I thought of doing that but I'm too afraid to see how much money I actually spent in a year on the lottery....seeing that total may just make me pass out!!!

So much for Responsible Government and Self-Serving Polititians!

politic: characterized by policy; sagacious or prudent

sagacious: having or showing keen perception or discernment and sound judgment

Time for a Change: Vote the Current Group Out: Maybe the next Group Will Be Better!

Noticed that 2 of the bill's sponsors are Dems. A lesson to everyone. If you vote for politicians that like to take your money, you will get politicians that like to take your money. Todd, I think you would agree this is the kind of "change" that people unwittingly voted for and now everyone is going to pay dearly.

I truly feel sorry for those that live in NJ.

Yes, because Republicans are so much better.

I couldn't have said it better myself.Democrats are the tax & spend party.

"We were one of the few states that did not tax winnings," Treasury spokesman Tom Bell said. "We're facing historic shortfalls in revenue. We had to look for solutions."

Translation-

We were one of the few states that did not tax winnings, Treasury spokesman Tom Bell said. We're facing historic shortfalls in revenue. We had to look for WAYS TO MAKE THOSE SHORTFALLS WORSE!

"Only prizes of more than $10,000 will be taxed under the law. The tax rate will range from 1.4 percent up to as much as 10.8 percent, depending on the total amount of the payout plus the usual tax line items, such as the winner's other income and marital status. State officials expect to generate about $8 million through the new tax, Bell said."

Tanslation-

State officials expect to lose more in lottery sales than the gain generated by about $8 million through the new tax.

"Some regular players predicted the lottery might see a drop in participation as a result of the new tax, and others vowed the retroactive tax would have political implications on lawmakers, including Gov. Jon Corzine."

Translation-

Go ahead, vote us out!  We don't want to govern over this mess anyway and this is an easy way to get out of office.  If you people knew how totally screwed we really are you would be stashing money in your mattresses right now instead of reading this!

"An unlimited power to tax involves, necessarily, a power to destroy,"
                                                                                         Daniel Webster

@LotteryGuy:  I see you deleted your post, but I just thought I'd mention that federal taxes are the same for all states.  The only difference is with the state portion of taxes.  Also, in some cases, such as New York City, there are additional local taxes, on top of the state and federal taxes.  Even so, the new N.J. taxes exceed those.

Todd, yes I had deleted my post because I was initially confused thinking "we have 31% tax in Ohio" and then I finally realized that this is a State tax of which ours is 6% "currently".  So, let me get this straight....with federal and state tax, then winners will be paying 25% federal and 11% state?  Making the total tax 36%?!  If that's the case, that is ridiculous.  Of course, in Ohio anything won above $599.00 you have to pay a total of 31%, which I think is horrible.

Throw em all the hell out!!! Now they expect lottery winners to bail out their screw ups!!! This is an outrage. NJ is already one of the most expensive states in the country to live in with basically the highest property taxes in the nation wth no rebates this yr thanks to this fu-- Corzine. Now if u actually win the lottery, it would have to be a really high jackpot to secure any financial freedom withthis 11% crap. BS!!!!

I don't want to scare you.   But the numbers you posted are just the taxes being withheld.   When it comes to the feds and filing taxes in April.....the tax for the yr can be as high as 35%.    Add on the state tax.....and if you live in NH or NJ....that is almost half of your money gone.

Geez, it looks like they wanted to one up New Hampshire.....

Either way, politicians suck.

Is NJ Democratic?

Somehow lost in the numerous posts in this thread is the fact that the state is already taking out about 50% of the money wagered as a house edge. Now they want more.

Ohio treat lottery winnings like regular income and taxes it using the same rates.  Until recently New Jersey was one of only four MegaMillions states that didn't do that.  California, Texas and Washington still don't but with California having budget problems I bet they are the next to change the rule.  From what I've read New Jersey was already taxing regular income over $500K at 8.9% so they could have accomplished almost the same results by treating lottery winnings as regular income as Ohio does and they probably would have gotten a better response especially from people already paying state taxes on incomes of $500K+.  Plus New Yorkers who might have brought their MM tickets in New Jersey because it was easier won't now.

We really need to copy other countries (on both the Federal and State levels) and have no taxes on gambling winnings.

If NJ did this after seeing NH's 10% tax kick in, it didn't take long at all, did it?

Look for all the other states with lotteries to folow suit, this will be just like one of those domino set-ups.