Good and Hard, II

Rule of Thumb:

The more times Legislative Democrats interrupt a speech by the Democratic Governor with applause, the worse it will be for the people.

By that measure, Governor Corzine’s Budget Address ranks as a masterpiece. He received applause only once. True to form, that applause came when he made one of his most objectionable proposals: to borrow hundreds of millions for stem cell research centers, adopting a Japanese-style industrial policy doomed to a fate as an expensive failure. (Can anyone say Synfuels?)

No doubt to the great consternation of the Legislative tax-and-spendocrats, a conservative Republican could easily have delivered a fair percentage of the Governor’s address.

Problem: when Governor McGreevey talked about finances, he often sounded pretty good. Unfortunately, he didn’t mean a word of it.

Problem: when Governor Codey spoke about finances, he often sounded pretty good, but he didn’t mean a word of it.

Or, more accurately, they employed language along the same lines as Humpty Dumpty: when they used words like "balanced budget" and "fiscal responsibility", they meant something completely different than the dictionary definition of those words. Somewhat akin to Fidel Castro using the word "freedom". In their mouths, those words bore absolutely no relationship to what the listeners thought they were hearing.

Further problem: during the campaign, Corzine said essentially none of this. And during this speech, Hizonor referred to the TTF fix as "responsible". If that unconscionable action represents his definition of "responsible", the people are in real trouble.

Give the devil his due. IF – and THAT has got to be the biggest word in the political lexicon – Corzine follows through on his plans – which is to say, if he tells folks like Lou Greenwald, of "courage to spend" fame, to go pound salt – some programs will disappear, others with shrink. THAT is a categorically a Good Thing.

Putting the appropriate amount of dollars into the pension fund, while painful, is what responsible governments do. Starting to get a grip on the engine which drives spending perpetually higher – you know, the things Governor Codey admitted were problems, then either blithely ignored or made substantially worse – merits support. Republicans – indeed, anyone with an ounce of fiscal responsibility – should wholeheartedly support these beginnings and urge that we build on this foundation, especially when it comes time to contract with government employees.

But it simply will not do to increase the sales tax. If cutting $1.4 billion is what it will take to achieve that goal, then let’s begin.

First, don’t increase aid to Abbott districts by one red cent, let along $300 million. Indeed, they should be progressively weaned – like, over the course of about a week – of their unwarranted state subsidy. Give them whatever the average school district spends; they’re entitled to absolutely nothing more.

Second, reduce every state department to its 2000 level of employment (given my druthers, I’d take it back to 1981, but one must start somewhere). Government, on all levels, added almost 50,000 jobs over the course of the past five years; condition all state aid to municipalities and school districts (except those which have increased K-12 enrollment) upon reduction to the 2000 level of employment. Since the average governmental employee makes more than $50,000, not including benefits, reduction to 2000 levels would save billions, essentially solving much of the "deficit" problem in one swoop.

Third, cut aid to Newark by the amount it wasted on a worthless arena and by the $80 million it proposes to use as a slush fund to reward politically connected businesses. If it can afford those, it can do so on its own nickel.

Fourth, abolish project labor agreements, prevailing wage laws, and other, similar mandates which artificially inflate the costs of construction. Abolish needless agencies within government, such as anything with the words "affirmative action" or "multicultural" in the title.

Indeed, one can find cuts in unlikely places. Consider domestic violence. Roughly 40% of all such complaints involve absolutely no "violence" whatsoever, being based upon "harassment". It trivializes true violence to conflate annoying phone calls with assault. Furthermore, numerous judges and their staffs, as well as whole departments, do nothing else with their time than process DV complaints. If the number of cases declined by 30,000 tomorrow (as it would), because only truly "violent" offences were counted, we’d need fewer judges and much less staff, saving mucho dollars.

These are the mere tips of the budgetary iceberg. No doubt, my brothers Gregg, Merkt, Pennacchio, McHose, Doherty, and Karrow, to name but a few, could offer many more ideas for scaling back the budget, such as to completely undercut any rationale for increasing taxes by $175 per person (as the sales tax alone would do). Were the Gov to drop the dime, I’m certain we’d all be happy to meet at a time and place convenient to him.

Of course, our priorities diverge substantially from those of the Governor. But, by employing phrases like "people should pay their own way", the Governor made some very conservative sounding noises. Such constitutes the first step in recovering from liberalism: admit the problem.

The trick to being a "progressive" is understanding that, no matter how much one’s heart bleeds for the poor, the lame, the halt, and the blind (and whose doesn’t?), or how great the perceived needs might be, those needs MUST remain unmet – governmentally – if the costs of meeting them undermines the economy. We’ve already reached that stage, and beyond; the proposed tax increases make matters worse, thereby making recovery all the more difficult. In order to resurrect the economy, ensure prosperity and, thereby, help the folks for whom Corzine and other liberals profess such sympathy, it’s necessary that we cut taxes, restrain spending, and rely upon the generosity of the people to give, rather than depend upon government to take.