Assembly Democrats increased taxes on Retirees in 2005 Siemaszkiewicz and Bellin pledge Repeal in 2010

Had Wojciech Siemaszkiewicz and Barry Bellin been in the Assembly to protect your tax dollars and vote NO, retirees would not have had taxes increased starting in 2005.  

In a legislative session which spanned from July 1 - July 2 of 2005, (because the Democrats missed the budget deadline of June 30^th of that year), a particularly bad piece of tax legislation was inserted into that budget deal, which severely hurt NJ's competitiveness with regard to encouraging retirees to remain in our state. Forty-one Assembly Democrats voted Yes for the tax increase (including now Lt. Governor Candidate Loretta Weinberg & Gordon Johnson District 37 representatives), Five Assembly Democrats voted No and One Assembly Democrat abstained. All Thirty-three Assembly Republicans voted No. This vote tally translated into the bill passing by a 41-38 margin. It could have been defeated 39-40 had Siemaszkiewicz and Bellin been in Trenton.  

The 2005 law eliminated the exclusion of pensions and withdrawals from IRAs and 401(k)s for retirees earning above $100,000. Previously, these retirees could exclude from taxation $20,000 of this retirement income if they were married, $15,000 if they were single and $10,000 each if they had filed separately. Unfortunately, a large amount of retirement income that a retiree receives is fixed and can not easily be changed -- pension payments are generally determined by the person’s retirement plan.  In addition, some taxpayers can be hit with large federal tax penalties, if they do not make minimum withdrawals from their 401(k)s and IRAs. The main option open to pensioners who are not retired is just to work less, but that means that the pensioners have less income and the employers loses their ability, talent and experience.  

This law is particularly bad because there is no phase-in or graduation for the tax increase -- if the retirees make less than $100,000 they get the exclusion, if they make more than $100,000, they do not get it. A retired couple making $100,001 would actually pay $1,105 more than a retired couple making $99,999 due to the mere fact that the couple who makes over $100,000 no longer gets the pension exclusion. We believe that the Democrats picked a $100,000 cut-off because it sounds "rich", but in many communities in New Jersey that is the income needed to achieve a middle-class lifestyle.    What makes the law even worse is that the $100,000 level is not indexed for inflation and there is no provision in the law to index the level for inflation in future years.  

New Jersey is generally ranked at the bottom when financial magazines rank the states as to how good they are for retirees. This anti-competitive law further reduced the lure of New Jersey for retirees. Thirty-one states, including neighboring New York and Pennsylvania, omit pensions earned in their own state of origin completely from taxation, which makes New Jersey among a minority of states that actually taxes pensions earned in its own state (i.e. a retiree who worked in New Jersey, earned their pension in New Jersey and now lives in New Jersey).   With retirees across the state being hit with large property tax increases, the 41 Assembly Democrats who voted Yes hurt retirees further.  

Wojciech Siemaszkiewicz and Barry Bellin pledge that if we are elected to the State Assembly, that we will co-sponsor a bill in the Assembly to repeal this Democratic tax increase on retirees. 

VOTE FOR WOJCIECH SIEMASZKIEWICZ AND BARRY BELLIN FOR ASSEMBLY IN DISTRICT 37 ON TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 3^rd, 2009

District 37 includes: Bergenfield, Bogota, Englewood, Englewood Cliffs, Hackensack, Leonia, Maywood, Palisades Park, Ridgefield Park, Rochelle Park, Teaneck and Tenafly. 

As posted at: http://www.takebackbergen.com/