Time to Pay the Piper: The Budget Fight

by: Matt Stoller

Mon Mar 27, 2006 at 12:34:48 PM EST

Jon Corzine is confronting the budget crisis, with a blueprint that calls for spending cuts and tax hikes.  South Jersey Democrats are going to fight him because they are haunted by the ghosts of Florio past and because their political strength is not built on fiscal responsibility.

Tom Moran's column is a must-read.

The budget Corzine presented last week is nothing but bad news. It was all spending cuts and tax hikes. It's no wonder there were no applause lines in his speech.

The governor wrote this one himself, mostly. He didn't use the TelePrompTer. And he cracked a smile only once, when he flubbed a line.

But this lack of polish has its charm. It's almost as if Corzine is telling us he has no time for frills and no interest in puffery. He has work to do.

"We haven't done much for my re-election prospects," he said later. "But I love this stuff."

The man is a classic wonk. For the last two months, he's been por ing over budget minutia, working marathon days that start with staff meetings as early as 7:30 a.m. and often end with late-night work ses sions over take-out pizza.

Now we have his work product.

And like it or not, this is a budget with integrity. He's closing a deficit he inherited with two parts spending cuts and one part tax increase.

He's averting a looming disaster by funding the pension system, putting in more money in one year than previous governors did in the last nine years combined. And by raising the sales tax, he's picking the one that makes most sense by far.

Wall Street is impressed. And most legislators say they see no sign yet of a tax revolt, probably because these tax hikes are only one-third the size of the Florio tax hikes, and because voters aren't as grouchy in today's growing economy.

Watch this fight.  It is going to color the Menendez-Kean campaign, it is going to reveal the true characters in the legislature, and it is a model for what the USA will have to deal with when Bush is no longer President and the Chinese decide they've had enough of lending us hundreds of billions a year.