How to get your taxes paid by January 2018
- September 18, 2021
New Jersey Governor Chris Christie said he will sign a $5.5 trillion tax cut bill Friday, with the plan giving New Jersey the highest tax rate in the country.
Christie announced the measure in a press conference in New Jersey.
The governor has proposed to raise the state’s sales tax from 5.25 percent to 5.5 percent in 2018, the first time the state has raised its sales tax since 2002.
Christie has proposed raising the tax rate on certain types of income to 10 percent.
The governor said he also will sign legislation that would require the state to raise its minimum wage to $10.10 an hour, the highest in the nation.
Christie said the minimum wage increase would help fund a $250 million fund for job training.
The wage hike will take effect Jan. 1, 2021.
Christie also announced that the state will allow all new employers with 100 or more workers to opt out of the state job-training program, a move the governor said would allow employers to hire more workers without having to pay them a higher wage.
The $250 billion fund would help create more than 1 million new jobs and pay for education and infrastructure investments.
The new tax plan also would create the New Jersey Opportunity Fund, a new federal grant program aimed at providing scholarships and other assistance to businesses that are located in New York, Connecticut, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Rhode Island.
It would allow the state, which is home to the nation’s second-largest economy, to receive grants totaling up to $20 million.
The tax plan will also increase the minimum wages for all New Jersey workers.
Christie’s office said the new minimum wage increases will take place from Jan. 20 to Feb. 1 and would start with the minimum hourly wage in 2018 of $9.25 an hour.
New Jersey currently has the highest state and local income tax rate among the 50 states and the District of Columbia.
The state also has a payroll tax and a sales tax, the latter of which Christie’s administration says is needed to fund school construction and other infrastructure investments in the state.
The New Jersey legislature approved the tax cut legislation last month.
The Republican-controlled legislature passed the bill last week.
