Taxing perceptions

I feel vindicated.

TaxProf Blog has a list ranking state and local tax burdens by state, and guess what? New Jersey just barely made the top 20 percent and is only slightly above national average.

I've long cringed at the incessant
whining about how the exorbitant New Jersey taxes are driving natives to move out of state. And I wonder, how much do these people travel, because when I do, I go through plenty of states with the same or higher sales tax. Tennessee had 7 percent sales tax I-can't-remember-how-long before New Jersey, and its hotel/motel taxes are astronomical. Many states charge sales tax on groceries and toilet paper, too, unlike New Jersey.

Complain as you will about gasoline taxes, but our gas is cheaper than in most states I've been through, too, and I don't have to get out and pump it!

And I've lived in several states, and each has its pros and cons. New Jersey's income tax at my income level isn't meaningfully more than most other states in my own experience, except for Texas, which had no state income tax but also provided relatively little in services and turned a do-nothing Gov. George Bush into a ... well, I'll leave it at that.