newjerseynewsroom.com

BY ADELE SAMMARCO

NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM

While the perplexed hash out who exactly fits into the 47 percent of the population Presidential candidate Mitt Romney said pays no income taxes, a study prepared by the non-partisan Tax Policy Center is providing some clues. 

About 22 percent were senior citizens who received tax breaks that offset their income. Some 15 percent are working just below the poverty line or low-income parents, and nearly 3 percent received tax breaks for college tuition or other educational expenses, according to the Wall Street Journal.

The Tax Policy Center says 9 out of 10 households that did not owe taxes in 2011 made $50,000 or less, where 4,000 households earning more than $1 million a year did not pay any federal income tax.

The most recent Census Bureau data suggests the largest group is 26 percent of Americans who receive Medicaid, 16 percent get Social Security and 16 percent receive food stamps. Medicare is doled out to 16 percent of the U.S. population and 8 percent to the Women, Infants and Children food program known as WIC.

In the meantime, more and more New Jersey residents are seemingly becoming dependent upon state aid.

In 2011, recent Census figures show New Jersey incomes reportedly down as public assistance rose. Many Garden State families are applying for food stamps and forgoing private schools for their children.

The U.S. Census Bureau highlights an ongoing erosion of the middle class in one of the nation’s wealthiest states.

While the statistics may be slight, the state’s economy is still lagging as unemployment remains above the national level. In fact, preliminary August numbers put the state's jobless rate at its highest level since April 1977, at 9.9 percent, up from last month. This increase in the jobless rate is in light of the fact that New Jersey reportedly added 5,300 new jobs, making August the tenth month of job growth in the past year, according to a release from New Jersey Department of Labor and Workforce Development.

Overall, New Jersey still brings home higher incomes as compared to the rest of the country and has a lower poverty rate, yet the state’s median household income has dropped from about $69,800 in 2010 to $67,500 in 2011, down 8 percent from the $73,500 that was recorded in 2008, according to state data.

What's more, the state has missed its revenue projections for the first two months of the fiscal year by nearly $100 million.

Sales tax receipts represented the bulk of the revenue miss, at $45 million under projections, followed closely by gross income tax, which missed by $31.5 million, according to figures released Thursday by the New Jersey State Treasurer's office. Additionally, corporation business taxes edged out projections by $3 million.

In all, the state’s budget called for collections of $2.03 billion in the first two months of the year, while actual collections came in at $1.93 billion. Revenue collections beat the first two months of last fiscal year by less than 1 percent. The Governor's budget projections had called for revenue growth of about 7 percent.