I know that, for many, it’s difficult to work up any real sympathy for state workers given their benefits, but the news that the governor is putting mass layoffs on the table is not good for anyone.
Consider that his announcement comes on the same day that job-loss figures for the state were released showing more than 85,000 jobs lost in 2008. Adding 7,000 to that figure can only make things worse.
Gov. Jon S. Corzine told Brian Lehrer on WNYC today that between taxes and federal spending New Jersey should see more than $17 billion in relief from the stimulus. About $7 billion will come in the form of tax relief to residents, with the rest coming in money for programs.
Corzine said that the state would have little impact on how the money is spent — the bulk come in the form of Medicaid and unemployment aid — but that lawmakers will have to sort some infrastructure dollars. The president has told governors that he expects money to be spent on shovel-ready projects that are chosen via an open process, Gov. Corzine said.
He says the stimulus money should save or create about 100,000 jobs.
He also said that there needs to be a process to track the money, to ensure that it is being used for its intended purpose.
The numbers, of course, are mind-boggling — but the spending is necessary and should be a huge help in a state hamstrung by budget problems, in terms of keeping people afloat and saving jobs.
Let’s be clear, however, federal money will not solve New Jersey’s fiscal predicament. That is something that all of us — politicians and taxpayers — created because of our unwillingness to make hard choices. There is not a New Jerseyan who has not screamed to save his or her pet program or to keep his or her property tax bill or income taxes from going up. Until we realize this, we will never climb out of the budget hole we’ve created.
The Star-Ledger is reporting that Gov. Jon S. Corzine plans to sign legislation approved by the state Senate on Monday that would legalize so-called “medical marijuana” — or pot used by terminally ill or patients in chronic and debilitating pain to allow them a more comfortable and normal existence.
The governor apparently told radio announcer Brian Lehrer on WNYC this morning that he thought the legislation could be crafted to provide relief while also offering safeguards.
The bill passed the Senate on Monday, but is unlikely to get through the Assembly until after November’s election, during what is called the lame-duck session. That’s when legislators tend to handle controversial proposals (repeal of the death penalty, for instance).
I wish the Assembly had as much courage on this as the governor is showing. Like all 80 Assembly members, the governor is up for re-election, but he faces what is expected to be a difficult battle.
So, Chris Christie makes it official — he’s in the race and mainstream Republicans are ecstatic.
But should they be? New Jersey has become a consistently Democratic and Republicans, when forced to run in a contested primary, are forced to run to their right, making them less palatable to the general public.
And while the public is angry over the state of the state and not particularly pleased with Jon Corzine’s efforts, he doesn’t face the kind of deep anger we’ve seen directed at Jim Florio.
I want to point readers toward this quote from today’s Star-Ledger:
Christie could face trouble in the GOP primary, political experts said, drawing a parallel between a Christie-Lonegan matchup and the 2001 primary battle, when the party favorite, Bob Franks, was defeated by conservative Bret Schundler.
“The Republican primary can be captured by a conservative with a grassroots organization” like Lonegan’s Americans for Prosperity, said Joseph Marbach, a political scientist at Seton Hall University. He said Christie needs to “show he’s conservative enough” and has a good chance to beat Corzine.
What’s missing? A paragraph that explains what happened to Schundler in the general election. What happened? He lost in a landslide.
That was followed by Corzine’s rather convincing defeat of Doug Forrester — just one year after a sitting Democratic governor resigned the governorship.
Republicans, in fact, have won only two statewide races since Republican Gov. Tom Kean’s two terms in office ended in 1989 — and those races, won by Christie Whitman, were won by slim margins following a massive tax revolt that shifted control of the state Legislature to the GOP. That shift lasted just eight years.
Gov. Jon Corzine has announced what is being described as unprecedented — but that is not necessarily a good thing.
The governor said Tuesday that he will need to cut $812 million from the current-year budget — on top of the $600 million cut included in the original spending plan when it was approved in June. The cuts — which would include antipoverty programs, agriculutural spending, aid to towns and schools and a wage freeze — are designed to close a $2.1 billion shortfall in the $32.9 billion budget. The shortfall is a result of the flagging economy, which has resulted in a massive dropoff in tax revenue. The governor also is expecting money from the federal government and a diversion of debt payments — he had planned to pay more against the debt than required in an effort to retire some of it early — to close the gap, according to the Ledger.
“These are deep cuts that touch every corner of state government,” the governor
said. “We scraped the bottom of the barrel,” added state Treasurer David Rousseau. “There were accounts that we found that had 99 cents left in them.”
There also could be tax increases included in the budget that will be proposed in March.
There is nothing good about this kind of news, which is likely to slow the state’s recovery from the recession, as Paul Krugman has pointed out. But the balanced-budget requirement and the state’s political culture — tax hikes tend to trigger ugly reactions — have tied the governor’s hands.
Of course, legislative Republicans are using the budget as a political club, purposely ignoring the difficult decisions he already has made — and forgetting (conveniently) that Republican Gov. Christie Whitman used fiscal sleight-of-hand to pass her tax cuts, only cutting spending that was popular among Democrats and leaving much of the state’s bloated government intact.
That said, the Republicans — and tentative Democrats — are only responding to political realities. We — meaning New Jersey’s taxpayers — have never been good at making sacrifices. Because of that, the budgetary pain we are feeling is only going to get worse.
Hank Kalet 