budget – Page 16 – Hank Kalet

Dispatches: Neutering the watchdog

Dispatches is up — on the governor’s budget cut to the state Election Law Enforcement Commission.

South Brunswick Post, The Cranbury Press
The Blog of South Brunswick

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Your money or your vote

The state budget mess appears likely to put an end to an experiment in democracy that really was never given much of a chance in New Jersey.

According to the Record of Hackensack, the budget for the state’s Election Law Enforcement Commission is being cut drastically at a time when its responsibilities are on the rise. That means that some programs could be on the chopping block, including Clean Elections.

This year, amid the state’s fiscal crisis, the agency faces a $750,000 cut in its $4.9 million budget, a reduction that supporters say would hobble a watchdog group they already consider understaffed. ELEC officials say they were blindsided by the fine print of Governor Corzine’s budget, released after his February budget speech.

The agency now has 69 of the 90 employees that legislators approved in 2004 as part of a sweeping ethics package that doubled its work, according to agency officials. ELEC now juggles oversight of lobbyists, government contractors under so-called pay-to-play laws, and public financing programs for state and gubernatorial candidates.

It also continues its traditional oversight of campaign spending: In 2007, the agency collected more than $293,000 in fines from candidates and committee officials who failed to properly file disclosure forms.

“We’re underfunded and don’t have the staff to do the job we’d like to do,” said ELEC analyst Felice Fava, whose job includes training candidates about pay-to-play laws. “Really it’s public disclosure and compliance with these laws that suffer ultimately.”

It’s a question of priorities — do we maintain our watchdogs or allow the wolves to run the henhouse?

South Brunswick Post, The Cranbury Press
The Blog of South Brunswick

E-mail me clicking here.

Bitter over local school budgets

While a majority of school budgets apparently were approved by voters Tuesday, voters in three of the four districts we cover here in the Princeton Packet’s Dayton office nixed their budgets — Jamesburg, Monroe and South Brunswick — a rarity around here.

We’ll have full coverage over the next two days and I’ll have a column on the flaws in the process, which is part of what I think happened. All three budgets were pretty tight, but voters are angry — property taxes are the issue of the moment in New Jersey, as it should be — and the school budget is the only one they can take it out on.

So, periodically, we get these votes, even in towns with a history of supporting their spending plans.

The battle of the budget

Let’s face it: No one likes the budget that Gov. Jon Corzine has proposed to the state Legislature.

No one likes his proposal to close the parks or his plan to eliminate the Department of Agriculture. No one likes his aid cuts to towns, hospitals or colleges.

But the state is broke. It is facing a massive recurring deficit and something needs to be done.

Is the governor taking the right action? Is this the correct approach to follow?

I don’t know. But pain is the one given in this discussion. Someone is going to have to pay and pay steeply.

The key thing is that the governor has asked that those criticizing his cuts, trying to reverse them, come up with alternatives. Many of the groups have failed to do that, even with the governor saying that more cuts maybe necessary to offset a shortfall in revenue. Many, like the state’s mayors, complain that the cuts will lead them to increase taxes (purposely ignoring the tax cap imposed last year that limits the amount any town can increase municipal tax levies or the impact that school aid increases will have on overall tax bills in many towns).

That’s why I like this story. Many of the state’s progressive interest groups are working to alter the priorities in the governor’s budget, seeking to reverse some of the cuts but offering other cuts and new revenues to replace them.

Contending Gov Jon Corzine’s proposed cuts to the state budget will raise property taxes and hinder public services like health care, higher education, tenant protection, road repair and outdoor recreation, a coalition of 20 citizens’ groups today proposed increases in state income, gas, gambling and liquor taxes and motor vehicle fees to raise approximately $2.28 billion.

“If this budget goes through, we will see longer emergency room waits, higher property taxes and shuttered parks and libraries,” said Eva Bonime, director of the New Jersey Working Families Alliance and coordinator for the new coalition, Better Choices for New Jersey. “This budget makes the wrong choices for working families.”

The coalition is proposing increasing the state income tax on the top 10 percent of wealthy households to raise approximately $500 million. It wants to increases in the gas tax as well as in driver’s license and motor vehicle registration fee to raise $1.4 billion.

The group also wants to close what it sees as corporate tax loopholes and re-evaluate business subsidy programs to raise $300 million. And it wants to see liquor and gambling taxes increased to raise $80 million. Coalition leaders said they have not settled on the specifics of their proposals.

“Better choices means looking at sensible revenue options to fund the services and investments our state depends on,” said Jon Shure, president of New Jersey Policy Perspective. “These are fair, realistic and environmentally sound ways to meet New Jersey’s needs.”

Business groups reacted with criticism — which was to be expected. They are more concerned with maintaining the benefits they get from the state than with the general welfare of the state’s poorest residents.

The question is how the governor and state Legislature will react. No one argues with the need to cut spending. But it is foolish for the state to attempt to close such a massive budget hole by relying only on spending. No one wants to pay more, but I can’t see how we can avoid it.

South Brunswick Post, The Cranbury Press
The Blog of South Brunswick

E-mail me by clicking here.

State facing fiscal doom

OK. That headline is a bit strong, but given the straits the state faces annually, the structural deficit it has to plug just to break even, this news is not good.

In a sign that the faltering economy is further pinching state finances, nonpartisan legislative analysts believe state tax receipts over the next 15 months will be $134 million below those projected by the Corzine administration just a month ago.

While the discrepancy is small compared to the governor’s recommended $33 billion budget, some fear it could signal a slump in revenues that could worsen as the year unfolds.

South Brunswick Post, The Cranbury Press
The Blog of South Brunswick

E-mail me by clicking here.