I was reading more in depth about this NJ tax situation recently. Apparently a lot of it has to do with how they divided up counties into tiny municipalities,

I was reading more in depth about this NJ tax situation recently. Apparently a lot of it has to do with how they divided up counties into tiny municipalities, and each one gets its own public services such as firefighters/EMTs, police, etc.-- which of course all have solid pension plans. If they consolidated and streamlined, it would be much more efficient, but there are numerous barriers to this (not least of which how eliminating a bunch of those jobs would go over with the public). They're likely going to have to do something eventually, they just haven't figured out how yet.