NJ Democrat Discovers 'Soak The Rich' Tax Policy Is Bad For New Jersey

Assemblyman Douglas Fisher (D-Cumberland, Gloucester, Salem) has sponsored a series of bills to alter how the state handles the federal No Child Left Behind Act.

One measure would urge the governor to join Connecticut in its recent lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Education, claiming No Child Left Behind inequitably distributes funding and forces states with higher income levels to pay for the law's implementation.

In just one measure, Fisher pretty well sums up what is wrong with the Democrats tax and spending philosophy in New Jersey and the nation. Let’s start with his complaint about the federal government’s inequitable distribution of funding for public school education to New Jersey and then we’ll look at why states with higher income levels shoulder more of the burden.

Mr. Fisher thinks it’s wrong for New Jersey to receive less than its fair share of education money from Washington. Then he must have some idea how the people, in municipalities that receive little to nothing in state aid for education, feel about state funding inequities. He should and yet, Fisher and the other Democrats in Trenton support and perpetuate the inequitable distribution of funds to school districts throughout the state.

Our representatives in Trenton have the power to change the unfair formula currently in place for distributing funds to local school districts. Yet they do nothing to fix the problem. They point fingers and blame New Jersey court rulings. This is a convenient, but poor excuse.

If New Jersey courts stand in the way of equal treatment, then the legislature has the power to take back authority and return it to where it belongs, with the people. If the legislature acted now, we could vote on an amendment to the state’s constitution this November that would provide a formula that treats all municipalities equally.

Let Mr. Fisher sponsor this measure in the branch of government in which he serves and leave the federal funding matters to our representatives in Washington, that’s their job. But Fisher won’t work toward equality for all; he’s bought and paid for by the tax receivers.

Fisher and his follow state Democrats know perfectly well that the inequity in state aid for public school funding is one of the major causes of spiraling property taxes in New Jersey. The Democrat’s proposed solution to the property tax problem, raise income taxes. Or better yet, call for a constitutional convention, to be stacked with representatives, which will draft an amendment calling for higher income taxes.

Never mind fixing the inequitable funding formula, just raise income taxes in the hope the money will find its way back to the local school districts, which in turn would allow for a reduction in property taxes. New taxes have been created and others have been raised over the years for this very purpose, property tax reduction. It hasn’t worked yet and it never will.

This leads us to Fisher’s complaint that states with higher income levels, shoulder more of the burden for funding education. What a shocking discovery. High cost of living – high income states like New Jersey pay a disproportionate share of all federal programs. Why? The progressive federal income tax – the more you make, the higher the income tax rate. It’s all part of the ever popular Democrat mantra of tax the “rich”.

Rich is a relative term. The progressive tax schedule is a double whammy in states like New Jersey. To achieve a similar level of purchasing power, people in New Jersey and other states with a high cost of living, have to earn more to support a similar lifestyle as those in lower cost of living states.

The state of New Jersey is targeted by the Democrat’s “soak the rich” philosophy just as people deemed “rich” are by federal, state and local taxes. This income tax inequity needs to be addressed in Washington. Interestingly, reductions in income tax rates, that would help the people of New Jersey, are routinely opposed by our Democrat representatives in Congress.

Soak the Rich. The people and state of New Jersey are being soaked and Democrats have just discovered it’s not fair. It never was Mr. Fisher.