NJSpotlight: A RIVER OF CASH: ANALYZING NJ’S MULTIBILLION-DOLLAR REVENUE STREAMS

Here is another article from NJSpotlight that I think is interesting and makes you go Hmmm.

Why is it so expensive to live in New Jersey? Where does all the tax dollars go once collected by the various entities around the state?

NJSpotlight attempts to tell us:

A RIVER OF CASH: ANALYZING NJ’S MULTIBILLION-DOLLAR REVENUE STREAMS
JOHN REITMEYER | JANUARY 30, 2019
A new report calculates the billions of dollars that flow through the layers of government in the Garden State annually

After analyzing the budgets of over 1,000 government agencies, a right-leaning think tank found that governments in New Jersey are raising more than $86 billion annually from taxes, fees and other revenues. That number does not include federal funds or the revenues of authorities and independent bistate agencies like the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey (which alone has annual operating expenses of $3.3 billion) or the Delaware River Port Authority ($301 million).

The report, “Adding it All Up” by the Garden State Initiative, was a difficult endeavor. The decentralized governing structure of the state — with its hundreds of governments, municipalities and authorities — makes it virtually impossible for residents to get a sense of exactly how much the system costs to run on an annual basis. GSI had to analyze the budgets of numerous agencies, ranging from state and county all the way down to local sewerage authorities.

The total haul soars to well over $100 billion after funds provided by the federal government are added in. And it tops out at $121 billion once investment gains by the public-worker pension funds and revenue from all authorities that operate in New Jersey, including bistate entities like the Port Authority, are factored in.

The goal of the Morristown-based group’s complicated accounting exercise was to determine just how much it costs to deliver government services in New Jersey. The report also sets the table for a deeper analysis of whether residents are getting bang for their buck. The group is promising to issue follow-up reports exploring ways governments can save money with specific efficiencies. GSI believes it will be able to identify opportunities for at least $1 billion in potential cuts in the coming weeks.

“Taxes are already too high and cutting expenditures haphazardly just to lower costs will cause us to lose the great public services of our state,” according to the report, which was provided to NJ Spotlight in advance of today’s official release.

“The key is to find efficiencies that make government work better for everybody,” the report said....

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