WhatFinger


Good move, New Jersey!

Super Bowl or Super Taxes?



Well it’s Super Bowl Sunday, that annual homage to men who unwittingly risk brain damage just so they can earn a few million for themselves. Among the better informed among the players, it might simply be their own risk assessment of the chances of brain damage. Either way they face a serious risk.

Support Canada Free Press


The libertarian streak in me tends to view it as “Well, you made the choice. Don’t expect me to stop you.” But regardless of who wins the game, regardless of whose brain is damaged and regardless of the fact that according to estimates that the economic impact of the Super Bowl in the New York/New Jersey area is well north of one hundred million dollars, apparently the sovereign state of New Jersey wins. Apparently the political powers that be in New Jersey have crafted tax legislation that inflicts onerous income tax liabilities on the players who participate this Sunday. Obviously the predominantly Democrat lawmakers in Trenton fully agree with President Obama’s view that if you are successful, you didn’t earn that success, since someone else did it for you. In the simplest terms, these New Jersey politicians seem to think that if it wasn’t for New Jersey there wouldn’t even BE a Super Bowl, that the ancillary economic benefit to the state is simply their due and would have happened anyway, so they are entitled to fleece the men on the field of as much of their income as possible. Yeah. Right. Sure. One result of this legislative myopia will surely be more interesting negotiation in the future between the owners of the NFL and the players association. The selection of venue for future Super Bowls will include the income tax impact on players, I’m sure. It would almost assure that there will never be another Super Bowl in New Jersey for at least a generation or more simply because the players won’t be willing to underwrite the taxes of a state in which they do not live, and from whom no identifiable benefit is gained. Good move, New Jersey!


View Comments

Jim Yardley -- Bio and Archives

Jim Yardley is a retired financial controller for manufacturing firms, a Vietnam veteran and an independent voter.  Jim blogs at jimyardley.wordpress.com


Sponsored