Make Millionaires Pay For Clean Water In Newark, Candidates Say

ESSEX COUNTY, NJ — A pair of New Jersey Assembly candidates say they’ve figured out a way to help repair the state’s crumbling infrastructure: tax the rich.

Recently, Yolanda Johnson and Nichelle Velazquez – who are running in the 29th District on the Jobs and Equal Rights for All ticket – held a rally on the steps of Newark City Hall to demand that New Jersey’s richest residents help pay for crucial public works projects across the state.

According to Johnson and Velazquez, a 5 percent annual tax on the wealth of families with more than $2 million in assets would raise about $15 billion per year for New Jersey. This money could be earmarked to pay for construction efforts such as the ongoing repair efforts in Newark, where tens of thousands of residents have been struggling with lead water contamination.

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Johnson said the people who would be affected by the tax are the “1 percent” of New Jersey, and have a moral duty to help pay for clean water in Newark… and elsewhere.

“Poisoned drinking water, from lead to cancer-causing ‘Teflon chemicals,’ plague all New Jersayans,” Johnson said. “We are committed to ending this criminal state of affairs that the billionaire class and their corporations have created.”

According to a joint statement from Johnson and Velazquez:

“We charge the billionaires and their Democratic and Republican parties and politicians with murder, SOCIAL MURDER. The ruling class spends trillions on endless imperialist wars and tax breaks and bailouts for billionaires and their corporations, but they can’t find the money for clean water. The billionaires’ destruction and contamination of our public water system in Newark and around the country, that has taken place over decades, is part of a larger privatization and destruction of all our public services, from education to health care. These crimes must end! Working people must unite and fight for the world we want.”

New Jersey’s 29th District includes Newark and Belleville.

The proposal from Johnson and Velazquez is reminiscent of Gov. Phil Murphy’s suggested millionaire tax, which was rejected by state lawmakers in June.

Murphy’s proposal would have raised the top tax rate from 8.97 percent to 10.75 percent for anyone making more than $1 million a year. It would have meant an extra $447 million in new revenue for the state, some experts said.

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