Budget done, now onto Part 2 of our program

The Record writes that the budget crafted after a long, unnecessary standoff is only the first in what promises to be a series of difficult battles facing Trenton. the statea already faces a structural deficit next year (the Record puts it at $2 bill, though I’ve read higher) and there is a screaming need to change the way we raise and spend money in the state.

The current property tax system is badly flawed and unfair; the sales tax, unless better targeted than our current tax, is regressive; and the income tax can be too dependent on the economy. A mix of all three will needed, with a heavier reliance on income taxes than we currently have, to address our problems.

And we need to change our spending habits. We need a serious discussion about municipal and school district consolidation and the elimination of extraneous levels of government — not just talk about shared services. The reality is that the more boards, commissions and panels we have that can ask for money and spend money, the more they’ll ask for and spend.

We need pension reform, changes in public employee contracts, an end to patronage and pay-to-play — I could go on.

Unless we make changes, every new budget will result in some sort of crisis.

South Brunswick Post, The Cranbury Press

Author: hankkalet

Hank Kalet is a poet and freelance journalist. He is the economic needs reporter for NJ Spotlight, teaches journalism at Rutgers University and writing at Middlesex County College and Brookdale Community College. He writes a semi-monthly column for the Progressive Populist. He is a lifelong fan of the New York Mets and New York Knicks, drinks too much coffee and attends as many Bruce Springsteen concerts as his meager finances will allow. He lives in South Brunswick with his wife Annie. View all posts by hankkalet