CASAGRANDE AND O’SCANLON: PRETTY SOON THERE WILL BE NO ONE LEFT TO PAY NEW JERSEY’S HEFTY TAX BILLS

NEW JERSEY’S MILLIONAIRE POPULATION – WHICH RECENTLY TOPPED THE NATION - DECREASED BY MORE THAN 22,000 THIS YEAR

    Three consecutive years of declining numbers of New Jersey millionaires should serve as yet another signal that Governor Corzine and the Democratic-controlled Legislature are taxing people out of New Jersey, Assembly members Caroline Casagrande and Declan O’Scanlon, both R-Monmouth and Mercer, said today.

    “Governor Corzine and his Democratic allies often cite our state’s high income levels when attempting to justify the disastrous tax increases they continue to inflict on New Jersey families and senior citizens, but the continued decline of households with more than $1 million in liquid assets proves that no one can afford New Jersey’s tax burden,” Casagrande said. “If we don’t act now to reverse this trend, New Jersey’s remaining wealth will soon disappear as people continue to be forced to flee in search of more affordable states especially as technology has made it easier for people to relocate their jobs and homes.”

    According to a story in the Asbury Park Press, which cited an annual study by Phoenix Affluent Marketing Service, New Jersey lost 22,678 millionaire households since 2008. These homes make up 6.22 percent of the state’s population down from 6.89 percent in 2008 and 7.12 percent in 2007 when New Jersey had the highest percentage of millionaire homes in the nation. It has now slipped to third.

    New Jersey has lost millionaires at a rate of 9.7 percent – exceeding the nation’s rate of 8.7 percent.

    “That’s another national statistic you probably won’t hear cited by Governor Corzine and Democratic legislators when they try to tell New Jerseyans not to worry about their jobs and homes, loss of retirement income or how they’re going to pay their increasing tax burden, because of a false contention that New Jersey is doing better than other states,” O’Scanlon said. “New Jerseyans are suffering. We must stop taxing them out of the state because driving away higher-income people will only make things worse for those left behind who will pay higher taxes to pay for the runaway spending that Democrats have refused to restrain.”