NJ Legislature Passes Budget; Corzine To Sign

It should come as no surprise that the legislature passed this nonsensical state budget. The media keeps repeating the claim that the budget is merely $29 billion, all while ignoring the $2 billion in federal monies and the chicanery Corzine proposed that shifts spending and further depletes the pension funds by underfunding them to an even greater extent.

The state Assembly needed more than four hours to debate the budget — much of that time taken by Republicans who read aloud comments from frustrated residents. In the end, not a single Republican voted to approve the measure, which passed 45-34. The Senate’s debate lasted half as long with the same result — a 22-18 vote with no Republicans onboard.

Governor Corzine praised his fellow Democrats for signing off on the budget and called the GOP’s boycott “unfortunate.”

Senate President Richard J. Codey, D-West Orange, offered some of the most fiery words of the night, invoking 8 percent unemployment rates, declining 401(k)s and pension funds, and rising foreclosures.

“Who did that? Jon Corzine? The Legislature?” Codey asked. “No. It was Washington, D.C.”

“What they allowed was despicable and disgraceful. They brought on this recession — I would say depression. Not our governor. Not any of us here. We’re all victims. Whatever our names are, whatever our party is, we’re all victims of what happened down in Washington, D.C,” Codey said.

But Minority Leader Thomas H. Kean Jr., R-Union, said the state brought problems on itself.

“We are the only state in the union that will have fewer private-sector jobs at the end of the decade than at the beginning,” Kean said. “We’re the only state in the union that will spend less on higher education this year than we did eight years ago. Those were decisions made in this state capitol. Those were decisions made here.”

Codey blames Bush for the state's problems, which is quite laughable since no one in Washington DC forced the state to massively underfund the state pensions or tell localities to avoid paying their pension obligations, which is precisely what Gov. Corzine proposed with his budget addresses.

No, the state's precarious fiscal situation is the result of unsustainable state spending and a tax and spend policy that has sent businesses and taxpayers fleeing. State spending is unsustainable despite Corzine's dubious claims that state spending is reduced from last year. The size of the state workforce is still higher than it was before Corzine took office, and state spending is far above where it was when Corzine took office, all while providing less service and with a far higher debt servicing.

All this gets ignored by the media.

Also downplayed are the rash of taxes and fees that are increased to cover the additional spending. Instead of holding the line on taxes and fees, Corzine and the Democrats increased such taxes to cover their unsustainable spending.

The budget benefited from a windfall from the just completed tax amnesty program. Of course, legislators couldn't find ways to spend the excess quickly enough, and they used the amount to restore some of the homestead property tax rebate program. That was better than nothing, but that program itself was unsustainable given that they were using sales tax revenues to fund the property tax relief. With the economy in a tailspin, sales tax revenues were off - a common problem around the country.