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OT: Looks like gas is going up 23 cents a gallon in NJ

Way overdue. Should have been done over the winter when gas was even cheaper.

Sales tax dropping from 7% to 6%.
 
Really surprised as this looks like a done deal but I guess I shouldn't be, this is NJ. Cheap gas was one of the few things that we had cheap in this state.

Remember that is 23 cents based on the price the day they introduced it. Gas prices return to where they were the other year we could be looking at as much as 50 cents a gallon increase.
 
It didn't take long for Christie to cave in. The second part is that sales tax will go down from 7 to 6%. So if you buy a car for 25,000 you will save $250 but you will pay $250 for every 1086 gallons of gas you buy. If you use about 20 gallons of gas a week that is almost 1086 gallons a year.
 
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Really surprised as this looks like a done deal but I guess I shouldn't be, this is NJ. Cheap gas was one of the few things that we had cheap in this state.

I was pleading for them to pass this back when gas was $1.39. The political hit will be a bit worse now, though it's still the right thing to do. $2.25 per gallon gas is still cheap.
 
In an average car 19 gallons a week equates to nearly 450-500 miles a week (could be over 600 miles in a fuel efficient car like a Civic/Focus/Corolla type car).
 
It didn't take long for Christie to cave in. The second part is that sales tax will go down from 7 to 6%. So if you buy a car for 25,000 you will save $250 but you will pay $250 for every 1000 gallons of gas you buy. If you use about 19 gallons of gas a week that is 1000 gallons a year.

I was pleading for them to pass this back when gas was $1.39. The political hit will be a bit worse now, though it's still the right thing to do. $2.25 per gallon gas is still cheap.

If this money actually goes toward improving our crappy roads I will be all for it.
 
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If this money actually goes toward improving our crappy roads I will be all for it.

Thats the catch. The $$ usually never ends up where its supposed to go. And good luck seeing that sales tax decrease in 2018, you know that's not happening. They will say its just not feasible when it comes time.

Legalize pot and most of the state's financial woes will be solved.
 
If this helps get the Hillsborough Rt 206 bypass construction moving again, then I will reluctantly support it.
 
The sales tax doesn't impact a lot of people because they buy stuff online from other states and don't pay sales tax.
 
Too bad the money will more than likely not go to where its supposed to go.
 
Thats the catch. The $$ usually never ends up where its supposed to go. And good luck seeing that sales tax decrease in 2018, you know that's not happening. They will say its just not feasible when it comes time.

Legalize pot and most of the state's financial woes will be solved.

Lol no. I'm all for doing that but that's not going to solve the underfunded pensions that Unions have the state on the hook for, among many other massive budget problems.
 
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This will generate so much money all the politicians will get huge raises and start new bs projects. A realistic tax would be 1 cent per gallon.
 
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If this money actually goes toward improving our crappy roads I will be all for it.
I agree problem is do you think that will actually happen? No one likes to pay taxes but IMO if you at least see your tax dollars at work you're okay with it. Will that happen here? Call me skeptical, also not sure how long term the sales tax decrease will be if it happens at all.
 
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Shipping costs will go up. So the 1% tax decrease (if it happens) will be off set with the price increase of the item because of trucking of flying it in. NJ truly sucks when it comes to ****ing the people out of their hard earned pennies.
 
Shipping costs will go up. So the 1% tax decrease (if it happens) will be off set with the price increase of the item because of trucking of flying it in. NJ truly sucks when it comes to ****ing the people out of their hard earned pennies.

Shipping costs will go up? I highly doubt it.
 
If this money actually goes toward improving our crappy roads I will be all for it.

It is NOT. There is nothing attach to this that says it can ONLY used for fixing Roads.

Our budget is bloated beyond belief, we should just cut other things to fix the roads. Instead, we will all end up spending more money and nothing will get fixed for most people.

Where I live the roads are always getting upgraded, so this will have zero benefit.

But our gas prices will go up and you can bet the price of groceries and everything else that gets delivered anywhere will go up as well.

We will have little to show for it besides small bank accounts.
 
Lol no. I'm all for doing that but that's not going to solve the underfunded pensions that Unions have the state on the hook for, among many other massive budget problems.
Or the HUGE raises, no show jobs, and double dips the politicians do for themselves and their friends all the time.
 
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People talking about shipping costs going up seem to forget that the price of gas is not fixed. 23 cents a gallon is pretty insignificant compared to the fluctuations in price caused by global oil markets. Consider that gas would still be a dollar cheaper now than two years ago. Gas goes up, gas goes down. Right now it's $1.95 per gallon on my street.

So, with gas under $2.50, cheaper than it has been for most of the past decade outside of the period immediately following the financial collapse of 2009, I don't think we need to do too much gnashing of teeth.
 
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Has anyone seen an estimate of the net impact on tax revenue? By pairing this with a reduction in sales tax it appears the state is using creative book keeping to reduce funds available to other obligations. Eventually the public unions are going to find a lawyer good enough to force the state to meet its obligations to retired public workers, and future residents will pay more then they should because of Christie's borrowing.
 
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So there still will be a $750. inheritance tax on the $5000. bequest I have going to my niece in my will. Lovely.

And of course the full increase in the gas tax kicks in immediately while the cut in sales tax is phased in over 18 months.
 
People talking about shipping costs going up seem to forget that the price of gas is not fixed. 23 cents a gallon is pretty insignificant compared to the fluctuations in price caused by global oil markets. Consider that gas would still be a dollar cheaper now than two years ago. Gas goes up, gas goes down. Right now it's $1.95 per gallon on my street.

So, with gas under $2.50, cheaper than it has been for most of the past decade outside of the period immediately following the financial collapse of 2009, I don't think we need to do too much gnashing of teeth.

But we all know that, once in place, a tax is only increased, never reduced. So, when oil prices inevitably rise in the next cycle, there will be gnashing of teeth as this regressive tax hits everyone's wallet.
 
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the biggest loss in the proposal is the exclusion of the estate tax in the tax cut. there are plenty of retirees in my parents circle looking at that specifically to determine whether they stay in NJ long-term. looks like they're going to be leaving.
 
Amazon Prime for the Win.
Yea for sweatshirts etc. I'm talking about business related stuff one can't buy on Amazon. Not to mention independent contractors etc. to be honest, I haven't paid any attention to this so I don't know enough to determine if I'm for or against it. However, I'm pretty sure of two things:
The money will not end up where it's supposed to go.
It will hurt small businesses and the middle class more than anyone.
 
IMO they did this ass backwards. First they needed to figure out how to dedicate any gas tax to road and bridge improvements ONLY. Second and most important, they needed to figure out and reduce the $$ per mile it cost to fix a road in NJ. We all know why it is so high but our politicians do not want to bad mouth the unions or God forbid deal with prevailing wage. Did everyone love the TV advertisements paid for by the unions?
Also the corrupt asphalt practices in NJ are mob like or are mob. One large paver , controls the quarries for the stone for making the asphalt. When big jobs come up other smaller companies are afraid to bid because the suppliers that they get their product from will not work with them because the quarry will not deliver the stone they need because the company that will win the bid controls the quarry. Of course they now can jack the bid price up because no one else is bidding.

THe public has once again been screwed and just smile.
 
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What happened to all the $$$$ from that massive toll hike from a couple of years ago.

They were hoping you had forgotten about that by now.

Fixing our roads is important, but that is not what this is about. They are trying to trick people into thinking all this extra money will only be used for fixing roads, when we all know very little if any of it will be used for that.

I think people might be less upset it the bill had a cause that 100% of the funds can only be used to fix roads and nothing else.

But, like I said before they do NOT need this tax hike to fix the roads they just need to cut the budget and use that money to fix them.

But they rather just cut our paychecks instead.
 
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Have zero doubt vendors will increase delivery costs to cover "gas tax" costs.

National shipping is probably projected easy above NJ gas prices. With this increase we are still a cheaper state for gas.

I'm against
 
What happened to all the $$$$ from that massive toll hike from a couple of years ago.

that toll hike was done by the Turnpike authority, and is solely for funding the GSP and Turnpike. They get zero state money and have a much higher bond rating than the state of NJ. The gas tax funds DOT who handles all the other non-tolled roads. They steal money from other agencies.
 
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Really torn on this one - infrastructure needs significant funding - fuel taxes in NJ are significantly below the norm - agree with the move in concept -
but ... sadly do not trust the politicians in this state to honestly & efficiently take the revenue raised from higher fuel taxes & totally & honestly dedicate it directly to roadway/ transportation infrastructure.
Just watch -once there are funds - there will be sloppy over-reaches from both sides - a regular 'pork-fest' as pet consulting firms get lavish 'projects' to 'study', 'assess', 'review'... and various boondoggle ideas get funded.
 
It's not a done deal quite yet.

http://www.nj.com/politics/index.ssf/2016/06/christie_democrats_negotiating_lower_gas_tax.html

I don't mind it, personally. A .23 gas tax combined with a 1% across the board sales tax cut would, I'm pretty sure, lower my overall tax burden in NJ.

But I spend a lot and have no regular commute. For people who don't spend a lot and who have long commutes, it would probably be a net increase in tax burden.

Depending on how the law is written, it could be a big, although temporary, boost to employment in NJ since the gas tax revenue would be put into the Transportation Trust Fund, not the general fund. So it has that going for it. Maybe.
 
So there still will be a $750. inheritance tax on the $5000. bequest I have going to my niece in my will. Lovely.

And of course the full increase in the gas tax kicks in immediately while the cut in sales tax is phased in over 18 months.
You can put 5000 in a bank account and have it pay on death to your niece. Then there is no inheritance tax.
After reading, it looks like what I wrote (above) isn't right. Maybe you can open a joint account and put your niece as a co-owner to avoid the inheritance tax.
 
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From a tax revenue POV it's a wash - about $1.4b cut via the sales tax reduction and about $1.4b increase via the gas tax uptick. So right now it's a shell game.
The big question is the following, the general budget needs to be cut now by $1.4b since that money was moved to the TTF. Will these cuts ever happen or will the next Gov just cancel the sales tax cut? Hmm, I wonder what will happen in Trenton.
 
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