NJ is on fire and we called an arsonist (Opinion)

New Jersey has been at the very bottom of the list of 50 states when it comes to business tax-climate for a decade. Good business people have given up, retired, sold out, closed up or just plain moved out for the better part of this century. Is it the competition, not enough customers, bad location?

Ask ANY business person (that's not involved in government contract work) and they'll tell you, "It's the state!" It's worse than being a criminal. The pursuit is relentless. The taxes, punitive and bankrupting. It would be great for any state loving, big government, pension awaiting, clueless moron to try and run a business for a month in this state. The suicide rate would triple in half that time. Even if we all had to pay our taxes quarterly instead of having automatic withdrawal, minds would change quicker than the parking lot price signs in Seaside Heights on a summer weekend.

This is not a new phenomenon. We didn't just find ourselves in this predicament last year. The business climate has been bleak and oppressive for decades. So what do we do? We voted in a man who PROMISED to raise taxes, increase regulation and would assuredly make the business climate even more impossible. But he is a successful businessman, you might say.

He was a money changer, like those guys in the Bible. He made a fortune off other people's money. He didn't run a successful business opening and closing the doors every day. He didn't worry about making payroll for his employees month to month and keeping the creditors at bay while keeping his business afloat for another year, and wondering how he's going to keep this all going. He amassed a fortune playing the corporate money game, and to his credit did it well enough to never have to work a day in his life again, or his children for that matter.

Good for him! But what good is all that wealth when you've cashed out? He stills wants more. More money? No! More power. More influence. Influence over your life and mine. Not to give us more freedom. To give us more government. A government he's in charge of. Making the business climate better in this state would mean doing the things he is dead set against with a burning passion. Lower taxes, fewer regulations and more freedom to do what you need to do to survive. That's not likely to happen as long as he is in power. His friends in the legislature from his party are no better. Our house is on fire and we called an arsonist!

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