Tax Is Latest Flash Point in N.Y.-N.J. Border War

They’re at it again--those bickering states who share the Hudson River and a hearty animosity. They’ve battled over Westway, the Statue of Liberty and the New York Giants.

The latest provocation in the New York-New Jersey border war: a New York tax law, passed in 1987 and discovered just recently, which will tax New Jerseyites’ New York income at a rate based on their total household income.

Translation: If you make $25,000 a year in New York and your spouse makes $75,000 at a job west of the Hudson, New York taxes the $25,000 as if you’re in the $100,000 bracket.

Adding insult to usury (or so say the New Jerseyites), New York Gov. Mario M. Cuomo invited irate New Jerseyites to sue and suggested that any commuter who didn’t like the law could quit “and leave those jobs for New Yorkers.”

Cuomo Apologizes

After pulling his foot from his mouth, Cuomo called New Jersey Gov. Thomas H. Kean and apologized. But it was too late to stop angry residents of the Garden State from some nasty Cuomo-bashing.

“His arrogance has infuriated New Jerseyans,” said New Jersey Republican Assemblyman Charles Hardwick, who has filed suit on behalf of his state. “He’s supposed to be the compassionate governor? He’s made it clear his compassion ends at the Hudson River.”

Carl Golden, Kean’s press secretary, agreed: “To people on this side of the Hudson--commuters, legislators, whoever--this is seen as another attempt to step on the people of New Jersey.”

The level of bile gets even higher among those who will be actually hit by the tax.

“Can you believe this guy? We don’t get education, don’t get welfare. What do we get for our tax dollars?” asked commuter Thomas Stokes of Middletown, N.J. “We get sewer service--and that winds up on the Jersey shore anyway!”

Spending Discouraged

Stokes heads up the Taxpayers’ Revolt, an ad hoc committee that has encouraged New Jersey commuters to stop spending money in New York until the law is rescinded.

“They did a real Pearl Harbor job on us. They passed this in ’87 to take effect in ’88 and told us about it in ‘89,” said Stokes.

But this dispute is just the latest round in a seemingly endless struggle between the two neighbors. Connecticut commuters affected by the tax aren’t screaming for Cuomo’s head--but then, they have been able to stand by and enjoy these spats:

New Jersey’s courting of New York businesses and the city’s subsequent battle to keep the companies home. A highlight of this continuing competition: a newspaper ad depicting Mayor Edward I. Koch, hammer in hand, boarding up the Holland Tunnel to prevent defections.

The moves to the Meadowlands in East Rutherford, N.J., by the New York Giants (from Yankee Stadium) and the New York Jets (from Shea Stadium). A split decision in this fight: New Jersey got the teams, but both still use New York in their names.

Both sides claimed the Statue of Liberty, which stands in New York Harbor between the states. The courts finally ruled in New York’s favor. Another slap at the Garden State: The statue stands with its back to Jersey City.

New York complains that New Jersey factories are poisoning its air; New Jersey claims that New York’s Staten Island landfill--known as “Mt. Koch” in the Garden State--is polluting waterways.

A delegation of Jersey congressmen helped sink Westway, the $2-billion highway development planned for Manhattan’s West Side. One of the controversial project’s biggest boosters: Gov. Cuomo.

Points to the Foe

After that defeat, the governor pointed directly at New Jersey and affixed the blame: “The people from Jersey did it in response to a war with New York City.” Obviously, that war continues.

But Cuomo doesn’t have only bad things to say about New Jersey; recently he told an interviewer: “I love New Jersey. My father’s first job was as a ditch digger in New Jersey.”

Which, of course, would have made the elder Cuomo eligible to join the Taxpayers’ Revolt.