New Jersey has to rethink its budget because one guy moved

Bloomberg TVDavid Tepper.

If you move away from your home state, some friends might throw you a party. Maybe you’ll get a happy-hour discount at your local bar.

If you’re really a big deal, you might get to throw out the first pitch at your local minor-league baseball team’s next game.

Other than that, everything will be pretty much the same after you’re gone.

That is, of course, unless you’re billionaire David Tepper.

If you are him, then when you move away you have the potential to send your whole state ( in this case New Jersey) into red-alert mode.

Tepper, the founder of the hedge fund Appaloosa Management, moved to Florida last fall. This, according to Bloomberg, has leaders of his former state very concerned.

From Bloomberg:

“We may be facing an unusual degree of income-tax forecast risk,” Frank Haines, budget and finance officer with the Office of Legislative Services told a Senate committee Tuesday in Trenton.

New Jersey relies on personal income taxes for about 40 percent of its revenue, and less than 1 percent of taxpayers contribute about a third of those collections, according to the legislative services office. A one percent forecasting error in the income-tax estimate can mean a $140 million gap, Haines said.

Tepper, who founded his hedge fund in 1993 after working at Goldman Sachs, is worth $10.6 billion to $11.6 billion, depending on whom you ask (Forbes or Bloomberg).

New Jersey probably has some precise numbers on that too.