SNOOKI

At this rate, there won’t be a tax under the sun that New Jersey lawmakers fail to consider during budget negotiations. Now it’s a Snooki tax that is being thrown against the wall to see if it sticks.

A $250 million tax on shore rentals in New Jersey has been proposed by Senate President Sweeney as part of the latest legislative counter-offer to Governor Murphy. Another part of this latest pitch is a $110 million tax hike for realty transfer fees.

So, Democrats have turned to making vacation at the beach more expensive, and hiking taxes on property owners who already pay the highest average property tax bill. You can add these to the long list of tax increases the Governor and legislature have already come up with.

Rather than contain spending and make the state more affordable, Trenton is debating which combination of taxes to slam residents with. Some ideas are worse than others, but the bottom-line cost is in the billions of dollars for taxpayers.

The Governor and legislature are now negotiating over a huge number of tax hikes:

  • An $850 million-a-year corporate tax hike that would give New Jersey the highest corporate tax rate in the nation, and punish businesses who are already investing more in the state because of federal tax reform.
  • Murphy’s $581 million, massive sales tax increase, and $765 million millionaire’s tax hike that hits many people making less than $1 million.
  • New taxes on ride-sharing services like Uber, and home-sharing companies like Airbnb, which only drive up costs for middle-class New Jerseyans who rely on them.
  • Taxes on vaping that range from Murphy’s reckless scheme that could crush the industry in New Jersey, to an improved, but still burdensome 10-cent-per-milliliter tax proposed by the legislature.
  • A new money-grabbing fee on shopping bags, which hurts low-income residents who can least afford such a burden.
  • An internet sales tax.
  • Massive new fees and taxes on firearms.

The numbers may change from counter-proposal to counter-proposal.

Jersey residents deserve better. That’s why ATR is highlighting these massive tax hikes and urging lawmakers to stop the madness. To push back against Governor Murphy’s anti-Second Amendment firearm taxes, visit ATR’s petition at www.atr.org/murphyguntax.