New Jersey Government A 'Tax-and-Spend' Joke!
By Gordon Bishop (12/27/06)
New Jersey state government is broke!
Taxes keep going up, along with the state’s debt, and the liberal Democrat machine now in power can’t balance the state’s $31 billion budget.
Now get this: Governor Jon Corzine wants to sell or lease New Jersey’s most valuable assets – the state’s three profitable toll roads – while at the same time borrow $270 million with high interest rates to pay for stem cell research, which really is a private sector undertaking.
Why?
“We don’t just want to be part of the crowd, we want to lead the crowd,” Corzine declared.
Hey, Gov, ever think of asking New Jersey’s taxpayers if they wanted to get into the stem cell research business?
Why not put the $270 million proposal on a referendum and let the working taxpayers decide for you? It’s their money after all. And don’t forget, government represents the people, not special interest groups.
Sure, stem cell research is a good cause, but that’s what the pharmaceutical industry and medical professionals are getting big bucks to work on stem cell solutions.
If I want to donate my own money to this worthy cause, that’s okay. But taxpayers shouldn’t have to foot the bill because it’s politically correct to be on the stem cell bandwagon.
But back to selling off New Jersey’s multi-billion dollar assets.
The governor announced he will decide this spring whether to lease or sell state assets, reaffirming the possibility that the state’s busiest highways could help cut property taxes and slash its already “junk bonds” debt, now a staggering $2.7 billion in the next fiscal year. Without such oppressive obligations, Corzine and his liberal State Legislature cannot balance the budget.
New Jersey has the unfortunate distinction of having the highest property taxes in the nation, not to mention the highest auto insurance and highest per pupil cost of public schools. So much for 50 years of liberalism in a deep blue liberal state.
New Jersey also boasts the highest “cost of living” for its more than 8.5 million residents.
As a born and bred New Jerseyan, I find it more and more difficult to live in this once wonderful Garden State. And my wife and I are classified as “affluent” because we’re both professionals who gross six-figures a year – after taxes, half that amount.
The people I know earning from $50,000 to $75,000 (after taxes) are struggling to send their children to college and trying to keep up with their skyrocketing medical and prescription costs. Education is also out of sight. To graduate from a good school, you’re looking at $200,000 to $250,000 for tuition, housing, books and traveling expenses.
Politicians like Jon Corzine and his super-wealthy ilk have no idea what’s it like to live on $50,000 a year and raise a family.
For the record, Corzine and his tax-and-spend comrades in the legislature believe that leasing or selling public assets such as the New Jersey Turnpike, Garden State Parkway and the Atlantic City express will do the trick.
But after they get several billion dollars for these profitable assets, then what? They still have an awesome debt to pay off and a state budget that they still have to balance every year.
Corzine’s Republican opposition complained the road leases would mean increased tolls and prove risky. More fees, folks!
“The unintended consequences of this bad public policy are nearly incalculable,” said New Jersey State Senator Anthony Bucco of Morris County, an affluent suburb in northern New Jersey.
What Corzine should really be doing for the taxed-out taxpayers is to stop increasing the annual state budgets and cutting government in half. The first thing the governor did when he was elected last January was to increase the state budget from $29 billion to $31 billion and hire more bureaucrats from the Democrat party.
In the old days, this was called “To the Victor Belongs the Spoils!”
Today these spoils are spoiling government efficiency and effectiveness. There are too many bureaucrats coming aboard with “no show” jobs. Greedy politics will do that, and there’s no end in sight to this wasteful operation.
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