Posted on 06/29/2016 8:55:02 PM PDT by panhandle67
TRENTON, New Jersey Republican Gov. Chris Christie on Wednesday touted an anti-tax crusader's endorsement of a proposed 23-cent- per-gallon gasoline tax hike along with a sales tax cut, sweeping aside objections raised by Democratic leaders in the state Senate and voicing confidence that the measure would be passed in that chamber.
Christie all but dared lawmakers not to act on his plan during a statehouse news conference, a day after the Assembly passed the plan to pay for a $2 billion a year transportation trust fund for eight years. The fund runs out of borrowing authority Friday, and Christie's last-minute proposal resulted in the Democrat-led Assembly scrapping a vote on their own plan.
Christie said lawmakers have been complaining for months that he wasn't engaged enough on the issue. And now that he is, they don't like his proposal, he said. He called on them to approve his plan during Thursday's session.
The increase would send New Jersey's current gas tax of 14.5 cents per gallon from second-lowest in the country behind Alaska to roughly equal that of Connecticut, which has the sixth-highest at 37.51 cents, according to the Tax Foundation, an independent tax policy research organization
Christie, who ran a failed presidential campaign and now supports Donald Trump, signed a pledge not to raise taxes sponsored by Grover Norquist's Americans for Tax Reform group. The organization endorsed Christie's proposal Wednesday in a statement released just as Christie's news conference began.
Christie said the group backed the Assembly bill "saying that it represented tax fairness as well."
(Excerpt) Read more at greenfieldreporter.com ...
The state Senate is expected take up the issue Thursday. But Democratic State Senate President Steve Sweeny said he was in the dark about it, and other senators including some Republicans are speaking out against the plan.
That was a big reason why I visited my sisters in Jersey!
I’ll bill them.
Norquist needs to be deported to Saudi Arabia.
I’m skeptical of a flip flop of taxes such as this.
So, they will raise the gas tax in exchange for a cut in the sales tax.
The problem is, will they quietly raise the sales tax back up to where it was before, somewhere down the road? Then the total tax burden will indeed be greater than it is now. And their touting this as “revenue neutral” or “tax neutral” will be a falsehood.
I think Christie just played the Democrats on this one, give them a tax hike the want with a tax decrease they don’t want.
That way they veto it and he can point to them as being the problem and uncooperative
Christie knew this was a goner before he supported it. He basically “Obama’d” the New Jersey Democrats on this. He is forcing the Rats to veto their own bill, genius.
Just what the government needs - more tax money to p*ss down the toilet.
“He said the sales tax cut from 7 percent to 6 percent phased in over 2017 and 2018 will cost about $1.3 billion, while the gas tax hike is estimated to bring in roughly the same amount. The result will be a net neutral tax on residents, he said. Legislative estimates, however, suggest the state could lose up to nearly $2 billion a year.”
From the article it’s unclear if the sales tax cut applies only to gasoline or all taxable sales. If it does, what they are doing is shifting the tax burden to a narrower base of just motorists. the problem we have here in California is that our gas is taxed by the gallon and then a sales tax is added to all of it, and worse yet, the money, which is supposed to go for vehicular infrastucture, is purloined for bike paths, public transit and even welfare. I just can’t wait for the whole shebang to crash! I hope I live to see it!
They (Republicans) raised the gas tax 28 cents a gallon over a five year period back at the end of 2013 here in Pennsylvania.
Christie is cut from the same RINO cloth and I guess his endorsement of Trump was designed to cover this latest act of business as usual tax and spend politics from him.
Cutting the sales tax and raising the gas tax is a shell game, bait and switch trick against the taxpayers of NJ.
I’m considering buying a new car, without a “trade in”< price $40,000, sales tax $2500. I thought about buying in a low or no sales tax state but quickly found out that that won’t work, unless I move to the state where I bought it.
Also thought about buying it with my 01.5% cash back credit card, thereby getting $600 back from my credit card company and paying the credit card debt within one month.
Dealer said, no way Jose.
Send norquist to arabiA and keep Christie the hell off the ticket! Jersey state politics needs a genuine cleanup. And much lower taxes! The political hacks are destroying the state and economy
Exactly right.
Most politicians in this state -- Democrat and Republican alike -- are scratching their heads, trying to figure this one out. They are having a hard time determining the political implications for their own careers.
Then why do it. What is the tax on gas now 50%?
I prefer the status quo because the sales tax is the only way we get our gibsmedats to contribute anything at all.
Christie has been good on taxes, so he is still popular with the “makers”; his primary opposition is from the welfare and workfare (government worker) folks. If you saw his recent proposal (to give equal amounts per student to school districts), it really highlights how much is wasted in urban districts to produce illiterate high school grads. It may get nowhere, but it really highlights the problem...
Finally, a sane point vs all the knee-jerks....
In short, although it still hits residents, this helps collect tax for New Jersey from people who do not currently directly pay it. It is definitely a net benefit for income-producing residents.
Crud, I misread that it was a sales tax shift rather than a shift from income tax to sales tax.
My post immediately above is amended to now say I oppose this approach.
You might find this interesting:
http://www.latimes.com/opinion/editorials/la-ed-adv-transportation-funding-20160203-story.html
Every governor in the last 30 years has used the gas tax money as a slush fund, so this is some improvement. Unfortunately, you can't know if this is just the initial bid and something worse is expected.
It's Jersey, I expect worse to come.
Gas taxes are a use tax and you are correct, it taxes those people who don’t work and drive around all day doing nothing. When you raise taxes on those who have income and property (income taxes and property taxes), you put the tax burden on an a select group of the population.
I can find ways to be more efficient in how and when I drive if gas taxes cause the price of gas to get to a point where I say enough. In other words, I have my own price elasticity where I say enough.
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