| 3 diaries here dealing with today's announcements - one by Hetty Rosenstein, one from Hopeful, and this from me. Makes sense to link them together. - Rosi Efthim
Tying a new millionaires tax - with a higher threshold - to restoration of property tax rebates and prescription drug benefits, both for seniors, Democratic leaders are daring the Governor to choose rich people over old people. It's also a challenge to Christie's pledge not to raise taxes in the coming year's budget. It's a cheeky move. And it's going to move fast: Sweeney and Oliver plan to have the legislation heard during Thursday committee hearings, and posted for floor votes May 20.
Said your Governor: "It's a cute idea, but their math doesn't work." Christie also accused the Dems of "pandering" to seniors.
At a press conference late this morning, Senate President Steve Sweeney, Assembly Speaker Sheila Oliver and Senate Majority Leader Barbara Buono announced a plan to save seniors from some of the harshest whammies against New Jersey's elders. The plan protects what they call "New Jersey's most vulnerable residents" by restoring a 1-year income tax surcharge on the 16,000 New Jerseyans with taxable incomes of at least $1 million.
That's a millionaire's tax - one the Dems say will raise $637M - but one that sets the bar higher than the $400,000 yearly income level of the previous surcharge. Echoing a standard GOP canard, Christie has complained that a tax on earners at $400K amounts to a tax on small businesses, as if all high earners are running Mom & Pop establishments. This shields small business owners, say the Democrats. Nevertheless, the idea of a surcharge is popular with most NJ residents.
It's enough to pay to maintain last year's level of senior rebates, and return the prescription drug funding Christie's plan eliminates. For seniors living on fixed incomes or struggling financially, Christie's plan is a disaster, raising the co-pay for brand-name prescription drugs from $7 to $15 and adding a $310 deductible annually.
An analysis prepared last month by the nonpartisan Office of Legislative Services reported that under the Christie plan, a retired couple living on a fixed income of $40,000 would see a $1,320 increase in taxes while a family making $1.2 million would receive a tax cut of $11,598. That's bananas, and the OLS figures don't even include the out-of-pocket for the higher prescription drug costs, which NJ Foundation for Aging estimates costing the average senior an extra $430/year. Buono:
Asking seniors and the disabled to pay thousands of dollars in higher property taxes and prescription costs while providing a huge windfall to the extremely wealthy is simply unconscionable. Today we renew our promise to seniors and the disabled that their quality of life is our priority.
Sweeney, on their more "compassionate plan":
From day one, the Governor's plan to protect the rich from the any of the pain being delivered by his budget has flown in the face of both common sense and common decency. This plan re-centers our priorities.
My first reaction when I heard about this was annoyance at raising that threshold on NJ's wealthiest 2.5 times to a literal million per year. But tied the way it's tied to prioritizing our elders, I think Christie's going to have a hard time swatting this away. It's like the grownups have arrived and a sensible adult hand has hit the reset button - or at least one of them - on a game gone nuts.
More on the Dem plan, after the jump. |
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