Instead of Moving to Florida...

Last week, the U.S. Census Bureau announced that Florida, Idaho, and South Carolina are the three states that are growing the most. Hot on their heels are Texas and South Dakota. Conversely, New York, Louisiana, and Illinois led the list of states that are stagnating... with New Jersey not far behind.

As a transplanted New Jerseyan who spent the first 51 years of my life in the Garden State before relocating to Florida in 2011, I can personally attest to the advantages my newly adopted home state offers. Having no state income tax amounts to an automatic pay hike for Florida residents moving from a state that taxes its residents for the privilege of living there. For the record, I was paying about 8% when I left New Jersey 12 years ago.

My property taxes also declined by 90% when I moved to the Sunshine State (no, that’s not a typo). I went from paying $6,300 per year for a small Cape Cod in Barrington to just $600 annually for a 3/2 with a garage in Vero Beach.

Factor in the warmer weather and balmier breezes… and far less congestion… and it is no wonder that most of the traffic on I-95 is in the southbound lanes.

That being said, it’s not necessary for everyone to flee New Jersey to take refuge in our tropical paradise. That only makes it more crowded down here and artificially inflates our property values (and my greens fees). On the contrary, if New Jersey would simply adopt some of Florida’s conservative and common sense policies, it would maintain its population – and tax – base for years to come. Here are a few examples…

Under Gov. DeSantis, Florida has gone from purple to decidedly red for one main reason: we have become increasingly free. During Covid, when my friends and relatives in New Jersey were masked and muzzled – locked down and forced to shelter in place like the “huddled masses yearning to breathe free” in Emma Lazarus’s epic poem – Floridians, for the most part, went about our business as usual.

Yes, our schools were shut down for a whole month in the Spring of 2020, but they reopened in the Fall of that same year with in-person instruction. And whereas mask mandates were enforced in hospitals, doctor’s offices, and other healthcare facilities, face masks remained optional in many stores, restaurants, and other businesses. In other words, Gov. DeSantis treated us like responsible adults who could make our own healthcare decisions. We did… and he was re-elected in a landslide, even carrying formerly Democratic bastions such as Miami-Dade County.

(As a side note, Florida's economy also boomed during the pandemic at the expense of more restrictive states that adopted Stalinist tactics).

Parental rights are also huge - or Yuge, as Mr. Trump would say - in Florida. In fact, the woman who beat me when I ran for State Representative in 2016 introduced a Parental Bill of Rights in Tallahassee and Gov. DeSantis signed it with a flourish. Nicely done, Erin... keep up the good work!

Florida is also a strong Second Amendment state. A concealed carry permit is no longer required to carry a firearm and open carry legislation is gaining momentum. Try robbing someone in Florida or burglarizing their house and you had better be a very fast draw.

If I could offer one word of advice to New Jerseyans from 1,100 miles away, it would be to stand up to government overreach. Protest, push back, and refuse to comply. Channel your inner Richard Stockton and declare your independence from Trenton. And remember that although Patrick “Give me liberty of give me death” Henry hailed from Virginia, something tells me that he spoke with a Jersey accent.

There are enough Independents – and even a few free-thinking and liberty-loving Democrats – who are tired of having the government micro-manage every aspect of their lives. So, join forces… and throw da bums out!