History Suffers while a Million Pork Blossoms Bloom

On January 3, 1777, the American Army, under Washington, slipped away from a strong position in Trenton, moved around General Cornwallis’s lines, and marched on Princeton. With Cornwallis in Trenton, Washington must have been sore tempted to assault New Brunswick and seize the lightly guarded treasury and supply depot.

Elements of the American Army collided with two regiments of British just outside of Princeton, on land now owned by the State and preserved as a park. After a sharp engagement, the Americans essentially swept the field, the battle continuing onto the grounds of the present University (an American cannon shot allegedly decapitating a picture of the King in Nassau Hall). But short on supplies, his men exhausted, Washington abandoned whatever thoughts he had of marching on New Brunswick, instead turning north to his encampment at Morristown.

Hardly breaking news, eh?

A trip to Princeton battlefield yesterday, though, makes it relevant.

While the park boast a few signs – erected, apparently, by a local Boy Scout – the only "official" sign on the field depicting the battle appears to have been erected during the battle itself, and to have taken significant artillery fire. It’s an almost illegible mess.

To digress. A few years back, on a trip to Gettysburg, I noted that many of the states were renovating and repairing their monuments. I returned to the Assembly caucus with the bright idea to sponsor a proposal for a small appropriation to repair the New Jersey monuments on the field. (One of the very few times I have ever even CONSIDERED sponsoring a spending proposal, and you’ll note that it was not for some pork project in my own district) One of my aides – perhaps even more conservative (or less historically interested) than me – persuaded me not to introduce the measure. But I had spoken about it and others, not as fastidious, introduced it shortly thereafter.

(On several visits thereafter, I asked the park authorities what was being done with the money, which monuments had been refurbished, only to receive very tentative, evasive replies. Might made a good story for some crusading journalist.)

I regret, now, that I did not INSIST that the appropriate Powers-That-Be in charge of New Jersey parks do the same for their local attractions. Put simply, the signage at Princeton is a DISGRACE.

I cannot speak to how NJ spends the money it does on its parks, but making the assumption (for the moment) that its budget is taut, and that it lacks the few thousand dollars it would take to (a) repair the battle sign and, perhaps, add a few others, and (b) produce a decent pamphlet, available at the parking area, providing a brief history and a description of the events of the day, it seems to me that a Governor with some vision might foreswear a few thousand in pork projects to urban constituencies and attend to this glaring need.

Preservation and maintenance of such sites helps ensure that each generation of Americans remembers the sacrifices made by our forefathers for our freedom, sacrifices our troops continue to make for us in Afghanistan, Iraq, and hundreds of other places around the globe. If that sign in Princeton is any indication, New Jersey does a pathetic job of coordinating and presenting this history, preferring to spend hard-earned taxpayer funds on political boodle.

Instead of "investing" $500,000 in the Piscataway Community Center – however worthy a local project that might be, it is self evidently local and, hence, the proper subject for local, not state, funds – Hizonor might have spent a few thousand measly dollars to help ensure that (a) visitors will come to the Princeton field and (b) that they will have a clue what happened there when they arrive.

It’s important.

The DUMB Bill

Jon Corzine represents just about everything which makes New Jersey an increasingly rotten place to live. Rather than cut governmental spending, which mushroomed out of control during the McGreevey years, he secured passage of a massive tax increase. Having courageously stood up to the taxpayers, he surrendered to the political bosses, approving hundreds of millions of outright pork with nary a whimper of protest. He dug the State into a huge hole of new debt rather than address the core problems of the TTF, and supports even more massive borrowing to subsidize morally problematic embryonic stem cell research. During the wholly manufactured budget "crisis", he threw tens of thousands of private workers onto the street on dubious grounds, stuck the taxpayers with the bill for providing paid vacation days for "non-essential" state workers, and played the cheerleader for indefensible state employee benefits.

In short, as a general rule of thumb, if Corzine supports a particular policy, the correct course is the polar opposite.

Corzine apparently recognizes, though, that to support a quasi-socialist paradise, one cannot drive all the capitalist pigs away. Put another way, a massive governmental edifice, designed to do Good Things, requires a vibrant economy.

Perhaps that explains Corzine’s refusal to consider an income tax increase, despite the Assembly Democrats’ proposal. Maybe, just maybe, even this most leftist of liberals understands that New Jersey is hemorrhaging productive, highly paid workers to states which don’t regard their citizens' salaries as collective property.

To reiterate an oft cited statistic, 350,000 citizens fled New Jersey in just the last 15 years; almost 60,000 last year alone. Disproportionately, these folks were relatively highly paid. New Jersey job growth, outside of government, is zero, despite the lengthy economic boom George Bush's tax policies produced in the rest of the country. Is it simple coincidence that our people pay more in taxes that any other jurisdiction in the country, while our economy languishes in the crapper?

Foolishly, New Jersey imposes confiscatory tax rates upon those with the greatest ability to relocate. As noted above, statistics demonstrate that growing numbers of people have accepted that invitation.

The modern Democratic Party exists as a coalition of folks with one unifying principle: the desire to wield governmental power to make someone else pay their bills. Envy motivates them. It strikes them as unfair that some people earn – or own – more than others, and they employ governmental power to address that perceived inequity. Unfortunately, the targets refuse to stay still and be taxed for other people’s benefit; they escape to PA, FL, and DE.

Whatever his other blindness, Corzine apparently recognizes this. His gargantuan tax increases, although objectionable, were "regressive", hitting everyone, not merely "the wealthy". An increase in the sales tax is infinitely less likely to induce someone to leave than yet another foray against their paycheck.

But if Corzine understands this, many of his fellow leftists do not. Perhaps, having worked at Goldman Sachs, he possesses some modicum of economic literacy. The same cannot be said for those who support the "SMART" bill.

In brief, the smart bill would increase income taxes by 50%, assertedly to cut property taxes by a similar amount. Each year, as spending/property taxes grow, the income tax would grow, too, the assertion being that most folks – 95% – would see a property tax reduction greater than their income taxes increase.

Of course, like all economically illiterate redistributionist schemes, it depends upon the willingness of the shafted 5% – you know, those horrible, undertaxed "wealthy", who aren’t paying their "fair share" – to sit still and permit themselves to be gouged. The odds of that happening approach zero.

The program is assertedly "revenue neutral", and contains no effective checks upon spending growth. The sponsors effectively contend that the underlying problem with property taxes is not outrageous spending growth, but merely the fact that the wrong people are getting the bills.

Consider this statement:

"Property-based school taxes have risen at an uncomfortable rate duringthe last decade. If we allow this trend to continue and school taxes increase at their present rate, we can expect that a significant number of property owners, unable to pay their taxes, may be forced to forfeit their homes. Public resentment, coupled with insufficient funds, may cause a school-funding crisis."

Translation: if something isn’t done to send the tax bills to someone else, we might have to (GASP! HORRORS!) CUT SPENDING!!!. Can’t have that.

Some folks – Jon Shure comes to mind – actually believe that the many attractions of New Jersey will induce folks to move here, insane tax rates notwithstanding. And he could probably point to a few examples: rich liberals, who support high taxes for ideological reasons or for whom taxes don’t matter. But most "rich" folks – those with incomes of $100,000 or more – don’t consider themselves rich and don’t believe they labor under any obligation to donate ever increasing percentages of their income to the burgeoning governmental monster. They WILL leave.

Many good ideas exist to help cut property taxes, including (voluntary) municipal consolidation, education vouchers, and other spending cuts. But any proposal which suggests increasing other taxes to cut property taxes simply cannot be taken seriously. It won’t work. And the more obvious the envy contained in the proposal -- that is, the more it tries to shift the tax burden rather than reduce it -- the less effective it will be.

There is one, and only one, solution to high property taxes: cut spending. Anyone who argues to the contrary needs a remedial course in economics.

Addendum – the PETA tax. A little noticed component of the tax bill recently passed imposes a special levy on fur products. Prediction: the tax will prove as efficacious at collecting revenue as did the Florio heavy truck tax. Instead of rasing revenue, it will kill off the fur trade in New Jersey. Great if you're an animal rights activist, but not a revenue raiser.

Winners and Losers

The dust settles. The Democrats retract their claws and arrive at a mutually agreeable plan for raping the taxpayers. It seems safe to move onto Trenton’s favorite past time: choosing winners and losers.

Likely, the headlines tomorrow will read that Governor Corzine triumphed in his intramural battle with Speaker Roberts. He got the sales tax hike he wanted. He made no significant cuts in the bloated state budget (not that the Democratic "opposition" wanted any). He made only a token concession: half of the sales tax revenue must be devoted to property tax relief. As demonstrated below, that concession is both meaningless and trivial.

Generally, in such battles, the combatant willing to inflict the most pain on innocent bystanders prevails, and Corzine proved much more ruthless. He threw tens of thousands of workers out into the street, including private sector folks who can’t treat the last few days as a taxpayer funded vacation. And he didn’t have to; what court would second guess him? Who would bring the suit? Roberts, seeing tens of thousands of folks without paychecks, blinked first. Compassion points to Roberts; political victory for Corzine.

Only because the stakes were so small was the combat so intense. All the Democrat parties to the tiff agreed that spending needed to balloon and that the taxpayers required another hosing. Only the details of the hosing were in dispute.

Picking a loser is easy: the people of New Jersey. The insatiable maw of the governmental spending monster will suck another billion from the pockets of those residents foolish enough to stay. For some, like casino employees, the price might be more immediate and much higher, in the form of lost wages. And NJ’s already sad reputation took a major hit.

The compromise solution – the asserted dedication of funds for property tax relief – is a total farce. First, rebates at some level already exist, and nothing prevents the Guv from simply replacing the extant funds with those from the sales tax increase. Seen the rebate from the fraudulent "millionaires’ tax", "every penny of which" – the Dems promised – "will go to property tax relief"? Forced to choose between cutting spending elsewhere and funding property tax relief programs, property tax relief programs inevitably bow.

Second, a paltry $500 million means just about squat. Property taxes amount to more than $16 billion per annum. So, we’re dedicating a princely 3% of that amount to "tax relief" at a time when property taxes increase by 5% per year. It’s worse that a cruel joke.

And, third, the Dems employ a quirky definition of "property tax relief". Already, they assert that most of the budget goes to "property tax relief", which would puzzle any reasonable observer until he realizes that they define massive subsidies to Abbott districts and other Democratic municipalities as "property tax relief". Few, if any, residents of the suburbs see – or will see – any "relief".

Look for this newfound "relief" to be directed to additional aid to Newark, Camden, and Jersey City, maybe somewhat larger rebates to seniors. For the overtaxed middle class, essentially nothing.

In his brief speech to the Legislature today, Corzine observed that when one finds oneself in a hole, one should stop digging. NJ finds itself in a tax hell and Corzine’s solution amounts to piling on even more. As spending is the problem, cutting spending is the solution.

And just wait when the economy burps...

The Bush tax cuts produced an above-average-length economic expansion, but it’s getting long in the tooth. A contraction is inevitable. Those tax cuts benefitted "the wealthy" – that is to say, people who live in New Jersey; only Bush’s policies gave the NJ economy any life, despite the heroic efforts of McGreevey/Codey/Corzine to kill it completely. But even the salutary results of Bush policies don’t repeal the business cycle. When it inevitably falters, and NJ tax collections decrease, look for Corzine and the Dems to be back, digging even deeper into the taxpayers’ wallets. They’ve repeatedly demonstrated that no matter how deep the hole, they will not stop spending.

So, six months or so in, the Corzine record heretofore? Massive increased borrowing for the TTF (and a promise for hundreds of millions more for stem cell research). Huge tax increases. Gargantuan spending increases. But for Jim McGreevey’s precedent, it would be difficult to imagine a worse beginning to a gubernatorial term.

Corzine’s policies -- far from fixing things -- will merely hasten the exodus of productive folks from NJ. About the best that could be said is that if he listened to Jon Shure, things would be even worse.

Compromise?

Comes now former Governor Codey, suggesting that the Legislature "compromise" the differences between Governor Corzine’s obscene tax and spend budget, and the Assembly Democrats’ execrable tax and spend budget. His proposed "compromise"? Increase the sales tax by 1%, as the Governor petulantly demands, but devote half of the revenue therefrom to property tax relief.

Hmm. Sounds really familiar. I seem to recall, a few years back, being told by the Democrats that if only we increased the income tax on "millionaires", we could fund substantial property tax relief. That promise – like every Democratic spending restraint promise – lasted about 8 seconds. We got creamed by the massive income tax hike, but we also got socked with gargantuan spending increases, and, as a result, got no property tax relief.

The people yawned. Codey learned the lesson well: everyone who objected to Florio-type tax increases appears to have moved out of state. The only folks left are Montclair liberals and tax eaters, who get more back from tax increases than they pay. A natural Democratic Party constituency.

As Twain observed, the people get the kind of government they deserve; good and hard. They elected Corzine and the Dems knowing full well what they would get. Or they should have known. The Dems agree that government must expand; the only argument now is who gets the bill. On that score, Corzine’s proposal – bad as it is – is infinitely preferable to that of his Legislative compatriots.

Hizonor just completed a news conference, during which he stuck wonderfully to his "message": tax revenues must increase in order to fund recurring spending. No once did he even admit the possibility of cutting spending.

There’s little room for Republicans – true Republicans – to be peeled off and unite with one Democratic Party faction against the other. The Roberts Faction proposes a bunch of hidden taxes and a substantial income tax increase, leveled on precisely the sort of folks who have been leaving New Jersey in droves, and who Corzine – for all his faults – seems to comprehend should be encouraged to stay, not compelled to leave. The Corzine faction proposes a massive sales tax increase, further worsening New Jersey’s competitive position vis a vis Delaware, Pennsylvania, and New York.

With the lonely exception of Senator Sweeney, not a single Democrat proposes anything approaching a fiscally sane alternative, to wit: those who benefit from government – rather than those who pay for it – should shoulder most of the sacrifice.

The GOP should speak with one voice: NEITHER Democratic proposal is acceptable, as neither cuts spending.

And Codey’s "third way" proposal is no different. All things being equal, once the tax is in place, the Dems will not permit property tax relief promises to stand between them and showering goodies on their favored constituencies. The "property tax relief" – such as it is, and even that will almost certainly focus on Democratic municipalities – might last a year, but the tax will be forever.

Going into next year’s legislative elections, the Republican mantra should be simple and memorable: ROLL BACK CORZINE’S TAXES. Not one Republican should provide him with an scrap of cover by supporting ANY tax increase.

Keep Right

Given events in Trenton these past few weeks, I thought I might devote a brief entry to a truly important subject:

Lousy drivers.

Polls show that most people consider themselves above average drivers. Of late, circumstances necessitated that I undertake numerous forays onto the Garden State Parkway. Given my experiences, many drivers’ opinions of their abilities requires reassessment. Remedial driver’s ed strikes me as entirely appropriate.

Jim Gearhart occasionally holds forth about a particular annoying species of drivers, known as "LLD"s. These abound, true, (fill in your favorite stereotype) but I find a related creature infinitely more annoying: the MLM, or Middle Lane Moron.

Consider the Carroll Postulate: in driving, as in politics, one belongs as far to the right as circumstances permit.

Roads like the Parkway function best when drivers adhere to a strict hierarchy of speeds. Those who wish to obey the posted limits – both of you know who you are – belong in the far right lane. Those wishing to proceed at a slightly faster clip belong one lane further to the left. And so on. Unless on is actively passing, one does NOT cruise along in ANY lane other than that furthest to the right.

Admittedly, the driving/political analogy is not perfect. (Sometimes, while driving, moving to the left makes sense, whereas, in politics, such is never the case.) But it offers some interesting parallels and demonstrates that moving further to the left than absolutely necessary inevitably ends up depriving someone else of his freedom.

Few things vex a reasonably driver more than encountering some dunce happily tooling along in the second-to-the-left of five lanes at 55 or 60. Instant bottleneck. People who wish to move only slightly faster resort to the left lane, which prevents those who wish to travel at a reasonable speed from availing themselves of the proper passing lane. Infuriatingly, the nitwits rarely realize the chaos they create. It never seems to occur to them to MOVE OVER and get out of the way.

Interestingly, a disproportionate number of these miscreants sport either Canadian plates or war surplus (but suspiciously fresh-looking) Kerry stickers. Canadians, being socialists, understand neither governing nor driving. Perhaps local Kerry voters simply can’t bring themselves to move to the right, either. This results in the somewhat perverse condition in which, often, the best place to make good time is in the far right lane, casually zipping by the folks happily clogging up the left-most lanes.

Getting passed on the right is prima facie evidence that you don’t belong in the lane you’re in, so get out of it.

Friends. While reasonable folks may disagree about tax policy, spending levels, school funding, governmental consolidation, etc., cannot we not agree on one simple policy: IF YOU’RE NOT ACTIVELY PASSING, GET OUT OF THE LEFT LANES..