New Jersey Dem Gov Candidate Phil Murphy’s $1.3 Billion Tax Hike Would Be Just The Beginning

Democrat gubernatorial candidate Phil Murphy is already talking about raising taxes.

The NJ Observer  has the details on Phil Murphy's plan to raise taxes by roughly $1.3 billion a year in New Jersey: 

Phil Murphy’s proposed tax increases would raise roughly $1.3 billion a year, his spokesman told Observer on Thursday, releasing for the first time a cost estimate of the Democratic gubernatorial nominee’s plans to pay for a multitude of campaign promises.

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 The new taxes would fall on the state’s wealthiest residents — and on pot smokers.

Murphy campaign officials said the state could raise $600 million by enacting a “millionaire’s tax,” which Christie vetoed five times over the years when it was proposed in one form or another by Democratic lawmakers. Under the most recent version of that plan, the marginal tax rate on income above $1 million would rise from 8.97 percent to 10.75 percent.

The Murphy team expects that the state would gain $300 million from legalizing and taxing marijuana, and $290 million from closing a tax loophole that allows corporations to shift profit made in New Jersey to lower-taxed states. In addition, the Murphy campaign says that taxing “carried interest” — or performance fees earned by hedge fund and private equity managers — would generate $100 million a year and that the state could free up between $80 million and $100 million through reforms that lower out-of-network health care costs currently borne by public workers on state plans.

To be sure, $1.3 billion is a hefty sum, but that could just be the beginning. It remains to be seen if Murphy's planned tax hike would even cover all of his campaign promises. Can New Jersey really afford Phil Murphy as governor?