Tax Fraud

An important test of the new spirit of honesty and bipartisanship will shortly be presented to the New Jersey Assembly, the Democrats in the Senate having already flunked.

Some background. A few years back, the Dems decided that their repeated tax increases might sound better if they affixed some salutary purpose to the revenues thus generated. And, so, they asserted that money for snow-plowing efforts justified a new tax on tires. A recent increase in motor vehicle fees allegedly went to fund medical helicopters. And, now, Senate Democrats justify a proposed new tax on water by asserting it will go to protect environmentally sensitive lands.

One small difficulty: it’s all a bold-faced fraud.

Every nickel they’ve raised goes NOT for some particular program, but into the general fund, for use anywhere.

Recollect, for instance, when the Democrats rammed through the fraudulently named "millionaires’ tax", they promised that every single penny thus generated would go toward funding increased property tax rebates. That ironclad promise lasted about 15 minutes.

Money being fungible, there’s a certain silliness to dedicated taxes. It’s just plain idiotic to assume, for instance, that there’s no money for transportation projects simply because the last few Administrations recklessly borrowed against gas tax revenues. If the gas tax fails to yield the appropriate revenue, stop spending so much in Camden and use the money for more important purposes.

And just because a fund is "dedicated" doesn’t mean it isn’t also a fraud. The income tax, by constitutional command, must be deposited in a special fund used to decrease property taxes. Alas, the constitution doesn’t specify WHOSE property taxes will be reduced. If one lives in one of the 31 Abbott districts, one has, in fact, experienced substantial property tax relief. If they had to pay for the goodies showered on them, the residents of these municipalities would be literally taxed out of existence. But those who pay the income tax – suburbanites, mostly – receive next to no property tax relief as a result of the assault on their income. Instead, it funds other people’s schools. Suburbanites experience the unparalleled joy of paying twice; once for their own kids (their schools often receiving next to nothing) and once for those of other people’s kids.

But that’s not to say that dedicated funds can’t be good ideas. Although parchment barriers often prove insufficient to withstand the machinations of dishonest politicians, they suffice to bind their more honorable counterparts. And, if nothing else, gross fiscal mismanagement, contrary to the provisions of the Constitution, might, someday, provoke the people into common sense.

We should, for instance, reconstitute the TTF, absolutely forbidding it from borrowing so much as a nickel. On a pay as you go basis, hundreds of millions per year would be available solely for transportation capital maintenance and construction, more than sufficient for the needs, if correctly administered.

Other funds, collected for particular purposes, could also be kept from the clutches of pork happy legislators. Unemployment taxes, for instance, should be segregated and used SOLELY for the purposes for which the taxes were collected, not siphoned off.

A water tax, as it happens is (apostasy alert!!) not such a bad idea, PROVIDED that it applies only to those who get their water from The Highlands, but don’t actually live there (virtually all of those who live in The Highlands already pay substantial municipal and county open space taxes). The proceeds of such a tax upon those who are presently free riders on the back of Highlands residents could be used to buy up sensitive land in The Highlands and to compensate landowners for the diminution in land values resulting from the confiscatory regulations the Highlands Act imposed.

Any attempt to justify another foray into the pocketbooks of the hard pressed taxpayers without a dedication to ensure that the money actually goes to the projects for which it is assertedly raised constitutes nothing less than fraud.

So, should this water tax proposal be posted for a vote in the Assembly, same will constitute a test of the Democrats’ honesty. Absent a constitutional dedication, it simply fattens the general fund which, if the past is any indication, simply sends pork to Democratic constituencies. Again, excuse some cynicism, but if history is our guide, the Democrats’ promises aren’t worth the paper the "millionaires’ tax" property tax rebate checks are written on. Nothing less than constitutional binders will suffice.