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Two words: Constitutional Convention. Nothing short of that will save this state's finances. Lots of folks like to engage in fanciful rhetoric about the "death" of New Jersey (Will the last one out please turn off the lights, etc...), but the fact of the matter is New Jersey will always be a "Keg tapped at both ends" to quote Benjamin Franklin. The state can't simply become deserted. If that were even a remote possibility California would have been abandoned in the 1970s. Unfortunately things will have to get a great deal worse before they get better though. Property taxes will have to reach some sort of upper limit where even the wealthy cannot bear them, pensioners will have to start being issued IOUs, and services (roads, rail, schools, police, fire, etc...) will have to totally break down. Not to mention there will have to be a massive exodus of the middle class.
Only then will a new system be able to rise from the ashes of the old. The entire tax structure and system of government will need to be changed along with the way we administer and pay for everything from trash collection to schools to unemployment insurance. We would do well to go by the county model and scrap the fiefdoms that currently exist. Once things get bad enough the towns/residents will have no choice but to comply. The question is whether or not it will take 20 years. I'm not really sure as I'm no economist. For all I know it could happen in five years or it could take 30 years.
as usual, common sense sans hysteria from badfish. you are exactly right.
I'm in the same position. I graduate this Spring and have always considered packing up and leaving afterward. I view the state as not functioning in a very sustainable fashion, in terms of taxes, COL, density, and development (do we really have to bulldoze and develop everywhere?) especially.
I'm considering northern New England, but even those states have their own problems with COL, jobs, and whatnot. I would probably never raise a family here as crime in some areas is out of this world.
I am interested in hearing from this forum on this subject.
I do not think it will be pretty. I am a young man and is pretty much the reason I am getting out. I look at the situation objectively and I honestly see NJ as becoming in a similar scenario to Detroit/Michigan. I think taxes are going to complete devaluate property values and we are gonna be left in major trouble.
NYC will always be a major city, but if things get bad enough, people can always live in NY state if they are looking for NYC suburbs.
I just dont see a bright future, so I am getting out.
But I am curious as to where everyone else thinks things will be at? Especially curious for folks who are 20-30 years old and will have children growing up in the state.
whether or not you see a bright future is one thing.
But to compare to Detroit???????
Detroit was almost entirely dependent on the auto industry - which collapsed when all the production went overseas. We have nothing even remotely comparable to that in NJ. Not even pharma is as ubiquitous here as auto was there.
The Urban Jersey Light Rail / Transit Network will done hopefully by 2030. Rail will serve almost every part of the state as called for the 2030 plan. Skyscrapers will fill up 80% of the NJ Gold Coast. Newark will have a more Modern skyline and a half million people. Taxes will be lower. Education will be top notch. Every Jersey City will have Bike lanes or ways. New Brunswick will have at least 20+ high rises. Atlantic City will be the next Miami and have a ton of high rises aswell. Sprawl will start to decline as more people move into the Urban areas. Camden will once again shine as a nice city. I don't think the state will turn into to Detroit.
The Urban Jersey Light Rail / Transit Network will done hopefully by 2030. Rail will serve almost every part of the state as called for the 2030 plan. Skyscrapers will fill up 80% of the NJ Gold Coast. Newark will have a more Modern skyline and a half million people. Taxes will be lower. Education will be top notch. Every Jersey City will have Bike lanes or ways. New Brunswick will have at least 20+ high rises. Atlantic City will be the next Miami and have a ton of high rises aswell. Sprawl will start to decline as more people move into the Urban areas. Camden will once again shine as a nice city. I don't think the state will turn into to Detroit.
Whoa.....from gloom & doom to overly optimistic....
Nexis I hope your predictions come to fruitation
Detroit was almost entirely dependent on the auto industry - which collapsed when all the production went overseas. We have nothing even remotely comparable to that in NJ. Not even pharma is as ubiquitous here as auto was there.
Detroit is a bad analogy. First, you had a high concentration of a very labor intensive industry which required a large city with lots of housing, that, because of a variety of factors, is now largely abandoned. Large concentration of abandoned homes facilitate a whole host of problems. In New Jersey these areas are concentrated to what we refer to as our large cities, but not even Newark (26 square miles) can compare to the size and scope of Detroit (143 square miles) where huge swaths of abandoned housing are slated to be demolished to be used, among other things, as urban farmland. What New Jersey does have however is concentrations of high technology industry, pharmaceuticals, insurance, etc... Then there are the commuters to New York and Philadelphia.
The problem that I foresee is the rapidly disappearing "middle ground." The pockets of high wage earners (the middle to upper management and above employed with the above mentioned industries) living in the well to do suburbs (ie: Short Hills, Princeton, the Jersey City/Hoboken waterfront, the shore) will continue to absorb the property tax increases while the middle class (who comprise the administrative/support personnel in these same industries) continue to flee. This could lower property values as a whole, which could also bring in more lower income individuals and families to previously solid middle class areas. What you would end up with in that case is an extremely large gap between rich and poor which would only amplify state revenue problems. As I said before, these are problems that the 1947 Constitution simply is not equipped to deal with.
The Urban Jersey Light Rail / Transit Network will done hopefully by 2030. Rail will serve almost every part of the state as called for the 2030 plan. Skyscrapers will fill up 80% of the NJ Gold Coast. Newark will have a more Modern skyline and a half million people. Taxes will be lower. Education will be top notch. Every Jersey City will have Bike lanes or ways. New Brunswick will have at least 20+ high rises. Atlantic City will be the next Miami and have a ton of high rises aswell. Sprawl will start to decline as more people move into the Urban areas. Camden will once again shine as a nice city. I don't think the state will turn into to Detroit.
I will gladly and proudly do what I can as a NJ resident to make something along these line come true.
This means every town in New Jersey would have to negotiate and be willing to compromise. Do you honestly see this happening ?
No, but I can dream dammit!
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you are exactly right. 
