2006 Legislative Year in Review

By Assembly Republican Leader Alex DeCroce

At the start of the current legislative session last January, I spoke about the critical need for the Legislature to act this year to provide property tax relief, stamp out the culture of corruption, and restore fiscal responsibility to state budgeting.

Now is a good time to look at the past year and evaluate how much progress was made toward these goals.

Unfortunately, the Democrat-controlled Legislature failed on all three of these very important fronts. As 2006 drew to a close, there was no sustainable property tax relief proposal on the table, there was little progress toward passing tougher ethics reforms, and according to Governor Corzine, we will head into the next budget year with a $2 billion structural deficit.

While property tax relief and ethics reform withered on the vine, the Democrat leadership did make a priority of approving free needles for drug addicts and $400 million for special interest groups while increasing state spending by a record amount for the fifth year in a row.

Ultimately this Democrat-controlled Legislature will be better remembered for what it failed to do for the citizens of New Jersey in 2006.

It failed in its constitutional duty to pass a balanced state budget by July 1st. This failure resulted in a state-government shutdown for an entire week and eventually a state budget loaded with hundreds of millions of dollars in pork spending, financed by dozens of new taxes. The Democrats put people’s lives in financial jeopardy when they forced the state – and Atlantic City casinos – to close for a week. This was unprecedented.

The Democrats promised no new taxes when they were running as candidates in 2005. It turned out that was the first of many promises they broke in 2006. They raised the state sales tax and spent half of it on special interest projects, while increasing a variety of other taxes as well.

The Democrats also promised property tax relief and reform by the end of the year. They failed on both fronts, and the outlook for significant, lasting relief in 2007 is looking bleaker all the time.

At the same time, the Democrats were promising to deliver sweeping ethics and anti-corruption reforms. They failed to deliver, which is an embarrassment in light of the fact that nearly 200 public officials have been indicted on corruption charges in the past five years and a report from the Election Law Enforcement Commission found that the Democrats’ loophole-ridden pay-to-play reform bill passed in 2004 is being routinely circumvented by contributors.

Their behavior has been sadly predictable. They say one thing and then do precisely the opposite once the latest election is over. As evidence, consider that during the past five years of Democrat control, 97 taxes were raised. They are responsible for a 35 percent rise in property taxes, $6 billion in new state taxes, $10 billion in increased spending and $37.5 billion in new debt.

They have made New Jersey unaffordable and as a result, thousands of middle class families and the companies that employ them are moving to more tax-friendly states each year.

There are alternatives. To provide property tax relief, Assembly Republicans are looking at a 30 percent property tax cut for all primary residences with a combined household income at or below $200,000, with a 20% property tax cut for everyone else.

This would include a $5,000 cap on any tax credit, a guaranteed 30 percent reduction for seniors and a doubling of rebates for renters.

This could be supported by $2.2 billion in spending cuts identified by the Republican members of the Assembly Budget Committee and existing revenue now allocated or constitutionally dedicated for property tax relief. It would be backed by a constitutional cap on spending growth to help preserve fiscal discipline.

We have proposed to save the state money by putting a stop to pension boosting and tacking by public officials, expanding anti-nepotism laws, and putting an end to dual office holding.

To clean up the culture of corruption in New Jersey, Assembly Republicans have proposed a Blueprint for a Corrupt-Free New Jersey. We would require mandatory jail time for public officials who break the law, suspend pay for public officials who are indicted, and suspend pension and health benefits for convicted public officials.

We have also proposed giving private citizens full control of the Legislative Ethics Committee, making the ethics complaint process user-friendly, strengthening the Legislative Code of Ethics and banning pay-to-play at all levels of government.

This is the Assembly Republican agenda heading into the new year. Hopefully, the Democrats who have failed to address these problems during 2006, will be open to our ideas in 2007.