| Author |
Message |
    
Factvsfiction
Citizen
Username: Factvsfiction
Post Number: 622
Registered: 4-2006
| | Posted on Wednesday, June 7, 2006 - 10:42 am: | 
|
Interesting Op-Ed piece in the Star Ledger today by Sam Batkins, a policy analyst with the National Taxpayers Union (can't link).
Batkins notes the following items:
"New Jersey does not suffer from a permanent, ongoing scarcity of revenues. In fact, according to the Tax Foundation, New Jersey's tax burden is above the national average. On a per capita basis, residents pay $5,234 in state and local taxes. New Jersey suffers from a spending problem."
"From fiscal year 2000 to 2002, state spending increased 21 percent, even as revenues declined 23 percent. Lawmakers did little to curb spending during a time when revenues were down by more than $9 billion."
"... Trenton has enacted more than $3 billion in "revenue enhancements" since July, 2001. New Jersey was the No. 1 state for tax hikes in the fiscal year 2003, and if the current scheme suceeds, New Jersey could be No. 1 again..."
Batkins claims tax increases have not helped BECAUSE,
"Population growth in New Jersey has slowed from an average of 0.8 percent in the late 1990s to just 0.4 percent last year. High taxes and the second-worst business environment in the U.S. have done little to attract new residents and businesses."
If so, why are we collectively so dumb as to keep voting for the same people?
At a minimum ,it's nice that they are willing to put aside their much-needed summer vacation to start discussing the problem.
Just incredible. |
Factvsfiction
Citizen
Username: Factvsfiction
Post Number: 623
Registered: 4-2006
| | Posted on Wednesday, June 7, 2006 - 10:47 am: |
|
Plus-
" Corzine has not made the case for an additional 9.2 percent spending surge when several states have cut general fund expenditures to balance their budgets. They include Oregon, Illinois, Michigan, Maryland, Minnesota, Nebraska, South Carolina, Texas, Colorado, and Alaska, to name a few." |
cjc
Citizen
Username: Cjc
Post Number: 5685
Registered: 8-2003
| | Posted on Wednesday, June 7, 2006 - 10:50 am: |
|
If so, why are we collectively so dumb as to keep voting for the same people?
Because this, ladies and gentlemen, is New Jersey!
 |
Factvsfiction
Citizen
Username: Factvsfiction
Post Number: 628
Registered: 4-2006
| | Posted on Wednesday, June 7, 2006 - 11:23 am: |
|
IQ tests to be given at border entries? |
Factvsfiction
Citizen
Username: Factvsfiction
Post Number: 705
Registered: 4-2006
| | Posted on Monday, June 19, 2006 - 11:10 pm: |
|
Here you go Winston  |
tom
Citizen
Username: Tom
Post Number: 5134
Registered: 5-2001
| | Posted on Monday, June 19, 2006 - 11:16 pm: |
|
I wonder what constitutes the second-worst business environment in the United States. I have a feeling it ignores an educated workforce, solid infrastructure, quality of life and proximity to markets; and instead narrowly focuses on taxes. |
Cougar86
Citizen
Username: Cougar86
Post Number: 4
Registered: 3-2006
| | Posted on Tuesday, June 20, 2006 - 10:05 am: |
|
Tom
There are plenty of other states that have educated workers, superior infrastructure to NJ, far better quality of life and proximity to markets and offer corportations the opportunity to operate with far lower costs than here in NJ.
You sound like someone who thinks that anyone not from the NE is a hick, redneck or hillbillie. |
cjc
Citizen
Username: Cjc
Post Number: 5742
Registered: 8-2003
| | Posted on Tuesday, June 20, 2006 - 11:17 am: |
|
Just because the workforce is educated doesn't mean it can think straight. Taxes do enter into the quality of life equation too. |
tom
Citizen
Username: Tom
Post Number: 5137
Registered: 5-2001
| | Posted on Tuesday, June 20, 2006 - 5:21 pm: |
|
But you're not saying there are plenty of them; you're saying there are 48 of them.
And no, I don't think you're a hillbilly if you live somewhere else. I just don't see Montana, Alabama, Arkansas, Oklahoma and the Dakotas, to name a few, surpassing NJ as a place to be. And if Ohio and Michigan, for example, are such great business environments, why is the economy in such bad shape in places like Cleveland and Detroit?
Sorry, I'm just not buying it. |
Factvsfiction
Citizen
Username: Factvsfiction
Post Number: 713
Registered: 4-2006
| | Posted on Tuesday, June 20, 2006 - 5:29 pm: |
|
I think the real issue is addressing our tax issues in NJ. Meaning, how do we attract people and businesses? Higher taxes or some creativity? |
joel dranove
Citizen
Username: Jdranove
Post Number: 598
Registered: 1-2006
| | Posted on Tuesday, June 20, 2006 - 6:49 pm: |
|
tom: because big gov, unions and business put off the tax day of reckoning, and fiscal accounting day of reckoning, and then it came.
we are next.
jd |
John Caffrey
Citizen
Username: Jerseyjack
Post Number: 333
Registered: 11-2005
| | Posted on Tuesday, June 20, 2006 - 7:40 pm: |
|
Politicians from both parties (I hate to criticize my fellow Republicans) caused the problems we experience by settling on gimics, false hopes from a rising stock market and borrowing to present budgets. This is not news.
The question is, which budget items should be reduced and by what amount or even eliminated?
|
Closed: New threads not accepted on this page