An open letter from a pissed off NJ resident about taxes

Between state and federal income taxes, property tax, sales tax and other fees many of us working people in New Jersey, are paying more than 50% of our income in taxes.

Many of us who’ve been working for a long time have managed to make it to a decent level of income. For a lot of folks in New Jersey, we fall somewhere around 6 1/2% of state income tax.

If you couple that with federal income tax, the burden is pretty high.
Each year I end up sending a check to the federal government of around $4,000 or $5,000.

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That’s after they’ve taken a pretty good chunk out of my ass throughout the year. Add that to the many taxes we pay in New Jersey and it’s an outrage. When you see people coming across the border and breaking our laws and getting rewarded with debit cards and cell phones, it’s maddening.

When you see people working minimal hours to collect as many benefits as possible from the state that they can for free, it’s maddening.

I know of someone who makes $13,000 a year and only works two half days a week. He has a wife and a child but he’s able to get free healthcare for his family. He doesn’t want to work any more than 12 hours a week but expects the rest of society to pay for the things for his family that we all pay for out of pocket.

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I've thought for many years that a flat tax would be great 10, 12 or 15% is fine to cut all the waste and bull-crap that the government spends money on and let people deal with their own social and personal issues without sticking me with the bill at the end of the year.

I’m grateful for what I have for being a citizen of this country and the state. But when I see people getting a free ride on the hard-earned tax money that I’ve put into the system, my head explodes.

Part of the problem here in New Jersey at tax time is that we can't write off all of our property taxes as we used to be able to. The Trump administration reduced the amount you could write off to $10,000. It's called the SALT deduction.

You could blame Trump but why should the rest of the country pay for the overtaxing of a handful of states? From a federal standpoint, it makes sense, but if you're a New Jersey property taxpayer the burden takes its toll.

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It's up to those states to get their house in order and reduce property taxes to a reasonable level like the majority of other states.

I’ve raised three honest law-abiding, hard-working kids who’ve made the right choices. I too have made the right choices and have not been a burden on anyone.

I don’t mind giving my fair share and I love helping people out who are having a tough time, but when Uncle Sam and Uncle Phil keep digging their hands into my pockets to pay for peoples' bad choices and misdeeds, it’s hard to write that check come April 15.

I know many of you reading this agree and if you don’t maybe you have a bigger heart, but then again maybe you just have your head up your ass!