How far can N.J. push its richest?

Philadelphia Inquirer ^ | 5/14/2006 | Kaitlin Gurney

[mmercier]

You do not need to be rich to flee the garden State, but you have to be pretty stupid to stay there if you are not collecting some form of welfare.

Drug dealers not collecting welfare are excluded from the stupid and rich categories of course.

[winner3000]

I left the New York cesspool a long time ago. To New Yorkers and people from New Jersey, there is life outside the East Coast. It's better, cleaner, and less stressful. We all have one life to live. We might as well live it in a non-socialist state!

[Cobra64]

"The "millionaire's tax" is causing an exodus that it can't afford, some say. The wealthiest fund 42 pct. of its budget."

What the heck does this mean? However wrote this is a moron.

[R W Reactionairy]

Be careful what you wish for. I can promise you that if a cross section of citizen from any tax brackets migrate en mass from the Northeast [including New Jersey] the impact on Florida politics will be very unpleasant for conservatives.

There are definitely conservatives in NJ, but what passes for a Republican in HJ would be a left of center Democrat in other parts of the country.

[Cobra64]

I hope rich New Jersyeans continue to come to Florida (paradise on earth).

If you like heat, humidity, fire ants, alligators and crowds.

[Cobra64]

I left the New York cesspool a long time ago.

Is Lake Placid a cesspool? How about 1,000 Islands, New York?

[Banjoguy]

Q: How much money did you make last year?
A: Send it in.

[Oschisms]

The treasurer this summer is moving his family from Manhattan to Montclair, where he, too, will pay the millionaire's tax - and the state's notoriously high property taxes.

Am I reading this right? The State Treasurer was elected/appointed without ever living in the state he is treasurer of?

New Jersey is like another planet.

[HostileTerritory]

The treasury's predictions were $500,000 too high - the first sign that the state could indeed be seeing an exodus of its millionaires.

If this tax led to a $1 billion surplus, then $500,000 is a rounding error. Someone got something wrong in this article.

[Guy in Bumblebee Suit]

Nelson Muntz---very funny, speaking as a Simpsonian myself...

[TortReformer]

High taxes leads to people undereporting their income...penalizes the honest folk....

[marblehead17]

ping

[I still care]

I live in FL and they are welcome to come.

The only thing is, when out of staters move next to me, their first comment is something based on where are all the services they are used to? I always try to educate them this is the tax tradeoff.

In my area we actually pay to pave our own roads. To someone from NY or NJ this is astounding.

[ExGeeEye]

Before-Reading-Gut-Reaction*:

How far?

How about into PA? or MD? or even a whole other part of the country?

*This is always hazardous. I should go read the article now.

[ExGeeEye]

Well, that depends. Two "distant friends" (like "distant relatives" without the genes) are planning to retire early, one to Kenya, the other to the Crimea. Their portfolios, which would require them to continue working here, can sustain a very comfy lifestyle elsewhere.

[KoRn]

Hehe, sounds like good scenario.

/note to self

[Sam Cree]

One interesting thing is that socialism seems to be a natural for a tribal or primitive society, where everyone must by need work together for common survival, with a chief of some kind to direct the effort. As far as I can see, there has to be a higher form of civilization before individual freedom and personal liberty can be supported. And yet, when civilization reaches still a higher level, such as it has in the the great metropolitan areas of today, like New York of parts of NJ, the density of population means that when one individual exercises his individual freedom, the likelihood is much greater that he will impact the freedom of his neighbor. So, almost by necessity, freedoms are again curtailed and socialism again begins to gain the upper hand.