At least Gov. Jon Corzine knows that the legislation he signed enacting a 20 percent tax credit is only a pebble in the ocean as far as the reforms needed in New Jersey.
“I’d be skeptical too, if I was a taxpayer. Until I see the results, it’s show-me time,” Corzine said, adding that those results will take years to happen. “The reforms take time. It’s not one of those things where you’re going to get instant gratification.”
Certainly not. The fact is that the legislation signed yesterday was a small Band-Aid on a huge problem — property tax bills that are growing at about 7 percent a year and that are already the highest in the nation; a tax system that reinforces the state’s economic disparities; a political system that rewards campaign contributors and ethically challenged legislators; too many towns and school districts; an illogical school funding formula. The list is long.
And it’s why, as the Asbury Park Press points out, the credits are far from the “landmark” reforms touted by the governor and Legislature.
The only thing remarkable about it is how Corzine and the Legislature believe voters will be fooled into thinking it is worthy of the adjective “landmark.” Clearly, they are counting on the gullibility of the electorate. All 120 seats in the Legislature are up for election in November.
Instead of reducing spending by cutting government programs and jobs, and bringing public employee salaries and benefits into the 21st century, they have opted for a shell game instead — demonstrating once again their low regard for the intelligence and attention span of the voter.
Would the Republicans do better? Doubtful. They had a decade in the majority to improve the system and all they came up with was an income tax cut that helped create the fiscal problems the state currently faces.
Jon Shure of New Jersey Policy Perspectives had it right in February when he wrote in an op-ed that so-called reformers dismissed the most logical proposals — an expanded state income tax, realignment of local and county governments — in exchange for what they thought was politically palatable. (Even those proved too extreme for the risk-averse Legislature.)
When we get beyond slogans and sound bites, New Jersey is left with this reality: we collect more from local property taxes than from the state sales and income taxes combined. It’s also true that the lower your income is in New Jersey the higher percentage of it you pay in the form of sales, income and property taxes combined. Real reform of the tax system would put all of this on the table. And it would also accept the fact that as bad as New Jersey’s tax system is (and it is) it is really a symptom of the larger problem: 566 municipalities and 613 school districts-an archaic, unsustainable structure more reminiscent of the Ottoman Empire than a 21st century state.
He describes “real reform” as “looking not just at how much New Jersey spends, but where we spend it and who we call on to pay it.”
An honest assessment of tax burdens that squarely confronts who pays how much, and in which taxes, would point the way out of the morass. It would recognize the value of raising and spending more of our resources at the state and even county level and less locally.
And it’s only likely to happen if we empower citizens — via a tax convention — to do the work.
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Hank Kalet 