New Jersey's new budget takes effect on July 1. The major players are all busy saying how this new budget is actually smaller than last year's budget and that it's a model of fiscal responsibility.
Well, let's take a closer look.
The new budget is supposedly $32.9 billion dollars. Trenton claims that this is $600 million less than last year's budget. However, those figures exclude $3.9 billion in new borrowing for education. In other words, the state's budget actually grew by $3.3 billion, not decreased by $600 million.
The shell game in Trenton is perhaps even more nefarious than the midnight madness at Albany come budget time.
The problem is that the state can't afford to pay for the new borrowing, which will run to nearly double the stated cost once you factor in the life of the debt. The media - whether it is the Record or the Star Ledger, are largely ignoring this blatant lie about the state's budget situation, and taxpayers are going to be left holding the bag in the form of higher property taxes.
The legislature says that the state will save several hundred million as part of a new incentive program to cut the state workforce, but when you factor in the new debt, the state is saddled with higher costs over time that wipe out what meager efforts were put into making the workforce leaner.
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