First the Politicians Come After the Rich…
Posted by: realclearmarkets in RealClearMarketsSeveral years ago New Jersey attempted to solve its persistent budget problems with a tax increase on those making more than $500,000 a year. But since Jersey still has budget problems, Gov. Jon Corzine recently proposed targeting a new group for a major tax increase: households earning $150,000. In high-cost Jersey, where a construction worker married to a nurse might be a $150,000 a year household, about 15 percent of all families will see taxes rise under the governor’s new proposal to eliminate their property tax deductions. These folks already pay more than two-thirds of the state’s income taxes and that proportion is going up—maybe way up.
What’s happening in New Jersey is not unique. Just months after a presidential campaign in which Barack Obama argued that he intended to make the wealthy pay their ‘fair share’ of taxes, politicians across the country are scrambling to balance their budgets by focusing on higher-income earners. But in doing so they are also redefining downward who constitutes the wealthy. Upper-middle and even middle class taxpayers are finding out that when politicians say they are coming after the rich, they don’t really mean just the rich.
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