It’s not New Jersey’s job to support the working poor (Opinion)

Frank Sinatra once sang, "If I can make it there, I'll make it anywhere." Granted "Old Blue Eyes" was singing about New York, but it also pertains to his home state of New Jersey. But if you can't make it here, then you have to move. Unless of course, the government gives you money to stay and that's the idea of a new report which proposes helping the working poor in New Jersey move ahead by using taxpayer funds and donations to create matching savings accounts.

Since when is it the responsibility of the working taxpayer to make it affordable for those who can't afford to live in New Jersey? You can either afford to live here or you cannot and if you cannot, then you must do what so many of New Jersey's working middle class are doing, you must leave.

This is charity and I believe charity should come from the private sector. If you want to raise money for those who can't afford to live here then by all means do so. You can have telethons, concerts, Go Fund Me's, run PSA commercials, or whatever it takes. Just don't ask the New Jersey worker who's probably holding multiple jobs as it is to pay for it.

The report by the New Jersey Institute for Social Justice recommends the state's program be funded by state tax dollars and a donation program that would allow participants to get a 70% tax credits for the money they donated.

Have these people even looked at the budget? Do they know how in debt this state is? If you want to set something up in the private sector to raise tax deductible money for the working poor, I'm all for it, but not the taxpayers. We have enough trouble making out own ends meet.

More from New Jersey 101.5: