The state of New Jersey

1. The state of New Jersey is very small but has a lot of money to be made within the state. For revenue there aere many sites within the state that attract people to go and spend money. Atlantic City, the Jersey Shore, and many more. If were talking on a statistical standpoint, licensing fees, property taxes, and incomes taxes which are a big majority of how this state remains funded. For major expenditures, examples can be the New Jersey Turnpike for example which is always needing money to fix the roads and make them safe for travelers. First responders also take a big part of the funding from the state to keep the citizens of New Jersey well protected. Education is huge especially depending upon the state you live in. There are so many factors that the government pays for but it is necessary to keep everything in order.  The federal government is much different from state government when it comes to finances. They receive money from the states on top of having their own tax bracket that people need to pay into as well as other expenditures within their property limits. The state will look out for itself but will have to pay the federal government a decent penny.

2. Living in the state of New Jersey throughout all of my life, I can say that this state is one of the most highly taxed yet well-regulated state to live in the nation. One noticeable fair trend highlighted in table 4-2 of the textbook, is that, “New Jersey has a whopping $67,918,016 in total revenue, $67,362,610 in total expenditure, and $64,264,050 in debt at end of fiscal year 2013,” (Smith & Greenblatt, 2017). This is considered desirable, since the revenues are lower than the expenditures, but when comparing this to a state like Illinois, New Jersey still has the higher debt, which I found interesting factoring high crime areas, and where those funds are being allocated. In Massachusetts, debt is higher than the measures assessed, including New Jersey. Fortunately, New Jersey residents are huge proponents of fiscal federalism, as the federal government works collaboratively with state and local counterparts, and discretionary spending, in which spending is appropriately managed, due to economic distress. The difference of New Jersey’s finance compared to the federal government, is very similar. As a matter of fact, budgets are to be balanced in every state, but some unfunded mandates exist between both systems, which should and can be changed in the foreseeable future.According to a policy brief on New Jersey’s State Budget, Ubel (2021), outlines the major sources of revenue, which are education and health and human services, and includes needs-based programs for families with limited income like Social Security Insurance (SSI) and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF). Similarly, the major expenditures are education, health and human services, corrections, law, & public safety, and other miscellaneous categories that benefit children and families. “A majority of the state’s revenue comes from the income tax, sales tax, property relief tax and the corporate business tax (CBT), which account for approximately 75% of the state budget. The fiscal year runs from July 1st to June 30th annually, however the budget process extends across many months and includes lots of different stakeholders, mostly from the legislature, governor, leaders of state departments and agenices, and even members of the public,” (Ubel, 2021). “New Jersey in particular, generatres approximately $40 billion in revenue annually, and most notably is currently one of the lowest Rainy Day Funds in the nation, as the financial reserves weren’t fully recovered, after the 2008-2009 Great Recession,” (Ubel, 2021). Like any ordinary citizen being concerned with their state’s budget, New Jersey is by far one of the most favorable states to reside in, as it not only offers a broad diverse range of programs, but it relies heavily on its people including state officials, to incorporate those changes, and make improvements on the public sector.

3. Texas is one of the cheapest states to live in. When I consider moving Texas would definitely be one of the states I’ll be thinking of. Texas is a highly inexpensive state for three reasons: it has no income tax, a low cost of living, and dwellings that are less expensive. The property tax is a little higher than in other states, but for these three reasons, living in Texas is relatively affordable. Texas is also known for it’s vast land which can be used to build homes, building homes are a lot more cheap that purchasing a house in other states. Because consumer prices, rent prices, restaurant prices, and grocery costs are all more than 30% lower in Houston than in New York, the cost of living in Texas is lower. Comparing other states an example would be the gas prices. while New jersey prices has risen of the past year with the range of $3.28 to higher than $3.90 at one point. But in Texas their current gas prices are $2.90 – $3.09 and the highest they been recently has been $3.37. Numbers may seem small but with gas the smallest number makes a big difference depending on someones car. You could be spending $29 to fill up your tank instead of $40. Texas main source of income comes from construstion; there’s always something that can be build. Drilling oil and natural gas production is where the money maker is. Texas is the nation’s top oil and natural gas producer, accounting for 40% of US oil production and 25% of US natural gas production.

4. New Jersey has a couple a major sources of revenue. One of its main sources of revenue is from taxes. The income tax in 2018 brought in around 14.4 billion dollars and the sales tax brought in 9.8 billion dollars while the coporate income tax brought in 2.4 billion. New Jersey is a very small state but also know for being one of the most expensive states to live in. Other notable sources of income for the state are liscensing fees, federal aid and returns on investments as per ballotopedia.  Two more recent taxes that are still in the works are taxes on legalized Marijunana and sports betting taxes that are projected to make a decent amount of revenue for the state. The major expenditures of New Jersey would be on government saleries, infrastructure, education, public pensions, public assistance, transportations corrections and medicaid. New Jersey spedns 23.5% on K-12 Education, 8.9% on higher level education, .3% on public assistance, 24.3% on medicaid, 1.8% on corrections, 10.5%  transportation and 30.6% on other which can fall under contribtuion to pensions, public health, enviormental programs, parks and recreation, and housing.In reality New Jersey and the Federal governments finances aren’t all that different. Both the state and federal goverment use the same tax system which is the progressive/graduated tax system meaning that the more income and individual makes the more they will owe the state and federal government for taxes.

5. Florida is where many people from NJ flock to, either after retirement or just to get away from the cold and high taxes. It also is the second most visited state. Because the state does not tax wage income, it relies heavily on other sources of revenue. The state of Florida in 2020 recorded that one of their top sources of revenue was tourism, bringing in over $42 billion (Walton, 2021). The second major source of revenue would be the agriculture industry, which brought in over $8 billion. Florida has perfect weather, which makes for perfect crop seasons. The state accounts for 87% of commerical orange production and 70% of the yearly production of citrus (Walton, 2021). The third major source of revenue comes from the international trade industry. Florida is the sixth biggest export state for trade goods. In 2020, Florida’s total merchandise trade was $135 billion (Walton, 2021). Some major expenditures for Florida would be that Miami Beach has serious rising sea levels that can lead to the entire area being underwater in the next 30 years (McCamy, 2019). They are spending $500 million dollars on equipment to subside the rising levels. The total amount of expenditures in 2020 were just over $90 billion. A majority of the spending were on elementary and secondary education, and public welfare (Urban Institute). Other expenditures were spent on highways and roads, health and hospitals, and higher education (Urban Institute).