New Jersey’s leaders can’t afford to keep giving the wealthy a pass while everyday families pay the price, writes Eric Benson of For the Many. (Getty Images)
By Eric Benson
New Jersey’s working-class and middle-class families feel an economic pinch from all angles — high housing costs, wages not keeping up with inflation, difficult-to-find and expensive child care, and underfunded public transit.
Meanwhile, the world’s richest people and corporations continue to rake in record gains, locking away their wealth at the expense of those struggling. Indeed, in New Jersey, the top 1% of households by income pay a lower tax rate than middle-class families.
We know what builds prosperity in New Jersey — well-funded public schools and higher education, affordable homes for all, a healthy workforce, and a world-class transit system. But these systems will face dramatic cuts, leaving New Jerseyans further behind, if the state does not find the revenue to preserve and expand its existing investments.
Luckily, there is a solution to both problems: ask the wealthy to pay their fair share in taxation. We can have nice things, and we can do it by using taxation to fund them.
A recent report shows how the state can raise nearly $4 billion with tax changes that primarily target wealthy individuals and multinational corporations. Some politicians have voiced their opposition to any tax increases, but these voices ignore the question of who would pay additional taxes under these proposals. These changes target pools of high wealth, such as expensive homes, multimillion-dollar salaries, offshore corporate profits, and large sums of inherited wealth — assets far outside the financial lives of most New Jerseyans.
Many New Jersey residents are struggling to make ends meet, looking at the cost of living in the state and wondering if they can ever get ahead or even continue to stay. It will take major investments from the state — in affordable housing, child care, education, and public transit — to make the state affordable. Yet these programs will be unattainable without fair taxation, and in particular, ensuring that those tax dollars come from the wealthy.
This revenue can then go to support the state’s existing investments, grow New Jersey’s economy, and fix the imbalance in our tax system. New Jersey’s move to reenact its millionaires tax in 2020 shows that progressive tax policy can help even the playing field and yield substantial revenue as a result. Although the state’s income tax helps to get more back from the wealthy, the state must go further to ensure that wealthy residents pay their fair share while working-class and middle-class households can continue to afford life in the state.
On top of being good policy, ensuring the rich and powerful pay their fair share is also popular. Large majorities of Democrats, independent voters, and Republicans think that rich individuals and corporations pay too little in taxes and support policies to make them pay more. As politicians search for popular means to help fund popular government services such as schools, health care, and transit, fair taxation of the wealthy and mega-corporations is a win-win.
If New Jersey’s politicians instead embrace the self-destructive anti-tax rhetoric that has ravaged state finances across the country over the last few decades, the result will spell disaster for so many critical programs that impact working families.
New Jersey’s leaders can’t afford to keep giving the wealthy a pass while everyday families pay the price. Bold tax reforms are essential to creating a state where everyone can thrive. Gubernatorial hopefuls in 2025 especially have a chance to lead the way by championing fair taxation policies that support families, grow the economy, and foster a stronger, more equitable future.
Eric Benson is the campaign director for For the Many, a statewide coalition of more than 40 organizations working to expand funding for essential services and improve budget practices to meet current and future needs, especially for communities that have been historically left behind.