Republicans Should Support Corzine’s Plan
We have studied the numbers and we agree with Jon Corzine. There's little choice but to either raise taxes (which we oppose) or leverage state assets in some way similar to what he has proposed. Even with major spending cuts (which should occur regardless of what happens), the people of New Jersey are still in too deep.
In our view, Republicans are going about this all wrong – trying to stop Corzine. Instead of stopping him, we believe Republicans should make Corzine pay a big price for their support – one that will actually make the state more affordable.
More on this later.
In our view, Republicans are going about this all wrong – trying to stop Corzine. Instead of stopping him, we believe Republicans should make Corzine pay a big price for their support – one that will actually make the state more affordable.
Labels: Asset Monetization, Jon Corzine, New Jersey, State Budget
Posted by Enlighten-NewJersey @ 10:52 PM
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5 Comments:
I as a Republican do support Corzine's plan, however I am a just a little worried that a 50% increase is a bit too steep.
A 20%-30% increase would be fine with me and I hope that if the GOP does support this plan, it better cost Corzine big time to get their support.
KingDrudge
I'm having a huge problem believing that spending will be controlled.
Republican support would be predicated on two things:
One, the bill creating the non-profit, public benefit corporation is contingent upon the passage of a constitutional amendment requiring one hundred percent (100%) of the proceeds from the monetization of toll roads may only be used for three purposes:
a) funding for teacher pension and benefit obligations (specified first year amount and then specified minimum annual percentage of proceeds),
b) pay down of current bonded debt (specified first year amount)
c) funding for transportation infrastructure (specified first year amount and then specified minimum annual percentage of proceeds)
Two, support for the passage of the asset monetization bill, as described above, will be contingent upon the passage of an affordable and equitable public school spending and state school aid constitutional amendment offered by Republicans:
The amendment will:
a) define the meaning of a thorough and efficient public school education in New Jersey
b) treat all children and communities equally and will include the minimum and maximum percentage of state aid for school districts
There's no reason to believe that a new bureaucracy will be any better at cost controls that the old bureaucracy.
A new public benefit corporation to replace the Turnpike Authority might provide a new conduit for revenues, but the costs might be higher - since it's a new entity, you've got higher borrowing costs since there's no track record to use to determine interest rates on the bonds it sells. So, far from cutting costs, it could increase them as far as long term structural deficits.
The idea is to reduce the structural deficits, but that requires spending cuts, and all Corzine has done of late is propse new spending - and higher taxes and tolls.
I'm 100% behind improving mass transit and infrastructure, but he's not dedicating 100% of the funds from any toll increase to transit projects - they're going to other areas of the budget, which means that it's likely to end up with a bloated budget and no fiscal controls.
Who's running this blog -- Bob Franks?
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