Business Tax Climate the Worst in America – for the Seventh Straight Year

You read that right.  For seven years in a row, NJ has the worst business tax climate in America, according to the Tax Foundation’s annual ranking.  In other words, NJ is a lousy place to do business and has been for a very long time.  As the Tax Foundation researchers said: “The evidence shows that states with the best tax systems will be the most competitive at attracting new businesses and most effective at generating economic and employment growth.”  And indeed the facts show that NJ’s economy underperforms both the nation and its neighboring states in terms of incomes and jobs, and that NJ has one of the worst outmigrations of businesses, people and wealth of any state.

Two other facts make this news even more depressing.  First, NJ was 50th by a huge margin: NJ came in at 3.34 versus 4.00 for 49th place CA (by comparison, using that same 0.66 margin gets you to the 38th-ranked state, HI).  Second, the Tax Foundation conducted this study BEFORE Gov. Murphy raised income taxes and corporate taxes last month.  You can’t get lower than 50th out of 50, but NJ would be the lowest by an even larger margin.

As for NJ’s neighboring states, NY came in at 48th, PA at 27th and DE at 13th.  These are the states against which NJ competes most directly for businesses and jobs.

All of this begs the question: why would Gov. Murphy make NJ’s worst-in-the-nation tax system even worse?  Clearly, it’s not to benefit the economy, or incomes, or job growth.  Then why? Because his public sector union pals demand it.  They want more government spending to take care of their members.  And Gov. Murphy is happy to oblige them in exchange for their TAXPAYER-FUNDED political support.  

What a rigged system and what a rotten deal for NJ!!