Editorial from today's Wall Street Journal:
The Jersey BoysJuly 6, 2006; Page A14
WSJ
The New Jersey budget meltdown is finally hitting essential government services: Atlantic City's casinos. Schools and parks are one thing, but how dare the politicians interfere with gambling. Without a state budget for five days now, the Garden State can't pay its state workers, who include the casino inspectors who follow Donald Trump's money.
The gambling shutdown will cost the state some $1.3 million a day in lost taxes, but Governor Jon Corzine and the Democrats who run the legislature still won't end their showdown at the spendthrift corral, also known as Trenton. The legislators are convinced that Mr. Corzine is leading them down a path to political ruin by insisting on raising the state sales tax to 7% from an already high 6%, and they're probably right.
But Mr. Corzine, who has three years left in his term, wants to guarantee himself a big new source of permanent revenue. The sales tax hike would raise $1.1 billion or so a year, in a budget that is some $31 billion. What neither side wants to do is cut into much of that spending, so Democrats in the legislature would instead prefer to raise other taxes, which they hope are not as politically combustible.
The sales tax would cost the average New Jersey family about $275 a year -- which is a few seconds of interest income for Governor Corzine, a mega-millionaire from his days at Goldman Sachs. Back when he was running for the U.S. Senate in 2000,
Mr. Corzine felt differently about a previous sales tax increase. "I would not have raised the sales tax $1.5 billion, which I think falls the most on those people who have the least ability to pay," he said in the May 11, 2000, Democratic primary debate.
The legislators may also be worried that voters could soon figure out that
New Jersey is already one of the most heavily taxed states in the nation. The nearby table has the lowlights. (By the way, the 50th state in business friendliness is New York. Is it something in the Hudson River?) New Jersey voters keep electing these tax-and-spendaholics, so we suppose they get what they deserve.
Code:
Amt State Rank
Property Tax Burden $2710* #1
State/Local Taxes $4557* #4
State Govt Debt $3889* #10
Top income tax rate 9% #5
Business friendliness n/a #49
*per capita
Now I know where my Camaro $$ goes...Trenton's pockets.