Stuff in the ‘Taxes Economy and Outmigration’ Category
Mississippi and Louisiana Students Score Better than NJ Students Across the Board, Yet NJ Spends Far More
Posted On10/24/2025 byTwo self-serving fallacies have been put to rest: that the New Jersey public school system is #1 in the nation and that southern states like Mississippi and Louisiana have far inferior education systems compared to New Jersey. New analysis reveals that in the real world where student achievement is adjusted for demographics (that is, comparing…Read More
A Small Pension Win for Teachers but Truth In Accounting’s “F” Grade for NJ Shows Why NJ Cannot Afford More
Posted On10/16/2025 byDesperate to change the subject from wasting $45 million of members’ dues on former-NJEA President Spiller’s vanity run for governor, the NJEA is claiming a “huge” pension victory for teachers. But the victory is small and incremental, and the NJEA’s touting it shows how badly the NJEA wants to show that they actually have teachers’…Read More
New Study: NJ’s Downward Spiral Continues with 522,288 People and $31 Billion in Income Leaving for Other States Over the Past Decade
Posted On08/27/2025 byAnother study, another confirmation of New Jersey’s enormous outmigration of people and wealth. Over the past decade, New Jersey lost a total of -522,288 people and over $31 billion of personal income to other states, the 4th-worst totals in the nation. Only New York, California, and Illinois were worse. New Jersey’s overall population kept stable…Read More
NJ Is a Negative Outlier When It Comes to Bang for the Education Buck: We Spend a Lot for Mediocre Results
Posted On08/18/2025 byThe NJEA likes to claim that New Jersey schools are ranked #1 but that claim obscures an important truth: New Jersey gets very little bang for its education buck. New Jersey spends 41% more than the US average but is only 21st among the states when it comes to the academic achievement of all its…Read More
NJ Gets a Bond-Rating Upgrade But the Rating Is Still the Second-Lowest and the Path Ahead Remains Difficult
Posted On08/13/2025 byS&P Global upgraded New Jersey’s bond rating to A+, the latest of several upgrades from its nadir at BBB+ from 2020-22. This is good news as far as it goes, but not nearly as good as Gov. Murphy proclaimed. S&P cited improvements in the overall debt load, mainly due to the reduction in the state’s…Read More
CNBC Study: NJ Continues To Be a Lousy Place To Do Business Under Gov. Murphy
Posted On07/18/2025 byAccording to CNBC, New Jersey continues to be a lousy place to do business under Gov. Murphy. And it continues to get worse. CNBC came out with its annual America’s Top States for Business 2025 and New Jersey ranked 31st, which is down from 25th in 2024 and 19th in 2023. Do you sense a…Read More
Another Unsustainable Budget Signed by Gov. Murphy: The Special Interests Win and NJ Loses. Again.
Posted On07/02/2025 byAs we have said many times, Gov. Murphy is a status quo governor. He was elected with the support of New Jersey’s powerful, taxpayer-funded government unions, especially its largest, the NJEA, which spent over $20 million supporting Murphy. Murphy has repaid the favor by largely governing for their benefit. The result is another unsustainable FY2026…Read More
US News Says NJ Schools are #1 but Urban Institute Accounts for Low-Income Students and Says NJ Schools Are #16
Posted On05/09/2025 byThe NJEA, its president/gubernatorial candidate Sean Spiller, and Spiller’s pal Gov. Murphy wasted no time in trumpeting New Jersey’s ranking as the #1 K-12 school system in the most recent US News & World Report study. New Jersey’s top ranking is good news so far as it goes, and New Jersey educators (rather than the…Read More
Census Data: In 2024, 35,554 NJ Citizens Left for Other States; Since 2020, 192,209 Have Left
Posted On04/22/2025 byNew Jersey citizens continue to vote with their feet and move to other states. That was true for FY2024, when a net 35,554 left, and it was true from 2020 to 2024, when a net 192,209 left. In both cases, New Jersey had the 4th-worst outmigration among the 50 states. Only international immigration kept New…Read More
Sweeney Center Projects a Grim Outlook for NJ’s Fiscal Condition: Gov. Murphy Leaves a Mess for the Next Governor
Posted On03/21/2025 byThank goodness for the Sweeney Center for Public Policy at Rowan University. At least there’s one group out there documenting the real world that will confront New Jersey after eight years of Gov. Murphy’s spendthrift governance. The Sweeney Center’s Multi-Year Budget Work Group has published its 5th report with sobering projections for New Jersey’s future…Read More