A COMMON SENSE PLAN FOR AN AFFORDABLE NEW JERSEY
Immediate and Long-Term Solutions To Lower Taxes and Stimulate Economic Growth
New Jersey is facing more than just a budget crisis, it is facing an affordability crisis – one that has been exacerbated by a national recession and eight years of runaway spending, rising taxes and reckless borrowing by Democrats, who controlled state government.
As a result of eight years of fiscal mismanagement and continued failure to heed warnings or consider common sense alternatives, the budget deficit is billions of dollars and the state is on the brink of bankruptcy.
Since Democrats took the reins of government, spending has increased by $11 billion and state debt has more than doubled to $38 billion. In a desperate, but unsuccessful, attempt finance their spending spree, the last three Democratic governors increased 104 taxes and fees while virtually freezing state aid to municipalities and school districts, which drove up property taxes by 55 percent. In 2008, property taxes topped $7,000 on average for the first time ever, and New Jersey’s record for having the highest property taxes in the nation is secure.
The combination of higher taxes and a struggling state economy that has suffered under New Jersey's excessive tax and regulatory regime, has made New Jersey increasingly unaffordable to middle class families and seniors living on fixed incomes. More than 230,000 people left New Jersey for more tax-friendly states between 2002 and 2006. The exodus continues unabated.
The economic turmoil has resulted in an astonishing loss of jobs and an alarming number of mortgage foreclosures. People have lost their savings and are barely making it from paycheck to paycheck.
Republicans believe the only way to undue the damage caused by the Democrats is to force state government to live within its means, reduce the tax burden and change New Jersey’s reputation as the state with the most unfriendly business climate in the nation.
Our top priority must be to prevent the extinction of New Jersey’s middle class by making the state a much more affordable place to live and work. This means providing property tax relief and boosting our economy so that we can attract new, higher-paying jobs to our state, providing more opportunities for our residents.
To achieve this goal, Republicans have developed a common sense strategy that would provide immediate relief to all taxpayers and a long-term structural reform plan that would guarantee fiscal stability for our state in the future. The changes we propose would be permanent. They include constitutional amendments that would limit the growth of the state budget to the rate of inflation, require a two-thirds vote of the Legislature to impose a new tax or raise an existing one, and submit all bond and borrowing proposals to the voters for approval.
Our emphasis would be on the eliminating waste, spending less and forcing government to operate more efficiently. The Republican plan would mandate a continuous audit of all government operations and end “one-shot” budget gimmicks.
Over the past three years, Republicans have identified $5 billion in budget savings and billions of taxpayer dollars that were lost to waste, frills, fraud and abuse – money that could be used to lessen the tax burden. Hardly any of our recommendations were accepted by previous governors and legislative leaders.
The Republican plan also includes much-needed reforms to control costs in the state's pension and benefits program, such as basing pension calculations of a five-year, instead of three-year, average, ending tacking by basing a state pension on one job only, further attacking pension padding by raising the salary threshold to $15,000 and banning “early retirement incentives” that only add to the unfunded pension liability.
The Common Sense Plan for An Affordable New Jersey, first proposed by Republicans in May 2008, can be viewed in its entirety here. We welcome your feedback on our plan.
