Towns and now States. They spew entitlements then raise limitless taxes to
pay for the corruption and waste. Once the populations and societies are
completely destroyed the LocustlikeDemocrats then gather forces and swoop
into another unsuspecting town/city/state.
Even New Jerseyans can't stand living in New Jersey, according to a new poll
that said nearly half of ***s residing in the Garden State want to pull up
stakes.
The Monmouth University/Gannett New Jersey Poll, released Wednesday, found
49 percent of those polled would rather live somewhere else.
New Jersey already is suffering from an image problem and bears the brunt of
jokes because of its corruption and pollution problems. But 58 percent of
those residents polled said the heavy financial burden of just living in the
state is no laughing matter, and that's why they want to leave.
Poll participants cited high property taxes (28 percent), the cost of living
(19 percent), state taxes (5 percent) and housing costs (6 percent) as the
main reasons they want out. The poll also found that 51 percent of those who
expressed a desire to leave planned to do so, with ***s under the age of
50 making between $50,000 and $100,000 the most likely to flee.
"If you have the ability to leave and you don't see any possibility for
change with the way the state is run - and that's the No. 1 issue here - you
have to vote with your feet," said Patrick Murray, director of the Monmouth
University Polling Institute.
The study did not surprise New Jersey's politicians.
"The high cost of living in the Northeast is not news," Brendan Gilfillan, a
spokesman for Gov. Jon Corzine, said in an e-mail statement. "But it is one
of the reasons Gov. Corzine has worked tirelessly to help poor and
working-class residents of New Jersey by implementing the Earned Income Tax
Credit, expanding S-CHIP and increasing - and sustaining - property tax
relief."
Gilfillan said Corzine also had cut costs by reducing the government
workforce, though he noted people would continue to leave New Jersey as baby
boomers retired.
"Demographics are only going to accentuate this trend, as the bulk of these
folks have yet to leave the workforce," Gilfillan said.
But Republican Assemblyman Richard Merkt said it was the fiscal policies of
the governor and legislature that were to blame for the exodus.
"It's no wonder that New Jersey is a national joke," he said. "We've done it
to ourselves with these just positively irresponsible policies."
The Monmouth University poll, which was conducted over the telephone with
801 New Jersey ***s from Sept. 27 to Sept. 30, did not predict a mass
exodus, at least not yet. Of those residents polled, 44 percent would like
to stay and 7 percent were not sure. The poll has a margin of error of plus
or minus 3.5 percent.
But a Rutgers University report released last week found that New Jersey,
with nearly 9 million people, is experiencing a population loss and said the
number of residents who had left the state more than tripled from 2002 to
2006, with 231,565 people moving elsewhere.
The Rutgers Regional Report, which examined U.S. Census Bureau and Internal
Revenue Service data, noted 72,547 people left in 2006, ranking New Jersey
fourth - behind California, Louisiana and New York - among states with the
highest population losses in the nation.
High prices aren't the only thing driving people out. New Jersey ex-pats
headed in droves to warmer climates, with 124,584 moving to Florida and
29,803 moving to North Carolina. Others (42,459) moved to neighboring
Pennsylvania.
That migration depleted the state's tax coffers of an estimated $10 billion
in personal income and $680 million in sales tax, according to the Rutgers
report.
"This really illustrates among a lot of other things that the public has
thrown up their hands," Murray said. "They don't feel that there's anything
they can do that would change the situation."
And unless there's change, Merkt said, the flight will continue.
"One can only hope that the pendulum will stop swinging this way and start
moving back the other way 'cause if it doesn't, you're going to see 9
million people suffer," he said.
"Or you're going to see the last person over the Delaware turn out the
lights."