New Jersey is already one of the most highly-taxed states in the country. For years, there has been a severe outbound migration of businesses and wealthy individuals from the Garden State who choose to move to greener, business-friendly pastures. This migration has led to billions in potential economic growth in New Jersey going down the drain.
Now, Democrats want to hammer another nail into New Jersey’s economic coffin.
In recent weeks, Governor Phil Murphy has expressed his support for a Democratic bill currently in the Legislature that would tax high-frequency tax trades. The tax is also supported by the most powerful man in the Legislature, Democratic Senate President Steve Sweeney.
What the tax would do is charge companies who use electronic infrastructure in New Jersey to process 10,000 or more financial transactions a year a tax on each transaction. Such a tax would impact nearly every major stock exchange that operates data centers in New Jersey, including the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE).
According to most market analysts, the new tax likely wouldn’t affect the stock exchanges themselves, as the costs would be handed down to the people using the exchanges to buy and sell stocks.
On Friday, the Wall Street Journal reported that the NYSE was planning to move its main data center from New Jersey to Illinois.
Stock exchanges are now banding together and formed a coalition in opposition of the new tax. The Coalition to Prevent the Taxing of Retirement Savings says that millions of Americans who are invested in financial markets in order to grow their wealth for their retirement years will be hurt by the new tax, and that they are planning tests to ensure they can move their exchanges’ data centers out of New Jersey.
Exchanges who are part of the coalition include the NYSE, Nasdaq, Citadel Securities, Cboe Global Markets, Members Exchange, TD Ameritrade, Equinix, and Virtu Financials.
While sponsors of the bill to slap a tax on high-frequency trading would bring in some $10 billion in revenue to cash-strapped New Jersey, it’s more likely that financial considerations would cause the exchanges to move out of New Jersey, leaving lawmakers who don’t understand economics dumbfounded when the state doesn’t get any revenue from the new tax.
Instead of helping New Jersey recover from the worst economic crisis in its history, our Democratic lawmakers are just destroying its economy further by thinking it can tax away the debt, and chasing New Jersey’s businesses away in the process.
The tax will never work in Gov. Murphy knows it. He’s no fool.
Just like rent control, or price controls for charging a 10% markup on toilet paper during coronavirus, or castling during hurricane Sandy, does nothing more than create shortages. Price controls have never worked and they never will work. Gov. with a whole team of economists knows this.
It’s the law of unintended consequences, he’d rather postured to show he’s “on our side” even if we end up losing from it.
Never vote for anyone who says your problems or someone else’s fault he’s going to fix it by giving you their stuff (or forcing lower prices, which is the same thing). Sure, they’ll take away other people’s stuff, but you’ll never see a dime of it.
STOP VOTING FOR THE DEMOCRATS!!
This is a tax that will hurt the middle class, the group the Democrats claim to support and protect. This proves that the Democrats LIE! They don’t care about anything except themselves, power and control.
All this new found money won’t be used for the benefit of the taxpayers but used to give free stuff to illegals.
If we can’t vote these Democrats out then the only recourse is for the middle class taxpayers to leave before the spend all our money.