"Tax Freedom Day" is that time when, if you put all of your salary from Jan. 1 just to paying taxes, you'd finally be done for the year. It usually comes around mid-April. But big surprise -- for NJ, it takes longer than almost anywhere else.

It didn't have to be that way, Jim Gearhart says in this week's  Jim Gearhart Show podcast, available here as well on iTunes and Google Play.

"Why do people in New Jersey put up with this?" Jim asks. "You can't get a whimper out of people."

Patrick Lavery, sitting in for co-host Bob Williams while he recovers from a kidney transplant, offers an explanation: "I just think they've been beaten over the head with it so many times, they've given up their resistance. ... The people of this state have just tired of the same arguments over and over again."

But there are some ideas NJ hasn't considered in years. Jim remembers times when the NJ government could have really done something to get taxes under control ... and then dropped the ball (or perhaps threw the hot potato).

That's just part of what Jim and Bob Williams take on in the latest installment of his podcast. Check out the full episode to hear the rest. And email Jim at Jim@NJ1015.com.

The Jim Gearhart Podcast is available every week on New Jersey 101.5 and in the New Jersey 101.5 app. You can also subscribe with your favorite podcasting app for iPhones, Android devices or your computer:

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