Monetize This

OK, lessee:

Over the course of the last six years, the Democrats increased the State budget by $10.5 billion. The Democrats raised 94 taxes – despite the promise of each elected Democratic Governor to foreswear tax increases. (Alas, the Democrats only talk about taxes when they lie about them around election time.) Contemporaneously, they borrowed up the wazu, usually illegally and always unwisely. They did precisely nothing about property tax reform and total state debt, including unfunded liabilities for health and pension benefits – about which they have also done nothing – now tops out at $175-$200 billion.

Despite this massive new spending, crushing tax burden, and gargantuan borrowing, Governor Jon tells us, it’s not enough, that he needs still more money to do all the wonderful things that government should be doing.

Corzine finds himself constrained by the realities of economics. He desperately wants to spend oodles of other people’s money on paid family leave, "free" health care for everyone, a massive school construction project weighted toward urban areas, open space preservation, etc. But New Jersey long ago reached the tipping point of tax, borrow, and spend policies; the targets of the Left’s avarice refuse to act as piggy banks for massive governmental projects. We’ve produced such a tax and regulatory hell that we’re losing huge numbers of productive people and businesses to less oppressive jurisdictions.

So, what’s a good socialist to do when reality mugs his dream for a Great Society?

Monetization.

Hizzonor proposes a nifty new scheme, pursuant to which some assertedly not-for-profit entity assumes control over the toll toads and, then, borrows kazillions of dollars against anticipated future tolls, turning over the money to the State, which, then, spends that money on new schools, open space, health care, etc.

Problem: we already have a not-for-profit entity administering the toll roads. And we’re already up to our patoots in massive debt incurred because the Democrats simply can’t refuse any constituency which demands a governmental subsidy. The monetization program amounts to nothing more than a mortgage upon the toll roads, diverting money (which would otherwise be employed to maintain and administer said roads) into general revenue, thereby turning the tolls into a straight tax.

This is a good idea ... why?

Well, from Hizzonor’s perspective, because it allows him to borrow and spend billions more on his pet projects, while some future Governor will need to deal with the consequences.

But, as any casual observer of NJ politics and finance understands, a want of revenue is NOT part of the problem. Government in NJ, at all levels, is among, if not the, most expensive government in the country. Our tax rates are the highest in the nation. The problem is spending. On all levels of government, we spend too much. The solution is most assuredly not to borrow more money to fund more spending, but to STOP SPENDING.

First, this means a simple, but emphatic NO to more state-funded school construction, even – especially – if it means telling the Supreme Court to pound salt. As Paul Mulshine repeatedly notes, there are no crumbling urban schools; it’s a myth. At a time when suburban districts retrenched and economized, urban districts built pools. Because they could afford it. Because the rest of the state’s taxpayers picked up the tabs for their schools.

Nope, sorry. This isn’t about kids; it’s about responsibility. I live a block away from a nearly century old school building – Alfred Vail – which I (and I and some of my kids) attended, and which is still doing fine; age is not dispositive of a building’s utility. In Jersey City, numerous buildings enjoy tax abatements, which means that they don’t contribute to the costs of education. Why should Morris County residents assume JC’s educational costs when they don’t pay their own fair share? And why should ANYONE be spending $23,500 per kid on "education", as happens in Asbury Park? (That’s $1000 more than Delbarton’s tuition)

While Corzine objects to the Republican’s "demagoging" of the issue, legislative candidates from his own Party have been running away from the proposal with all deliberate speed. Not that THEY have any better ideas, mind you – fiscal responsibility is anathema to Democrats of all stripes – but they know a poisonous political issue when they see one. This risky borrowing scheme will indebt our kids for decades to fund present spending.

In point of fact, monetization represents massive borrowing paid for by a huge tax increase, in the form of perpetually increasing tolls. (In part, the same tolls the last Democratic Governor promised to abolish; see Democrats, lies, taxes, above)

If Hizzonor truly believes in making the sort of "investments" (aka massive governmental spending of other people’s money) he envisions, let him get down in the trenches and do the hard work of prioritizing spending. If, for instance, we reduced governmental employment down to 2000 levels (if we can reduce greenhouse gases, we can cut governmental employment), we’d have 40,000 fewer workers to pay. That, in and of itself, would pay for most of the nifty spending schemes Corzine envisions, as well as permit hefty tax cuts. Couple that with eliminating defined benefit pension plans, repeal of Abbott, etc., and REAL progress could be made.

Monetization represents just another fancy name for boondoggle. More taxing, more spending, more borrowing; the dying gasp of the desperate socialist.