On the back of SPCNJ’s release of its “Beware the Downward Spiral” report, personal-finance publication Kiplinger’s released a study that looked at the property-, sales- and income tax-burden on a hypothetical family of four.  Illinois – the one state with a worse bond rating than New Jersey – had the biggest tax burden.  New York was third-worst and New Jersey fifth-worst.  Unsurprisingly, Illinois and New York also have the worst outmigration problems in America.  The facts are clear: large tax burdens are what drive people out of a state.

As detailed in SPCNJ’s recent report, high taxes are certainly driving businesses, families and wealth out of New Jersey, too.  New Jersey stands just behind Illinois and New York in the severity of its outmigration problem.  And, more ominously for its future, New Jersey has the worst-in-the-nation out-migration of millennials.

So New Jersey has the worst tax climate for businesses and the 5th-worst for families, and yet Governor Murphy and his NJEA allies want to raise taxes more.  Beware the downward spiral.

Read the full MarketWatch story on the Kiplinger’s study here.