The governor, during his third state of the state address, continued what has been a long litany of dire pronouncements that in the end amount to nothing. Only this time, he attempted to borrow a page from President-elect Barack Obama and recast the bad news through a hopeful lens.
New Jerseyans’ “determination remains strong,” their “drive is undiminished” and “work ethic knows no bounds” — which will aid the state in digging itself out of its mess.
The problem is that New Jersey is not hurting because of the recession, though the national economy has not made matters any better.
The reality, as the governor has been saying since he first took office, is that the state has been making too many bad fiscal choices over the years, avoiding the difficult decisions and shifting money from one pocket to another and calling it income. That allowed it to avoid painful budgetary decisions — until the 2006 budget standoff led to a government shutdown. Since then, state government has been a bit more honest about what it faces, though it has remained unable to do what needs to be done to change the way we spend and raise money.
The national economy has made these problems worse, by eroding state revenues at a time when the state needs to spend added money on its social safety net and on infrastructure projects that would generate jobs. In the past, the state would borrow money to plug the gap, but the governor is proposing a belt-tightening that may address some of the long-term budget problems but lead to added pain now.
The governor admits this.
By the close of the calendar year, the deepening recession had required us to cut spending by another $800 million. That’s a total of $1.4 billion in cuts in this fiscal year alone.Let me repeat — $1.4 billion …… not in the rate of growth, but in absolute dollars.
It’s been painful, and we’ve had to make many ugly choices. But together with my partners in the Legislature, we are making the hard choices.
The question remains, however, whether they are making the right choices. The governor announced likely cuts in state aid to towns while making it clear that they will not be able to raise taxes to offset the cuts. That will just force the pain downward, making them slash their services.
In the end, Jon Shure, president of the liberal New Jersey Policy Perspective, hit it right in his comments to The New York Times, giving the speech “mixed marks” and saying “he would have liked to hear more concrete plans, rather than a campaign-style list of greatest hits.”
“The ratio between the accomplishments of the past and proposals for the future was far more in favor of the past, especially compared to his past speeches,” he said. “So it lacked a coherent vision of what we want the state to be.”
Hank Kalet 