Prieto Wants Blood from a Stone

By Matt Rooney | The Save Jersey Blog

gas-pumpNew speaker same as the old speaker, Save Jerseyans.

Asm. Vincent Prieto (D-Hudson) told state media in the last week that he’s open to a gas tax hike in New Jerseyand a fee on water consumption? It’s an old idea. This is, after all the, same party that recently pitched a mileage tax. Predictable, yes, but no less disappointing for it.

New Jersey does have budgetary problems. Those problems are on the spending side of the ledger, not the revenue side. Speaker Prieto quickly offers up the fact that New Jersey boasts the 3rd lowest gas tax in the country. Okay? He’s right. What he fails to mention is how we’re also one of the worst – or the absolute worst – tax state in America in every other tax category.

Our worst-in-the-nation property taxes aren’t exactly a secret. They’re only the tip of the iceberg. For example, we’re one of just two states with an estate tax AND an inheritance tax. Trenton’s not our only problem; we also send an absurd amount of money to Washington, D.C. on an annual basis. When you total it all up, folks, New Jerseyans labor for nearly 1/3 of their calendar year, every year, solely to satisfy their tax burdens. Our businesses and individual residents are responding by continuing to leave the state for cheaper locales. After all, forcing people to stay in N.J. and take it is the one regulation that Trenton central planners can’t impose!

With that nightmarish backdrop, Speaker Prieto and his fellow legislators think we can attract people back to New Jersey by raising the single tax that keeps us quasi-competitive with other states?

I try to understand and respect the other side’s positions, but frankly, it’s hard to take that kind of epic stupidity seriously…

Trenton legislators can do four things, tomorrow, to improve our state’s revenue stream: (1) reform the education funding formula, (2) enact real pension reform, (3) streamline our state’s tax structure, and (4) CUT SPENDING.

Anything else is window dressing or, as is the case with Speaker Prieto’s gas tax impulse, completely and utterly counterproductive… assuming, of course, your goal is saving New Jersey rather than bleeding it dry to advance your political party’s ideological agenda untethered to reality.

Matt Rooney
About Matt Rooney 8405 Articles
MATT ROONEY is SaveJersey.com's founder and editor-in-chief, a practicing New Jersey attorney, and the host of 'The Matt Rooney Show' on 1210 WPHT every Sunday evening from 7-10PM EST.

1 Comment

  1. Hey Vinny, no new taxes. NJ residents are already paying too much. Cut wasteful spending, leave the gas tax alone. Stop running people out of the state because they can’t afford to live here.

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