What?In an
editorial about Nassau County elections and budgets, the
New York Times writes this:
Mr. Corzine fell into a hole created by the reckless borrowing and tax-cutting of the state’s last Republican governor, Christine Todd Whitman.
Christine Todd Whitman was in office from 1994 to 2001. After a
mix of governors and acting governors, Corzine assumed office in 2006.
Was the Whitman fiscal legacy so enduring? It may have been, but that's not been commonly associated with her. The
Times surprises with it's charge.
posted by Quiddity at 12/02/2009 01:13:00 AM
Christie Whitman raided the state pension funds and used bond issues to make up the revenue lost by her tax cuts. Jon Corzine (and previous governors) were stuck paying her bills with declining tax revenues because of the tax cuts made worse by the recession. He said that he would be able to raise taxes (on the state level) "when pigs fly." (Former Governor Jim Florio lost his re-election because he extended the sales tax to toilet paper.) So what happened? An enormous part of the tax load in NJ is the property tax which pays for the schools and local services. This has ballooned because of less state and federal aid dribbling down to the local level and the costs for services at the local level ballooning. The little guy complains that his taxes are too high and thought voting for that idiot Christie would help. Ha. My property tax on a small house is $6,800 a year and I'm at the lower end. That's much more than my state income tax. What's Christie going to do? He'll just cut benefits for children and poor people. More misery for the little guy while the big guys laugh all the way to the bank.
