Top New Jersey Democrat Introduces “Millionaire Tax” Bill to Pay for Pension Payments

Despite numerous vetoes from New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, some state lawmakers – including the Senate President – are again pushing a bill that would levy an extra tax on income above $1 million.

Revenue generated from the “millionaire tax” would go toward paying the state’s required pension contributions in full.

From the Asbury Park Press:

Senate President Stephen Sweeney, D-Gloucester, said at a Statehouse news conference Tuesday that it’s unacceptable to balance the state budget by slashing payments into public workers’ pension funds, as the governor has. He said in the absence of sufficient economic growth to fuel an increase in state revenues, the Senate will vote on a plan to raise taxes on income over $1 million.

“We’re going to have to do a millionaires tax,” Sweeney said. “Listen, before when we talked about a millionaires tax, we talked about [if] we could sunset it. We could even put it on a scale as the economy was coming back, you could reduce the money. You could reduce the percentage. There’s a lot of things you can do. We really don’t want to do that. We’re doing it for one reason: We need the revenue, and it’s because of the lack of focus on the economy of this state.”

Christie vetoed similar tax increases in 2010, 2011, 2012 and 2014, and he said in his State of the State address in January and his February budget address that he would veto it again if lawmakers approved it this year.

Pending a new court decision, the state is on the hook for about $1.5 billion in unpaid pension contributions – but the payments haven’t been budgeted for.