Health & Fitness
New Jersey and High Taxes
A look at New Jersey: taxes, high property taxes, wealth, and debt.
Recently, a Cartographic Research Lab published this U.S. map, which highlights each state's biggest problem. Although the chart is partly tongue-in-cheek, not surprisingly, New Jersey is knocked for high taxes.
Source: The map was published by the Cartographic Research Lab at the University of Alabama and PolicyMic. It is based on several sources, including U.S. census data and healthcare data.
Depending on the metric, New Jersey generally ranks as the state with the highest (or second highest) tax burden in the nation. The most common measures include state and local tax burdens, tax rates (including property taxes, sales tax, income tax, and other taxes), and Tax Freedom Day calculations by state.
It is interesting to see how New Jersey state and local governments obtain their revenues. Please see the attached chart for a breakdown of the percentage allocated to each type of source.
Takeaway: In addition to a high tax burden, New Jersey collects a much larger portion of its revenues from real estate taxes: a double-whammy for property taxes!
What do those percentages mean for residents in terms of actual dollars? New Jersey has the one of the highest tax burdens in country, with the state and local tax burden per capita totaling about $6,700 per year. Below, we show the estimated tax burden per capita, broken down by major category and state rank:
NJ Tax Burden by Revenue per capita, (state rank)
- Property Tax $2,800 (#1)
- Income Tax $1,200 (#7)
- Sales Tax $900 (#13)
- Other $1,800
As many of us know, New Jersey has high taxes and especially high property taxes. The numbers and state rankings back this up. New Jersey has the highest property tax rates (as a percentage of value), averaging about 2% of property values -- as well as property tax revenue per capita ($2,800) in the country.
New Jersey also ranks as one of the wealthiest states in the country. The main measure is median household income, which is also impacted by unemployment, and poverty levels. In the most recent study, New Jersey was the second wealthiest state in the U.S., with Maryland coming in first.
Sadly, even with wealth, and high taxes, New Jersey scores poorly in state debt per capita ($7,300 debt / person) -- which ranks 5th worst in the country. The data in this article is from several sources, including the Tax Foundation, a 501(c)(3) non-partisan tax research group. Most numbers are from 2010-2011.
Next up: A look at our local tax dollars and education costs...
Carlton Chin holds both undergraduate and graduate degrees from MIT, and enjoys applying numbers to maximize value, given limited resources. Carlton has been quoted and published in the Wall St. Journal, New York Times, ESPN, and SeekingAlpha.
Carlton is running for the Haddonfield Board of Education. Please visit www.Vote4Chin.com and vote on November 5.
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