Sparks of Economic Life are Emerging.....In New Jersey

An amazing dichotomy is setting itself up and will be on full display in the years leading up to the 2012 elections. On the one hand there is Illinois and California. On the other is New Jersey. The proverbial armpit of NYC? Sorry to all my Jersey friends, the inferiority complex is unfairly deserved.

It seems, in an attempt to settle a $13 billion budget deficit the Illinois state legislature and governor have opted to solve the problem by increasing personal income tax by a whopping 67%, from 3% to 5%, and increasing the corporate income tax from 7.3% to 9.7%.

I fail to see how raising taxes in a time of economic turmoil makes any sense, but of course, living in upstate New York I am used to paying obscenely high personal income tax. Did you know that New York's personal income tax is higher, even after the Illinois tax increase, in all but the bottom 2 tax brackets. Even more pathetic, if you make less than $8,000, you are removed from 4% of your pay. As far as I'm concerned, Illinois has had it easy.

How New York State income tax rates are structured

The tax table below will show in detail the New York state income tax rates by income tax bracket(s). There are 5 income tax brackets for New York.

If your income range is between $0 and $8,000, your tax rate on every dollar of income earned is 4%. If your income range is between $8,001 and $11,000, your tax rate on every dollar of income earned is 4.5%. If your income range is between $11,001 and $13,000, your tax rate on every dollar of income earned is 5.25%. If your income range is between $13,001 and $20,000, your tax rate on every dollar of income earned is 5.9%. If your income range is $20,001 and over, your tax rate on every dollar of income earned is6.85%.

Income tax brackets data last updated March 3rd, 2009.

A little over a year ago Chris Christie was elected governor of New Jersey. In that time he has balanced the budget, cut the unemployment rate by 8 tenths of a percentage point, cut taxes, and cleared the streets of snow by 6 am.

In the great melting pot full of 50 different experiments at once, we will soon witness a head to head study in economic policy. This is a battle, (can I still say that), conservatives win every time. I can only hope that Governor Cuomo and his rhetoric makes him more like Christie and less like Quinn.

Since I can't seem to embed it, you can and should see the video, here.

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