Acknowledging “a very serious challenge for the New Jersey public,” Corzine emerged from the meeting to identify areas in which the state could help minimize the sting of the economic downturn for New Jerseyans.Considering that the school construction fund was a debt financing scheme that avoided close scrutiny, including a public vote, one has to wonder just what Corzine is doing here.
An acceleration of school construction projects and infrastructure upgrades would kick-start job growth, he said.
“Everyone would like to see our … investment efforts in the state accelerated, whether it is the school construction program, which creates real jobs that people can identify with, or it is capital projects with regard to transportation,” Corzine said. “The sooner we get shovels in the ground, the sooner we get people to work, the sooner you get the multiplier effect of that operating in the economy.”
Hughes and other speakers made similar pitches to the Assembly Labor Committee, suggesting that the state create a stimulus package of capital investment in infrastructure improvements rather than the rebate checks that the federal government issued earlier in the year.
Corzine outlined additional proposals to help New Jersey weather the sluggish economy, including encouraging utilities and companies in the private sector to invest in energy conservation, which he said “could create real jobs in a very short period of time.”
The state should do more to lure and retain jobs by selling itself as a good place to do business, the governor said. Corzine also suggested that small banks and lenders band together to loan money to smaller businesses and homeowners facing foreclosure.
Members of Corzine’s group were split on the merits of extending unemployment benefits and raising New Jersey’s minimum wage, which is already scheduled to rise from the current $7.15 an hour to $7.25 in July 2009.
Corzine must be living in an alternative universe if he thinks that New Jersey is a good place to do business. It has the highest tax burden in the entire country, and if it looks like it's a good place to do business, that may be only because of its proximity to New York, which has an even higher cost of doing business thanks to New York City taxes added to New York State taxes. New Jersey's economy will continue lagging because of the high taxes. Corzine has done nothing to improve the tax situation, and raising the sales tax to pay for property tax relief doesn't address the fundamental problem of high taxes and property taxes continue climbing as localities do not take a closer look at their own spending. Budget bloat continues to be rife, and yet Corzine is proposing additional spending. I'm real sure assisting the Rutgers football team with additional money to get their stadium improvements completed is a necessity (that's sarcasm folks).
Corzine has repeatedly gone on the record refusing to allow offshore energy exploration, including offshore natural gas drilling, even though there are known significant deposits. He's stalled on taking any action to move offshore wind power projects forward, and has done nothing to eliminate the red tape that prevents the wind power projects from moving forward. Similar projects are moving forward in Delaware and proposals have been floated for New York.
Instead, he's shifting paper around and wants people to think that he's creating jobs. Audits have revealed massive waste and fraud in the Abbott program, and yet no action is taken to reform or eliminate these costly items that have done nothing to actually improve education in the state.
All I see is an effort to increase the number of people on the state payroll, and no long term prospects for containing state costs, which further increases the tax burden on all New Jersey taxpayers.
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