By Art Gallagher | MoreMonmouthMusings.com
Lost in the headlines of yesterday’s special election is the fact that State Senator Barbara Buono would not rule out raising New Jersey’s 7% sales tax, if elected governor, during her debate with Governor Chris Christie on Tuesday night.
Governor Christie noted that the Democrats, with Buono as the Senate Budget Chair, shut down New Jersey’s government in 2006 when Jon Corzine was governor, because they couldn’t agree how high to raise the sales tax.
Assembly Republican Budget Officer Declarn O’Scanlon issued the following statement regarding Buono’s taxing vision for New Jersey:
“Sen. Buono tells everyone that she doesn’t believe in ‘trickle down’ economics. But her failure to rule out an increase in the sales tax clearly shows she is fine with sending a tsunami of economic pain on middle class workers and their families.
The thing is – the 16% only accounts for items that were already taxed and thus had their sales tax go from "only" 6% to 7%. What is left out in the 16% figure are the 100's of goods and services that had previously NOT been taxed that went from ZERO tax to SEVEN percent overnight.
Don't forget Corzine had also wanted to take away the tax exemption for clothes – but was forced to back down because of the outrage over that. Buono will just continue on the Corzine legacy of raising taxes.