Posted on 11/19/2005 5:37:58 PM PST by chet_in_ny
November and December are the months when newly elected officials and their allies finally start telling voters about things they didn't want to mention during the campaign.
New Jersey Gov.-elect Jon Corzine and his predecessor, outgoing Acting Gov. Dick Codey, finally 'fessed up about the Garden State's precarious fiscal health Thursday in speeches at the convention of the state's League of Municipalities.
And it ain't pretty.
"We're pretty much broke," conceded Codey. "We have more debt than we can afford. Next year's budget deficit is at least $5 billion. School construction and transportation funding have virtually dried up. And we have a $1 billion pension payment due next year."
Ouch.
Anyone recall hearing those cataclysmic forecasts during the just-concluded campaign?
Certainly not from Democrats Codey and Corzine. And, unfortunately, not from Republican challenger Doug Forrester, either — who's now bitterly blaming President Bush's falling poll numbers for his loss.
Actually, Codey dropped a pretty strong hint of things to come — back in July, when he warned that "the days of spending like there's no tomorrow ends today" and then submitted a budget that essentially held the line on state spending.
Still, he said back then, "The good news is we're not bankrupt," although "we're close."
It now seems that New Jersey is even closer to bankruptcy than he let on.
So what does he propose to focus on in a lame-duck legislative session next month? Boosting funds for stem-cell research (an issue that helped Corzine win the election) and banning indoor smoking statewide — which a casino-industry-commissioned study says would cost the state $93 million in lost revenue.
As for Corzine, he promised to call the Legislature into special session as soon as he takes office — to get the ball rolling on the complex process of calling a constitution convention to rewrite New Jersey's antiquated property-tax structure.
That's fine, as far as it goes.
But a convention is a long-term approach — and the Garden State has dire financial needs. Moreover, Corzine promised voters he'd boost property tax rebates — creating even more pressure on the state's sorely strained revenue base.
No accident, then, that the conference took place in Atlantic City, home of New Jersey's casinos. "Anyone win $5 billion last night at the tables?" Corzine asked his audience. "We could use it."
It just might come to that.
Another thing, smoking bans must be the new torch of the left..
"...to get the ball rolling on the complex process of calling a constitution convention to rewrite New Jersey's antiquated property-tax structure." Translation: raise taxes higher!
BOHICA. Bend over, here it comes again.
McGreevey skips spotlight and signs budget privately [budget boosts taxes by $1.7 billion and...]
N.J. Mulls Cosmetic Surgery Tax
FEC levels one of largest fines against NJ developer [McGreevey appointed Kushner...]
McGreevey's the boy who can't say no
Kerry holds slim lead over Bush in N.J. poll (Kerry 46, Bush 40, Nader 7; [2000: Gore 56, Bush 40])
Right, a constitutional convention now-a-days in NJ would be comprised of NJ liberal law professors and liberal DemoRat politicians. Scary.
My aunt lives there and does not understand why her expenses and taxes keep going up. She religiously votes marxocrat every year. No doubt she blames the rich and Pres. Bush.
I live in Jacksonville, FL. Lots of New Yorkers and folks from Jersey moving here. Please folks learn from your mistakes! Don't turn Florida into the liberal hell hole you came from! I don't know how any descent person can live up in the Northeast. How can you earn a living?
I am in NJ. My property taxes are in excess of $13,000 a year. For that I get nothing back.
Corzine is going to refund to us 300 dollar. But my income tax will go up more than that.
My in-laws think this is good. Then they bitch and moan about rising costs. And what do they do? They blame Bush.
Those pleas will fall on deaf ears. New Jersey is filled with ex-New Yorkers who vote the same way they did in New York here, then when they get older, they move to Florida or Arizona or some other state and keep voting the same way. They are like a plague of locusts who won't be content until all of America is a Marxist hell-hole.
I don't know how any descent person can live up in the Northeast. How can you earn a living?
Wages are high here. Basically, it's impossible to live here if you are retired and on a fixed income, which is why so many retirees flee this area and try to destroy other states by voting nanny-state Democrat.
But for all my disatisfaction with the political situation, I have to shed a little reality on some of the nonsense posted here especially by people who have never lived in this state.
NJ is not remotely a "marxist hell hole." It's the wealthiest state in the nation, loaded with good communities, and is in incredibly good shape for a small, densely populated state.
The shore is beautiful, and the economy hums as an important adjunct to NYC and Philadelphia. So let's hold off on the hyperbole. A marxist hell hole would be North Korea.
Yeah, but all the "affluent sophiticates" are well outnumbered by the leeches and Union goons in Essex, Union, Hudson, Middlesex, Camden, and Gloucester counties. Add the limousine liberals in Montclair, Tenafly, East Brunswick, Manalapan, etc. and you have the Dem Socialist state that is New Jersey, to say nothing of the most corrupt politics in the northeast.
LOL! Surely you jest.
Just look at who they already elected: Robert Wexler and Debbie Wasserman hyphen Schultz. Probably two of the biggest Marxists in Congress.
The Blue States are Massadras. Their constituents, future economic terrorists.
They vote for the same people who will kill any possiblity of an economically secure future, then blame America.
Just one word: Newark.
Raise taxes..........Raise Taxes..........It works every time.
Hilarious stuff!
The first time I heard Forrester's radio ads where he proudly touts his "moderate" bona fides, I knew the guy was toast. And now he's blaming Bush? Har! What a p.o.s.! That pitiful toilet New Jersey deserves Corzine.
"New Jersey and Corzine - - perfect together."
As someone who has lived in New Jersey nearly all my life, and as someone who thinks highly enough of New Jersey that Freeper Ronin complained that I talked about it too much while living in Tokyo (the only other place I've lived), it's not literally true that New Jersey is a Marxist Hell-hole but there are reasons why so many people are moving to Pennsylvania, the Carolinas, Arizona, Florida, etc. I love the state, but I'm not blind to it's problems. It's still easy to ignore many of them if you have a hefty NYC income but try talking to a New Jersey resident on a fixed income how much our property tax and so on hurts them. And it's most certainly true that the exodus of New Yorkers into retirement communities in Central Jersey has turned formally Republican towns into liberal Democrat enclaves.
The shore is beautiful, and the economy hums as an important adjunct to NYC and Philadelphia. So let's hold off on the hyperbole. A marxist hell hole would be North Korea.
Hyperbole? Certainly. But given the taxes that I pay, property and otherwise, and given the politicians we have running my town and the government in Trenton (I used to work for state government, by the way, and I can let you know how your tax dollars are used -- "It's the end of the fiscal year and we've got $30,000 to spend. What do you want?" is a literal quote), I think I'm entitled to a little hyperbole. It's the people who are apparently happy to be paying $12,000 in property tax, happy to pay $3 tolls on the Turnpike, happy to have corrupt politicians seize farms and houses for their rich developer friends to turn into yet another strip mall or townhouse complex, happy to jump through hoops to own a gun, happy to have people spend tens of millions of dollars to buy a Senate seat or governorship that making New Jersey more and more expensive and corrupt. Will it take North Korean-style death camps before the people of New Jersey decide that the Democrats don't have their best interest in mind?
I don't know how any descent person can live up in the Northeast.>>>>>>>>>
Judging by what they have sent to Myrtle Beach, there are no decent ones there.
My town is controlled by democrats, the republicans having wimped out and fallen apart. I hate it, and I agree with all the negative prtedictions for a Corzine governorship. They're priming us for higher taxes now.
But it's worth correcting the people who think they would find concentration camps in NJ. Far from it. I live in a beautiful wooded community with lakes and parks, farms and state forests nearby, Philadelphia a hop skip and jump away, good roads, shopping galore, churches, and whatever else I take for granted.
That doesn't explain it all. The New Yorkers moving into retirement villages in Central Jersey and turning those downs Democrat are not minorities nor immigrants, nor are the third and fourth generation Americans who still run the machines in North Jersey. There is a sizable union vote and New Jersey's own version of the Yellow Dog democrat.
Second, plenty of the well to do New Jerseyans proceed to live on their fixed incomes in NJ - their fat pensions and retirement savings. Well to do people don't become poor when they retire.
That's fine if they were well to do in the first place or have fat pensions. As for retirement savings, the low interest rates have them producing much less income than they did a few decades ago (unless a retired person wants to take risks with their savings -- not a good idea). There are plenty of New Jersey elderly that don't fall into those categores and they wind up leaving the state because they can't afford to stay.
And finally, let me know which politicians in which state find they have an extra $30,000 in a budget and DON'T find a way to spend it. That is universal.
Thus people expect it and accept it and there is little or now outrage over it. No, New Jersey isn't unique in that regard, but given the taxes we pay, perhaps a little outrage is warranted.
My town is controlled by democrats, the republicans having wimped out and fallen apart. I hate it, and I agree with all the negative prtedictions for a Corzine governorship. They're priming us for higher taxes now.
Of course they are. And people will accept it becuase of all the arguments you are making about how things aren't all that bad. So long as people can afford it, they seem willing to pay whatever Trenton asks for.
But it's worth correcting the people who think they would find concentration camps in NJ. Far from it. I live in a beautiful wooded community with lakes and parks, farms and state forests nearby, Philadelphia a hop skip and jump away, good roads, shopping galore, churches, and whatever else I take for granted.
There are many reasons why New Jersey is a wonderful place to life, though they still aren't done plowing under open spaces yet. That still doesn't change the fact that our government is a liberal tax and spend government (when either party is in control), nor does it change things like our gun control laws and other regulations that would shock many Freepers who live in less Democrat states. Like a frog being slowly boiled, it's easy not to feel the problem and accept it, but listen to the complaints Southern Freepers make about Northeasterners moving in and trying to change things to match the Northeast, and you'll notice that a lot of people don't take things for granted that we take for granted. Nor do the nice things in New Jersey change the fact that the Democrats do seem to be trying to turn New Jersey into a Marxist Hell-hole unsuitable for the middle class, even if it's still got a long way to go before it gets there.
I'm well aware that Southern manners and even more so Midwestern manners are better than Northeast. But again NJ just isn't a marxist hell hole, that's a vast exaggeration. Nor is it likely to become one. But putting the hyperbole aside, I agree with you. Maybe Rush L is right and the country is becoming more conservative. IMHO liberalism is spreading out and becoming more acceptable.
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