This morning the legislature approved a budget and Gov. Corzine signed an order reopening the government. Casinos will be open within hours. Parks and beaches should be open by Sunday. MVC offices and the rest of the state "non-essentional" services should be up and running on Monday.
Did the shutdown impact your life?
What impact will the new taxes have on you?
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8 comments:
Will:
I don't think blaming Corzine for the entire thing is all that fair.
He did disappoint. Let's face it...the bed tax is probably the single-worst idea since the British taxed tea.
But Republicans and Mrs. Whitman especially played a large role in this nonsesne. No...McGreevey didn't help a darn thing. But, neither did the former Republican controlled Senate and Assembly.
Hey...there's enough blame here.
Whitman and McGreevey contributed to the shutdown? I agree they were both awful, as was the legislature when the R's controlled it, but they didn't cause the shut down.
No, they didn't actually cause this shut down. They contributed to an economic condition that is absurd. Literally, neither McGreevey nor Whitman did anything remotely constructive to take steps to real property tax reform (which is probably a lot of the issue here when we get down to it).
Jon Corzine is going into his first budget and he felt strongly enough to take a stand. I do NOT agree with his stand nor his taxes. Nope.
But the situation that created the backdrop to this showdown were around long before Corzine hit Trenton. The politicking attendant to this budget...well...if some outlets are right and Norcross was in the mix behind the scenes then that couldn't have helped.
If not, then between Corzine and some key Democratic leaders there just wasn't enough will to make a compromise in a timely manner.
I agree with Corzine's principle of recurring revenues funding recurring expenditures. The problem is there is no commitment to reduce spending, and there is no guarantee that the revenues will be there, even with these recent tax increases.
There are many indications that our economy is entering a recession, we might be in one now. A recession is defined a two consecutive quarters of negative growth. If tax revenues are lower than expected, will Corzine lay off his girl friend's members?
The good thing about the shut down is that it revealed that we can get by with alot less government. We need to start cutting the government payroll.
Property tax reform is the silver bullet here. Land, land rights...everything about owning land.
Property taxation being the basic way schools and governments are funded is nuts. There are entire demographics not paying their way and getting a free ride.
One demographic...property owners...are being hit with EVERY increase, every cost and every hardship in this budget and every budget before it. the issue is property tax reform. THAT is what is sending businesses, jobs and residents out of this state.
The load is not being distributed evenly. If EVERY demographic were taxed appropriately then this state would not be in a crisis. There would be enough revenue and it would not be breaking peoples' backs. Distributing the economic load of government is the basic thing to do to right this ship.
Dealing with individual intiatives without this fundamental reform is rearranging deck chairs on the Titannic. No one in Trenton is talking about it because it's hard. And no one is interested in doing anything that is hard.
Jim Purcell said:
No one in Trenton is talking about it because it's hard. And no one is interested in doing anything that is hard.
No one is Trenton is doing anything about property taxes because the teachers' union and government workers union own them and want the status quo the way it is.
The solution is actually very simple conceptionally. Move all education funding to the state. Every school age child is entitled to $1x,xxx.00 per year in the form of a voucher to pay for education. That handles Abbott. (Unless Rev Reggie Jackson wins his lawsuit. In that case we have traditional Abbott funding and vouchers for inner city kids, but not for suburban kids. God forbid.)
Costs will go down and scores will go up, as schools have to compete for the vouchers and for the better teachers and students. The dead wood will get burned.
Increase the income tax, progresively, to pay for education.
Next, consolidate municipalities. No towns of less than 50,000 residents. This will save millions, if not billions, as scores of duplicate services and functions, self important politicians and administrators will no longer be needed.
On the state level, all full time employees have to work 40 hours a week. No pensions. Every state worker in the pension system now has their pension benefit defined from now. No new pension contributuions. Everyone gets a 401K type program. Health benefits will be on par with the largest NJ companies(those that remain)
Doesn't all of this sound a bit like running the state like a business? Isn't that what Corzine promised he would do?
Unfortunately, there will have to be a great deal more pain before any of this could happen, politically.
actually will, i totally agree. and by the by...what about patronage? now that would be an apple cart rocker.
if "joe" from the roads dept. gets it in the neck, then "farley" from the planning board has to catch the same bullet or it's eyewash.
if they both catch it, i'm on board. and if we have to chose one between the other, i opt for the guy in the snow plow in the dead of winter.
Welcome Gus, and best of luck with your blog!
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