From the Home News Tribune:
Income tax adjustment needed for poor families
New Jersey is by almost every measure one of the most expensive states in the nation in which to live.
That dynamic is especially crippling for the Garden State’s most economically disadvantaged citizens, those low-income residents who are forced to spend a disproportionate percentage of their take-home pay on life’s basic needs, items such as food, clothing and — the big nut — housing. The question for state government has always been how to level the playing field and give those at or below the poverty line a break.
One of the best answers is the income tax. New Jersey has excused payment of that obligation for families that earn less than $20,000 a year since 1999, but in the succeeding eight years the cost of living has steadily increased while New Jersey’s level of forgiveness has not. It is time that it did.
Gov. Jon S. Corzine tried last year to raise the ceiling at which families begin to pay state income taxes, but his effort was confounded by a massive budget shortfall in Trenton. This year the governor has vowed to try again, suggesting that income tax payments be excused for households that earn less than $25,000 — a $5,000 increase — and rates be reduced for families that make from $25,000 to $30,000 a year.
That relief would extend to 614,000 families — 414,000 in the lowest income bracket and 200,000 in the higher group. If there’s a way, let there be a will among lawmakers to make it happen.
The $105 million or so in income tax revenue that would be lost is no small dent for state coffers, especially considering that next year’s state budget deficit is projected to be anywhere from $1.5 billion to $2 billion, but it is safe to say that the state can more easily scrounge up the extra cash than can those poorest families who are burdened by simply putting food on the table or a roof over their heads.