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Another reason our taxes are so high... At some point over the last thirty years, business interests have successfully found ways to get government at all levels to give them enormous tax breaks for nothing in return except crappy low-paying jobs that no one wants. Look at the Prudential Center in Newark. Financed with public dollars so that a billionaire hockey team owner can have a new arena? Why didn't the Devils pay for this themselves? When they were threatening to move, why didn't we say "don't let the door hit you in the bum on the way out!"? It amounts to a giant government subsidy for billionaires - my tax dollars going for something of no value at all. Furthermore, every time there's an event there, local Police and Emergency crews have to be on-hand costing taxpayers in overtime and reduced coverage elsewhere. It's ridiculous. Of course, you'll never see a public official go to jail over it, but it's disgusting and stupid just-the-same. That new Wal-Mart that just opened up in your town? How much in property taxes do you think they're paying? Zero. That's right, they probably forced your town/county/state into giving them concessions so that they'd put the store there. We're sold this nonsense under the false jobs-creation or more-ratables argument. Tell me, what kind of great-paying jobs are there at the Prudential Center or your local Wal-Mart? Answer: none. Are these entities contributing back to the community in the form of paying taxes that pay for our schools (that educate their workers), policemen (that protect their merchandise from theft), and firemen (that protect their property from fire)? No, they're not. They think you're lucky to have them there. I disagree. Next time a sports franchise wants money from my pocket to pay for an arena, I say let them move to some other state dumb enough to subsidize them. Wal-Mart wants to move to move into my town? No thanks, take your crappy jobs and crappy merchandise elsewhere, I'd rather have the open space. Tell me what kind of a business - whether you're the Devils, Xanadu, or Wal-Mart, or the local pizza place - doesn't have costs? Your fair share of taxes is a part of those costs. If you can't run your business without affording your costs, you don't deserve to be in business. If you're a politician who sells out to these jerks because you're too weak minded to stand up against government subsidies for billionaires and crappy jobs for your constituents... ...you're corrupt in my book.