AFP-NJ Newsletter for July 16, 2007

Fact of the Week

"In Corzine's first year, New Jersey's tax burden rose by $1.6 billion because he raised the sales tax. That budget gave the state the unwanted distinction of leading the nation in per capita taxes for a five-year stretch, according to surveys by the National Governor's Association and the National Association of State Budget Officers." --Newark Star Ledger


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Election Year Statement of the Week

"We feel like the state's fully taxed," Treasurer Bradley Abelow said during an interview last week. "There is a strong desire not to raise taxes." -- Newark Star Ledger


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State Budget

We'll have a lot more to say about the recently passed state budget, but for now, suffice it to say that this is not all is as current office holders want you to believe. If you think New Jersey is seeing tax relief, think again!


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Tax vote offers no control

From the Courier Post

The Legislature is all for letting the people decide things when doing so is in the lawmakers' best interest. But, at other times, the people's will is a nuisance.

The state Senate and the Assembly passed a measure headed for the November ballot that would, if approved, amend the New Jersey Constitution to mandate the remaining half of last year's sales tax hike be used for property tax relief.

That would happen without the signature of Gov. Jon Corzine, who opposes the measure because it ties the hands of what the state can do with the money. Members of the Legislature want it because every seat in the Senate and Assembly is up in November and they need you to think they did something great. In reality, they can't think of a way to lower taxes and continue to kiss the feet of special interests.

Three questions arise: If the sales tax hike can be devoted to property tax relief, was there a need for the hike in the first place since relief wasn't the stated purpose? If there is real need for the penny hike beyond property tax relief, does that mean another increase is in the offing?

And, if the Legislature can let the people decide such matters in limited fashion, why can't it give us Initiative & Referendum. That's the process by which citizens write an initiative and if backers collect enough signatures in a specified amount of time, it goes on the ballot. If it passes, it becomes law without the Legislature or governor.

That's democracy in action, and it scares the hell out of petty politicians who prefer that we think what they do requires an IQ above 40.

The Initiative & Referendum Institute at the University of Southern California (a state that has I&R and used Proposition 13 to lower its property taxes) points out the I&R movement started here in the Garden State in the late 1800s. Ah, but then:

"In December 1900, the Direct Legislation Record published the gloomy prediction of Clarence T. Atkinson that the reform had "no chance of success until the evil of bribery is abolished." By 1907, after 14 years of effort, the New Jersey Direct Legislation League had despaired of passing an amendment to give voters actual lawmaking power and instead sponsored a bill allowing voters to put nonbinding, advisory initiatives on the state ballot.

"That proposal also failed again and again. In 1911, the I&R movement's journal Equity explained New Jersey's failure in terms of its being "The Trust State': the nation's biggest businesses were chartered there, and they were the major source of opposition to I&R."

Sounds like things haven't changed much in 100 years. "The evil of bribery" has a familiar ring. Attempts were made again in 1947, the mid-1970s, 1981, 1983 and 1986. Republicans told us in the early '90s if we voted them in we could get I&R. They lied.


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No 'new' taxes, just increases and spin

From The Jersey Journal

Senate Democratic Majority Leader Bernard F. Kenny Jr. of Hoboken made his swan song dive into the state budget pool June 21.

He grades himself a "10." Critics disagree.

The retiring Kenny declared that the new state budget - $33,480,957,000 - contains "record amounts of property tax relief and compassion for those in need."

Both he and Gov. Jon S. Corzine, also of Hoboken, cited "no new taxes" while boasting about the spending plan.

But how about the tax increase approved a year ago that boosted the state sales tax from 6 to 7 percent to raise $1.4 billion in a total projected at $8,900,499,000 this fiscal year?

New Jersey residents are paying the increased levy every day.

And so are the state's thousands of commuters, saddled with a 9.6 percent fare increased imposed June 1.

However, there is one indisputable fact: the spending document was crafted to maintain the Democrats' control in the Legislature - 22-18 in the Senate, 50-30 in the Assembly.

With a state budget enlarged by $2.7 billion, Kenny boasted that $16.7 billion is authorized for property tax relief, nearly $11 billion for local schools (a $582 million increase that includes a $105.5 million boost for non-Abbott districts and another $93 million for non-Abbott districts with high levels of low-income students), nearly $50 million more for higher education, and $756 million in hospital charity care (a $173 million boost).

Meanwhile, Republicans conducted their usual complain-a-thon.

"It is mortgaging New Jersey's future for this fall's legislative election," Assemblyman Richard Merkt, R-Morris, charged.

"For six years we have careened from one financial crisis to financial crisis while ignoring a projected $2.5 billion deficit next year," said Senate Minority Leader Leonard Lance, R-Hunterdon.

Assembly Republican Budget Committee members argued that Democrats have now increased spending by $10 billion in the last six years.
When Robert B. Meyner was governor in the 1950s, two veteran correspondents asked "Is this an honest budget? Where is the fat?"

Meyner evaded the questions.

Voters decide Nov. 6.


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Summer Intern wanted

Americans for Prosperity is seeking a New Jersey college student as a full time summer intern continuing as part time in the fall semester. Individual must be motivated to work hard in the defense of free market principles, liberty and freedom.

This is a rare opportunity for a young person to join the nation's leading citizen activist organization.

Email steven.lonegan@afphq.org

On to Victory,
Steve Lonegan
Executive Director, AFP-NJ