What do Florida, New Hampshire and Washington state have in common?
They’re among nine states that not only weathered the worst economic recession of our generation, but found ways to make their economies stronger, attract new people and create jobs when the rest of the nation floundered.
From 2001 to 2010, these nine states saw employment increase by 5.4 percent when the rest of the country remained stagnant.
What do these states have in common that allows them to grow jobs during horrific economic times?
No income tax.
In New Jersey, we’re on our way to replicating the job-creating economic successes of these “prime nine” states, even though we’re still among the “maligned nine” states with the highest income taxes.
The tax-free states grew employment by 5.4 percent, while tax-heavy states saw jobs decline by 1.7 percent.
That’s why Gov. Christie is proposing to cut income taxes for everyone. It will keep money in people’s pockets and help bring back the jobs that disappeared last decade as Trenton taxed and spent the state into economic ruin.
The Wall Street Journal recently called legislative proposals in other states to cut the income tax good “long-term growth” and attempts to use additional income tax revenue to relieve property taxes “short-term politics.”
It’s not even good short-term politics. Remember what happened to Jon Corzine in 2009 when he raised income taxes? He was one of nearly 120,000 New Jerseyans who lost a job that year.
Franklin D. Roosevelt, who knew something about emerging from horrific economic times, once said: “Do something. If it works, do more of it. If it doesn’t, do something else.”
New Jersey has repeatedly tried raising taxes to relieve property taxes. It has never worked. In fact, the income tax itself began as a way to reduce property taxes. Do you know anyone whose property taxes went down since 1976?
New Jersey lost an entire decade (and 156,000 jobs) proving you can’t lower one tax by raising another. Taxes increased by $11 billion from 2002 to 2009, and nearly every time they increased a tax, Trenton politicians promised it would relieve property taxes, yet the property tax burden increased 6 percent per year and 60 percent cumulatively from 2002 to 2010.
Remember when Trenton politicians shut down the state to raise the sales tax in 2006 to offer “historic” levels of property tax relief? It didn’t work. The higher sales tax remains, but the property tax relief was history after just one year.
We need to stop doing what doesn’t work. That’s why we ended those failed tactics and launched the most aggressive and effective assault on property taxes in New Jersey history.
We put a tight cap on property taxes, saved property taxpayers $120 billion over the next 30 years through pension and health care reform, and we are working to do more, such as ending the payout for workers’ unused sick and vacation time and allowing towns to save money by opting out of Civil Service.
Our comprehensive approach to tax reform has businesses and homeowners optimistic about our state’s future for the first time in several years.
If we continue to do what has been working, we will continue to create more private-sector jobs in addition to the 60,000 that have been added in the past two years.
Adding jobs won’t just improve our unemployment rate, but likely will achieve precisely what short-sighted critics of Gov. Chris Christie’s income tax cut say it won’t: property tax relief.
Raising other taxes has not lowered property taxes, but reducing the income tax may because it will keep forcing government to spend within its means while encouraging businesses to create jobs in New Jersey.
More businesses and jobs in our economy means a greater share of the tax burden is shifted away from property taxpayers.
Many other states have seen the wisdom of low income tax rates. They know that reducing the income tax burden creates jobs and builds a strong economic foundation. I’m eager to see New Jersey follow suit.
In the last two years, New Jersey has added more than 62,000 private-sector jobs. And our Economic Outlook Rank has improved from 48th to 45th this year, according to the American Legislative Exchange Council.
Our plan to make New Jersey affordable and create jobs is working. We can’t stop doing what is working. We need to do more.
With the Presidential primary season well under way, we are now being treated to candidates going from state to state almost every week in an effort or convince voters that they are the right person to lead the country. If you are wondering when the candidate train stops in New Jersey, well I have some bad news. Last September, the Lieutenant Governor signed a bill approved by the Legislature, which moved the New Jersey 2012 Presidential Primary from February (when it had been held in 2008 on the 5th of February aka “Super Tuesday” ) to June 5, 2012. In 2005, the Legislature had voted to move the 2008 primary which had normally been held in June, to February in an effort to try to give New Jersey voters more influence in picking their party’s Presidential candidates. In 2008, despite the fact that New Jersey’s primary was held on the same day as those in over 20 other states, several candidates did campaign in New Jersey despite it not getting as much of a national focus as had been hoped for. Over 1.1 million residents voted in the 2008 New Jersey Democratic Primary which was won by Hilary Clinton over Barack Obama. In the Republican contest, over 500,000 people went to the polls in an election that saw the party’s eventual nominee John McCain almost doubling the amount of votes received by the 2nd place finisher Mitt Romney. It was estimated that the cost of moving the primary from June to February was $12 million.
What makes the participation numbers interesting is when you weigh them against the number of voters taking part in the first two caucuses or primaries this year. Roughly 122,000 people voted in the Iowa Republican caucuses with approximately 250,000 people voting in the New Hampshire GOP Primary. Although there was a Democratic caucus in Iowa and a primary in New Hampshire, they were not competitive races with President Obama virtually unopposed for his party’s nomination. With several Republicans dropping out of their party’s contest just before, during or right after these races, the amount of influence these states have in choosing a party’s nominee is hugely out of proportion to the numbers of voters who take part. Contrast these participation numbers with those of the 2008 general election where close to 130 million voters went to the polls.
So the questions that beg for answers are 1) How can New Jersey residents become more influential in the process of picking their party’s candidate (besides moving to Iowa or New Hampshire for a few months every four years)? 2) What can be done to make the choice of each party’s nominee less dependent on voters in one or two states where they clearly have to much power and contain voters whose views are not always representative of the majority of voters in other states. Note that major issues in Iowa where farm subsidies, ethanol, religion/faith and social issues. One thing is for sure, none of those three would be the top issues for the majority of New Jersey voters. There are no easy answers to question #1. The major party’s threatened loss of convention delegates to States which were going to hold their primaries too early in the 2012 process. One idea for 2016 would be for the state to revert to the 2008 model and possibly schedule its primary in mid/late February or early March of 2016 (This also depends on party scheduling rules that can change.) As mentioned above, this change does come with additional cost ($12 million) and there is no guarantee that the nomination for one or both parties would not have been secured by that date.
The other idea which has been debated for several years, is holding a series (4-6) of regional primaries in the early March to early June time-frame. The order of these would rotate every four years. This would give more states greater influence in picking the eventual nominees. Even if Iowa and New Hampshire kept their traditional places at the starting gate, they would not have the same importance or as great a focus on by candidates.
Since 1976, only 3 of the 18 nominating contests were so close that almost every delegate mattered to the eventual nominee. A couple of interesting historical facts about New Jersey Presidential Primaries are:
In 1972, Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm won the states Democratic Primary. Rep. Chisholm was the first woman to run for the Democratic Presidential nomination and the first major party African American Presidential candidate.
In 1976, in an unsuccessful effort to stop Jimmy Carter from obtaining the Democratic nomination, a slate of uncommitted delegates backing Senator Hubert Humphrey and then (and current) California Governor Jerry Brown, defeated Carter by a wide margin. Carter’s primary win in Ohio the same day however, cinched the nomination for him. I attended a campaign rally for Governor Brown the day before the election at Airport Plaza in Hazlet on June 7, 1976. The story was the lead in the next days Red Bank Register and can be viewed here:
Buoyed by his stunning victory in South Carolina, New Gingrich is preparing for a nomination process that could extend into the summer.
Calls have gone out to conservative activists throughout New Jersey looking for grassroots networks to get out the vote for the former Speaker of the House in the Garden State’s June presidential primary.
The Gingrich campaign is advertising on cable television in New Jersey.
But the Gingrich campaign may be getting ahead of itself. After leading the polls in Florida immediately after his South Carolina victory, Gingrich has fallen back to second place, behind Mitt Romney, in the Rasmussen Poll conducted last night.
According to Rasmussen, Romney has restored his lead in Florida back to where it was before Gingrich’s South Carolina win on Saturday. Romney is supported by 39% of likely voters to Gingrich’s 31%. Rick Santorum is favored by 12% and Ron Paul has the support of 9% of those expected to vote on Tuesday. Only 7% are undecided.
Serena DiMaso will be elected Monmouth County Freeholder at the Title 19 convention of the Monmouth GOP Committee on January 14. Bob Walsh will withdraw during his speech before the convention.
Bill Spadea defeats Donna Simon and John Saccenti at a Title 19 convention of the 16th legislative district to fill the assembly seat vacated by the death of Peter Biondi. After recounts and law suits, the November special election for the seat is declared a tie between Spadea and Democratic Princeton Committeewoman Sue Nemeth. Another special election is scheduled for January of 2013.
Joe Oxley will be named Township Administrator and In House Attorney for Wall Township. The appointment will forward a statewide trend of municipalities hiring either attorneys or engineers as their administrators as a cost saving measure. Oxley is reelected GOP County Chairman by acclamation. Senator Jennifer Beck will give the nominating speech. Christine Hanlon will be Vice Chair.
Middletown will get a new Parks and Recreation Director. It won’t be Linda Baum or Pam Brightbill.
Jim McGreevey is ordained an Episcopal priest.
Jon Corzine remembers where he put the $1.2 billion.
Senator Joe Kyrillos will be the GOP nominee for U.S. Senator, defeating Anna Little and Joseph Rudy Rullo in the primary.
Congressman Steve Rothman defeats Congressman Bill Pascrell in the Democratic primary for the 9th Congressional District nomination. In the only surprise of the primary, former Bergen County GOP Freeholder Anthony Cassano, who had agreed to take one for the team in the 9th, was defeated when the Bergen County Tea Party Group organized a write-in campaign for Anna Little. Little was on the ballot as a U.S. Senate candidate. Having lost the Senate nomination to Joe Kyrillos, Little accepts the nomination, asks Kyrillos to host a fundraiser for her, and promises to move into the district if she wins. She doesn’t.
Maggie Moran defeats Vin Gopal and Frank “LaHornica” LaRocca in a close election for the Monmouth County Democratic Chairmanship.
James Hogan of Long Branch is the GOP nominee for Congress in New Jersey’s 6th Congressional District. Frank Pallone is reelected by 8%.
Jordan Rickards of North Brunswick is the GOP nominee for Congress in New Jersey’s 12th Congressional District. Rush Holt is reelected by 15%.
On August 28, the second day of the Republican National Convention, the National Weather Service warns that Hurricane Chris is heading towards the Jersey Shore. Acting Governor Kim Guadagno gets on TV and says, “Get the heck off of the beach please.”
Mitt Romney will be the GOP nominee for President of the United States. New Jersey Governor Chris Christie will be the Vice Presidential nominee.
President Obama nominates Vice President Joe Biden to be Secretary of State. Biden submits his resignation as VP effective upon both houses of congress confirming his successor. President Obama nominates Hillary Clinton as Vice President. Speaker of the House John Boehner refuses to schedule confirmation hearings for the VP nomination on the constitutional grounds that their is no vacancy in the office. Obama makes them both recess appointments. Clinton is nominated for VP at the Democratic National Convention and Secretary of State Biden spends October in China.
Despite losing their home states of Massachusetts and New Jersey, the Romney-Christie ticket wins the electoral college by one vote, 270-269. The winning vote comes from Maine, one of two states that awards electoral votes by congressional district. Romney-Christie lose Maine 3-1 but win the election. Obama-Clinton file suit to challenge Maine’s method of awarding electoral votes. Romney-Christie counter with a suit in Nebraska, which they won 4 electoral votes to 1, using the same arguments that Obama-Clinton use in Maine. The U.S. Supreme Court decides both cases for the plaintiffs, 5-4, and determined that in all future presidential elections that electoral votes are awarded on a winner take all basis nationally. Tea Party leader Dwight Kehoe calls for the impeachment of the Justices who voted affirmatively, claiming that they don’t understand the 10th Amendment.
Robert Menendez defeats Joe Kyrillos for U.S. Senate by 1%.
U. S. Senator Frank Lautenberg resigns. In one of his last acts as Governor before ascending to the Vice Presidency, Chris Christie appoints Kyrillos to Lautenberg’s Senate seat.
The New Jersey congressional delegation will likely be equally divided between Democrats and Republicans, 6 of each, after the next election, thanks to John Farmer, Dean of Rutgers Law School and the tie breaking member of the redistricting commission. Farmer told the partisan members of the commission that he would vote for the Republicans’ map when the commission meets in at the Statehouse this morning, according to reports on Politickernj and NJ.com.
The new map will combine portions of the current 5th, 8th and 9th districts and pit incumbent congressmen Scott Garrett (R) and Steve Rothman (D) in a district that gives Republicans a 4% advantage based upon historical voting patterns.
According to the Politickernj story, the new map gives Congressman Chris Smith a larger portion of Monmouth County than his previous 4th district. The district remains safely Republican for Smith, New Jersey’s longest serving congressman.
The 6th and 12th districts, represented by Frank Pallone and Rush Holt, respectively, remain safe for the Democratic incumbents, according to Politickernj.
The 7th district, represented by Republican Leonard Lance will now be a safer district for the incumbent.
Governor Chris Christie will be named one of the Top American Leaders of 2011 by The Washington Post and Harvard Kennedy School’s Center for Public Leadership tomorrow morning at Ford’s Theater in Washington.
The other honorees are Jared Cohen of Google Ideas, Michael Kaiser, president of The Kennedy Center of Performing Arts, Sheila Bair, former Chair of the FDIC, Freeman Hrabowski, president of the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, Ahmed Zewail, Nobel Prize winner and professor of chemistry and physics at the California Institute of Technology, and Nicholas Kristof, New York Times columnist.
The Washington Post’s profile of Christie is here.
The event, which will be webcast here at 9AM, will consist of an awards ceremony followed by a discussion moderated by David Gergen, Director of the Center for Public Leadership at Harvard Kennedy School, Mary Jordan, editor of Washington Post Live, and Steven Pearlstein, columnist for The Washington Post’s On Leadership website.
Is New Jersey the next Delaware? That’s the question Politickernj raised earlier this week regarding the 2012 U.S. Senate race in NJ. Politckernj is wondering if the 2012 U.S. Senate race in New Jersey will be similar to the 2010 U.S. Senate race in Delaware.
The short answer to that question is no. An incumbent was not running in Delaware in 2010. 2012 is a presidential year. 2012 will not be a repeat of 2010. New Jersey is not Delaware. More on that later.
As you might imagine, I have a unique perspective about the differences between New Jersey and Delaware, which is not related to electoral politics. If you’re a reader of this site or The Asbury Park Press, you’re probably aware that I was arrested in my home in Highlands after 10PM on Friday October 14 on a fugitive warrant out of Delaware. I’ve been charged with two felony counts of theft over $100,000 and two misdemeanor counts of forgery. The charges will not be further discussed on this site, other than to say that I am confident of a favorable outcome.
The real reason I was arrested on a fugitive warrant is that the Delaware attorney I had engaged to arrange my surrender in Delaware failed to communicate with the investigating detective in a timely manner. I have a different attorney now.
3 hours vs. 3 weeks
So far the biggest difference between my experiences in New Jersey and Delaware is time. I arrived, as scheduled, to surrender in Delaware this Wednesday at 11am and was on my way home by 2PM. As in Monmouth County, most of that time was spent waiting.
I wasn’t handcuffed, patted down or locked up in Delaware. The actual processing, (being photographed, finger printed and signing some papers) took about 10 minutes. Then my attorney and I hung out until the fugitive warrant was removed from the system. We waited for a Justice of the Peace to finish his lunch and to appear via video for my bail hearing. The video bail hearing took less than five minutes. My bail was set at $12,000.
Technically, I was detained until my family members posted my bail. But I wasn’t really detained. My attorney and I waited in the lobby of the police station for the bail to be posted. I was even allowed to step outside of the building for a smoke, twice.
After about 40 minutes, I signed the bail receipt and was released from my detention in the lobby. It took about a ½ hour to meet up with my family members who had posted my bail. The clock in the car read 1:46 and we were on our way home.
That entire experience is very different than what I experienced in New Jersey.
At about 10PM on Friday October 14 I was arrested at my home in Highlands. I was frisked and handcuffed.
At the Highlands police station I asked to call an attorney. “We’re not questioning you. We’ll let you call your attorney when we know what you can tell him,” was the reply. I was photographed by the arresting officer twice. My belt, shoes, cash, wallet and blackberry were confiscated and I was put into a cell.
A few hours later a sergeant came into the holding area to tell me what was going on. A Monmouth County judge had set my bail at $250,000 with no 10% option. “But there’s really no bail,” he said, “even if you post the $250,000 the fugitive warrant is still in place and you’ll be arrested again.” “Your wife called, we’ll let you call her back in the morning before we transfer you to the county jail.” “What are the charges?” I asked. “Some kind of theft,” was his answer.
I managed to get some sleep on the thin plastic mattress and with the lights on. In the morning an officer sat with me while I called my wife from a police station line that was being recorded. I was given access to my blackberry to read her phone numbers for my attorney, family members and friends that she should call. I sent a text to my attorney.
Then I was transferred to the Monmouth County Correctional Institutionwhere I spent the next three weeks.
$12,000 vs. $250,000 or $150,000
Why my bail was set so high in Monmouth County compared to the bail required in Delaware (where I am not a resident and have no ties to the community) remains a mystery to me.
At my bail reduction hearing in Monmouth County, which occurred after I had already been incarcerated for almost two weeks, the judge who reduced my bail to $150,000 with no 10% option said that such bail would be appropriate for like charges levied in New Jersey.
The Asbury Park Press reported this morning that a former attorney was arrested for stealing over $200,000 from a client. Those charges are somewhat similar to those levied against me. The former attorney’s bail was set at $35,000.
On November 1, The Asbury Park Press reported that a Wall Township attorney and her paralegal were indicted after a three year long investigation for stealing $800,000 from wards whose interests they were assigned to protect. The attorney and the paralegal were each released on $75,000 bail.
In comparison, my bail in Monmouth County seems like an injustice and I realize that I sound like I am complaining. That is not my intention. It is a mystery.
This experience has been incredibly difficult for me, perhaps more so for those who love me. It has been life altering, yet I have faith that in the long run it will be for the good.
Over the next few days or weeks I’ll be writing more about my experience and some of the other differences I have noticed between New Jersey and Delaware.
I’ll get back to writing about the political happenings in Monmouth, the State and the Nation. I’ll be writing about some of the things I missed while was away. I may write about topics other than politics too.
I won’t be writing about the charges against me. Comments about the charges will be removed and those commenters blocked. There are other sites that will accommodate my naysayers.
I am happy to be back.
I am extremely grateful to the many, many people who have supported me throughout this ordeal and to those who have been supportive since my release two weeks ago. In times of crisis like the one I have faced, you quickly learn who your friends are.
