Starrick: Corzine's a Florio Repeat
Jesse Starrick, op-ed columnist
Issue date: 3/27/06 Section: Opinion
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Corzine's budget is in and - make no mistake about it - the Garden State is in trouble.
Middle class and wealthier residents, as well as corporations, have been steadily leaving the state over the years, in search of locations that are less financially burdensome.
By most estimates, New Jersey can expect to lose another congressional seat after the 2010 census and redistricting because of the population decline.
Some have left the area completely for places like Florida, the Carolinas and the Southwest. Others have moved to places like eastern Pennsylvania and lower New York State and have endured the hassle of the daily commute to and from Northern Jersey or Manhattan so that, at the end of the year, they may actually have something to show for all the long hours they put in each week at work. In their minds, the trade off for the stress of additional travel is a decent-size house, low property and income taxes and a healthy environment for raising a family.
During the 2005 campaign, Corzine paid a great deal of lip service to tax reform - specifically property tax reform - and pledged that he would address the issue as a top priority. He has not. Instead, like all good liberals, he has decided to raise taxes across the board, burdening those who least can afford it right now.
He has proposed to raise the income tax on everything except food and clothing to seven percent. For the average, hard-working family of four, that means coughing up at least another $250 per year.
He proposes increasing taxes on services like tanning and landscaping. He wants an increase in the realty transfer tax which affects anyone selling a home. He wants an additional tax on cigarettes and liquor.
There has even been talk of removing the Urban Enterprise Zone (UEZ) designation for developing urban dowtowns, which would result in a four percent increase in the sales tax to consumers, not to mention a substantial increase in the cost of doing business there.
Any progress that has been made in neighborhood revitalization since beginning the designation of UEZs would cease to exist if such a measure were to be put in place.
There is a major flaw in the Corzine proposals. Most of these policies have been tried already, most notably under former Democrat Governor Jim Florio, and were a miserable failure. New Jersey cannot tax its way out of a deficit, and cutting only 1,000 state jobs, as Corzine proposed, is a joke.
To put that number in perspective, the N.J. Department of Human Services alone employs over 22,000 people and, according to the state's Web site, is only one of 16 state departments. Let's not forget the more than 50 agencies, commissions and boards that oversee everything from administrative law to the New York Harbor waterfront. Eliminating 1,000 state jobs is window dressing. Years of unnecessary, political patronage additions to state government are a major part of the problem.
The Garden State needs bold reform. How about eliminating the entire agency that handles the property tax rebate program? Why should residents send money to Trenton, just so that the state can send some of it back to them months later?
This wealth-transfer program was set up during the Florio Era with the sole purpose of diverting money from middle-class, suburban towns to poorer, urban cities.
The Schools Construction Corp. is another agency that has been awash in waste, fraud and mismanagement. Both should be dismantled.
Corzine's budget proposals are disappointing, to say the least. During the campaign, he promised real reform. The voting public must hold him to it.
Columnist Jesse Starrick is an NCAS political science major.
Middle class and wealthier residents, as well as corporations, have been steadily leaving the state over the years, in search of locations that are less financially burdensome.
By most estimates, New Jersey can expect to lose another congressional seat after the 2010 census and redistricting because of the population decline.
Some have left the area completely for places like Florida, the Carolinas and the Southwest. Others have moved to places like eastern Pennsylvania and lower New York State and have endured the hassle of the daily commute to and from Northern Jersey or Manhattan so that, at the end of the year, they may actually have something to show for all the long hours they put in each week at work. In their minds, the trade off for the stress of additional travel is a decent-size house, low property and income taxes and a healthy environment for raising a family.
During the 2005 campaign, Corzine paid a great deal of lip service to tax reform - specifically property tax reform - and pledged that he would address the issue as a top priority. He has not. Instead, like all good liberals, he has decided to raise taxes across the board, burdening those who least can afford it right now.
He has proposed to raise the income tax on everything except food and clothing to seven percent. For the average, hard-working family of four, that means coughing up at least another $250 per year.
He proposes increasing taxes on services like tanning and landscaping. He wants an increase in the realty transfer tax which affects anyone selling a home. He wants an additional tax on cigarettes and liquor.
There has even been talk of removing the Urban Enterprise Zone (UEZ) designation for developing urban dowtowns, which would result in a four percent increase in the sales tax to consumers, not to mention a substantial increase in the cost of doing business there.
Any progress that has been made in neighborhood revitalization since beginning the designation of UEZs would cease to exist if such a measure were to be put in place.
There is a major flaw in the Corzine proposals. Most of these policies have been tried already, most notably under former Democrat Governor Jim Florio, and were a miserable failure. New Jersey cannot tax its way out of a deficit, and cutting only 1,000 state jobs, as Corzine proposed, is a joke.
To put that number in perspective, the N.J. Department of Human Services alone employs over 22,000 people and, according to the state's Web site, is only one of 16 state departments. Let's not forget the more than 50 agencies, commissions and boards that oversee everything from administrative law to the New York Harbor waterfront. Eliminating 1,000 state jobs is window dressing. Years of unnecessary, political patronage additions to state government are a major part of the problem.
The Garden State needs bold reform. How about eliminating the entire agency that handles the property tax rebate program? Why should residents send money to Trenton, just so that the state can send some of it back to them months later?
This wealth-transfer program was set up during the Florio Era with the sole purpose of diverting money from middle-class, suburban towns to poorer, urban cities.
The Schools Construction Corp. is another agency that has been awash in waste, fraud and mismanagement. Both should be dismantled.
Corzine's budget proposals are disappointing, to say the least. During the campaign, he promised real reform. The voting public must hold him to it.
Columnist Jesse Starrick is an NCAS political science major.