Mikie Sherrill: New Jersey should stop paying federal taxes to defy Trump

🔴 Gov.-elect Mikie Sherrill suggests New Jersey should stop paying federal taxes.

🔴 She says it's a way to "claw back" lost dollars while Donald Trump is president.

🔴 Her comments follow a growing debate over states that pay more into the federal system than they receive back in funding.

The governor-elect of one of the highest-taxed states in the country wants New Jersey to stop paying federal taxes as long as Donald Trump is the president.

Mikie Sherrill kicked around the idea during her recent appearance on "The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart."

The comedian says he wants to see a federal tax strike to resist the Trump administration.

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It's a "great idea" to claw back federal dollars, according to the governor-elect.

"I think people here in New Jersey agree, if they're not going to run the programs, then what are we paying them for? You're paying us for service, and they're not delivering. So, let's stop paying for it," Sherrill said.

New Jersey sends more to Washington, D.C. than it gets back

In fiscal year 2019, New Jersey residents and businesses paid $140 billion in taxes to the IRS.

They only got back $105 billion in federal spending — a loss of $35 billion, according to a study from the Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy at Rutgers University.

In mid-October, Trump announced that he had axed billions of dollars in funds for the Gateway Project to build a tunnel under the Hudson River

At the time, Sherrill said the president was "ripping away tens of thousands of jobs and stealing billions of dollars from our state."

California’s Newsom made a similar threat amid federal funding disputes

California Gov. Gavin Newsom floated a federal tax strike in June after a report that said Trump was planning to cancel federal funding for the Golden State.

"Californians pay the bills for the federal government. We pay over $80 BILLION more in taxes than we get back. Maybe it's time to cut that off," Newsom said on X.

The amount fluctuates from year to year. In 2022, California paid $692 billion to the federal government and got back $609 billion in federal funding.

Newsom later admitted to Politico that his threat was easier said than done; taxes paid to the federal government come from residents and businesses, not the state of California.

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