From the Washington Post:
N.J. Democrats loved the idea of taxing the rich — until they actually could do it
Democrats in the New Jersey state legislature approved a tax hike on millionaires five separate times under then-Gov. Chris Christie (R) — knowing he would veto it.
But now that the state has a liberal governor eager to sign the bill, Democratic legislators are backing off the “millionaire’s tax,” echoing some of the concerns once expressed by Christie.
“This state is taxed out. If you know anything about New Jersey, they’re just weary of the taxes,” said New Jersey State Senate President Steve Sweeney (D), lead advocate of the millionaire’s tax during Christie’s tenure, in an interview.
This blue state’s sudden allergy to taxing the rich is an ominous sign not just for Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy, who swept to office last fall promising to fund a suite of new social programs via a millionaire’s tax, but for other liberals running for statewide office this year.
Democratic candidates in several states are campaigning on higher taxes on millionaires to pay for the robust social programs increasingly demanded by the party’s base, such as universal prekindergarten, expanded health-care benefits and free community college. But the unexpectedly rocky reaction to the plan in New Jersey underscores the difficulty in implementing higher taxes on the rich, even when Democrats have full control of the government.
“It’s easy to gain popular support for the millionaire’s tax on the campaign trail, since most people wouldn’t be impacted by it,” said Elaine Maag, a tax expert at the Tax Policy Center, a nonpartisan think tank. “But in reality, it’s very difficult to raise taxes on high-income people because they tend to be very well politically connected and vocal.”
…
The fight in New Jersey suggests that higher taxes on the rich may be easier to campaign on than to enact.Murphy ran for office promising universal prekindergarten and free community college. To fund these initiatives, he is partly relying on the millionaire’s tax, which would start taxing income over $1 million at a new rate of 10.75 percent. That would raise $765 million annually for state coffers, according to Murphy’s office.
…
Now the plan is being tested as New Jersey works to complete a budget by June 30 — or risk shutting down the state government. The budget, which also directs funding to New Jersey’s transit system, wouldn’t fulfill Murphy’s campaign promises on their own without additional tax hikes. Murphy is also pushing a sales tax hike and new taxes on ride-hailing services such as Uber and Lyft. The combined package amounts to about $1.5 billion in new taxes.Democratic leaders in the statehouse say that is untenable. They have blamed the tax law passed by Congress last December for their reversal, saying the tax overhaul already punishes wealthy New Jersey taxpayers by capping at $10,000 the amount of state and local taxes they can deduct from their federal taxes. (Previously, the deduction was limitless.)
…
About 40 percent of New Jersey’s richest 1 percent also do not benefit from the tax cut on “pass-through” business entities and will therefore see a “sizable” tax hike under the law, said the spokesman, Mark Magyar.Imposing a second round of new taxes could force many of these millionaires to leave the state, Sweeney said.
“The Trump tax increase for New Jersey changed the game for us here,” said Sweeney, who tweeted on election night last year that the millionaires tax should be the party’s first priority. “Circumstances change.”
…
Tax experts disagree about whether a millionaire’s tax would help New Jersey, with some conservative economists agreeing it will force rich taxpayers to flee the state. In turn, they say, that would shrink the state’s tax base and saddle the remaining middle-class taxpayers with a greater tax burden.“We’re the most unaffordable state and least competitive, business-wise, by many metrics,” said Tom Bracken, president of New Jersey’s Chamber of Commerce. “Increasing taxes on job creators doesn’t help the situation.”
From MarketWatch:
Tax breaks for home mortgages to sink 30% in 2018 due to Trump tax law, study shows
One of the most cherished tax breaks in America, deducting the interest on a home mortgage, is going to get whacked down to size in the next few years.
Fortunately most Americans won’t really notice.
A group of congressional tax experts predict claims for mortgage deductions will fall 30% in 2018 — to $40.7 billion from $66.4 billion in the year before the Trump tax cuts took effect. Claims will decline even further to $34 billion in 2019.
The estimate is included in an updated assessment of the tax law by the Joint Committee on Taxation, a congressional panel that includes members from the House and Senate.
The law championed by President Trump and Republicans included a sharp reduction in how mortgage debt would qualify for an federal interest-rate deduction. The provision was added to help pay for the tax cuts.
Home owners will now only be able to deduct interest on $750,000 worth of mortgage debt instead of $1 million under the old rules.
By and large, most households won’t notice a big difference. The average cost of a previously owned home is about $258,000, according to the National Association of Realtors. (New houses cost more). And many homeowners didn’t itemize anyway.
The new law also aims to encourage taxpayers to forego the mortgage deduction entirely for cheaper homes by doubling the size of the standard deduction.
The change to the mortgage deduction will mostly hit high-income earners with expensive homes in urban areas, especially big cities such as New York and Los Angeles.
Hane, who writes at the top of his voice, continues, “It is one of fascism’s goals to monopolize our attention. It would like to shrink our imagination. … Fascism welcomes our attempts to play logical ‘gotcha’ with its inconsistencies because it knows we will lose — not because we won’t find a fallacy but because the fallacy won’t matter.”
From The Real Deal:
Existing home sales in US fell in April
The number of sales of previously owned homes in the country dropped in April thanks to factors including low inventory, rising prices and higher mortgage rates.
The National Association of Realtors found that sales of existing homes dropped 2.5 percent from the prior month in April, hitting a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.46 million, according to the Wall Street Journal. Year over year, sales dropped by 1.4 percent, while the median sale price went up by 5.3 percent, hitting $257,900.
Spring typically sees 40 percent of U.S. home sales, but the season has started off slow this year, reflecting increased pressure on buyers. Despite the strong economy, home prices are still rising roughly twice as much as incomes.
Mortgage rates have also been going up this year, so far rising in 15 out of 21 weeks. This week, rates for 30-year mortgages hit 4.66 percent, up from 3.99 percent at the end of 2017, according to Freddie Mac.
Sales dropped throughout the country in the Northeast, the South and the West, but economists still think existing home sales will slightly increase this year thanks to economic growth.
Proof that we are not in a bubble and that home prices are not dropping anytime soon. Any questions?
grim says:
May 26, 2018 at 7:45 am
From The Real Deal:
Existing home sales in US fell in April
The number of sales of previously owned homes in the country dropped in April thanks to factors including low inventory, rising prices and higher mortgage rates.
Anyone with common sense can see this is getting ridiculous and will not end well if it’s not corrected.
“A Walmart employee earning the company’s median salary of $19,177 would have to work for more than a thousand years to earn the $22.2 million that Doug McMillon, the company’s chief executive, was awarded in 2017.
At Live Nation Entertainment, the concert and ticketing company, an employee earning the median pay of $24,406 would need to work for 2,893 years to earn the $70.6 million that its chief executive, Michael Rapino, made last year.
And at Time Warner, where the median compensation is a relatively handsome $75,217, an employee earning that much would still need to work for 651 years to earn the $49 million that Jeffrey Bewkes, the chief executive, earned in just 12 months.
These stark illustrations of income inequality are revealed in the Equilar 200 Highest-Paid C.E.O. Rankings, which are conducted annually for The New York Times by Equilar, an executive compensation consulting firm. As economic uncertainty roils the country, the gap between top executives and everyday employees grows ever wider.”
Want to Make Money Like a C.E.O.? Work for 275 Years – The New York Times
https://apple.news/A1q9HRkaXTQGTqu7vlBnfVg
“This year, publicly traded corporations in the United States had to begin revealing their pay ratios — comparisons between the pay of their chief executive and the median compensation of other employees at the company. The results were predictably striking.
“It’s grotesque how unequal this has become,” said Louis Hyman, a business historian at Cornell University. “For C.E.O.s, it’s like they are winning the lottery year after year. For a lot of Americans, they don’t have any savings. When they lose their job, they lose everything.”“
Since when did CEO’s become gods among man?
Rand must be smiling. The world she envisioned has come to life. All hail the mighty CEO!
@ShaunKing
This is one of the most awful things I’ve heard of in my entire life.
The Trump administration has created a new policy of taking children from the parents of asylum seekers & immigrants – including infants – as nothing more than punishment.
I am so stupid. It never occurred to me before that this song was written by Jerry Cantrell speaking directly to Layne Staley.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9y0DuiCEzZE
The Trump administration has created a new policy of taking children from the parents of asylum seekers & immigrants – including infants – as nothing more than punishment.
You forgot the part where they cook and eat them, too.
@Chrislhayes
I am reading these first-hand accounts of
mothers who had their children taken from them,
with no word of where they were going or how to contact them,
and I’m thinking about someone doing that to me and my kids
and I feel a rage so powerful I think I’m gonna pass out.
…and I feel a rage so powerful I think I’m gonna pass out.
Does he say that with a lisp while waving his hands in the air to dry his nail polish?
You understand that the parents are voluntarily submitting their kids to this situation, and further, this treatment is purposeful as to act as a deterrent. Yet, they volunteer to do it anyway. Kind of makes Chris Hayes appear as a pandering asswipe….
Very Stable Genius says:
May 26, 2018 at 11:39 am
@Chrislhayes
I am reading these first-hand accounts of
mothers who had their children taken from them,
with no word of where they were going or how to contact them,
and I’m thinking about someone doing that to me and my kids
and I feel a rage so powerful I think I’m gonna pass out.
Also tell Chris Hayes that this kind of commentary, and the attitudes that it fosters in the general public, are the cause of Trump being in the White House.
chicagofinance says:
May 26, 2018 at 12:33 pm
You understand that the parents are voluntarily submitting their kids to this situation, and further, this treatment is purposeful as to act as a deterrent. Yet, they volunteer to do it anyway. Kind of makes Chris Hayes appear as a pandering asswipe….
Very Stable Genius says:
May 26, 2018 at 11:39 am
@Chrislhayes
I am reading these first-hand accounts of
mothers who had their children taken from them,
with no word of where they were going or how to contact them,
and I’m thinking about someone doing that to me and my kids
and I feel a rage so powerful I think I’m gonna pass out.
Fab tried to take me task pointing out the ships of Jews that were sent back to their death in Europe in WWII. Unfortunately, the hordes of Mexicans are returned via bus to their homeland where they are welcomed with open arms.
This is a really BIG difference.
I wish those ships could have been sent someplace as welcoming as Mexico, but even Mexico would have rejected them. Our country seems to do a much better job of accepting immigrants who are persecuted rather than ones simply desiring a pretty good free existence that’s way better than what their former country offered. Selling Chiclets sucks, but that’s not my problem.
The worse part is where do you think the Koch brothers get their ideas about the future of the US?
There is plenty of wealth of the border. Wealthy there want to be owners of the society not participating members. Is up to each of those immigrants to improve their home society.
Got it give it to the Cubans, things did not turn out right with Castro, but they did put a lot of their 1% up to a firing squad. Sometimes a little bit of this is needed every so often.
Just to be clear, you think people who succeed in producing the most wealth, by starting a business, investing in productive assets, should be assassinated en-masse occasionally?
You are truly an evil person, so filled with envy and hatred for human success.
Die in your own void.
Just to be clear, you think people who succeed in producing the most wealth, by rigging, bribing their way in business and society, investing in regulatory and law enforcement capture, destroying any notion of rule of law and ensuring a decent society cannot rise should be assassinated en-masse occasionally?
Yep, you read me right – after editing your comment. The result otherwise is “south of the US border”.
The threat of violence works. It’s a proven deterrent. Let’s see how it all works out for the lying piece of shit in the White House. A guy that has proven he cannot actually speak without lying.
Locust Boomers stink.
Clinton lowered the bar and normalized corruption.
W Bush made war profiteering the thing to do.
Obama bailed out the bankster, when Resolution Trust Corp 2 was needed along with prosecution.
Trump is an agent of influence of Russia because he’s blackmailable for money laundering/tax evasion for Russian organized crime.
The only thing that keeps everyone together is the “Rulebook”
Bridge of Spies. – https://youtu.be/W2BurRCdS6w
Contempt for the 1% is an admission of personal failure.
Yeah, fast eddie.
Keep drinking the kool-aid, the Koch brothers’, banksters and other 1% rigging is no different than Sacco or other Hudson County pols rigging for their benefit.
5:31 hmmmmm . W2 wise we did it, we hit the 1% for the past few years we lived in NNJ, yet we lived rather modestly. These guys are not typical hardworking Americans they are crooks, failed chapter 11 filing shysters, no contempt just admiration, cause making money is all the matters in the New New Catholicism.
#flabmax – Obama’s deal with Netflix was just quid pro quo for net neutrality rules…….
Went into JC for dinner, one of our friends just opened a place.
God damn JC is out of control.
New construction-wise?
God damn JC is out of control.
he had ‘screamed at her, directly into her face, calling her a “whore”… while pushing her into the wall’
When Republicans do it its news. When Dems do it its foreplay.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5775305/George-W-Bushs-cousin-admits-attacking-wife-marriage.html
New construction-wise?
Gentrification-wise
Never seen so many Porsche SUVs in driveways in the Heights.
“It is unswerving in its conviction that we must make sure our markets build an economy for all and do not accelerate injustice and grave inequity. In this time of globalization and dominant and often unaccountable financial institutions, we need to bring together technical knowledge and human wisdom. In Catholic thought, moral principles must guide the market. Protecting human life and dignity comes before the unlimited pursuit of profit. This is a vital and timely message for a divided world — and Chicago.”
Why does our economy leave so many behind? – Chicago Tribune
https://apple.news/AYI96ag-fSXKrTYXs0C-_XA
Grim
If you think JC is whacked, pass by the good old South Bronx. They are gentrifying the last goya bean of that borough. About 2 yrs ago, had a co-worker how 4 gay couples moved to her Grand Concourse building because they liked the big size rooms/old architecture.
Is the exact reverse of this funny Bonfire of the Vanities scene.
https://youtu.be/6U0lCvqLXCE
https://factfinder.census.gov/faces/tableservices/jsf/pages/productview.xhtml?src=bkmk
Jersey City’s population grew by more than 3,000 in 2017. How many Sussex County municipalities added population last year? Zero.
Jersey City will be NJ’s most populous city in few years if current trends last. Governance matters, and Jersey City’s government knows how to issue residential building permits. Haters will say Manhattan proximity explains Jersey City’s success, but Jersey City’s population is growing faster than all five boroughs, and Brooklyn’s population is shrinking.
8:24 new car sales just evidence of lot’s of debt . Lol
Jersey City is so bland. I work in Newport – the place has no identity besides over construction. There is honestly nothing special about it, and the traffic to get there sucks.
The rich don’t have to flee NJ to avoid taxes. They just move to Abbott districts. Asbury Park, JC, Hoboken. Who says low taxes don’t attract investment?
The reality is NJ’s lowest tax counties – Cape May, Salem, and Cumberland – are seeing disinvestment. Population is all 3 counties falling at fastest pace since records began in late 1700s.
Cape May, Salem, and Cumberland never saw any investment in the first place. And, not for nothing, but they might as well be in another state. I’m pretty sure only 2 people I know have ever been there. Abbot districts like Hoboken and Jersey City are able to give gigantic tax breaks because they don’t pay for their school system. The investment has poured in. Same with Asbury Park. What would happen if we took a random town and slashed their property tax bill in half? People and businesses would flock there in an instant.
I’m down to my last pickle so it’s time to buy more chicken (that’s gay slang that only Lib will get).
A large majority of Hoboken’s school budget is generated from local sources. Jersey City is mostly state but there the state has controlled the district for decades.
Not that I’m a fan of the Abbott situation. The activist NJ Supreme Court has been a disaster for the state for years.
@radleybalko
It isn’t easy for a man to rip a screaming child away from his mother.
Most of us couldn’t do it. This is where “animals” comes in.
Declare he isn’t really a child, she isn’t a woman.
Now it’s like pulling a piglet from a sow.
This has always been how states enable savagery.
JC and now the south Bronx. And then they are going to all up and leave for the blue ribbon suburbs in north Jersey.
Speaking of the south Bronx the apartments on the grand concourse are beautiful! Parquet wood floors sunken living rooms fireplaces and high ceilings. The Bronx has the best subway access to Manhattan.
It isn’t easy for a man to rip a screaming child away from his mother.
Yes it is, unless you’re a left-leaning male, willingly trading in your testosterone for a soy bottle and neutered ideology.
“It isn’t easy for a man to rip a screaming child away from his mother.”
Even harder in divorce court during a custody battle. Your ex can be a certified abuser and the long arm of the law will be on the female side over the male side every time.
Yes it is, unless you’re a left-leaning male, willingly trading in your testosterone for a soy bottle and neutered ideology.
The last person anyone should consult regarding economics is a Catholic bishop. The good Cardinal should concern himself more with the problem of bringing fallen away Catholics back to church.
Anyone who needs to be in an asylum shouldn’t be taking care of children.
Bronx dearer than Bergen, on a per square foot basis?
When criminals are arrested with their kids in tow, the kids don’t accompany them to central lock up.
Didn’t you guys ever watch cops?
Yo I have no idea just commenting on all this urban gentrification when will these people start coming out to the suburbs for the 4 bed 2 bath cul de sac single family house.
One big reason why the escape to the suburbs might not happens as expected by the Pumpkin dreamers is “White Flight”.
The original WASP had already escaped from the germans/irish/italians. The big push by ethnic whites (germans/irish/italians out of Jersey City/Newark/Paterson/etc) in the 60’s and 70’s was because “Them” were coming and getting close, best described by Dangerfield’s Easy Money – https://youtu.be/pjIFeBCOSag
With now everyone being multicultural and let’s called it more understanding times, there is no need to “flee” before “they” get here. And as many ethnic whites that remain behind in JC/Hoboken,etc can attest – once you get the hang of parking is very comfortable to live there.
Yo I have no idea just commenting on all this urban gentrification when will these people start coming out to the suburbs for the 4 bed 2 bath
cul de sacsingle family highway house.LOL!!! I loved the “slats” in the chainlink fence in the background. I saw that everywhere in the late ’60’s and early ’70’s in Morris County.
The suburbs, at least my suburbs, were a melting pot back then. By percentage of population it was Catholics (all types), Jews (may have numbered higher than Catholics, it was close), Protestants, and a smattering of everything else. Our houses were all built form 1958 on, for the most part, and it was as if we were colonizing a new world. There was no conflict. We all escaped from wherever our parents originally came from and everybody’s Dad earned a middle class income or better. Get it? That was true diversity.
One big reason why the escape to the suburbs might not happens as expected by the Pumpkin dreamers is “White Flight”.
The original WASP had already escaped from the germans/irish/italians. The big push by ethnic whites (germans/irish/italians out of Jersey City/Newark/Paterson/etc) in the 60’s and 70’s was because “Them” were coming and getting close, best described by Dangerfield’s Easy Money – https://youtu.be/pjIFeBCOSag
With now everyone being multicultural and let’s called it more understanding times, there is no need to “flee” before “they” get here. And as many ethnic whites that remain behind in JC/Hoboken,etc can attest – once you get the hang of parking is very comfortable to live there.
S. Korea: Kim commits to summit with Trump, denuclearization
Can we repost all the twitter crap again?
Last week did anyone get why Rob Schneider is so right with his SNL criticicisms? The cold open was ostensibly at Holsten’s in Bloomfield. As Schneider said, they telelgraph the premise, so it isn’t funny. Secondly, how many of the resistance even watched the Sopranos, getting how “funny” it would be if the POTUS was assassinated?
http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/tv/rob-schneider-thinks-saturday-night-live-ruining-joke-article-1.3956596
OH MAN! I am dialing in the chicken brine!
I’m bored with politics. Trump is gross.
Montclair is the new suburb flight. I drive through montville today, an area formally desirable, 4 houses out of around 20-25 in one neighborhood for sale. All $700k +. I’m sure all sitting a long time.
Taxes $15-20
Never understood the desirability of Montville, at all.