New Jersey Democrats' Weaselly Budget Comments

Here are my reactions to the Assembly Democrats' commentary regarding Governor Christie's budget. When I've commented inline, my comments are in italics.

Assembly Budget Chairman Lou Greenwald (D-Camden):

“I thank the acting treasurer for testifying and answering our questions. I had hoped that this would be the start of a renewed bipartisan effort to find alternatives to Gov. Christie’s budget cuts. The governor’s cuts hike property taxes, threaten health care for the middle-class and poor and forsake opportunities for federal funding.

Assemblyman Greenwald, in this statement you have merely (a) pretended that you don't support high taxes, (b) talked about not cutting funding, and (c) made the non-controversial claim that we should try for more federal money where possible. (By the way, "Federal" money is no panacea. It's still paid for by some taxpayer somewhere). Unless you show how you intend to actually make cuts, you're completely unserious about any "alternatives" to Gov. Christie's actual budget cuts.

“We will continue our efforts to slash spending, but we must do it in a sensible way that doesn’t leave us with an even higher property tax burden, more unemployment and a devastated cancer research industry, among other impacts.

Assemblyman Greenwald, in order to continue efforts to slash spending, you first have to actually try to slash spending. And if you want to promote employment and any type of industry, why not try cutting the tax burden on businesses?

“We need to be making educated decisions and taking advantage of all opportunities to obtain federal aid that is rightfully ours and will help reduce the impact on our property taxpayers.

Duh. But what cuts do you recommend?

“Gov. Christie is not doing that here, but the impact on people’s lives is worthy of a greater debate.”

By making us dependent on the New Jersey Nanny State, you and your fellow Democrats have already had a bad impact on people's lives. When someone comes along, after years of devastating Democratic spending, and offers concrete ideas to eliminate a $2 billion budget gap, the "greater debate" that you call for is really just disingenuous partisan obstructionism.

Assembly Budget Vice Chairman Gary Schaer (D-Passaic/Bergen/Essex);

“It is my hope that we can take a step forward and find ways to work cooperatively toward slashing spending but in a way that doesn't devastate our middle class, commuters, college students, seniors and our most vulnerable New Jerseyans. Everyone needs to be involved in serious bipartisan discussions if we're going to right our state's financial ship in the most judicious way possible."

Where was the bipartisanship when Assemblyman Polistina was trying to get you to stop runaway spending two years ago? You just rode over the top of him, spending, spending, spending. And now look -- our middle class, commuters, college students, seniors, and most vulnerable New Jerseyans are devastated because we can't pay our bills. Don't lay this at the feet of Governor Christie. This is your mess.

Assembly Appropriations Chairwoman Nellie Pou (D-Passaic/Bergen):

“These hearings have been invaluable in giving the public the open debate and discussion Gov. Christie’s plan initially lacked. Residents have had the chance to hear the impact Gov. Christie’s cuts will have on their lives, and they now expect us to move forward together to find alternatives that won’t hurt education and health care and boost property taxes.”

Governor Christie laid out his planned cuts in the open. What you mean is that these hearings have given you a propaganda platform to lay out anecdotes about people who are being hurt by cuts, in the hopes that these anecdotes will paper over the destructive Democratic policies of the last three administrations.

You're talking like a pro-heroin advocate who, showing a man suffering the symptoms of withdrawal, claims that we need an alternative to going off of heroin.

And again -- if you want to find "alternatives", name them. Actual cuts, please.

Assemblywoman Joan Quigley (D-Hudson):

“Gov. Christie’s plan to withhold adult education payments is just one of many examples of a short-sighted move. Ensuring quality adult education is available to those who need it not only boosts self-confidence and improves lives, but helps keep our economy in step with ever-expanding global competition. This is among the areas I hope to now see get a second-look.”

You know what else improves self-confidence? Having a job. You know how to get a job? Help businesses provide them by reducing taxes.

You know what else keeps our economy in step with ever-expanding global competition? Having more jobs available. You know how to make more jobs available? Help businesses provide them by reducing taxes.

Do you sense a trend?

Assemblyman Gordon Johnson (D-Bergen):

“Gov. Christie’s cuts send the wrong signal to middle-class New Jerseyans, but at least now we can hopefully work together to find alternatives, with the Legislature’s input valued. Cutting the budget to increase property taxes is certainly not the way to go.”

What, then, was the right signal? Was it the right signal to continually live beyond our means? Was it the right signal to continually increase services on the backs of taxpayers? Was it the right signal to put special-interest groups -- I'm thinking here of labor, in the form of Jon Corzine's fornication-toy Carla Katz, for instance -- ahead of the ordinary, non-unionized middle-class New Jerseyan?

Assemblyman John Burzichelli (D-Gloucester/Cumberland/Salem):

“Now that we’ve heard from the acting treasurer, I’m hopeful that we can work together to solve this budget shortfall in a way that doesn’t disproportionately hit the middle-class and people less fortunate with higher property taxes and more job losses.”

I'm hopeful, too. Name a way to cut two billion dollars from the budget without doing that. Christie has. Now it's your turn. Real cuts, please.

Assemblyman Albert Coutinho (D-Essex):

“We have to work together – Democrats and Republicans, the Legislature and the governor – to protect the middle-class and poor the best we can so we create as little pain as possible. I hope we will especially rethink any illogical plan to leave federal dollars on the table when hospitals in particular are struggling and NJ FamilyCare is also in line for cuts. Gov. Christie’s cuts will have unintended consequences that hurt the state of New Jersey.”

The pain has already been caused; the addiction is fully in place. Withdrawal symptoms will happen. These were caused by Democratic control of this state. You have put us here.

You may not have intended these consequences, but they are the ones you have inflicted on us. How, then, can you snivel about unintended consequences of someone who is at least trying to wean us off of our addiction?

Assemblyman Peter J. Barnes III (D-Middlesex):

“Government must be leaner and more efficient and we must reduce costs, but Gov. Christie’s cuts would hurt middle-class families and jeopardize the education of our children. Now maybe we can cooperatively find alternatives that do otherwise.”

Interesting that in all of these statements I can't find a single way to "find alternatives." Not one.

These Democrats are simpering whining weasels. Their own words convict them. I despise them.

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Does Corzine Really Not See The Irony?

Here's the headline from BusinessWeek:

Corzine Condemns ‘Too Damn High’ New Jersey Taxes as He Exits

...and here's the lede:

New Jersey Governor Jon Corzine, making his valedictory speech to lawmakers, said the most critical issue facing them and his successor boils down to this: “Everyone’s property taxes are too damn high.”

Super. Too bad he's about four years too late. He says other good things, too, that he should have been talking about for years. But keep going:

Corzine, 63, a Democrat with a Democrat-controlled Legislature, said his single term succeeded in adding children to the ranks of state-run health care programs and expanding access to preschool even as the U.S. suffered the worst recession since World War II.

Huh? In the same speech, he's going to say that our taxes are too high and that he's proud of the way he increased our fiscal obligations during a recession?

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NJ citizens to Christie: Cut don't tax!

An amazing poll was reported on today on Philly.com (from the AP):

Most New Jersey voters surveyed say Gov.-elect Chris Christie should wield an ax and not a tax to help budget the state's budget.

A Quinnipiac University poll released Tuesday shows 75 percent of voters surveyed support a wage freeze for public employees. Even Democrats and union households back that strategy.

Sixty-one percent also support layoffs compared to 33 percent.

Sixty-eight percent say Christie should cut programs and services and 23 percent support higher taxes.

For a long time, we have listened to politicians like Jon Corzine and leading state Democrats telling us that NJ citizens will not stand for significant programs cuts. I think that this poll leaves those kinds of opinions open to serious re-interpretation. It appears that the people have finally realized that the government balance sheet has two sides, revenue (taxes) and costs (spending). We've certainly tried the tax side. About time the state paid attenntion to the spending side.

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Corzine and Obama Billboard - Keep what going?

As I am driving to Trenton today to catch and Amtrak to DC, I notice a billboard with Barack Obama in the foreground and Jon Corzine in the background. In large bold letters the billboard reads "Keep it going". That made me start to think...what is Jon Corzine trying to tell me? To understand the billboard, you must understand how Corzine or Obama define IT.

Let's take a shot from Obama's perspective:

Keep IT Going!

- does he mean New Jersey politicians voting in lockstep with you regardless of the impact on the state?
- could he mean that he wants more Acorn volunteers working in Trenton, Newark and Camden hustling "voters"?
- maybe he means NJ should keep adding more and more citizens to the roles of public assistance as jobs are driven from the state
- how about, keep the unions in charge of the state

Or from Corzine's perspective:

Keep IT Going!

- keep New Jersey as the state with the worst business climate
- keep New Jersey as the state with the highest in the nation property taxes
- Democrats in New Jersey could keep filling up the federal corruption dockets and going to jail
- Citizens in New Jersey can keep electing politicians who do not listen to their concerns and see them as a unending piggy bank for special interests
- Jon Corzine could keep paying off cronies when investigators dig into his ethics violations
- keep leading the charge to drive productive business out of the state
- pushing more and more of our citizens to states with a more family friendly tax policy
- laughing with his Democrat buddies knowing that no matter how many Democrats are arrested and jailed for corruption, they will be more to take their place!

I guess I get it after all.

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Point Pleasant Tax Revolt

I recently received a heads up from the folks at George Mason regarding this blog post by Eileen Norcross. The problem and the story are pretty clear:

Residents in Point Pleasant Beach, New Jersey have resorted to a seldom-used method to protest their mayor’s proposal to raise taxes: they want him recalled from office. The recall petition containing 1,250 signatures was approved this week, giving Mayor Vincent Barella until July 22 to mount a challenge to the motion being placed on the ballot in November.

The movement to recall Mayor Barella began in the fall, after he asked the state government permission to levy local special options taxes on beach badges, paid parking lots, and alcohol — and more controversially, proposed parking fees on all neighborhood streets — to meet the $11.5 $1.5 million gap in the borough’s budget.

I caught wind of this story when I was travelling the other day. The article is a pretty good description of what can happen when a state and municipality maintain a dysfunctional financial relationship. It is well worth the read.

More interesting inherent in the discussion is the problem between cutting spending and raising taxes. No one wants to pay more taxes. That is why Barack Obama has been so effective at neutralizing this issue by saying that the "RICH GUY" will pay the bill. But folks are finding out that even when the rich guy pays the bill, he often just passes it along to you. For example, if the pizza parlor owner on the boardwalk is asked to pay more on his taxes, he and every other pizza parlor owner is going to raise the price of pizza a dollar or two. You can feel good that you "Socked it to the rich guy" but all he did was stick it right back at you. So whether the government collects it, or business passes it on, or the rich guy moves away, someone has to pay the bill.

In addition, Point Pleasant's situation is also comical on the spending side. When the proposal to cut back on the number of the city's police, residents balk. Well, again, you can't have it both ways. Cuts mean cuts. So you either cut the force or find another way to pay for it. Norcross made an excellent point here:

An excellent solution comes from Stanley Fischer, one of the petition’s authors. The beaches and boardwalks belong to the bars, amusement parks and pavilions. To deal with the summer partygoer crowd, let the boardwalk businesses hire additional police. Good idea, and it can be taken further. Point Pleasant need only look to neighboring Seaside Heights’ Business Improvement District. There are already about 80 Special Improvement Districts in the state.

Maybe Point Pleasant is a good example of individual citizens coming together and trying to come up with some good ideas to solve real (not imagined) problems. It's a shame the congress cannot seem to do the same.

We will follow this story as it develops. Hat tip to the Public Affairs team at George Mason!

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New NJ Budget Tax Increases

As predicted here, Corzine's budget that passed this week including a partial restoration of the property tax rebate program due to increase tax amnesty collections of 500 million dollars. Rebates have continued for Seniors and are restored for those making up to 75,000 dollars per year(at a 2/3 rate). It does eliminate the rebate for renters which I never understood anyway.

From the Burlington County Times:

The recession-year budget raises $1.3 billion in new taxes on liquor, cigarettes and the wealthy. It extends a 4 percent surcharge on the corporate business tax that was to expire, and realizes $500 million by suspending rebates to renters and higher income homeowners. Republicans say all that amounts to $2.8 billion in tax increases.

The article goes on to note the increased tax on residents earning over 500,000 dollars per year. In addition, to those making over 250,000 per year, next year you cannot deduct your property taxes. For those under 250,000 per year, your property tax deduction is now capped at 5,000. Check out your tax bill, I bet many of you out there are about to get a tax increase and you don't even know it.

What is missing from this budget is cuts. Real cuts. And that is why Corzine is still doesn't get it. The only people who will get it from this budget is the citizens of New Jersey. And they are going to get it in ways they never imagined.

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Belmar Tea Party Pics!

I have to admit that the Belmar event so far has been one of my favorites
around the country. Why? I used to live at the shore and I know very well what happens when weather conditions like yesterday occur. They had 200-300 people in absolute nor-easter weather. Now that is impressive!


From citizen reporter Eileen:

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Trenton Tea Party Pics!

From citizen reporter Nicole:

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Tea Pictures Wanted!

Based on the emails we have been getting, a lot of you will be attending the tea parties around the state. I have a flight tomorrow afternoon but am going to try to get to the early part of the Trenton event to shoot pictures. If any of you bring your cameras to your local tea party and would like us to post them here at NJTaxRevolution.com, we would love to provide a forum to display them.

Send your photos to: njtaxrevolution@gmail.com

If you want to be a citizen reporter, we will include any commentary you would like to add so even if you don't have photos, let us know what you have seen and we will share it.

Also let us know if you would like attribution - First name and town is all we will share on the blog unless you wish to share more.

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The Real Meaning of the Tea Party Movement

Certain events cause you to think about what is going on in the world today and where you came from. Well over a year ago, Jake and I created this blog as a response to the New Jersey Governor and legislature's implementation of their massive sales tax increase. Early commenters treated us with a "grow up" kind of disdain. I am sure that their reasoning said that New Jersey citizens have always been apathetic to taxes and this would never change. We always believed that if people only knew the facts, they would respond and rise up against a culture of corrupt government that only serves itself and the politically connected. And never serves the taxpayer.

Fast forward almost two years. On April 15, we are likely to see a demonstration that none of us has ever experienced. You see, the tax tea party movement is not a pack of liberal professional protestors. It also is not a bunch of hippies looking to revisit the glory days of the 60's. The movement is made up of regular people who have not responded as expected to the anti-wealth rhetoric of the current administration and their liberal colleagues in the states.

I have been getting a steady stream of emails since our first posting of the tea party locations. While the comments section shows a lot of anonymous posters, these folks send us mails looking for help, offerring to volunteer and are generally disgusted by our state and the state of the federal government.

The media is trying to paint the tea party movement as a bunch of conservative kooks. It is clear to me that there is nothing kooky about what is going on. This movement is made up of honest, hard working, normal people who don't appreaciate the "changes" that we are supposed to believe in.

I think that the issue is that Americans at heart aspire to do better than their parents and even themselves. We are always striving to work hard and make sacrifices for our families. We don't resent the guy or lady in the fancy car that drives by, we strive to be that person. And we do not appreciate a president or governor that assumes that we want someone to take care of us. Thanks Barack and John, we will take care of ourselves thank you.

We all knew who brought us to this point and many of the same people who caused the current crisis are bathing in earmarks right now as a byproduct of the president's policies. Sure, Bush played a part. However, he has left the stage. What about those who would blame Bush but carry far more of the blame than he ever did? They are still on the stage, profiting from the crisis. Dodd. Frank. Schumer. Why don't they leave the stage?

And in the end, who is left holding the bag? Us. Hence the tea party movement.

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Latest Tea Party List

From Taxdayteaparty.com:

City: Belmar
When: April 15, Noon - 3:00pm
Where: 16th Avenue boardwalk

————-

City: Flemington
When: April 15, Noon - 2:00pm
Where: The northwest corner of Main Street and Court Street
Contact: flemingtonteaparty@gmail.com
Other Info: http://flemingtonteaparty.blogspot.com/
————-

City: Hackensack
When: April 15, 4:00 pm - 6:00pm
Where: Bergen County Court House, Hackensack, NJ (Court Street Side)
Contact: rratwt@optonline.net
————-

City: Jersey City
When: April 15:Cancelled
Contact: adcjul@aol.com
————-

City: Morristown
When: April 15, Noon
Where: On The Green at the center of Morristown
Contact: jeffreymw@gmail.com
Other Info: http://morristownteaparty.blogivists.com/planning-meetings/
————-

City: Newark
When: April 15, 12:00 pm
Where: Gateway Center One - 782 McCarter Highway, Newark Offices of Senator Lautenberg and Menendez conveniently located in the same building.
Other Info:Parking: 66 Edison Place, Newark
————-

City: Piscataway
When: April 15, 5:00pm
Where: Johnson Park (River Road, Piscataway Township)
Other Info:http://www.americansforprosperity.org/032409-new-jersey-tax-day-tea-party
————-

City: Trenton
When: April 15, 11:30am - 4:00pm
Where: New Jersey State House, 125 W State St
Email: bkkteaparty@gmail.com
————-

City: Vineland
When: April 15th, 1-4PM
Where: 722 E Landis Avenue, Vineland, NJ 08360
E-mail: t@thomassnow.com
Phone: 973-406-4688
Web Site: http://tomsnow.serveblog.net

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Morristown Tea Party Update 3

Two updates to the Morristown event. First is that they have a new web site for the event. You can find it at the following link:

www.MorristownTeaParty.org

They have also put out a new invite that you can send to all of your friends. The next invite reads as follows:

Are you tired of all the talk about raising your taxes by the Obama Administration and the Corzine Administration? Are you fed up with all of the corruption in government at all levels? So are we! Our group - Morristown Tea Party - will be holding a Tax Day Tea Party on April 15, 2009 at Noon on The Green in Morristown, NJ, right in the heart of the city. We will be rallying against the Obama Administration' s Porkulu$ $pending and for a return to America's core values of less spending, smaller government and self determination. We are part of a national movement which will be holding these protests on April 15.

Why did we choose The Green for this activity? Of particular importance in the history of the Green is its role in various aspects of the American Revolutionary War period, linking local history to the history of the United States as a whole. General George Washington was headquartered at the Green in Arnold's Tavern during his first encampment in Morristown (January - May, 1777), and was in town again during the winter of 1779-80. As a result, the Green was frequently the center for military and political activities related to the period, and was visited by many of the national military leaders.

We hope to see you there on April 15, 2009 at 12:00 Noon rallying for honesty, responsibility, accountability and transparency in government.

Please get in touch with myself, or our Group's point person,
Jeffrey M. Weingarten, at: 973-272-3341 or JeffreyMW@gmail.com
..
Thank you and best regards,

Remember Boston - 1773!

Peter Glenn, Media Liaison
MorristownTeaParty
(TeaPartyMorristown@yahoo.com)

Be seen on the GREEN on April 15!
(Morristown, NJ)

If you are in the area, this promises to be an excellent event. Be there or quit complaining about how bad New Jersey and the federal government are beign run.

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NJ vs NY Tax War - A battle worth losing

American's for Tax Reform had an article tuesday discussing the battle going on between NJ legislators and NY legislators. Since there is only one thing both of those esteemed groups of politicians take seriously, you can guess what the article is all about:

New York and New Jersey are locked in an epic battle. The fight: which state can raise the tax burden the highest until virtually every resident and business just leaves.

The article proceeds immediately into a depressing mode:

In mid-march, we reported on New Jersey's attempt to turn the Garden State into a depopulated ghost town by raising $1 billion in taxes on individuals, businesses, homeowners, and consumers. As a result of having raised more taxes than any other state since 2002 (a combined $22 billion), the Garden State has seen hundreds of thousands of residents flee for low tax states like Pennsylvania and Florida.

It is so sad that we in New Jersey are routinely listed in case studies as one of 4 states that you really do not want to emulate-in any category. But there was at least some good news.

In a resounding victory for fiscal imprudence, the budget will give the Empire State the worst-ranked business tax climate in the nation - stealing the number one spot away from rival New Jersey.

Read the entire article here.

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Morristown Tea Party Update!

You have all been screaming for us to update the info on Morristown. Well, you asked and the folks who are organizing the event have responded. Please follow this link to find out the details of the event.

This is going to be a very cool event at Morristown Green. They will also have Steve Lonnegan as a speaker. Sounds like a winner to me.

April 15, 2009
High Noon - On the Green
Latest:

Permission to use the Morristown Green has been granted (pending application approval)
Organizing Meeting Appointments:

Event Director: Jeff Weingarten
Secretary: Janet Cornish
Public Official Liaison: Jeff Weingarten
Media Liaison: Peter Glenn
Steve Lonegan has accepted our invitation to speak
We have an alternate venue
Next Meeting: Thursday, March 26 (Morris County Library) 7pm

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Announcement - Another Tea Party - AFP Piscataway

Our loyal readers have been asking for more tea party info. Here is another event guaranteed to be solid turnout. From American's For Prosperity:


AFP-NJ Announces Taxpayer Tea Party to Protest Gov. Corzines’s Tax Hikes, April 15

New Jersey citizens urge Corzine to reduce spending, reject stimulus money



Join AFP-NJ along with grassroots activists across the country on April 15th at 5PM for a Taxpayer Tea Party to protest Governor Corzine’s proposed tax hikes.
NJ has the worst tax climate in the nation, and yet Governor Corzine continues to rely on tax revenues to support the state’s overgrown budget. This tradition has left us poorly positioned to deal with the economic recession.
Even with the so-called stimulus funds that are coming to New Jersey-- totaling $2 billion-- Governor Corzine has introduced a FY 2010 state budget with a $7 billion deficit, and massive tax hikes to go along with it.
Governor Corzine continues to increase taxes—it is the same mistake over and over again. Taxpayers have carried the burden of these mistakes long enough-- It’s critical to fight back against this proposed budget and its tax hikes!
Urge Governor Corzine and state legislators to take the first step in mending this $7 billion deficit by cutting the size of the state budget and planning for New Jersey’s financial future.

What: Taxpayer Tea Party
Who: Americans for Prosperity
When: Wednesday, April 15, 5:00pm
Where: Johnson Park ( River Road, Piscataway Township)

For more information or to register, click here or call 201-487-8844.

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Where does the government get its money?

I cannot even believe I am writing this post but recently, polls and even some local man on the street coverage has made me rethink whether or not this is a valid post. The main driver that took me over the edge was a radio station in New York Friday had a "man on the street segment". They were asking about where the government gets the money.

One respondent said, "I know the government gets money from taxes. But they also should spend some of their own money". I found this answer unbelievable. So I thought that it would be worthwhile to review where the government gets it money.

Rules for Government Funds:

1. The government can tax citizens for funds
2. The government can tax business for funds
3. The government can borrow...against funds they tax on citizens and business
4. The government has no other source of funds EXCEPT to just print money-which as a policy must be backed by.....taxpayers.

So you see, the government has no money "OF ITS OWN". It only has your money. And if you think it is any different, you are either naive or ignorant. Either one is unacceptable in today's economic situation.

If this post has made you angry and you want to know why, please send me a private note. There is nothing here that should upset anyone and if you are upset, you need some asisstance understanding of the economics and we are perfectly happy to accomodate you.

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Corzine's (and the Democrat's) Budget Problem

Jon Corzine just submitted his version of a budget this week with apparent lukewarm support only from his Democrat cronies in the legislature. This budget is likely to dramatically decrease Corzine's approval in the state due to the dire situation of the state's finances. Corzine in his budget address on March 10 claimed that he is a champion of cutting the budget:

To that purpose, the budget I am proposing for FY 2010 totals $29.8 billion - that's $1 billion less than the first budget I presented in 2006. Stop and think about it, since 1947, every governor before me has grown spending over their four years.

With this proposal, we will have reduced spending two years in a row and will literally spend less than in the first budget I presented in 2006. This isn't a matter of debate or nuance. It's a fact.

Let's examine this statement. He compared his drop in spending to the budget he submitted in 2006. For those of you who believe that facts should trump malarkey (I used that word in preparation for St Patrick's Day), here is the budget statement for the budget he submitted in 2006:

Governor Jon S. Corzine’s proposed Fiscal 2007
Budget seeks to restore fiscal integrity to the State
of New Jersey. This $30.9 billion Budget is an
important first step in a multi-year process to
reestablish prudent fiscal management. A
fundamental principle reflected throughout this
Budget is that we, as a State, must pay the bills for
the current operations of State government. We
cannot continue to defer the costs of our decisions
to future generations, or even until next year. This
simple practice of matching current expenditures
with current revenues has been missing from State
budgets for too long.

So, truth check one is on track. But what about the budget that acting Governor Codey submitted in 2006? Shouldn't that have some relevance on "Governor Spending Cut"? This is from the Budget brief for 2006:

Acting Governor Codey’s $27.4 billion proposed Fiscal
2006 Budget is an honest and responsible budget that
has State government living within its means and meets
the challenge of reining in government spending while
at the same time not recommending any increase in the
sales tax or income tax rates. Despite nearly a billion
dollars in increases for mandatory entitlements, the
proposed budget is $614 million, or 2.2%, below the
$28 billion budget enacted in fiscal 2005. In contrast,
the Fiscal 2005 Budget actually increased spending by
17% from the year before. In fact, the reduction
proposed for fiscal 2006 is the largest spending cut in
State history, both on a percentage basis and in its
amount.

So the real facts are that Governor Corzine is proposing spending 2.4 Billion dollars more than the budget that Codey submitted before he became Governor. And those were much better times than today. So Corzine while claiming the mantle of a spendthrift, is lying through his teeth. He raised spending 3 billion dollars his first year in office and now pats himself on the back for not getting anywhere near what Codey did as temporary Governor the year before he took office. I cannot consider this rhetoric or nuance, Mr Governor. You are dishonest.

Another dishonest portrayal is the claims about how the prior Republican Governor ran the state into the ground. Here is Christie Todd Whitman's final budget brief:

The total budget recommended by the Governor for
fiscal 2001 is $21.253 billion, an increase of $1.278
billion, or 6.4%, over the current year. Over the
seven budgets of the Whitman Administration, the
annual growth in appropriations has averaged 4.5%.
This compares to 6.3% in the prior administration.

Let's summarize what we have gotten from Corzine and McGreevey and their Democratic counterparts. Budgets that have grown from 21.2 billion dollars to 30 billion dollars. That represents growing the budget of this state 150% in the 8 years they have been in office. Our taxes are out of control and the only thing that has grown in the state are corruption arrests for New Jersey politicians (mostly Democrats) and the state workforce.

This Governor and legislature could have made an effort to get spending under control. They could have created a rainy day fund in good times to protect the state from economic downturn. They could have exhibited at least a semblance of fiscal self control. But they haven't. And we continue to pay for it.

And now, as the Governor tries to claim that flat lining spending increases will balance a budget devastated by the personal misfortune of many Wall Street "Rich People" that Corzine likes to point to when he is ginning up his class warfare act, he is being dishonest once again. And guess who is going to pay the price?

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Corzine Tax Increase on All of NJ

The Governor announced his budget plan yesterday. He made a point to be Obama'esque by citing the global economic condition rather than his own mismanagement for the poor state of NJ's economy. As a matter of fact, he tried to balance the "i inherited the problem (from his Democrat counterpart?) with the economic situation. He proudly spewed Obama by announcing tax increases on those making more than $500,000 per year as if everyone didn't expect there was more to his populist pap.

Well there was. He quietly announced a proposal to not only eliminate the rebate program for everyone but seniors thereby increasing taxes on most of the homeowners int he state, he also announced the elimination of the deduction for mortgage interest in income taxes. I caught this last night and alerted Jake but I didnt get a change to do the research before the folks at NJ.com did commenting on the budget.

That could translate into a double whammy for non-senior homeowners earning between $75,000 and $150,000. Not only would they lose their rebate, they would also miss out on hundreds of dollars in savings from the deduction.

A homeowner earning $95,000, for example, would not only lose a $1,000-plus rebate. Scrapping the property tax deduction would take away another $350 or so, according to state figures.

But that isnt all:

According to income tax data from 2006, the most recent available, there were 469,300 tax returns in the $80,000- to $150,000-income bracket. Those taxpayers had an average savings of $356 from the deduction. The average savings was $175 for the 258,500 tax returns in the $50,000 to $70,000 range.

The proposed budget would offer rebates averaging $900 for non-seniors earning less than $50,000 annually, and checks averaging $700 for non-seniors making between $50,000 and $75,000.

Last year, Corzine's budget included rebates averaging $665 for households earning $100,000 to $150,000. Households earning up to $100,000 received checks averaging $1,115.

So guess what all of you New Jersey resident who voted for hope and change and a new way of doing things? You voted for a middle class tax cut that apparently amounts to $13.00 per month for most people. Review this post and you will realize that thanks to your Obama loving Governor, you are already in the hole by quite a large margin. You thought it was the OTHER GUY who was going to be taxed.

You were wrong.

Read the entire article here.

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Corzine: "We're going to fight to hold our education funding"

Thank you, Jon Corzine! Even when times are tough, we should avoid reducing our expenditures on education.

Except he's playing the typical bureaucratic trick: the fight to hold our education funding is actually a fight to expand it by a third of a billion dollars.

Budget troubles endanger $350M preschool plan
Delaying expansion of programs would be last resort, Corzine says
Thursday, October 30, 2008
BY DUNSTAN McNICHOL
Star-Ledger Staff

Mounting state budget troubles may force New Jersey to delay plans for a $350 million expansion of public preschool programs, but such a move would be a last resort, Gov. Jon Corzine told a convention of school board members yesterday.

"We're going to fight to hold our education funding," Corzine told about 500 delegates at the New Jersey School Boards Association's annual workshop in Atlantic City. "That doesn't mean there won't be any cuts. That doesn't mean there won't be any freezes. But it means it will be the last thing on the table."

This is just another example of the Nanny State -- literally, in this case -- expanding even in the face of catastrophic fiscal burdens in the state.

"But wait," you say, "I thought we had to fund pre-K programs for needy students."

You're right, we do, because of Abbot v. Burke. But this gluttonous expansion isn't part of that ruling:

Part of the new school funding formula enacted last year, Corzine's plan would be the state's biggest expansion of preschool for low-income students since the state Supreme Court's Abbott vs. Burke rulings, which ordered universal pre-kindergarten in 31 of the poorest districts.

The plan would take the court rulings a step further and order similar preschool for all low-income students, wherever they live. Depending on the numbers, districts would be required to establish the preschool themselves or contract with outside centers to provide the service for eligible students. The state would pay the tab and estimated 17,000 more students would be served as the program is phased in over six years at an eventual cost of $350 million. [Emphasis added.]

So this isn't court-mandated, it's a Corzine pet project.

Jon Corzine wants to add $350,000,000 in spending. Not expanding the budget will be the last thing on the table.

My jaw drops. It makes me wonder what it's like to be inside Corzine's head.

Well, let me try. He thinks that higher tolls will solve budgetary problems, right? So maybe I should think of it this way: It currently costs $6.45 to go from exit 18W to exit 1 on the Turnpike, so we're talking about 54,263,566 trips down the whole length of the Turnpike. Since we're already using all of the current money from the Turnpike, we'd have to increase the number of trips on the Turnpike by that much.

Somehow I don't feel better.

But I'm still not thinking enough like Corzine. After all, he wants to octuple our tolls. If he did that, each trip would cost $51.60, which would only be 6,782,946 trips.

Now that's a much smaller number. What a relief! And since he'd be forcing most people off of the Turnpike and Parkway, we'd see a massive improvement in our statewide carbon footprint, too! See? Win/win!

I'm trying, people, but I still don't see how he forces himself to ignore the fact that increasing the price of using the Turnpike will reduce peoples' willingness to use it. How does he ignore basic laws of supply and demand?

His mind must be the opposite of his budget: flexible, focused, and disciplined.

My own school superintendent gets mentioned in the piece, too:

Jerry Tarnoff, superintendent of West Orange schools, said he was encouraged that Corzine suggested the preschool funding would only be cut as a last resort. "I am pleased he would like to commit to full funding," said Tarnoff. "Anything less, if the program were to go forward, would make it extremely difficult for the local taxpayers."

Now, Jerry's a smooth politician, and I don't think he would say anything that would irritate Corzine unnecessarily. But look at what he's saying: if the program were to go forward, and the state didn't pay for it, it would be a serious burden for local taxpayers.

So there's the threat of an unfunded mandate to the towns that would increase taxes substantially, whether the towns like it or not.

And I have another question: if it would be a serious burden for local taxpayers to pay for this, who would be burdened if the state funded it?

Those rich guys in Mendham, I guess. To hell with them, though. If they can afford to live near Whitney Houston's birthplace, they should pay for the pre-K programs in West Orange and Edison and Camden. And I hear Neil Cavuto lives there! For Pete's sake, if a Fox News anchor lives in New Jersey, he should pay twice what the ordinary citizen does!

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Soak the Rich, Take the Risk

This article shows another reason that we shouldn't soak the rich:

The first person to testify, Rutgers economist James Hughes, confirmed the grim possibilities facing the Garden State. "A sharp economic rebound is not in the cards," Hughes said. "We still have a lot of pain to go through."

Forty percent of New Jersey's income tax is paid by the wealthiest 1 percent of residents, Hughes said, and under the "worst-case scenario" the state could see its income-tax collection drop by 13 percent or so in the wake of Wall Street cutbacks.

So the rich people who live in New Jersey and work on Wall Street are paying for the nanny state. The people become dependent on the nanny state. But when there's an economic shock concentrated on Wall Street (not an unheard of event, right, guys?) the rich people lose their money, stop paying taxes, and make it impossible for the nanny state to support the people who became dependent on it during good times.

"Progressive" overtaxation of the rich sucks for everyone.

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NJ spending is fixed by courts? So fix the courts.

In this article in the CourierPostOnline, Sharon Schulman discusses the budget options available to New Jersey legislators. Her point is that there are not too many options available to cut:

There is no magic bullet that allows a governor or legislature to give us property-tax relief without creating pain elsewhere. They are constrained by the nearly 75 percent of the state budget that is fixed and cannot be touched. So in a $30 billion budget, $21.5 billion is fixed and cannot be cut. The idea of cutting the state budget 10 percent really only means cutting 10 percent of $8.5 billion -- not from $30 billion. A brief look at the 75 percent of the state budget that is fixed shows us that 60 percent is mandated programs and results of court decisions. They include:

Medicaid

State labor contracts, including contractual commitments to provide health care and other benefits

Court-supervised child welfare reform

Court-ordered spending in Abbott districts

Debt service payments

Great points all. So here we go with suggestions.

1. Our supreme court in New Jersey is frankly a political patronage mill. These people are not exceptional jurists. They are partisan appointees. So what to do?

-Fight the Abbott ruling and have the legislature refuse to follow the courts. New York did and and was successful in getting the payments down and under control.

2. Medicaid rules do not specify all of what should be covered and by what amount. Re-evaluate the New Jersey exposure and cut it to the median of the 50 states expenditure per person.

3. Revisit state labor contracts. Situations change and with a state that is closing in on bankruptcy, everything should be on the table. If the unions won't meet halfway, maybe the citizens will see that only those of us in the private sector are expected to take a hit in bad times. And the result of that will be a taxpayer revolt.

4. Stop borrowing. While the current administration bemoans debt service, they decided to borrow another 3.9 BILLION dollars. Stop it.

These changes would immediatelry have an impact on the budget and the care and feeding of corrupt patronage feeder systems in New Jersey. If EVERYTHING is on the table, then changes can happen.

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Lautenberg up in polls and NJ residents just don't get it!

From this article in Newsday:

A new poll shows incumbent U.S. Sen. Frank Lautenberg enjoys a comfortable lead over Republican challenger Dick Zimmer heading into the fall election season.

The Fairleigh Dickinson-PublicMind poll has Lautenberg up by 11 percent, with the low-key Zimmer still struggling to get his name known to the electorate.

Here is what I don't get:

1. Lautenberg has frankly presided over the largest decrease in net return of federal taxpayer dollars to NJ residents in history.

No one cares.

2. Lautenberg is one of the leaders of the Democrat party that has had more that 100 of its elected officials convicted of public corruption in the last four years.

No one cares.

3. NJ keep debating gun rights and abortion in our state elections, neither of which matters in the live of many NJ residents. Issues that do matter like taxes, standard of living, education and government spending never get discussed.

No one cares.

4. NJ residents pay more taxes that any other state.

No one cares.

5. NJ has experienced the largest outflow of business and people of any state in the country EXCEPT Michigan in the past four years.

No one cares.

6. The Democratic legislature is only capable of spending more of residents money and enacting meaningless legislation (slavery apology).

No one cares.

7. Both Democrat and Republican apologists for the status quo have no ideas, no answers, no ethics and no action plan to change anything.

And no one cares.

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NJ Taxes - What's up with that dude?

In this humorous spoof letter in the Tri-Town News, we get an equal comedy treatment on the two candidatates.

You'd no doubt like to go first this week, so you could pole ax me with the fact that John McCain couldn't remember how many houses he has, in answer to a question by some smart-aleck reporter. Could be seven, maybe more, and he suggested that nosy reporters check with his staff.

That's the only problem with marrying a beer distributor heiress who is worth $100 million. You forget about little things, like houses.

But he doesn't hold his fire just to McCain.

I think it's funny when the pundits try to contrast McCain's houses with man-of- thepeople Barack Obama, living in hardscrabble Hyde Park in Chicago, scrimping by on $4 million a year, in a $1.5 million mansion. Poor Barack. I bet he had to split rails to buy that house. Now there's a guy who can relate to my predicament!

But the real joke in this article is the following slam on New Jersey:

I bet you folks in New Jersey - which, congratulations, just moved into the No. 1 spot in the annual Tax Foundation survey of total tax load by state - have no problem remembering how many houses you own.

What I can't figure out is why you keep electing Democrats. Every map I see shows New Jersey as blue as blue can be. Do you really think tax-raising Barack Obama is going to make things better in New Jersey? You're not buying that crock, are you, Old Pal ? At least the Republicans have the common decency to lie to you about not raising taxes. The Democrats won't even make the effort to lie! What' s up with that, dude?

Yeah. What IS up with that?

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Give This Non-Profit More Profits!

What would you do with 7.7 million dollars?

Are your property and state taxes going up by 13%?

The questions are related, and you should be outraged.

Let's put ourselves in Governor Corzine's mindset by reading what he said in his Governor's Statement to the FY09 Budget (many links in this post are in PDF). Emphasis in this text block is mine, to highlight things I'll talk about later.

The $32.87 billion budget I signed today makes a clear turn towards long-term fiscal responsibility, rather than continuing the past practices of pushing tough budget choices off until the future.

The Fiscal Year (FY) 2009 budget makes an unprecedented cut of $600 million from the budget I signed last year, the largest absolute reduction in State history. It relies on nearly $3 billion of actions to reduce spending to offset the mandatory and inflationary growth in the budget in order to achieve the overall $600 million reduction.

This budget reduces the size and cost of government and allocates necessary reductions in a fair and equitable manner....

In February, when I delivered an austere budget message for Fiscal Year 2009, I stated that we were facing a structural gap of approximately $3.2 billion between our expected revenues...and our anticipated spending..., based on mandatory spending and inflationary increases....

In May, the State Treasurer updated the revenue and spending projections and announced an additional gap of approximately $200 million between spending and revenues. This increased structural gap again was closed primarily with spending reductions and adjustments to areas of the budget that were projected to increase. The most important of those new reductions came from our paydown of $650 million of debt, allowing a decrease of spending on debt service by $135 million.

This budget reduces the cost of State government by nearly $300 million...In this regard, the budget provides for a reduction in the operating funds for every Executive Branch department. Departmental budgets have been directly reduced by approximately $184 million, or by an average of about 5% each.

That $7.7MM I mentioned is .02% of the total budget, or 0.24% of the expected gap in revenues.

It's 1% of the $650MM debt paydown, and 5.7% of the amount that we pay just to service our debt.

It's 2.6% of the $300MM that Corzine cut out of the state budget, and 4% of the departmental budget cuts.

What if you really wanted to spend the $7.7MM instead of using it to be fiscally responsible by paying down debt?

Well, despite the Governor's claims of austerity, there are places in the budget with net increases. He says that the budget "protects vital programs" such as "property tax relief and school funding" and "vital programs that improve public safety, protect vulnerable citizens, and otherwise meet the needs of the citizens of this State."

Like what, you ask? Please note that I am not, for the purposes of this post, arguing against any of the following allocations:

• $2 million for the purchase of 250 new state trooper vehicles


• $3.5 million for a new State Police recruit training class that will graduate approximately 100 new troopers


• $8 million for an expansion of the NJ FamilyCare program


• $12.5 million to DDD to provide community residential placements and home-based services to persons on the Community Services Waiting List


• $15 million to Division of Mental Health Services for housing and support services for 200 people currently residing at five state mental health hospitals and 100 clients currently living in the community


• $15.5 million to annualize placement and day program costs for 100 developmental center clients transitioned in FY 2008.


• $24 million for the Division of Developmental Disabilities (DDD) to transition 125 clients from the seven state developmental centers into community residential placements and day programs


• $52.5 million for the State Rental Assistance Program, $19 million of which will continue support to 2,100 currently subsidized families and $15 million of which will provide vouchers for 1,500 additional families


• $60 million as an additional subsidy to NJ Transit, a 20% increase from the $298.2 million subsidy in FY 2008.

And "vital programs" like Planned Parenthood Federation of America, which received 7,700,000 dollars from the State of New Jersey. Not only did they get to keep their money, they got an increase of a quarter-million dollars from the state.

This is completely free money to them, by the way, because they're a tax exempt organization.

Planned Parenthood's annual report says that they have excess funds to the tune of one hundred fifteen million dollars ($114,800,000), while you're being asked to cope with property tax increases because Governor Corzine wants to pay them eight million dollars ($8,000,000) that he won't give to municipalities.

Don't take my word for it. Download the annual report and take a look at page 14, where it shows Government Grants and Contracts at $337MM (one-third of their operating budget), excess of revenue over expenses at $115MM, and an increase in net assets year over year from $839MM to $951MM, or 13%.

Is the 13% profit that Planned Parenthood had this year more or less than the increase in your property taxes?

This is the "clear turn towards long-term fiscal responsibility", the "unprecedented cut of $600 million", the "mandatory and inflationary growth", an allocation of "necessary reductions in a fair and equitable manner", an "austere budget".

Register your disgust with your assemblymen and state senators, and send a message to the governor here. This was my message:

I understand that almost $8MM is allocated in the state budget for Planned Parenthood, an organization that has profits of $115MM. I further understand that this is an increase of almost a quarter-million dollars from the FY08 budget. This funding should be cut completely, immediately, rather than allow to grow.

At a time when we claim to be working in austerity conditions, and when we are talking about additional taxes being placed on industry to make up shortfalls, and when property taxes are rising to compensate for decreased state subsidies, it's unconscionable that we provide corporate welfare to any organization such that they have excess money and we citizens do not.

Thank you.
Jake Freivald
[Address redacted]

Full disclosure: I hate Planned Parenthood and am firmly pro-life. But this is something that you should be outraged at regardless of your position on abortion.

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Zimmer hold Lautenberg Accountable

For far too long, Senator Frank Lautenberg has been happy to thoroughly trash his opponents whether they are Democrats or Republicans. His engine to spew slime is as well known as the corrupt tactics that put him in office the second time around after his corrupt predecessor was forced to withdraw he bid for re-election. But in a response to an editorial, Dick Zimmer took some serious shots at Lautenberg record in this article from the Dailyrecord.com:

Our incumbent Sen. Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J., certainly has never agreed with your contention that the gap between what New Jersey sends to Washington and what we get back is a phony issue. Back in 1982, when he first ran for the Senate, he complained that we ranked 45th out of the 50 states in the percentage of our tax dollars we got back from Washington and promised that he would change it. He certainly did. As your editorial correctly notes, we now rank dead last among all 50 states, a position we have held for many years. We currently receive back only 61 cents for every dollar we send to Washington.

These are serious words from a congressman with a solid track record of fiscal responsibility. While he will likely be completely sullied throughout this process by the Lautenberg machine, we shouldn't ignore some of the facts that represent our current Senator's record. Lautenberg will try to make this about Zimmers record while refusing to talk about his own. But he has one.

Lautenberg has not only failed New Jerseyans on the money we get from Washington, but he has failed us on the taxes we send there as well. He opposed the tax cuts of 2001 and 2003 on the grounds that they benefit the "rich." But, because New Jerseyans' incomes are relatively high, our state benefited from those tax cuts 33 percent more per capita than the nation as a whole. In fact, 3.4 million New Jersey tax payers saw savings because of the cuts. If Lautenberg had his way, and those tax cuts never went into effect, the return on each dollar we paid in taxes would not have been 61 cents; it would have been only 58 cents. Yet, Lautenberg wants to repeal most of those tax cuts.

This piece is a must read. Let's take Senator Lautenberg to task for once.

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Daily Record Letter - Little hope for this corrupt state

Every so often you see something that speaks completely for itself. The following is a letter to the editor of the Daily Record that really sums up the state of things in New Jersey. It is printed in its entirety.

To the editor:

Wednesday's Daily Record contained what was practically an inventory list of what's going wrong in New Jersey. In a single day, the following items appeared:

• The state, already up to its eyeballs in debt, borrows more money for school construction after previously running through billions for the same purpose without achieving the stated goals of that funding. Much of that money disappeared, unaccounted for.

• With great fanfare, Gov. Jon Corzine signs legislation to expand state level government-funded health insurance coverage. The fact that Jersey is broke seems of no consideration.

• Corzine expresses his desire to further expand government-funded health insurance to achieve universal health insurance. Again, the fact that Jersey is deeply in debt seems of no consequence to him or his party.

• Several hundred jobs left New Jersey from the pharmaceutical industry, supposedly a crucial employment sector for the state.

Days like that leave little hope for a turnaround in this mismanaged, corrupt state.

John Rice

Morristown

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Democrats Don't Really Believe in Conservation

Suppose you have a limited resource. More is available, but you'd have to take measures that have have a risk (though only a risk) of ill effects to get it. It would take some time for the good effects to occur -- the world doesn't react instantaneously to a policy change -- but everyone in your state depends on it, and currently available alternatives are minimal and have not shown signs of increasing radically.

If you're a New Jersey Democrat and the resource is oil, you don't care: the stuff is staying where it is.

Drilling also would yield little oil, take at least a decade to bear fruit and do nothing to bring down gasoline prices, said U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez, D-N.J.

"It makes little or no sense to most of us to be drilling on the Outer Continental Shelf anywhere, but particularly in the Atlantic and the mid-Atlantic. ... in specific," Gov. Jon S. Corzine said. "I think it's a nonstarter strategy."

"What we need to do is be moving to alternative energies and most importantly, conservation," he said.

But oil isn't the only precious resource that could be extracted from New Jersey. Remember, the second speaker here is the same Governor Corzine who wanted to spend a dozen years octupling our tolls. (A gallon of gas would cost $32 if we increased its prices proportionally.) That would have taken a decade to extract the money from us, it would have damaging effects on our economic climate, and it would have done nothing to bring down the price of government.

Yet "conservation" of this precious and limited resource, our money, is the last thing on their minds.

And consider: speculation helps drive the price of gasoline. Drilling now could shift markets. The speculation that comes from drilling would help New Jersey. But speculation about tax increases would hurt New Jersey by driving business and people away. You only have to look one state over to see proof, where a pro-business governor is helping a neighboring state drain our people and our jobs.

So yes, Democrats and Republicans alike, on the demand side, let's conserve both oil and money. Drive less (especially in gas guzzlers if you don't need them) and spend less (especially in cases where there's no immediate social benefit). And on the supply side, let's make more of each, oil and money, available for the public to use.

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How Screwed Up Do We Need To Be?

Read this article from the Star-Ledger. Take particular note of a few passages:

New Jersey is struggling with more than $32 billion in state debt, the third-highest in the country. All but $3 billion was issued without voter backing.

And then this:

The state constitution already says voters must approve borrowing, but lawmakers routinely have dodged the requirement by authorizing quasi-state agencies to issue billions in debt, and promising to repay it through the state budget.

Got that? According to the state constitution, 90% of our bloated debt slips through a loophole to survive, like Teddy Kennedy escaping his seatbelt at Chappaquiddick.

But apparently we're idiots, because we'll listen to people who tell us things like this:

Critics of the amendment [to require the approval of voters to issue new debt] say it would sap power from legislators elected to make intricate decisions, and turn complex borrowing schemes into yes-or-no issues vulnerable to voters' snap judgments.

"Simple bumper-sticker politics do not lend themselves to (that) kind of decision-making," said Steve Wollmer, spokesman for the powerful New Jersey Education Association teachers union. "It would really limit or potentially cripple the state's ability to make timely investments for the public good."

Of course, by "voters' snap judgments" Mr. Wollmer means "the democratic process". But maybe he has a point: maybe democracy is overrated. It's the same voters' snap judgments that got Jim McGreevey and Richard Codey into office, after all.

Mr. Wollmer thinks that the democratic process should be circumvented for "the public good". I don't know how good his math is -- he's a spokesman for the NJEA, after all, and they don't really focus much on quality education -- but New Jersey has 8,724,560 people and thirty-two billion dollars ($32,000,000,000) in debt. That means that the state owes $3668 for each man, woman, and child in New Jersey. That debt load is not in "the public good". The attitude of Mr. Wollmer and fellows like him is not in the public good.

A government living within its means? That's practically the definition of "the public good".

Richard Codey disagrees because we might be "tying a future governor's and Legislature's hands" should a need for emergency borrowing arise. But like former president Clinton meeting the Razorback cheerleaders, their hands should be tied, and for the same reason -- to stop them from grabbing everything they can get their hands on.

The problem is not that I want to prevent noble men and women to be unable to lead our state through difficult times, but that most of our state legislators are neither noble nor leaders. Codey says, "There are times when you'd need to do it and do it right away and not necessarily wait for an election," and I agree -- but now's not the time.

Not when Richard Codey thinks that there shouldn't be a democracy-based check on public spending.

Not when our so-called leaders have shown themselves incapable of knowing when they should borrow and when they shouldn't.

Not when they circumvent our constitutional process and issue eleven times more debt than they are allowed to.

Not when the State Supreme Court has "ruled the state could continue to issue bonds through its authorities without asking voters first."

That last fact is particularly galling. The ruling came in 2003. "The justices in the minority," the article says, "said the decision essentially killed the clause in the constitution giving voters control," which provides us with One More Example of a liberal court undermining a constitution. In an understatement to tell your grandkids about, Seton Hall University political scientist Joseph Marbach says, "The fact that we need a constitutional amendment to tell the court what the constitution says is also a little bit troubling."

We're in a budget crisis that makes Governor Corzine want to octuple our tolls, shut down hospitals, and provide fiscal responsibility (in the form of increased taxes for outdoor projects). How bad does it need to get before we stop spending money on superfluous certificates for veterans? How screwed up do we have to be as a state before we stop providing handouts to artists? How screwed up do we need to be before they stop spending our money -- and our kids' money, and our grandkids' money?

How screwed up do we need to be before we stop allowing these guys to destroy our state?

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Republicans submit budget proposal-Corzine Scoffs

Why is it that when politicians like Jon Corzine talk about working in a bipartisan way, he usually means that everyone needs to capitulate to his poor tax and spending plans. NJ Republicans submitted their budget plan yesterday(from Philly.com):

The Republican proposal would restore $375 million in property-tax rebates and $150 million in municipal aid, provide $500 million for transportation and allow $195 million to be restored to what they consider "unfair" cuts, which may include charity care to hospitals and co-payments for Medicaid. It would also reduce spending from the governor's proposal by $100 million.

The money would come from a variety of sources, including massive cuts to "special municipal aid," the poorly defined state grants that were the subject of criticism in a recent state auditor's report; smaller increases for former Abbott school districts; reforming the state's procedures for procuring goods and services; increasing the retirement age for many government employees from 60 to 62, and calculating a state employee's pension based on salary in the last five years of service instead of the last three.

Of course the devil is in the details and we will review them in detail later. However, Corzine's response is typical is his spoiled rich guy approach to most everything:

"Republicans are following in the footsteps of their predecessors by talking about spending money and restoring cuts without offering any legitimate way to pay for them," Corzine said. "This is all make-believe math. This is the same sort of gimmickry and trickery that has put the state in the fiscal mess we now find ourselves trying deal with."

Governor, what do you call make-believe math? It has been clearly shown that changing the retirement age would make a huge difference in the pension obligation of the state. And also, that it is much more difficult for municipal employees to load up their pay with overtime when they need to do it for 5 years instead of three.
That is real math. The make-believe part is YOUR unwillingness to stand up to the special interests that are protecting the municipal workers and would bankrupt the state before offering a single concession. Your leadership is what is "make-believe".

I was actually impressed with Comrade Roberts:

Assembly Speaker Joseph J. Roberts, Jr. (D., Camden) was less negative, but also noncommittal.

"Every item on the Republicans' list deserves to be fully vetted for feasibility and potential impact on the state's long-term bottom line," Roberts said. "Democrats and Republicans alike are committed to delivering a final budget that makes government at all levels more accountable and will make the state more affordable. No idea that potentially could help New Jersey's taxpayers will be rejected out-of-hand."

Specifically, Roberts noted that, like the Republicans, he hopes to replace "gimmicky" property-tax rebate checks with direct property-tax credits, which should be less expensive to administer.

Here's to the hope that this proposal starts the process of getting the budget under control and stops the "where can we tax next" cycle we seem to have been in for the past 4 months.

Read the entire article here.

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New requirement for spending politicians: I want YOUR permission to spend YOUR money on...

For far too long, our local state and federal politicians have gotten away with language that is really not truthful when dealing with the voters. For example, Governor Corzine last year said the following when suggesting new spending for stem cell research:

“New Jersey continues to forge ahead as a pioneer in stem cell research and discovery,” said Governor Corzine. “This ballot initiative represents a landmark economic investment that will create new jobs and spur new business ventures while bringing the potential of revolutionary life-saving treatments and cures to millions afflicted by some of the most devastating diseases and injuries."

If the governor was truthful he would have said:

We are asking YOU, the voter to write a check for our good idea that we think MIGHT help sick people get better. We will take YOUR check and give it to commercial business enterprises so that they will come here instead of another state and do this. Your initial deposit will only cover startup cost as this is going to cost a lot of money over time that YOU will have to pay as our state government doesn't make any money on its own. AS a matter of fact, because we routinely borrow money without asking YOU (even though the state constitution says we can't), we need additional money from YOU to pay interest. In addition, YOU should understand that in order to spend YOUR money, we will be giving jobs to other people to work for state government that will make sure that YOUR money will be spend the way WE want it and isn't wasted too much. These state workers will get generous retirement pensions that YOU are not eligible for because YOU earn YOUR money in the private sector even though YOU pay every cent that goes into these plans. These new state workers will get cars because we have suggested placing these stem cell labratories all over the state to reward our political friends in various locations. These cars will be paid for by YOU as well as the gas that goes in them.

And just so we are clear, this message is to EVERY PERSON IN OUR STATE! We aren't asking just the rich guys for this, we are asking EVERYONE. You will write us a check and even if we rebate some back to YOU, it will be a tiny fraction of what YOU paid us. Isn't that a great idea? Won't YOU support us?

Why don't politicians speak like this? You know why. Because not one of these wonderful programs would every be approved. So next time you hear Hillary speak about Universal Healthcare, Obama speak about his Green Energy Sector or John McCain about Amnesty for Illegal Aliens, translate the word investment to 'you will write a check to pay for it'. And every time a politician tells you that 'someone else' is paying the bill, replace those words with 'I am a liar who is telling you this so you are fooled into believing that someone else is paying the bill even though it is really you'.

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Why Business is Fleeing the State

It's like watching a car wreck in slow motion.

Yep. And he (Paul Mulshine) gives a very nice summary of how the wheels have been coming off.

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A Water Tax? What's next, a tax on air?

I have a picture in my head of the room where New Jersey Senators deliberate. Instead of wood paneling I see balloons and lots of sparkling streamers. Instead of suits I see red noses and floppy shoes. The senators are loaded with whoopee cushions, buzzer rings and squirting flowers.

Overheard during today's debate:

We could raise tolls 1,000 percent!

Bah How about 10,000 percent!!!! (to raucous laughter)

I got a better one...we could tax greasy food to penalize the oil companies!

Here Here!!! (loud applause)

How about a tax on how many blades of grass in your lawn! (out of control laughter)

That will really stick it to the home owning suckers! And we can give a rebate to anyone who doesn't have a yard, grass or any plants. (rolling on the floor)

I got a better one, how about we tax water... (stop it stop it, I can't take it anymore)

From the Associated Press and Forbes 1 hour ago:

A Senate committee on Thursday debated a proposed constitutional amendment that would dedicate $150 million annually be raised from a proposed new water tax to farmland and open space preservation in the nation's most densely populated state.

Voters would decide whether to approve the amendment during the November election, if three-fifths of both legislative houses this year approve sending it to voters.

Sen. Bob Smith said the tax would charge 40 cents per 1,000 gallons of water, equating to $32 per year for the average household.

Maybe when the Barnum and Bailey Circus comes to town this week, we could keep them and load the legislature into the trucks to go to the next location....

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NY Times thinks NJ Legislators are timid!

In a silly opinion piece in the New York Times, the time took the position that Governor Corzine is brave, has done nothing to cause the state's current budget problems and his being saddled with a timid legislature:

Gov. Jon Corzine of New Jersey has thrown in the towel in his four-month effort to persuade the State Legislature to reduce his state’s colossal debt by sharply raising turnpike and parkway tolls. The Legislature, which does not share his sense of urgency, gave him no choice. Despite its merits, the plan had little support from Republicans or the Democrats, who control both legislative houses.

This puff opinion piece is startling in its complete lack of any real information to justify the position the paper is taking. The Times bright idea...raise taxes:

Though the fiscal mess is not of Mr. Corzine’s making, he must come back with an alternative. Our own suggestion is that he reconsider his opposition to raising the state’s gas tax. This may seem counterintuitive with gas prices climbing and politicians everywhere talking about lowering gas taxes, but New Jersey’s levies are among the country’s lowest.

The paper fails to mention that the gas tax is the only piece of taxation that the legislators have failed to raise over the past 10 years. With a constant drumbeat of political bosses serving special interests at the cost of New Jersey taxpayers, residents have driven to a position where they pay the highest overall taxes in the country.

I am actually surprised that this wasn't on the front page. It matches the normal amount of research and bias we have come to expect from the famous newspaper with the collapsing readership. What the paper ignores is that the reason legislators are lukewarm to Corzine's proposals is that he plainly said that he isn't prepared to play scrooge on spending. That tells everyone in government that he isn't serious and won't be left holding the bad when the citizens say enough is enough.

While the Times credits Corzine's 'gumption', they should be calling him on his political cowardice and outright incompetence.

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NJ Lawmakers consider Taco Bell Tax - Losers

I can barely comment on this one. The article is here.

Even in this state and given everything that has continued to occur with poor decisions by the Governor and legislators. But now, my only conclusion is that these people are so out of touch that they are not recoverable. How can you proceed from their normal script that we will 'soak the rich guy and give money to the little guy' to 'ok, the little guy is a loser and we will tax him too'.

sorry. This one is way too over the top. Wake up New Jersey.

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Hamilton Township Residents Revolt - Elections apparently don't matter

From today's Trentonian:

HAMILTON — A taxfighters’ showdown is in the wind. You can’t see it in the bounce of tumble weed, hear it in the jangle of spurs or smell it in the nervous sweat.

But you can sure feel the heat of its anger as you read of its coming in The Trentonian’s BackTalk.

BackTalk has been flooded this week with dozens of reactions to the state’s invalidation of taxpayers’ stunning rejection Tuesday of the Hamilton Township school district’s $170 million budget.

Every single BackTalker expressed outrage that the state Department of Education would disrespect such a fundamental form of hometown, American democracy.

It was as if nearly 6,000 votes, pro and con, vanished in a digital nanosecond at the behest of bureaucratic fiat.

The story line is simple. The township has experienced some of the highest tax increases in the state due to poor fiscal management. There was a school budget election. The residents overwhelmingly turned it down and wanted deeper cuts. The state has now nullified the election.

Welcome to the state of New Jersey. If you can't beat 'em, cheat 'em.

Read the entire article here.

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Adults in office - Hamilton Township

Finally, a government entity in the state showing some adult leadership and attacking the problem of out of control spending. From today's Trentonian:

HAMILTON — The township plans to lay off 30 municipal employees, demote 20 more and eliminate 10 positions through attrition — all to save taxpayers a total of $3 million, the administration announced yesterday.

As expected, most of the layoffs are coming from departments dealing with the slumping housing market so municipal services are not expected to be seriously curtailed. The demotions, officials said, are geared to reduce the number of higher-paid supervisors.

And how did the township get into a situation where they had to take measures like these? The previous administration (Democrat) completely mismanaged the budget leaving the township 16 million dollars in debt. The voters threw them out in the last voting cycle. The new administration (Republican) decided they were going to have to grit their teeth and fix the problem:

Both Guhl and Mayor John Bencivengo expressed regret the layoffs are necessary.

“Workforce reductions are the most difficult and painful aspect of a chief executive’s duties,” Bencivengo said. “It is, in fact, a last resort. Unfortunately, our financial circumstances dictated this action, and what’s more, it is something that Hamilton taxpayers are demanding.”

Though more layoffs occurred in areas related to construction, the “reduction in force” plan touches every municipal department, except police, officials said.

Compare this course of action to the current legislature in New Jersey. They kicked off the year adding a half a billion dollars to a budget already 3 billion in the red. They now add a new tax for Paid Family Leave. They have proposed adding taxes for tolls, gasoline and new universal health care that the state cannot afford.

One of these days, the people of this state will wake up and realize that the war in Iraq has nothing to do with local politics. And on that day, when they realize what the politicians in this state have done, I hope they throw them all out. And better yet, if we ever get an Attorney General in this state, maybe, just maybe indictments will follow.

Read the entire article here.

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Taxing Porker of the Month - Bill Baroni(R-14) and the Paid Family Leave Tax (watch out John McCain)

For his support of the Paid Family Leave Tax, Bill Baroni get's this month's Taxing Porker of the Month Award. As a Republican, Mr Baroni claims to support good government, claims to be against corruption and excessive spending by Trenton. The strange this is that Mr Baroni has unbelievably large support from the unions of this state such as the NJEA (the largest public employee union in NJ) as well as several trades unions. Given the undue influence unions have in bloating the state budget, one has to question their love of Mr Baroni.

People in New Jersey wonder why Republicans do not get traction in this state despite the large number of people who in many other state would be pre-disposed to be conservative or right of center politically. It is because the Republican party in New Jersey looks too much like the Democratic party in New Jersey. And Bill Baroni is a perfect example.

I think that John McCain may want to re-evaluate Mr Baroni's position in his campaign in the state of New Jersey. It is hard to claim you are against government waste and support lower taxes when your campaign chairman in the state is for both!

Of course, it Mr Baroni somehow realizes that his constituents (who in Hamilton have been severely hurt by their representatives over the post 8 years and pay some of the highest taxes in NJ) are more important than the lobbyists for his union friends, we will happily rescind his pork skin. But I am not holding my breath.

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Stop the NJ Paid Family Leave TAX! Act now and contact your legislator!

The legislature of the People's Republic of New Jersey (the United States first Socialist/Communist State) will be bringing paid family leave back on Monday. From an article in the Daily Record:

After several fits and starts, an effort to bring a paid family leave program to New Jersey may clear its final legislative hurdle Monday.

A vote on the measure is scheduled in the Senate, where Majority Leader Stephen Sweeney, D-Gloucester, and budget committee chairwoman Sen. Barbara Buono, D-Middlesex, are sponsors. If approved, Gov. Jon S. Corzine is expected to sign the bill shortly.

When speaking of the need for the program, the governor frequently refers to having his children around him when he recovered from a near-fatal car crash a year ago this week, saying people shouldn't have to choose between work and caring for family.

I am often brought to absolute tears laughing at our current Governor. His reason for supporting paid family leave (PAID as in PAID FOR BY HIGHER TAXES) is that when he got hurt speeding in a state owned vehicle without his seat belt, he had his children by his side. Of course, Corzine's estimated net worth is in excess of 600 million dollars according to the New York times. But what about the family he wants at his side?

1. Son Joshua works in commercial real estate in San Francisco
2. Daughter Jennifer runs a tea shop in Manhattan
3. Son Jeffrey goes to NYU

So Mr Governor, tell me how paid family leave would have helped your children be by your side when you were hurt? And why should the people of New Jersey have to pay for them to be there?

This entire bill is a bad joke that being perpetuated by Democrats attempting to buy votes in the next election. Too many voters in this state think about these benefits, hold hands and sing songs and skip through the meadow happily. That is until the next tax bill comes and they scream bloody murder. Here is an idea for the Democrats who want this bill so bad. Cut state workers by 10% and you will have plenty of money to pay for it.

It's time to hold your elected representatives accountable. Go to this link to find your legislator and let them no - STOP PAID FAMILY LEAVE TAX!

Senate and Assembly members be warned. You have seen various groups marching on Trenton in recent days. The citizens of this state have told you to stop spending and get your fiscal house in order. If you want to avoid the coming rout (REMEMBER FLORIO), you had better get serious soon.

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Farmers Expose Corzine's Fake Budget Cuts.

In an NJHerald.com article yesterday, it seems clear that farmers have figured out the scam that Corzine is perpetuating in regard to the budget.

One squealing piglet wore a T-shirt Tuesday that delivered their message succinctly: "Cut the Pork, Not the Department of Agriculture."

Angered by the governor's proposal to eliminate the popular department, more than 1,000 farmers, nursery operators and supporters — many riding tractors or hauling landscaping equipment — rallied in front of the state Capitol.

While the protest was not short for symbolism, it represented an opportunity to expose Corzine's plans for what they really represent.

Sen. Steve Oroho, R-24, said he found it "appalling" that Corzine wants to eliminate the Department of Agriculture while continuing to pay for attorneys to analyze other parts of his budget proposals. While cutting the department would save about $500,000, Oroho said in a statement that a "politically connected" law firm was paid about $9 million to study Corzine's proposal to raise fees on New Jersey toll roads.

So, in case we are aren't getting it. Corzine eliminates a very small department to save allegedly 4 million. Of course the 4 million is not the savings as it represents the entire budget of the department whose mission will still need to be accomplished. The net savings is likely a half a million dollars.

At the same time, Corzine is paying an outside law firm 9 million taxpayer dollars to study ways to extract more taxpayer dollars via his toll tax plan. Corzine refuses to address real money saving efforts and instead keeps picking fights with small constituencies to make press about how he has tried to do his job in cutting spending but can't get it done. It is politically cynical. If he wants a fight, he should go after the teachers unions and the public employee unions which are the cause of our bloated state budget. But he doesn't have the guts for that. How could he?

He is literally in bed with the unions. Or was.

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NJ Assembly - Allow towns to tax (Isn't this how the property tax problem happened?)!

From Newsday.com:

Assembly lawmakers on Tuesday said the state should weigh allowing cities and towns to impose their own taxes as more woes were predicted for New Jersey's troubled state finances.

Why is it that I keep getting the feeling that the lawmakers in this state more closely resemble keystone cops than responsible adults?

Rosen's estimate comes with many decrying Corzine's proposed cuts, but Assembly Budget Chairman Lou Greenwald, D-Camden, said the estimate makes it tough to find alternatives because restoring funding would come "at that expense of something else."

But Greenwald said lawmakers should look at how other states let municipalities charge their own taxes.

New Jersey local governments raise nearly all their revenue from property taxes, which average $6,800 per property owner in New Jersey, twice the national average.

The problem with lawmakers here in New Jersey is that they assume that every spending item approved in the past is valid and must be retained. So, any time cuts are proposed, they must be taking away something really important. But that is a circuitous argument with virtually no hope of ever solving any problem without going back to the taxpayer for more money. And that is exactly what this new bunch of incompetents wants to do:

But New York, for instance, allows local governments to add their own sales taxes. Many states and cities allow local income taxes. Some have a personal property tax on cars, trucks, motorcycles and other vehicles.

"We ought to look at that, too," said Assemblywoman Joan Quigley, D-Hudson.

Greenwald noted many decry local levies a tax increase but rejected that reasoning.

"It is not if it is offset by stabilizing property taxes," he said.

Corzine said letting municipalities impose their own taxes "makes sense and could potentially go a long way to relieving some of the pressure that exists with property taxes," but was uncertain amid economic worries.

So there you go, you see that according to these politicians, we can add a whole new set of fees, taxes and assessments on anything that moves at the local level. And if you CLAIM that your goal is to reduce property taxes, it is ok. But it won't be okay because the legislators have NO INTENTION ON REDUCING SPENDING ON ANYTHING.

They didn't when they passed "Property Tax Relief".
They didn't when they passed the increase in the sales tax and applied it to hospital beds, health clubs, music downloads and other assorted items. This collected an additional 2 billion (yes billion) dollars to the state budget. And noone seems to know where it went (maybe Corzine's girlfriend's Union?).

Guess what. Property taxes went up the next year because Governor Corzine and his pals increased spending.

Until this state gets an adult leader (not Corzine) and a corruption free legislature (not this one), I really don't see a change. It will probably take a few million New Jersey residents marching on the state house to change this mess. That is, if that many residents are left.

Read the entire article here.

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