By Scott St. Clair | The Save Jersey Blog
Hazarding a guess, New Jersey’s U-Haul franchisees high-fived each other after reading Star-Ledger editorial page editor Tom Moran’s “Soak the Rich? Sure…” class-envy commentary since their one-way, out-of-state business is about to explode. No wonder more New Jersey residents flee the state than any other in America.
Sure, there’s a public-employee pension crisis, but must you punish those who didn’t cause it? Why not go after those who did – those former governors and pandering current and former legislators who played Santa on a credit card to public-sector unions and their members? Why not slash current state and local-government spending to the bare bones, which should be done anyway?
If you must be radical, why not make the Legislature work for free and terminate existing public-employee benefit and retirement programs, then use the savings to cover pre-existing pension debt?
Never mind that, according to The Wall Street Journal, the top 20 percent of income earners pay 84 percent of income taxes – in New Jersey it’s probably more. Never mind also that New Jersey has the worst business tax climate in America, and Moran’s scheme will make it worse.
New Jersey’s prosperity won’t come from higher taxes or profligate public-employee benefits, but from low taxes and an inviting business climate.
Tax raises for anybody should be completely out of the question. Trenton gets enough taxes and has yet to spend it widely. Maybe cuts? We don’t hear enough about that and need to.
Reduce the size of government and improve department efficiencies to an acceptable rate which would produce a tidy sum annually! Simply raising taxes produces less revenue as flight from the state exceeds the gain!
Damn, but this guy is good!