The number of households in New Jersey that have at least one parent staying home has nearly doubled with a 71% increase in 2021 compared to 2019.

If you look at the estimated 3+ million households in the Garden State, with about a million with kids, that equals between 90-100 thousand parents at home. So, 10% of households with kids have a parent at home.

More importantly, nearly one-third of moms are choosing to stay home with their kids and women account for more than 8 in 10 of parents at home.

In my opinion, they deserve a voice and a helping hand from the state government.

How many more would be able to make the choice to work at home as a full-time parent if it was affordable?

How many kids would benefit if they had a parent at home full-time?

How many people would want that option instead of releasing kids to the clutches of the morally bankrupt, woke agenda-driven NJEA?

How many more parents are struggling to make ends meet and barely afford the cost of daycare, but given the cost of living in NJ, they can't give up the job?

Imagine for a minute if we created a dollar value for the moms that choose to work at home training kids, managing the home and family. What's the tax value of that job?

I'd like to implement a tax credit against the family income to dramatically reduce the tax burden on any family making this choice.

The job of a "stay-at-home mom" (I will work to change that to "work-at-home mom" as they are working harder than most!) according to a salary.com survey is north of $160,000.

So let's meet in the middle and credit 80,000 of income against the household income to reduce the tax burden for the family. I'd like to see middle-class families zeroed out, owing NJ nothing.

We need to collect our tax revenue from user fees, sales taxes, and big corporate. It's time to empower moms to get them back into their kids' lives and stop the assault on the middle class.

We need to empower average families and turn New Jersey into a destination for middle-class families based on respect, affordability, and common sense. This is just one of many policy initiatives that I'll be rolling out over the next few months.

The post above reflects the thoughts and observations of New Jersey 101.5 talk show host Bill Spadea. Any opinions expressed are Bill's own. Bill Spadea is on the air weekdays from 6 to 10 a.m., talkin’ Jersey, taking your calls at 1-800-283-1015.

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