While Gov. Chris Christie took his campaign for a 10 percent income tax cut to CBS’s “Face the Nation” yesterday morning, trouble continued to brew in the wake of Standard & Poor’s thumbs-down verdict on Christie’s budget and revenue projections.
Standard & Poor’s questioned Christie’s assertion that a $2.2 billion surge in state revenue would swell the Garden State’s coffers in the upcoming fiscal year, enabling him to cut business and income taxes while paying for pensions, debt service, and other bills piled up by previous governors.
The critical S&P report raises the stakes for Christie and State Treasurer Andrew Sidamon-Eristoff as they await a similar report expected to be issued this week by Moody’s, the second major credit rating agency. Meanwhile, the nonpartisan Office of Legislative Services prepares its own revenue forecast for review by the Democratic-controlled Senate and Assembly budget committees next month.
While Christie and Democratic legislative leaders have been sparring for the past six weeks over whether to cut income taxes or property taxes, the real question is whether New Jersey can afford a major tax cut at all.
When fully phased in four years from now, Christie’s proposed income and business tax cuts would cut state revenue by more than $2 billion, while rising pension and debt service costs would add $2.7 billion in fixed budget costs.
It would take four consecutive years of booming economic growth to fill that $4.7 billion budget hole and cover other built-in spending needs — and budget analysts are questioning how the Christie administration can be so optimistic in its revenue projections not only this year and next, but also for the next three fiscal years as well.
Read more at NJ Spotlight.
No, he can’t.
Nope.
Answer is no of course not. Also, same question and same answer at the federal level. The nation can’t afford Obama’s tax cuts either.
To illustrate look at the NJ debt clock. Pretty funny to see revenue decreasing while expenses are increasing.
https://www.usdebtclock.org/state-debt-clocks/state-of-new-jersey-debt-clock.html
At the end of the day its not funny though. Also the fact that our nation is now $15.4 trillion in debt is disgusting. Whatever happens in the next presidential election it won’t matter, outlook is hopeless. Obama has proven to be worthless in tackling the problem. Any of the conservative candidates will likely be as worthless.
Government accounting makes we want to max out every credit card offer I get (they still come everyday) because once the debt party ends, credit & money will become even more scarce.
It’s scarce now, Bebop. Try going to bank to obtain an unsecured loan (even if your credit is stellar). The rates are crappy. Burns me up because We The People helped bail the banks out when they screwed up.
Standard & Poor’s? In Christie’s defense, not that I support him in any way politically, wasn’t S&P one of the rating agencies that gave AAA+ ratings to the Goniff National Banks when they were bundling all of these mortgage-backed securities and credit default swaps? And we are supposed to believe them this time when they say “The Sky [over NJ] is Falling!”?
But not to worry: Christie’s plan will be dropped as soon as the desperate Republican party — faced with a plethora of candidates with six bullets in each foot — rush Christie and Shanghai him into committing politicide by running against Obama in November.
The straight Republican line, with no responsibility or consideration or brain work applied to it.
Besides, the income tax is a progressive tax. If a tax is to be cut, make it a regressive tax like all the tolls that bleed us silly every time we go out. Why are all those tolls needed? West of the Mississippi it is rare to find a toll road — why must we have tolls here?
The Port Authority tolls are obscene. $12 to go through the Lincoln Tunnel?
I was told once (haven’t looked it up myself yet) that all these tolls were supposed to be temporary- just to help pay for the bridges/tolls when they were first put up. Now they’re permanent, and deter people from crossinb borders to do business with the other state. I avoid going to the city now because it costs almost $20 just to get there and back (with gas)… then you have to worry about parking, etc. It’s just not worth it.
*bridges/tunnels
OH- and public transportation (at least to the city) isn’t any cheaper than having a car! So what’s the point?!
Well caterwaul, some of us have to go there to work. Daily. This impacts the bus prices and some people have to drive (like all those film production folks who have 7 am call times in places like Steiner Stages in Brooklyn).
What I love about tax “cuts” is that we all wind up paying for it in all kinds of ways.
Pay me now or pay me later. But we still pay. People don’t seem to “get” that when they vote for the politicians using the tax cut sound bites.
Of course we can, it not a matter of taxing people to get more money, but reducing state expenses. Any business or government could cut expenditures by 10% and still operate. I’ve seen it done many times and it continues to happen every day in private business.
Pretty soon we will hearing the usual cries, “we’ll have to layoff police and fireman, close libraries…etc”. They only mention the things you see each day, just your basic scare tactics.
We need to send a few people from Trenton up to New Hampshire; they have no sales or income tax and just copy what they are doing.
I hear ya Martha it is effed up. Cheap money is swirling around the Fed, Treasury, & Wall St yet Doesn’t seem to be filtering down the food chain to the rest of us.
“We need to send a few people from Trenton up to New Hampshire; they have no sales or income tax and just copy what they are doing.”
They also have like 424 state legislators, making tiny Nude Hamster the 4th largest government in the English-speaking world — don’t give Jersey any ideas!!! Their gas tax is high, and most of their income comes from property taxes. But it is a great place to maintain a residence if you are a 1%-er. And both weeks of summer are very nice (except for the black flies.)
Took the words out of my mouth, Conan. I love the town meeting/take the matter into your own hands culture in NH, but their property taxes are high & regressive, and they do have a growing poverty/underclass problem. I once served on an alternative funding committee for the GR public schools along with Carl Bergmanson. The committee was pretty well balanced in terms of liberals, conservatives, community activists, educators. We met for weeks getting nowhere, and finally I asked what each member of the committee would recommend in a perfect world for funding public education. Remarkably, all around the table, everyone felt it should be funded by state income taxes, either in the form of a flat or progressive tax. Still makes a lot of sense to me: schools consist of the lion’s share of our property taxes, which for many people is the lion’s share of state & local taxes paid. This whole charade of lowering state income taxes is a play to the national conservative base for a future election: not a sound fiscal measure.
Yes we can to coin a phrase
Yeah, let’s copy New Hampshire.
They’re in great shape:
https://www.seacoastonline.com/articles/20110105-OPINION-101050343
Oh and alg you needn’t worry.
Christie proposes no new taxes on angry basement dwellers with limited vocabularies.
Chris Christie proposal to cut taxes is a terrific idea. Consider the merits. First, most people would prefer to keep their hard earned income and not give it away to pay for other peoples wages and benefits. Taxes wouldn’t be so controversal in New Jersey if it were not the most heavily taxed state in the country. The fact is that when you take into account income, property and sales taxes in NJ, state and municipal government imposes a huge tariff just for living here. There is no justification for the tax burden the public sector imposes on us.
I commend Christie for proposing to lower taxes. I’m confident it will serve to bolster growth of the private sector and employment opportunities in New Jersey. I’m hopeful also he will continue to cut public spending allowing for more tax cuts in the future, making New Jersey more competitive versus our tristate neighbors.