A Simple Plan to Get New Jersey Back on Track for Growth

How do you turn one of the most prosperous places in the world into an economic and fiscal basket case? Look at New Jersey over the past several decades.

As recently as the early 1970s, New Jersey was an economic powerhouse with rising incomes, low unemployment and fountains of tax revenues that kept the budget in balance every year. A state that for more than 150 years prospered without an income or sales tax started implementing ever-more-progressive taxes on businesses and individuals (from zero to more than 10%). This “soak the rich” philosophy triggered a severe out-migration of businesses and people that has lasted four decades and punctured revenue holes in the state budget.