| If there is anything that we have learned about our fair state's Budget Negotiations its that Platitudes and Vacuous Rhetoric has gotten us exactly where we are today. Facing state shutdown.
Enter todays Tosser of the Day: State Senator and Budget Officer Bob Littell (R-24). Who was gracious enough to spend valuable time writting up a press release instead of, you know, coming up with alternatives to Corzine's "Reckless" Budget. It is utterly unconscionable that the Democrats in charge of the State House in Trenton are not any closer to a budget than they were in March. We are now ten days away from the constitutionally mandated deadline for the adoption of a balanced budget and the Democrats who control the Legislature and the Executive branch are in a budget stalemate. The state of the budget negotiations have never been this bad.
The budget negotiations are in such disarray that Governor Corzine has ordered his department heads to prepare for a state shutdown. I fear that in their desperation the Democrats will ask us to vote on a budget that no one has ever seen.
Hot air. That's all that gives us. Wait, nope, there is also the required gratuitous misleading dishonest mendacity. PSST, The Budget is right here. Wait sorry, that is the actual really long and legthy version. The version for Republican lawmakers that don't have enough time on their hands to do anything but write press releases bashing the other side is here.
Perhaps budget negotiations have never been this bad. Perhaps. This time, its real bad because we have a Governor that actually wants to GOVERN, who is surrounded by people who want the status quo (kind of like a reverse Washington D.C.). It is also this bad because people like Bob had put us in this situation for 10-15 years. As for us not getting anywhere in the last few months, you would think a Budget Officer that is in charge of negotiating would be at least partly responsible for that.
Let's continue this on the flip shall we?... |
Onto the next craptacularity offered up by the Bobster:The Democrats in charge of Trenton are also considering $1.7 billion in new tax increases instead of cutting spending. Over the past five years, under Democrat control budget spending has increased by over $6 billion and will go up again another $2.6 billion in this year's budget. Under the Democrats state taxes have increased by over $12 billion and when this budget passes that number will grow to $15 billion and State debt will have increased by $27 billion in just five years. The Democrats have proven that they are incapable of fiscally responsible governance and now they may be incapable of producing any budget at all.
Far be it from me to be forced to defend ANYONE in Trenton. For truly they have an extremely high incumbancy rate here in NJ, and thus hardly anyone has their hands clean as to why we are in this terrible mess. However, this budget stops the borrowing, so that some of the long term and short term debt this state has accumulated gets reigned in. However, that debt has not gone to where it belongs like pensions and workers' benefits.
No it has gone to fat cats and pork projects. For which Bob and friends are equally culpable. As for all these bent "facts", I will let you simply click on the link for our Budget tag, and you can get all the truthiness you want.
I believe that their tax, spend and borrow policies are responsible for New Jersey's inability to reach economic stability. While other states have huge surpluses and are reinvesting in education and health care, New Jersey is taxing and borrowing to balance another budget. In fact, rarely do their tax policies take into account the effect on the economy in general or the individual industries that they are punishing.
I wonder, if a feather and a bowling ball are dropped down a tube filled with Bob's speachifying will they land at the same time? Believe what you want Bob give us an alternative plan. Lead, follow, or get the hell out of the way. As for reinvesting, THAT IS what this budget is all about. It is about putting money back where it belongs, in the pensions of state workers, into debt reduction. Also, a good deal of that money is going into education as well. As for the economy in general, I have written about this already. NJ has a great climate for business.
Finally, Bobby boy cry's a river. All this talk about getting this state back on track and how taxes are bad, and how we need to reinvest in education and all this crapsky and he lays this one up: Sadly, at a press conference Monday the Assembly leadership indicated that the casino tax which was due to sunset this year was back on the table. In fact, according to the list of bills proposed in Monday's Senate session the Democrats in charge of the Legislature plan to do just that. We can only wonder what else that have in store for the overtaxed long suffering residents of New Jersey.
The Casino Tax? This is absurd. How is a tax on gambling a bad tax? It is meant to discourage people from wasting money on games that they are bound to loose. Last I checked Atlantic City wasn't some sort of exemplar of trickle down economics, quite the opposite. The money spent there tends to go into pockets of people like Donald Trump.
The Casino tax is meant to keep more money in more people's hands so that they spend it elsewhere. As in driving the economy that Senator Litell says is suffering so goddamned much. If there is any tax that should be raised it is this one. Maybe it will keep more Seniors off those damned buses.
Senator, please stop writting press releases, and get back to the drawing board. Offer real alternatives if you want to win the hearts and minds of New Jerseyans. After all, there are only 10 days left.
TOSSER! |
.gif)
