Ciattarelli has supported tax increases and opposed tax relief
Republican gubernatorial candidate Jack Ciattarelli has voted to raise taxes since his earliest days as an elected official.
Jack Ciattarelli, the Republican candidate for New Jersey governor, has a long history of supporting and voting for tax increases.
The candidate made headlines in September when he appeared to suggest he is open to a 10% sales tax in New Jersey, but his record on tax increases dates back to the 1990s.
“I just came back from Tennessee not too long ago,” Ciattarelli said during a June 4 rally, according to audio provided to the New Jersey Independent by American Bridge 21st Century, a liberal super political action committee. “We were on a fundraising trip there, and Tennessee has no income tax. What Tennessee has is a 10% sales tax on everything, including food and clothing.
“The philosophy has always been in this state [that] we have like a 7% sales tax just to round off the numbers, but there’s no sales tax on necessities of life, food and clothing,” he continued. “I will work with the New Jersey State Society of CPAs. We’re going to look at what other states do. And every option is on the table.”
After the campaign of Democratic gubernatorial candidate Mikie Sherrill said Ciattarelli had advocated a 10% sales tax in New Jersey, he told reporters: “I was just talking about what other states did. I never said that I endorsed that approach here in New Jersey, but they’ve turned it into something else. I think it’s a desperate attempt on their part on behalf of a desperate candidate.”
New Jersey’s current 6.625% sales tax on most products, with groceries and clothing largely exempt, has been set since a bill lowering the sales tax rate from 7% went into effect in 2017.
Ciattarelli was against the sales tax cut at the time. In a 2017 debate ahead of the Republican primary for governor that year, in response to a question about a gas tax hike, Ciattarelli said: “Here’s how we reduce the gas tax: Get rid of this 1/8 of a penny decrease in the sales tax, which saves the people sitting in your audience tonight about $17 a year.”
But it dates back much further than that. In 1990, just months into his very first term in an elected position as a member of the Raritan Borough Council, Ciattarelli voted to raise property taxes by 3 cents per $100 of assessed value.
As a member of the General Assembly, in 2012, he voted for a bill that expanded the definition of who qualifies as a seller and must collect sales tax.
The same year, he voted against $786 million in property tax relief payments for homeowners, as well as against returning $330 million to local governments for property tax relief.
Ciattarelli’s history of voting for tax increases and against tax relief was something that even other Republicans hit him for during the 2025 primary season.
“When you look at this guy who has voted to raise taxes, he has voted for gun control
bills, he’s not really a Republican,” primary opponent Bill Spadea said during a debate ahead of the primary.
The Spadea campaign released an ad saying, “Jack Ciattarelli has raised taxes for 35 years.”
Sherrill, for her part, has said that she supports tax relief as well as other measures to improve affordability in New Jersey, including freezing electric rate increases.
The Ciattarelli campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment for this story.
