New Jersey: Ding the Poor or Tax the Rich?

Cut services for poorer senior citizens and the disabled or tax the rich? That’s the question that will be debated in the New Jersey Legislature on Monday as the state maneuvers to balance a budget deficit of close to $11 billion.

The tax, which was overwhelmingly opposed by Republicans last year, would re-impose a 10.75 percent levy on income over $1 million and affect a grand total of 16,000 people—many of whom are financial professionals working on Wall Street. —JCL

Reuters:

New Jersey politicians are due to battle on Monday over whether to slap a tax on millionaires or cut services for low-income senior citizens and the disabled.

The clash in the state legislature is part of a wider battle over how to erase a $10.7 billion budget deficit and is emblematic of the decisions facing states across America whose budget deficits have soared during the recession.

Democrats want to re-impose a one-year tax on millionaires that has been vetoed by Republican Governor Chris Christie. The 10.75 percent tax on income above $1 million would hit 16,000 people, some of them likely to work as financial professionals just across the Hudson River in New York.

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AP / Mike Derer

People like Danielle Staub, center, one of the stars of Bravo’s TV series “Real Housewives of New Jersey,” would be among those affected by the state’s proposed tax on incomes above $1 million.