For months, we were told by the Majority members of this body that the Governor’s revenue estimates were too optimistic; that there might be an 800 million dollar hole in the budget between this year and next year.
Yet the Democrats try to solve that problem not by impounding the entirety of what they believe the shortfall to be, but only by impounding the $180 million that would go to cut taxes for New Jersey residents. The remainder of those funds they are happy to spend on government.
Therein lies the problem with the Majority’s budget proposal: it puts funding government ahead of funding tax relief.
Republicans would have been more than happy to work with the Majority to find further savings to pay for an immediate tax cut if the Democrats were insistent on second guessing the Governor’s revenue certification. Instead, they reduced spending on some items to pay for spending “priorities”.
Rather than prioritize tax relief, the Democrats used the opportunity to play politics with the first broad based tax relief New Jerseyans would have seen in almost two decades while being all too eager to spend money elsewhere.
The Majority’s concerns over revenues have been revealed to be nothing more than political posturing.
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