With all the talk about cuts in federal funding to the states, New Jersey is in better shape than most states to survive cuts. A new study from the personal finance website WalletHub says it is the least dependent of the 50 states on money from Washington.
“New Jersey is a high tax state so most of the state’s revenue comes from things like property taxes and state income taxes, so there’s less of a need for federal funding,” said Chip Lupo, an analyst for WalletHub.
“New Jersey is somewhat of a small state, densely populated, not a huge federal presence as opposed to say a state like Alaska, which finished first,” said Lupo. “Alaska is a large, sparsely populated state, there’s more of a need for federal funding for infrastructure.”
For every dollar that residents pay in taxes, New Jersey gets 48 cents back in federal funding, which is next to last among the states. For Kentucky, which is number one, the state gets $3.35 per dollar spent.