Tyranny Of The Judiciary

Thirty years ago, New Jersey voters approved Article VIII, Section I, Paragraph 7, of the state’s constitution:

No tax shall be levied on personal incomes of individuals, estates and trusts of this State unless the entire net receipts therefrom shall be received into the treasury, placed in a perpetual fund and be annually appropriated, pursuant to formulas established from time to time by the Legislature, to the several counties, municipalities and school districts of this State exclusively for the purpose of reducing or offsetting property taxes.

Yesterday the Proprietor at Coffeegrounds wrote:

So, perhaps what we really need is not a constitutional amendment dealing with property taxes. What we need is an amendment that deals with income taxes. It could be no more than two sentences long.

All monies collected from the state income tax must be used for aid to NJ public schools. Such monies must be distributed on an equal per student basis state-wide.

We like the Proprietor's amendment, but to be on the safe side we may want to add just one more sentence:

Any and all courts of New Jersey, shall not under any circumstances, have the authority to determine: methods, criteria, formulas, allocations, distributions, amounts and levels for funding/spending on any state or local government program, service or product, including any and all forms of public school education.

Article VIII, Section I, Paragraph 7 of New Jersey’s constitution may state that the revenue received from income taxes is to be disbursed "pursuant to formulas established from time to time by the Legislature," but in reality New Jersey’s Supreme Court sets the formula. The legislature is prohibited from establishing a fair and equitable distribution of income taxes to New Jersey’s school districts.

If anyone is looking for an example of a liberal activist court – look no further, New Jersey has the perfect example. Accountable to no one, seven unelected people sitting on New Jersey’s Supreme Court mandate tax and spend policy – Tyranny of the judiciary.

So until we take the courts out of the tax and spend loop, the people of New Jersey can never have fair and equitable taxation and our property taxes will continue to be the highest in the nation.

The Proprietor is right, we need a constitutional amendment – now how do we make that happen?