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Gov. Jon Corzine is drawing fire for proposing $1.5 billion in tax increases for the cash-strapped state budget, but a coalition of citizens groups and union yesterday said he isn't going far enough. The Fairness Alliance yesterday called for nearly $800 million in higher taxes to restore cuts in higher education and other areas targeted by Corzine. The groups, which include the New Jersey Education Association and the Communications Workers of America, two powerful unions, urged a $462 million income tax increase for more than 100,000 taxpayers who earn $200,000 to $500,000, and more than $300 million in extra business...

For the first time in history, New Jersey's State Budget will top $30 billion and is, in fact closer to $31 billion. Jon Corzine's budget address to a joint session of the legislature will be chock full of the Governor's tax increases and at least one broken promise. State Treasurer Brad Abelow says the projected spending plan price tag is $30.875 billion. An increase in the state sales tax from 6-7% is expected to raise over $1 billion. Abelow claims the higher tax will not cost you much, "Our estimates are about $5 dollars a week." That would be $60...

Corzine Ready To Lower Tax Boom On N.J. CBS 2 Speaks To Upset Residents, Many Hint At Leaving Image Marcia Kramer Reporting (CBS) BERGENFIELD New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine unveils his belt tightening new budget on Tuesday. But even before the announcement, New Jersey taxpayers were expecting the worst. When Corzine voted for himself to become governor of New Jersey he knew that one day he would have to make some difficult and unpopular budget decisions. That day is Tuesday. And already people are lining up to oppose his expected tax hikes. ”It’s utterly ridiculous we have to have the...

TRENTON - Increases in sales and cigarette taxes, steep education cuts, and a broken campaign promise on property-tax rebates highlight the "painful" $30.9 billion budget that Gov. Corzine will present to the Legislature today. The former Wall Street financier is the only governor in the region to announce new taxes this year. Pennsylvania, Delaware, New York and Connecticut enjoy large surpluses as a reward for a half-decade of cuts amid a sluggish economy. The use of tax increases and budget cuts to close a $4 billion shortfall would be "unpleasant and likely unpopular" but would give New Jersey its first...

The people who may get hit the hardest by the Governor Corzine's proposed tax hikes are those he and the Democratic Party champion the most-- New Jersey's working class. The poor receive help from entitlement programs; the wealthy can absorb the blow. It is the working class, made up of your average family of four with a mortgage, rising property taxes, energy costs, and college tuition bills to pay, that may feel the biggest squeeze as Trenton reaches deeper into their well-worn pockets for even more of their money. We visited blue collar Middlesex County and spoke to folks who...

New Jersey: Gov. Jon Corzine joins his tax-happy predecessor, Jim Florio — and former President Bill Clinton — in a rogues' gallery of Democrats elected under false fiscal pretenses. Between election and inauguration, Clinton "discovered" a budget deficit worse than he imagined, and so the middle-class tax cut he campaigned on in 1992 had to be put on hold — forever, as it turned out — and income tax rates raised. Similarly, Florio vowed not to raise taxes in his 1990 gubernatorial campaign, then slapped a $2.6 billion tax hike on New Jerseyans, the biggest in U.S. history. It made...

AP) WASHINGTON Had Jon Corzine stayed in the U.S. Senate, he'd be on a congressional recess right now, not trying to explain to residents why he's already had to break two campaign promises and wants to raise their taxes. Life as a low-ranking member of the minority party doesn't usually come with a lot of power to create change or new policy, but it also doesn't carry the stress and headaches of leading a state with the financial problems New Jersey is facing. Sure, the Democrat would have faced re-election in November, but most likely he'd have won easily, thanks...

Jon Corzine, New Jersey's new Governor, isn't the first politician not to follow through on a campaign promise. But rarely is such dishonesty later presented as a virtue. The question for voters to contemplate is whether this is also an indication of what to expect if Democrats gain control of Congress in November. Mr. Corzine won the Trenton statehouse last year by running as a tax cutter who'd raise property tax rebates by 40% over four years. "I'm not considering raising taxes. It's not on my agenda. We have a very high-rate tax structure. I'm not considering it," the then-U.S....