Hey Governor - Why don't YOU pay for family leave?

From NJBIZ.com:

Legislation that would allow private sector and government workers to take six weeks of paid leave to care for newborns or seriously ill family members was passed by the Assembly Labor Committee today, 6 to 2 with one abstention.
The bill (A-873) now moves to the Assembly Appropriations Committee for a hearing on Monday, which likely is its last hurdle before getting to the full Assembly. Meanwhile, the full Senate is set to vote on the measure Monday.

If it passes and is signed by Gov. Jon Corzine—the governor has already said he would sign it—the program would begin in January.

As the Governor continues to claim that he will hold the line on taxes and spending, he continues to signal support for any and all new spending the legislature decides to pass. The legislature cannot wait to rain down more money for their latest pet initiative to spend taxpayers hard earned money.

"No hard-working New Jerseyan should ever be forced to decide between putting food on the table (and) caring for a sick family member or new baby," said Assemblyman Nelson Albano (D-Cumberland), a sponsor of the bill. "It is only proper for the state to protect a worker's ability to take precious time off to take care of their highest priority—their family."

Of course Assemblyman Albano is right. I shouldn't have to INCREASE the time away from my family to earn the extra money this legislature has decided is no longer mine but someone else's who wants time off to care for a sick family member. Most working people I know work for companies that are pretty flexible in allowing employees the balance of family compassion and individual responsibility for their role at work.

It is bad business for organizations to let go of valued employees. However, business should not be penalized for taking care of their own interest and having the ability to bring on a replacement employee when someone needs time away. This is not a government responsibility. It is between employer and employee.

If the Democrats in the legislature want this so bad, I suggest paying for this out of Jon Corzine's personal wealth. With initial estimate of a tax increase of upwards of 130 million dollars, the Governor can clearly afford it. What say you Governor?

Subscribing to NJ Tax Revolution

We've gotten a lot of hits over the past few days after the Governor's speech. If you'd like to subscribe to our posts via email, click here. If you'd like to subscribe to the feeds for NJ Tax Revolution in an RSS reader, click here.

For now, you can find our post with links for the governor's budget proposal here.

House-No action on FISA but about Roger Clemens...

The do nothing House of Representatives has continued to bow to liability lawyers at the expense of the security of the United States. But at least a Houst committee is working on perjury paperwork for Roger Clemens. Does anyone see a problem here...

Governor Corzine Delivers His Budget

Here's Governor Corzine's speech in text, audio, and video.

There's also a summary of the budget from the state OMB. The executive summary is about seven pages long; the budget summary runs another 74 pages after that. I'm trying to locate a complete budget, but I'm not convinced that it has been published yet.

When I get the chance I'll try to provide some color commentary. I want to see discipline like Assemblyman Polistina showed -- but I'm not holding my breath.

Meanwhile, Steve Lonegan has already issued a comprehensive response to the Governor's speech. Since it's not up on the Americans for Prosperity Web site yet, I'll reproduce it here.

LONEGAN: CORZINE SHOULD PROPOSE REAL CUTS, NOT A "PHONY FREEZE"

Call your legislators and tell them "This is not enough!" Click here for phone numbers.

For Immediate Release: February 26, 2008
Contact: Steve Lonegan (201) 881-6692

-- Codey did the same "cuts" three years ago.

BOGOTA -- Americans for Prosperity New Jersey Director Steve Lonegan called Governor Jon Corzine's proposed budget a "phony freeze" similar to that done by Governor Codey in 2006 and said the state needs real spending reductions to bring New Jersey back.

"New Jersey state spending has doubled in ten years, gone up fifty percent since McGreevey was elected and even with the alleged reductions will be nearly twenty percent higher than it was when Governor Corzine took office," Lonegan said. "The Governor's proposal does nothing to reduce New Jersey's out of control tax burden, nothing to reduce New Jersey's ridiculous welfare state and nothing to cap the outrageous pensions and other giveaways to public employees."

Lonegan said that Corzine's proposal was deficient and should be corrected with the following steps.

• Immediate layoffs, not "early retirement" schemes that keep employees in the pension system.
• Elimination of "Project Labor Agreements" that drive up the cost of state, county and local government construction projects.
• Stopping billions of dollars in debt already authorized but not yet borrowed.
• Elimination of departments including State, Community Affairs, the Comptroller and the Public Advocate.
• Repeal the 9 percent pension hike passed in 2001.
• End state municipal aid to so-called "Abbott" districts that already receive virtually unlimited school aid.
• Raise the retirement age for public employees to 65 and end longevity bonuses.
• The new war on small towns with less than 10,000 residents must be rejected. These towns are the most efficiently run in the state and Corzine's proposal attempts to eliminate them.
• Stopping the use of "rebate" programs as income redistribution schemes, instead of looking at permanent tax relief.
• Crack down on out of control pensions, lavish medical benefits and order new and recent employees into 401(k) programs.
• Sunset all state regulations for a complete review.
• Initiative and Referendum to allow taxpayers to take charge of state government from an out-of-control legislature.
• End binding arbitration for public employees, including police officers.
• Stopping subsidies to New Jersey Network and selling the licenses and facilities to the highest bidder.
• Eliminate all unfunded state mandates on county and local governments.
• Announce he will veto the Paid Family Leave legislation that creates a new $130 Million payroll tax and a new open-ended entitlement program.
• Roll back new garbage taxes, the $10 television tax, the $500 S-Corporation tax and other new taxes passed under the McGreevey-Codey-Corzine administrations
• Oppose any new taxes or toll increases.

"New Jersey has the highest state sales tax in the country, the highest property taxes, the worst income taxes and the worst small business climate in the nation," Lonegan said. "Corzine's budget is the same phony 'freeze' Dick Codey put in before the last election and you can bet that if Corzine somehow gets re-elected in 2009 that the days of big spending, higher taxes, out-of-control debt and more regulations will be back and worse than ever."

Phone calls are more effective than email in letting politicians know how serious you are. Call your legislators and tell them "This is not enough!" Click here for phone numbers.

Quote of the Day

Via Reuters:

"There will clearly be things the government will not be doing in the future."

-- Acting Treasurer David Rousseau

Prediction - Photogate will end Hillary's candidacy

This photo will end Hillary Clinton's candidacy. Whatever people may think about the two candidates for the Democratic nomination to the presidency, the rank and file has really pushed for civility. This is evidenced by the boos one hears every time Hillary tries to attack Barack Obama in a debate. I am not sure what the Clinton camp wants to do with the picture but it is clear they were trying to create a Dukakis moment. And it will fail mainly because the Clinton camp is the one doing it.

Obama has made a point of setting Clinton up for just this kind of trap and she dove right in. This is probably a good thing as I cannot wait to start analysing the ultimate nominee's tax and spending policy on both sides for this site.

Quote of the day

"And you’d better have a permit for that septic tank as well. Remember, every time you make a doody, the government has it’s finger in it."

-- Andrew Riley at All American Blogger

Shutting Down Hospitals?

Here's the meat of an editorial from Press of Atlantic City.com:

[T]he council's announcement last week that a total of $225,900 in grants would be doled out to individual artists in 2008 was ... well, troubling - as all discretionary spending is in these tough times. Remember, the state is talking about cutting charity care in hospitals, which haven't been receiving their fair share in the first place. The next budget may force even more hospitals in the state to close. Some state parks might be shuttered. These are tough, tough times. And, of course, Gov. Jon S. Corzine has proposed fixing it all with a wildly unpopular and complicated toll-hike proposal.

So - again, at the risk of being considered philistines - it rankles to see an Essex County artist get a $12,000 state grant so that she may continue her work doing "very detailed, obsessive colored pencil drawings on rice paper, which are cut out, sewn into, and then embedded into vibrantly colored encaustic paintings (pigmented wax and resin painted with the use of a heated palette)."

Hear, hear. I love the arts, but let's put the discussion in context. When Governor Corzine threatens us with shutting down hospitals, we should also be hearing about colored pencil on rice paper and $350,000 for honorary certificates to New Jersey vets.

I'd add that under Assemblyman John Wisniewski's gas tax hike -- a proposed alternative to the toll hikes -- this $225,900 would be paid for by selling 793,000 gallons of gas at prices 28.5 cents higher than they are today. The certificates for vets would come from increased taxes on 1.25 million gallons.

I'll go one further -- if artist fees were increased the way Governor Corzine wants to increase tolls, this artist would get $96,000 for her colored-pencil-on-rice-paper-in-encaustic-paintings work.

Myth of Renters Tax Payments....and rebates

I did a little bit of research today regarding where this state and other came up with the concept that renters that don't actually pay taxes are due rebates for said taxes they didn't pay. Apparently, the research is only political and generally is estimates between 17-19 percent of a renters monthly payment. As a former property owner who apparently was a part of this process I am going to have to call foul.

I don't know who comes up with these numbers but I am sure they are completely delusional. Rental income is almost completely derived based on market demand and competitive pricing. To try to claim that taxes are a part is as much fiction as claiming that the consume product index plays a part. People who rent properties look at other who do the same and set their price accordingly. Even if it doesn't cover the cost, many renters factor in capital appreciation and other quality of life issues that play a part (deductions, investment etc).

The net is that the claim that any renter anywhere is depending on the rentee to pay 20 percent of the their rent bill is a complete fabrication. But of course, this is completely un-pc in this state so we don't want to disabuse our poor rental clients of the belief that they actually pay property taxes.

Here is the rub. If you make 20k per year, you don't pay property taxes unless you own the place you live. So any rebate you get is not a rebate. It is state assistance. If only our politicians were not in the vig business, they would be honest and let the taxpayer know that these rebates are actually welfare with the express purpose of buying votes of irresponsible politicians. Pure and simlpe. If you knew that, would you support it?

Megan McArdle's Article, "Tax Me More"

In a relatively tight space, just 1,150 words, Megan McArdle at The Atlantic pretty much shreds the argument that people want to have higher taxes. An excerpt:

But most people do not appear to think that the government (or anyone else) has a morally salient better use for their money than they do; otherwise, they would give that money to the government (which will take it even if there is no "tax me more" fund) or charity. Perhaps you'll argue that people's norms about fairness are so strong that they will not give away their money unless other people do. My response would be to ask: is the unfairness of your paying more than other similarly affluent people greater or smaller than the distributional unfairness that you want the government to rectify? Nor is it plausible to believe that you can, by withholding your extra contribution, force other people to kick into the kitty; your contribution is a drop in the budget of any political entity to which you belong.

[Gotcha! You cry. My money alone won't make a difference! Sorry, but if that were true then you'd be morally justified in cheating on your taxes. The small sum you send them is spent on something you presumably think we need more of.]

Or you might argue that since money is a positional good, it's not reasonable to ask you to reduce your income unless everyone else at the same level does, too. So now positional goods races are an acceptable way to spend your life? So important that they should override your moral concerns about distributional justice?

Perhaps you claim that you don't want to send the government extra money because God knows what they'll spend it on. Well, welcome to the libertarian movement. Your subscription to Reason should arrive in four to six weeks.

Read the whole thing.

Ask for the Sun to Get the Moon

Via The Daily Journal:

If Gov. Jon S. Corzine is going to push ahead with a scaled-back version of his toll road plan, it will likely be without the complex public benefit corporation that he proposed creating to run the roads, Sen. Raymond Lesniak said Friday.

"It would be a lot easier to accomplish without the public benefit corporation," said Lesniak, D-Union. "It's more likely that we do whatever we're going to do without it."

Lesniak said Corzine's plans to cut state debt and fund transportation projects, which has little public or legislative support, may still be viable but with "substantially" smaller toll increases than those Corzine first proposed.

The governor's plan to raise tolls 800 percent by 2022, and by inflation thereafter, would have halved state debt and funded decades of transportation projects, but Corzine acknowledged Thursday that the plan doesn't have the votes to pass the Legislature.

Does anyone doubt that this "substatnially smaller toll increases" will be in triple-digit percentages?

And watch, over the next few weeks, how the spin changes. Up until now, Corzine has been talking about "50% increases over the course of n years", but now Corzine and the "alternative"-proposing Democrats will be talking about the 800% increase in tolls that was originally proposed. "We're not octupling your tolls", they'll say, "we're just raising them by 25% a year for five or six years. Isn't that courageous of us?"

Is this not a classic case of asking for the sun so you can get the moon?

The Gas Tax: A Well-Thought-Out Alternative? Show Me!

Lots of Democrats are coming out with alternative proposals for squeezing money out of New Jersey citizens, their friends and families, the businesses on which they depend, and their business partners.

For instance, Assemblyman John Wisniewski, a Democrat, proposes to raise the gas tax over three years to 28.5 cents a gallon.

All this is in play because it's seen as better than Governor Corzine's plan to double our tolls, and then double them again, and then double them again. (A six-pack of decent beer, under similar inflationary conditions, would cost $48.)

And that's a good thing -- as far as it goes. Of course, I'd prefer that they learn how to cut spending rather than invent new ways to extract more money from us.

But leave that aside for a moment, and somebody who is advocating a has tax increase please tell me: has anyone analyzed how much business our has stations would lose if people from New York and Pennsylvania stop getting their gas at New Jersey pumps? I have yet to see a single mention of the effect that this tax will have on gas stations near state borders. Has anyone else?

If you can't make money on volume, you go back to charging higher prices. I'll bet you a gallon of gas (at today's prices) that if this plan is enacted, the price of gas at pumps near the border will rise by more than a nickel over the gas tax. Straightforward. Obvious, even. But probably not even looked at by our public servants.

Courage by another name would be called...Cowardice

In the Record's Northjersey.com NJ Politics section, an article written by John Reitmeyer entitled Corzine's toll plan draws more public outrage details some of the serious opposition to Governor Corzine's toll plan. While everyone is acknowledging that the Governor's plan is crashing and burning, it points to a rather irritating trend that keeps repeating itself. The vision is of a Democrat legislator proposing some new tax in an attempt to throw one more piece of excrement on the public wall to see if it will stick.

This kind of logic uses the old paradigm that if the lesser of two evils makes a good thing. The problem is that New Jersey citizens are reaching Florio-like frustration with the entire process and it's lack of concern for them. The Quinnipiac poll the other day for example saw a trully biased question that only could be posed in the Northeast:

If New Jersey voters must choose a way to raise state revenues, choices are:
31 percent say raise sales taxes;
23 percent say raise tolls;
13 percent say raise gas taxes;
13 percent say raise income taxes.

This is a canard question. If you asked the same respondent "Would you be willing to have a 150% increase in the sales tax to balance the budget shortfall, would you choose that?". Of course the answer would be something distinctly New Jersey and quite colorful. My favorite part of this article was written near the end:

"It's a mark of political courage that he is not resorting to the type of quick fixes of the past that bought time, but made the problems worse in the long run," said state Assemblyman Joseph Cryan, chairman of the state Democratic Party. "The fact that alternative ideas don't 'poll well' shows there are no easy answers."

So now, punting on the budget and soaking the taxpayer through an Enron financial scam is courage? And a massive increase to the gas tax is better? I love courage when defined by irresponsible people - if often looks a lot more like cowardice to me.

Governor - Employee staff cuts aren't serious

Governor Corzine has once again proposed what he thinks are draconian cuts and are in reality pedestrian and frankly lack courage. From the NY Times:

Faced with a worsening economy, Gov. Jon S. Corzine is considering reducing the state’s work force by 3,000 employees and closing at least one department in the administration as part of his plan to slash up to $2.5 billion from next year’s budget, people who have been briefed on his plans said on Tuesday.

The issue here is clearly described by the New Jersey Business Industry Association:

Even as private-sector employment growth has slowed over the last six years and nine months, government employment has soared.

Since December 2000, public-sector employment in New Jersey has expanded by a net 53,700 jobs, a 9 percent increase.

So if the Governor is serious, he should be concentrating on reducing state employees in a serious way. The pure fact that he mentions that there will be no layoffs suggests that he really doesn't want to make hard decisions. He should announce publically that the state needs to:

1. Cut state workers by 10 percent from current levels (based on 2007 data, 8000 employees)
2. Establish a series of programs to reduce all NJ non-safety government jobs by at least 10 percent over 3 years (40,000 jobs)
3. Explain to the state how the combination of local, county and state employments has exploded and establish a plan to cut it back.

The Governor cannot continue to pretend that only the state budget is his responsibility. One of the problems is New Jersey is the massive county and local workforce which has no parallel in other states. WHY? As a leader, it is the Governor's job to make this point and lead with solutions to turn it around.

Corzine's Approval Ratings: As Bad As Bush

Via PolitickerNJ.com:

Gov. Jon Corzine’s has an upside-down approval rating of 37%-52%, down from 46%--43% in December, and 73% of voters oppose his plan to raise tolls, according to a new Quinnipiac University poll released this morning. . . .

More than half of the New Jersey voters surveyed (51%) say that Corzine does not deserve to be re-elected next year, and just 32% says he should serve as second term. Voters split 35%-33% on their desire to vote for Corzine or an unnamed Republican.

Got that? Just to compare, the same Quinnipiac University conducted a poll in late October 2007 that showed President Bush's approval rating at 35% -- a statistically insignificant difference. And an end-of-January poll by NPR shows Bush's approval ratings at 38%. (Poll results can be seen at PollingReport.com.) And just this morning, Reuters reported that "Approval ratings for Bush climbed to 34 percent from 31 percent last month".

Governor Corzine, you're as bad as President Bush! You should be impeached! Corzine prevaricated, citizens evacuated! (Yeah, okay, doesn't work as well as "Bush lied, people died". Score one to the left in the mindless sloganeering department.)

Or perhaps you prefer to think that you're a visionary, and that others are too myopic to see the fact that you're doing the right thing. Of course, President Bush would say the same thing about the war in Iraq. Is that the kind of platform you want to build your legacy on?

Postscript: The Reuters report above also says, "positive ratings for Congress inched up from 14 percent to a still-low 17 percent." Yeesh.

A Portrait In Courage: "We'll Just Keep The Money, OK?"

Via The Daily Journal:

Three area legislators on Monday introduced an eight-point plan they said would reduce state spending and help balance New Jersey's budget.

Among their proposals is one likely to have some homeowners hitting the roof: suspending the state's property tax rebate program for everyone except senior citizens and the disabled.

A rebate is when they collect tax money from you and then give some of it back, right? That's how I always understood the term.

But the New Jersey state government -- specifically State Senator Jeff Van Drew and Assemblymen Nelson Albano and Matthew Milam -- wants to cut spending by cutting rebates.

Follow that? Warped as it seems, they apparently think that "Don't spend so much of our money" means "don't give so much of our money back to us."

They should go back to Legislative Kindergarten, and their teacher should be Assemblyman Polistina. We don't want them to give less of our money back, we want them to spend less of our money.

That gives a deeply ironic feel to this quote:

"This plan requires courage and discipline," Van Drew said, adding that he expected fallout from the proposal to eliminate the annual property tax rebate for residents.

"We know this is almost the Holy Grail of politics, sending people a check in the mail," he said. "But we believe this is the right thing."

I respect the fact that these people are trying to find ways to avoid having Governor Corzine double tolls, and then double them again, and then double them again. (A shoe shine in Penn Station, given the same price inflation, would cost $32.)

I don't respect their calls for "courage and discipline". It takes courage to say "no" to additional requests for money. It takes discipline to stick to a budget. It takes no courage and no discipline to keep the excess money that you've been sucking out of our property taxes during the year.

And I don't respect their spin on the issue:

Van Drew, Albano and Milam said numerous constituents have told them they'd rather forego the rebate check than see tolls raised or get hit with other taxes.

I, too, would rather forego the rebate check than see tolls raised or other taxes levied.

But I would much, much rather see them reduce spending. These gentlemen have set up a classic rhetorical device, the false dichotomy, in an effort to hoodwink us into thinking that this is the only way.

Maybe they actually believe that it is. Maybe they actually believe that they're being courageous. If so, their thinking is hopelessly muddled.

Senator Van Drew, if you're listening: you have it wrong. Only a politician who is warped by the sense of entitlement around him could think that the Holy Grail of politics is sending people a check. I don't want a check. Nobody I've spoken to wants a check. We all want you to take less money in the first place.

Doing that -- and cutting services to make us fiscally whole again -- would take courage and discipline. That's your job. Please execute.

NJ Government Gone Wild - "The Soprano State"

I couldn't help but borrow the Trentonian's front page headline today as it is too good to pass up. The headline refers to a story about a book written by Bob Ingle and Sandy McClure entitled

The Soprano State-New Jersey's Culture of Corruption

If the book is half as good as the article about it, I can't wait to read the details. One of the references from the book discusses why it has become such a problem to get spending under control.

“In New Jersey, government is not about taking care of what people can’t do for themselves. It’s about jobs,’’ reads the introduction. That’s government jobs, of course, and not just in the huge state bureaucracy.

It’s jobs in Jersey’s 566 towns, 616 school districts, 21 counties, 486 sewage and other authorities, 187 fire districts and 92 special agencies with the power to tax.

Of course, this is just the beginning.

The book says there are 444,000 local government workers, 154,500 on the state payroll and 19,119 elected officials, not counting the governor, and 120 state lawmakers. It works out to 81 government workers per square mile, compared with the national average of 6.

So when the Governor says that it would be horrible to cut state employees and just the other day was so proud that the state employee roll was cut by 1,500 since he came to office.....that's just one percent of the state headcount, we should be a bit skeptical.

Get out and read the book. I intend to and will post on what I find personally.

Corzine has now become disgusting! The sky is falling!

Governor Corzine has now gone off the deep end with his approach to his Enron toll plan. Now that citizens have roundly panned his plan, he is resorting to running around the state and telling eveyone that tuition, property taxes will rise and hopitals will close. From Forbes:

The Democratic governor has proposed significantly increasing highway tolls to pay state debt and fund transportation.

"Cutting has to be a part of it, but it is not the total solution," Corzine said. "And people who think that, I think, really are unrealistically suggesting that we cut municipal aid or school aid, which means higher property taxes. Or cut higher educational aid, which means higher tuitions. Or close more hospitals in the state of New Jersey because we don't have the resources to go forward helping our hospitals with charity care."

This man has completely abandoned any attempt to reduce spending. He created a sham spending cut idea web site to pretend he was listening. He won't. The Governor and the Democratic controlled Assembly and Senate have every intention on increasing an entire range of taxes. We are not the only ones paying attention:

But Assemblywoman Charlotte Vandervalk, R-Bergen, charged Corzine with "using scare tactics" to get his plan approved.

"It was a juvenile response analogous to a child taking his ball and going home when he doesn't get his way," Vandervalk said. "Our residents are in dire need of leadership and a realistic solution to solving our state's financial problems, and instead the governor promises doom and gloom if he doesn't get his way with his road tax and borrowing scheme."


The only good news here is that I think we are heading to an outright revolt and Corzine is moving quickly to the possibility of motivating the citzens of this state toward impeachment. We need a governor who is capable of real courage. We frankly have a coward. The state should be done with this man.

Read the entire article here.

National Security - Not from me

If you doubted my last post, read this one.

If it doesn't disturb you, you may have a problem.

House Blows Off National Security Responsibilities

The House of Representatives today decided to once again place politics in front of national security by taking no action on the FISA (Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act). While some Democrats insist this is no big deal, I wonder why the Senate thought it was a big enough deal to ensure they passed their version of the legislation before a recess was called. Given that the Senate is supposed to be the more deliberative body, I wonder why they were able to act when the House was not.

What's the big deal? In the wake of 9/11, the FISA law originally created in 1978 was altered to make it easier to work with today's tellecommunication companies and electronic exchange. This weekend, instead of the changes the Senate passed to improve these rules and modernize FISA, we will revert back to 1978. You do remember 1978. No internet. No cell phones. No data exchange.

Why you ask? Because the House is concerned with an immunity provision in the Senate version of the bill that protects telecom companies from lawsuits based on their work on behalf of the government. So instead of working out the disaagreements on the bill or passing a patch to at least continue under the status quo until they do, the House decided to turn the clock back to 1978.

What can you do? Let your representatives in congress know how you feel during their unearned recess. Here is a useful link courtesy of New Jersey Community Resource web site.

Tell them to get back to work and finish what they started.

More Taxes to Kill the Economy: "Activity Taxes"

Via allbusiness.com:

"When Barry Godwin, the Comptroller of a South Carolina pleasure boat company, received a call from a New Jersey revenue agent last July, he could hardly believe his ears. A truckload of boats bound for Massachusetts had been stopped at a weigh station, and the agent was demanding $46,200 in “back taxes.”

Goodwin’s 240-employee company, Stingray Boats, has never had a physical presence in New Jersey. But the revenue agent had determined through a conversation with the driver that Stingray had a “business nexus” with the state because it supplied boats to an independent New Jersey dealer. Therefore, it owed state taxes. It was either pay up, or the boats would be impounded, he was told. The company had little choice; it paid, he said.

“The manner in which the State of New Jersey acted is commonly defined as extortion,” Goodwin told the House Small Business Committee this week."

Apparently activity taxes weren't common until around 2005. How much do you think this small business owner will want to drive through New Jersey when the tolls are eight times higher and the activity taxes suck tens of thousands of dollars out of him?

Tell Corzine What to Cut

There's a form on Governor Corzine's Web site that enables you to tell him what you'd like to cut. Hat tip: PolitickerNJ.com.

Comparisons, Comparisons...

Rob Gebeloff -- the Stat Attack man of the Star-Ledger -- has an interesting post about the number of local agencies in New Jersey. I'm not advocating anything here, just noting Rob's interesting point.

Taxes by State

With a hat tip to the National Taxpayers Union blog, here's a list of taxes in New Jersey, with links to all the other states as well.

Constitutional Problem With Toll Plan?

On Toll Roads News I just saw an article that says this:

New Jersey Republican legislative leaders have raised an interesting constitutional challenge to Governor Cozine's tollroad monetization scheme. Senate GOP leader Tom Kean and assembly leader Alex DeCroce say it violates a constitutional bar on granting special privileges.

They say the issue arises under Article IV, Section 7, paragraph 9 of the New Jersey Constitution: "The Legislature shall not pass any private, special or local laws... Granting to any corporation, association or individual any exclusive privilege, immunity or franchise whatever..."

Corzine's draft bill provides for a newly created Capital Solutions Corporation (CSC), the successor to the New Jersey Turnpike Authority, to enter into a long term concession agreement with a to-be-created Public Benefit Corporation (PBC). The bill requires that the CSC "enter into a concession agreement with the PBC on a sole source basis, giving it the exclusive right to operate maintain, manage, expand and improve any or all assets of the CSC specified in the agreement during the PBC concession period and to impose, adjust and collect tolls and charges."

There's more, and the whole article is worth reading, with deeper analysis.

Polistina Fights Runaway Spending, Corzine Has a Runaway Imagination

Reproduced below is the first part of a Feb 10 article in Newsday.

As the state Assembly Thursday blitzed through dozens of bills, Assemblyman Vincent J. Polistina refused to sit still.

Over and over again, the freshman Republican from Atlantic County, participating in his first voting session, stood to question how much each initiative would cost the state, even on the most innocuous sounding bills, such as giving certificates to New Jerseyans who served in the military during the Cold War.

It's not that Polistina opposed honoring veterans. He said he favored doing that.

But the bill, Polistina said, would cost the state an estimated $350,000 while it faces a $2.5 billion budget deficit and the threat of massive budget cuts and significant highway toll increases.

"This bill will cost money," Polistina said. "I do not believe this is the right time to be introducing anything that could cost upwards of $350,000."

Thank you, Assemblyman Polistina. As a veteran of the United States Marine Corps, I'd much prefer that New Jersey honor me by letting me keep more of my money.

Does the rest of the Assembly agree?

Of course not. The next line in the article is, "The bills were approved anyway."

And I can't read an article without hearing Governor Corzine patronizing us. The article tells us, for example, that "he's indicated property tax rebates could get slashed, state workers could get laid off, state mental hospitals could be closed and state police services slashed."

Got that? People will lose their paychecks and their rebates, thereby causing them to lose their homes. They'll go crazy! Which normally means they'd go to mental hospitals, but those will be closed down, and the disgruntled ex-policemen who once might have protected us will instead help them ransack our houses.

Clearly, balancing a budget and sticking to it is the proximate cause of anarchy.

(Note: he apparently didn't say a single word about the vets not getting their certificates. Damn his unpatriotic soul!)

"We will have to do those things that leave us with spending no higher than it is this year," Corzine said.

Yes. That's called "living within your means".

"And while we hear much complaint about the pain that is associated with this particular overall plan, I think the focus will very quickly shift from toll hikes in 2022 to budget cuts in 2009."

Funny, some of us have been focused on budget cuts all along. And I don't think that "spending no higher than it is this year" equates to "budget cuts in 2009."

Even if it did, we should do it. Maybe people will complain about how little money comes to them from the state government (i.e., you and me). For example, the article says that "Senate President Richard J. Codey has questioned the spending freeze, saying it could, for instance, lead to higher tuition at state colleges and universities." But that should be offset by the people who will cheer about how little money is taken away from them. Many of those people also need to send their kids to college, right?

A telling commercial from Michigan

I have the opportunity to travel around the country quite a bit. And I have noticed a recent trend that relates to the outbound migration statistics that we often cite here at NJ Tax Revolution. We don't typically highlight this, but the usual loser of any outbound migration is the state of Michigan. While NJ incents businesses to leave, Michigan gives them airfare (a joke). Under the guise of people centric governance, Michigan has taxed both the businesses and their employees to the point of no return and many have left the state.

So now, someone has determined that they need to attract business to the state. They are advertising on radio and tv in various states to attract business to Michigan. But in my travels (I am in California right now), I noticed that they only advertise in certain states. They don't go to Texas or Florida because I am sure the businesses there would laugh at the thought of moving to Michigan.

So where have I heard these commercials and why am I writing this? I heard it yesterday here in Los Angeles. I have also heard them in NJ, Boston and New York. The politicians of our state should pay attention. When Michigan thinks you are a target rich environment, it isn't out of respect.

In The Lobby - THE PARSELTONGUE TRANSLATOR

Worth reading, a post about Corzine's duplicitousness: In The Lobby - THE PARSELTONGUE TRANSLATOR

Hey Jersey City! Here's $46,000 Wasted...

Via The Jersey Journal.

JERSEY CITY'S "LEGISLATIVE RESEARCH OFFICER"

The private attorney representing Jersey City Mayor Jerramiah T. Healy in his Bradley Beach appeal has blown two deadlines for filing court papers, a court official said yesterday.

The attorney - brother of the city's top lawyer - is also a retired Jersey City cop who was put back on the city payroll last May as a part-time, $46,000-a-year "legislative research officer."

According to Tammy Kendig, spokeswoman for the New Jersey Judiciary, Philip J. Matsikoudis sought and was granted two court extensions to file briefs on behalf of Healy, who, for the second time, is appealing his conviction last June for resisting arrest and obstruction of administrative law.

Matsikoudis - whose brother is City Corporation counsel Bill Matsikoudis - blew a Jan. 2 deadline, and then whiffed on a Jan. 31 file date, Kendig said.

Philip Matsikoudis said yesterday he believed he had asked for an extension "two days before Jan. 31" and was granted "(an extension of) 10 days or so." Reminded a 10-day extension would have expired, Matsikoudis said "it might have been 14 days."

According to Kendig, Matsikoudis wasn't given a new extension.

Somebody should demand a refund.

Codey Opposes Minimum Wage Hike

From njbiz.com.

Senate President Richard Codey (D-Essex) has told NJBIZ he would block any legislation that would increase the state’s $7.15-per-hour minimum wage. . . .

Codey says it would be asking too much of business to swallow both a minimum-wage hike and paid-family leave at the same time.

Believe it or not, I want us to have a "social safety net." We can't leave the poor to their own devices. I don't think it should be managed at the federal level, but I'm okay with welfare. I struggle with the way we implement it, though.

Part of the problem is that we use language that impedes understanding rather than helps it. Check this out:

Paid-family leave legislation...is a worker-funded program... “We are hitting [business] with paid-family leave now,” says Codey.

If it were really "worker-funded", we wouldn't be hitting business with it, right?

Anyway, we have a very clunky process for dealing with the minimum wage. Do we really have to do this?

The current $7.15 minimum wage ranks 10th highest in the country and is tied with New York, Michigan and Alaska, according to the U.S. Department of Labor. An $8.25 minimum wage would vault New Jersey to No. 1. . . .

Philip Kirschner, president of the New Jersey Busness & Industry Association and a member of the minimum-wage commission, voted against the hike. “Increasing the minimum wage to $8.25 will give us the highest minimum wage in the country and will result in a 55 percent increase in just three years,” says Kirschner. “For businesses that employ entry-level minimum-wage workers, that is very difficult.”

He adds that automatic cost-of-living hikes could drive call centers, light manufacturing and other businesses to lower minimum-wage states. “Pennsylvania and New York do not have [automatic raises],” he says. “In two years, we will be $1.50 more than [New York]. There are not many businesses that will pay that much extra for the same work they can get in New York and Pennsylvania.”

States of Opportunity

Here's an article at the Wall Street Journal about the outflow of population from high-tax states.

Hat tip: Asian Badger

Corzine Toll Plan Affecting Senate Races

Gotta love this...

"Maybe if we had a more effective U.S. senator, the governor wouldn't have to borrow $40 billion," Pennachio said.

I didn't live in New Jersey under Christie Whitman's administration, but apparently she beat up Democrat Bill Bradley during the Senate race in 1990 because he didn't repudiate Gov. Florio's tax hikes -- and came within 2 points of him.

This is particularly choice:

Lautenberg spokesman Brendan Gill said the Republican candidates "will say anything to avoid talking about how we are going to bring our troops home, stimulate our economy, improve health care and boost education. Sen. Lautenberg is working for New Jersey to tackle those problems now."

In other words, Senator Lautenberg is working for New Jersey by trying to federalize everything -- making New Jersey's statehood less relevant -- and would really rather avoid talking about what's happening in his own back yard. Fortunately, he has said that "now is not the time to be raising tolls." Even Corzine's friends aren't his friends on this topic.