Show Us the Money Governor Corzine

Assembly Republican Leader Alex DeCroce (R-Morris) asked Governor Corzine to detail the $2 billion he supposedly cut from his proposed 2007 New Jersey state budget. As it stands now, Corzine’s budget increases total spending by 9.2 percent and calls for $1.8 million in new and higher taxes.

“If the Governor is going to take credit for making $2 billion in spending cuts, I think he needs to provide a detailed explanation as to what he has actually cut.”

“You can’t raise a spending account by five percent and call that a cut just because some department wanted a ten percent increase,” he added. “Only in this administration’s vocabulary can a spending increase be called a spending cut.”

Last Tuesday we provided the complete list of budget cuts the Governor proposed and as we pointed out, the only cut was $71.81 million to institutions of higher learning and of that amount, $11.98 million was aid to private colleges. The remaining $302.92 million in so-called cuts came from the reduction or elimination of “one-time” grants.

This past Wednesday we provided a list of more than $800 million in additional budget cuts and did so without cutting one head from the state’s 152,700 person workforce or one penny from current state services or programs. With a few “hard choices” we could have trimmed the budget by billions.

Taxpayers should be backing Assemblyman DeCroce’s call for a detailed list of Corzine’s cuts and the media needs to do a better job of reporting the facts as opposed to regurgitating Corzine’s spin on this issue. It would also be extremely helpful if we all could agree on the meaning of the terms ‘spending cut’ and ‘spending increase’.

Contact information

Governor Jon S. Corzine:
Telephone: 609-292-6000
Email: Link to email submission form
Address: Office of the Governor - PO Box 001- Trenton, NJ 08625

New Jersey Legislature (Assembly and Senate):
Telephone and Address: Lookup for official's address and phone number
Email: Lookup for officials' email form