Tax Foundation

TRENTON - In TV attack ads, politicians often put text underneath the images to indicate the sources of statistics used to skewer the opposition. But in the ad that Republican Gov. Christie has been running this week against State Sen. Barbara Buono (D., Middlesex), his expected challenger in November, the source cited is unrelated to the accusation. That is now changing. On Tuesday, The Inquirer pointed out the discrepancy to the Christie campaign. On Wednesday, campaign spokesman Kevin Roberts said, "We are adding an additional level of specificity when it comes to the source citation.

By Antony Davies and James R. Harrigan Each July Fourth, Americans celebrate their freedom, the result of a revolution over "taxation without representation. " This month, we celebrate another type of freedom - from our own tax man. It turns out that taxation with representation is no picnic either. According to the Tax Foundation, Tax Freedom Day - the day on which the average American has earned enough money to pay off his federal, state, and local tax bills for the year - occurs on Thursday.

Advocates of radical changes in the federal tax system are busy these days trying to convince the American people that their paychecks are about to be devoured by the U.S. government. "The typical family pays more than 38 percent of its income in taxes. That's nearly 40 cents of every dollar," said Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott in his response to President Clinton's State of the Union address. "That's not just bad policy. It's immoral. " It's also just plain wrong, say analysts at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a Washington-based liberal research group.

HERE'S THE news from the New York Times on the day before Tax Day: "Forty-seven percent. That's the portion of American households that owe no income tax for 2009. The number is up from 38 percent in 2007. " Given that nine-point jump in no-pays in just two years, it looks as if it won't be long before a solid majority of American households are taking out more than they're putting in when it comes to federal income tax monies. Here's the problem. Paying zero, what's their incentive to keep from pushing for bigger spending on every federal boondoggle that's funded by the income tax, no matter how wasteful or crooked the project?

Paul Gann, now 75, who with the late Howard Jarvis founded a tax-reform movement on the West Coast, will celebrate next month the 10-year anniversary of Proposition 13, which has lopped off an estimated $75 billion in California property taxes since it passed overwhelmingly in 1978. That's the good news. On Thursday, there will be another kind of celebration, this one, however, marking the ignominious liberation of the average American from the tax bite. The Tax Foundation in Washington calls it Tax Freedom Day, the day when Americans start working for themselves, having satisfied the requirements of federal, state and local taxes.

HERE'S a headline that's sure not to boost investment and job creation in Pennsylvania: "Wyoming First, Pennsylvania Worst In Business Taxes. " It's a recent headline on the front page of Investor's Business Daily , read nationally by precisely the people who make the decisions about the location of job-creating capital investments and business expansions. "An executive looking for a place to locate his company might do well to consider Wyoming," begins the article.

Recently, three published reports documented New Jersey's problems attracting and retaining residents and jobs. This is a major issue for the business community and workers in the state, and policymakers cannot afford to ignore or downplay these reports, or consider them a self-fulfilling prophecy. One of the most publicized reports, released in October by Rutgers University's Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy, documented the migration of New Jersey residents to states that are more affordable and have lower taxes.

When it comes to the real estate tax, opinion is deeply divided: Half of property owners hate it, and the other half really, really hate it. Dissatisfaction appears to be off the charts in North Dakota. In June, in what is believed to be a first, voters will decide whether to scrap the unpopular levy. "We consider North Dakota to be Lexington and Concord," said Charlene Nelson, a home-schooling mother who is a referendum organizer. Although nothing of that magnitude is unfolding in Pennsylvania, the legislature once again is considering bills to eliminate the property tax, oft-criticized for being unfair, antiquated, and baffling.

Uncle Sam will keep his hand in your wallet longer than ever this year, a Washington research organization said yesterday. On average, taxpayers will labor a record 128 days - Jan. 1 through May 8 - to earn enough money to pay their 1991 taxes, according to the Tax Foundation, a nonprofit group that annually calculates how long it takes Americans to cover the cost of all federal, state and local taxes. The tax "burden is at its highest level ever," said Dan Witt, the group's executive director.

GREAT NEWS, KIDS, your Legislature's back this week after a nice long break for Easter and the primary, and, boy, it sounds as if lawmakers are really ready to work. High on the list: fiscal responsibility, private-sector job creation and cuts in business taxes. Did you just stand and cheer? Why not? Don't you think if businesses pay lower taxes, they all go out and hire the jobless and underemployed? And just in time, too, because starting Tuesday, the state — in ongoing efforts to cut waste, fraud and abuse — is going after people on food stamps.

TRENTON - In TV attack ads, politicians often put text underneath the images to indicate the sources of statistics used to skewer the opposition. But in the ad that Republican Gov. Christie has been running this week against State Sen. Barbara Buono (D., Middlesex), his expected challenger in November, the source cited is unrelated to the accusation. That is now changing. On Tuesday, The Inquirer pointed out the discrepancy to the Christie campaign. On Wednesday, campaign spokesman Kevin Roberts said, "We are adding an additional level of specificity when it comes to the source citation.

By Antony Davies and James R. Harrigan Each July Fourth, Americans celebrate their freedom, the result of a revolution over "taxation without representation. " This month, we celebrate another type of freedom - from our own tax man. It turns out that taxation with representation is no picnic either. According to the Tax Foundation, Tax Freedom Day - the day on which the average American has earned enough money to pay off his federal, state, and local tax bills for the year - occurs on Thursday.

THE FINANCIAL impact, Renee Amoore explained, was painful.   Speaking Monday in LOVE Park for Mitt Romney's presidential campaign, Amoore said she was forced to lay off 200 of her 500 employees. The blame, Amoore said, fell on President Obama's handling of the economy — specifically, increases in federal taxes on payroll, health care and business. Something there sounded off-kilter. We'll come back to that. Amoore, deputy chairwoman of the Pennsylvania Republican Party for 16 years, was playing a leading role in Romney's efforts to shift the focus from his business record to Obama's time in the White House.

GREAT NEWS, KIDS, your Legislature's back this week after a nice long break for Easter and the primary, and, boy, it sounds as if lawmakers are really ready to work. High on the list: fiscal responsibility, private-sector job creation and cuts in business taxes. Did you just stand and cheer? Why not? Don't you think if businesses pay lower taxes, they all go out and hire the jobless and underemployed? And just in time, too, because starting Tuesday, the state — in ongoing efforts to cut waste, fraud and abuse — is going after people on food stamps.

WASHINGTON - The White House and congressional Democrats think they have the ideal issue to use against Republicans all year - that the GOP is eager to give tax breaks to the rich. "It's an excellent strategy for Democrats," said Floyd Ciruli, a Denver-based political consultant, as the Senate plans a vote Monday on a Democratic-sponsored measure to impose higher taxes on millionaires. The Democratic strategy, though, might not be a winning one. While taxing the rich is popular, "it just isn't the first priority" of the swing voters who likely will decide the 2012 presidential and congressional elections, said Lanae Erickson, deputy director of social policy and politics at Third Way, a centrist Democratic group that recently studied independent voters.

When it comes to the real estate tax, opinion is deeply divided: Half of property owners hate it, and the other half really, really hate it. Dissatisfaction appears to be off the charts in North Dakota. In June, in what is believed to be a first, voters will decide whether to scrap the unpopular levy. "We consider North Dakota to be Lexington and Concord," said Charlene Nelson, a home-schooling mother who is a referendum organizer. Although nothing of that magnitude is unfolding in Pennsylvania, the legislature once again is considering bills to eliminate the property tax, oft-criticized for being unfair, antiquated, and baffling.

HERE'S a headline that's sure not to boost investment and job creation in Pennsylvania: "Wyoming First, Pennsylvania Worst In Business Taxes. " It's a recent headline on the front page of Investor's Business Daily , read nationally by precisely the people who make the decisions about the location of job-creating capital investments and business expansions. "An executive looking for a place to locate his company might do well to consider Wyoming," begins the article.

  A faint voice can be heard from the left side of statehouses across the land. "Tax the rich," it cries. New Jersey Republican Gov. Christie recoils at those words. More taxes in a state that has the highest local tax burden in the United States - 12.2 percent of income, according to the nonpartisan Tax Foundation? Never, Christie has vowed. Try to increase the so-called millionaire's tax, he warned, and all those business owners who hire people will flee to more tax-friendly environs.

TRENTON - New Jersey lawmakers will vote Thursday on adopting a corporate tax break that is intended to reward multistate businesses that hire and expand in the state but that would cost millions of dollars in lost revenue. The measure is known as the single-sales factor, under which the amount of profit subject to New Jersey taxes is based only on a company's sales. Moving to that system benefits corporations that sell to a national market but have numerous employees and property in New Jersey.

The late Nobel Prize-winning economist Milton Friedman liked to point out that when it comes to the size of government, it's not how much revenue it collects that matters most, but how much it spends. If you cut taxes by half but don't reduce spending, you haven't done anything to shrink the size of government. All you've done is shift the burden to future generations. Every April, the Tax Foundation announces the arrival of Tax Freedom Day. The idea is that this is the day of the year when Americans are "free" of the burden of taxation, assuming every penny earned before that date is used to pay federal, state, and local taxes.