By Matt Rooney | The Save Jersey Blog
If you STILL don’t know or understand why New Jersey is almost irreparably screwed up, and a strengthened Democrat legislative majority is only going to make it worse, all you need to do is check out this quote from a celebratory Speaker Vince Prieto over on NJ.com.
He’s moving full-steam-ahead on the gas tax hike after Tuesday’s big win and isn’t ready to listen to any proposals that don’t raise taxes:
You can’t have something that’s revenue neutral,” Prieto said. “How are you going to fix the roads and then take the money from somewhere else? That is a ridiculous statement.”
There you have it, Save Jerseyans.
Translated: “The problem with Trenton isn’t Trenton, but that the people we “serve” aren’t sending us enough money.”
The man has balls, I’ll grant him that much. He also hates math. Study after study recognizes New Jersey as the worst (or second to worst) state for taxes in the entire country, a quantifiable fact further substantiated by a no-less-quantifiable herd of taxpayers fleeing New Jersey for other states. There’s a several mile traffic jam of moving vans heading west on I-80! And South on I-95. And Vince is worried about where we’re going to get the money for roads which no one can afford to drive…
So somehow, magically, we’re going to make New Jersey better for businesses, and families, by making it less affordable to live (and drive) here. #PrietoLogic! Which is apparently logic neutral.
And he can’t find ANYTHING he’d like to cut from the budget. Nothing. Not in a state notorious for no-show jobs, pension abuse, redundant departments, ponderous layers of bureaucracy and a school funding formula – where most of your property tax increase go – that spends $20k+ on urban education, per child, with nothing to show for it.
Look: everyone agrees the roads need to fixed. But we’ve proposed alternatives to higher taxes including reducing the cost of maintaining our roads (which is – surprise! – also the highest in the nation) because, unlike the Speaker’s Assembly caucus, our Garden State businesses and families have no choice but to cut their budgets when times are tough. No cable next month! Less eating out. Less shifts at the shop. Etc. and so on.
Prieto doesn’t care. ‘Cause he doesn’t get it. The few Democrats who do get it are too afraid – or bought off – by the Super PAC backers to care. Does anyone honestly believe the Dems who just won upsets riding NJEA Super PAC cash to victory are now going to be independent of the public sector unions?
2017 is quite possibly the last chance for voters who haven’t yet fled to demand an answer to a simple but important question: Why do the rules of mathematics only apply in all 565 New Jersey municipalities EXCEPT Trenton? Is the law of universal gravitation suspended there, too? Maybe so. It’s the only way to explain how our legislators manage to talk our their asses and spew bullshit from their mouths without experiencing medically serious consequences.
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I presume that by “the people we serve” he means NJEA.
No hope left forNJ
We are also known for our “tax unfriendly” business environment. Well, except for Camden, where they can’t wait to add another non-taxable entity to collection they already have there. I have tried to find out who started and continued to tax businesses to make NJ so unfriendly. No luck! Looking to you, Matt Rooney, for my answer. Thanks in advance.
I have always been guarded about criticizing Prieto because I just thought it was his accent. He is missing some slices out of the middle of the loaf.
So, what he is saying is the voters of the second highest taxed state with anemic job growth and business flight, want to pay more taxes?
Time for the middle class taxpayer to run for office and take back control of the government checkbook. Reforms must be made to pension. Redundant agencies eliminated. Transparency on big contracts. Tax breaks to keep businesses ended since we will reform the business tax structure. End home rule by consolidating town services. Eliminate the requirement for towns to have a separate superintendent.
I’m disgusted.
http://www.rawstory.com/2015/11/ive-seen-americas-future-and-its-not-republican-how-demographic-change-gives-democrats-the-advantage/
Arguably the funniest comment of the day. Funny how? Funny as in…cluelessly imbecilic.
http://www.nationalreview.com/article/421625/states-new-jersey-south-taxes
From the mouth of the Prieto, The prick scumbag union leader Thug
If the democrats raise the price of gasoline by 10 cents a gallon then this unbearable burden will cause many people to get up and move to a different state.
Prieto es un come mierda , pero come mierda
There is so much that can be cut in NJ it is amazing. As an example, most NJ voters, especially those who vote for democrats, are not aware that retired teachers (and others) when they reach age 65; have their Medicare premiums and their spouse paid for by the State. This is insanity at its worse. There isn’t one politician from either party who wants to change this. The funds going annually to retirees could easily fund all of NJ’s infrastructure projects. I bet that most who read this, were not previously aware that Medicare premiums were being paid by the State. Also, the democrats have promised to restore COLA increases ( currently suspended) to retirees pensions…..retroactively…..as soon as Christie is gone, and a democrat Governor is in office. The Dems have plans for enormous tax increases, at every level. They will be impossible to stop, because the voters in NJ all have their hands out, wanting more and more freebies.
Chris has been doing all he can to fix the Econ issues facing NJ. He’s getting rebuked by the dems every step of the way. There is no hope for NJ if Chris’s programs don’t get passed. Does it surprise anyone that businesses and people are leaving in droves? It’s simple economics where the Dems are completely baffled!