Fairly and Adequately Taxing Inherited Wealth Will Fight Inequality & Provide Essential Resources for All New Jerseyans

As wealth and income gaps between average New Jerseyans and the state’s wealthiest households continue to grow, policymakers must take steps to address this extreme inequality. One of the most effective ways to do so is to restore fair and adequate taxation of inherited wealth. This targeted tax policy can help close the wealth gap in the long run by facilitating crucial investments that can boost all New Jersey families – not just those that pass millions of dollars down from one generation to the next.

Decades of uneven income and wealth growth have put the wealthiest residents miles ahead of everyone else. This has made it harder for most families striving to get ahead and put a strain on future economic growth. In fact, these widening disparities have been responsible for having depressed U.S. economic growth by more than 20 percentage points from 1990 to 2010.

And New Jersey is among the states where this trend is most pronounced.