State Spending and Taxes are Driving Jobs from New Jersey

Out of control spending and taxes in New Jersey are having serious consequences for the state’s economy and job base.

During the past four years, New Jersey lost 125,000 jobs in the four highest-paying sectors -- finance, information, manufacturing and business services, said Rutgers economist James Hughes. During the same period, the state gained 112,900 jobs in the below-average-pay sectors of leisure and hospitality, education and health services.

New Jersey is often described as a "'knowledge economy," and its large, fluid, well-educated, skilled work force is often invoked as the saving grace that compensates for an absurdly high cost of housing and an overstretched transportation network.

But overall job growth here lags relative to the nation's; hence our "'competitive position is being eroded," says Rae Rosen, senior economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

Why is New Jersey losing good paying jobs? Because the leaders in Trenton have been listening to people like John Shure, who heads the Trenton liberal think tank New Jersey Policy Perspectives:

"New Jersey has the highest median household income in the country, and that could not happen if this were a barren wasteland in terms of its hospitality to business," he said. "The changes in the corporate business tax are finally requiring business to pay their fair share."

Businesses don’t pay taxes, people do. The cost of taxes placed on businesses and business owners are passed onto customers in terms of higher prices for the firm's goods and services; the reduction of funds available for business expansion; and in lower employee salaries and fewer jobs. When business taxes and the cost of government red tape reach the point where businesses are no longer competitive, firms are driven out of the state or out of business. In either case jobs are lost.

It is not possible to tax a state, or a country for that matter, into prosperity. This is a concept lost on John Shure, the present crew in Trenton and on Jon Corzine. Invest, prosper and grow is a great slogan, but should refer to the people of New Jersey and not to the government of New Jersey. Corzine expansive list of new state programs may sound visionary to “progressives”, but don’t be fooled. The more the state spends, the more people will be taxed and the more good paying jobs that will be lost in New Jersey.

More of the same is what Jon Corzine offers – greater spending, higher taxes and lost jobs. Doug Forrester offers real change – state spending and tax polices designed to reverse the state’s downward spiral to benefit all New Jersey residents.

Update: Please not the name is Jon Shure and not "John Shure" as the name appreared in the Star-Ledger article cited in this post.