« Have some time on your hands? | Main | CJ celebrates Black History Month »
February 06, 2007
Tax relief, for the fortunate
When it comes to class envy, there's no easier means of demarcation than one's income. Nice, round numbers like $100,000 and $200,000 are often used by Democrats to decide who is "rich" and who isn't. $200,000 seems to be the magic number, for example, for John Edwards' campaign platform for a tax hike on the "rich." That same number applies whether we're talking about suburban Butte, Montana, or suburban Boston, Massachusetts.
But the above is really just an application of the Law of Unintended Consequences, that stubborn reality that rarely makes its way into the law. The list goes on. Today, New Jersey is patting itself on the back for having passed "property tax relief" -- potentially, a 20% cut in property taxes for anyone not making more than $100,000.
If you live in New Jersey and are hovering around $100,000, if you're lucky you live in a small-ish three bedroom place, that is, if you don't need to work in Manhattan. If you do, you don't own anything you paid for youself because housing is far too expensive. But according to New Jersey, you don't deserve tax relief. In any event, forget about trying to get ahead this year. Who wants a bonus when the net effect might be to reduce your after tax dollars?
And try not to look across the street. Your neighbors are 55 and, though they're nice folks, you can't help but notice you are a professional who invested - say - $100 and 4 years in post-grad education while they started working after high school, and bought that $750,000 center hall colonial in 1972 for about $13,000. You paid half a million for your smaller model, and probably not on the street you wanted. They'll retire at 57, with a pension and perhaps looking forward to a second, leisurely career. You won't have a pension, or free health care, or probably social security. Your wife has to work because that same house cost you a god awful amount of money, and you'll both work until you die. Have kids? Try not to think about it. Your neighbors' kids went to college for a fraction of what you kids will. And you're too rich for financial aid, so let's hope they play the oboe.
Anyway, say you live in New Jersey. Your neighbor will get the tax relief, but you sure as hell won't. You're rich. Or didn't you remember?
Posted by bill at February 6, 2007 04:17 PM
Comments
Post a comment
Thanks for signing in, . Now you can comment. (sign out)
(If you haven't left a comment here before, you may need to be approved by the site owner before your comment will appear. Until then, it won't appear on the entry. Thanks for waiting.)
