NJ's Bad Rap

According to the Bergen Record, Corzine Administration officials stand prepared to address the difficulties associated with a weak economy, through the vehicle of a five point plan.

And, according to the report, here is how NJ goverbnment will produce a brighter economic future: better commercials.

The Record reports on the testimony of the Chief of the State Office of Economic Growth:

"Among the initiatives being pursued to help make the state appeal more to businesses is a marketing campaign designed to turn around New Jersey's negative image, Rose said."
"‘We think we have a much more convincing story to tell, but we think we are being tarred by the old New Jersey image," he said. "We want to put out a much more positive story.’"

So, NJ does not really deserve it’s reputation as a tax and regulatory hell, and a better marketing campaign will show those benighted businesses and residents – who have beaten a path to PA – the error of their ways. No more Jim McGreevey walking on the beach (there was always a certain irony in that anyway). No more Brendan Byrne offering "New Jersey’s Got It". (As one sage noted, that provoked the question: "what will make ‘it’ go away?"). No more Tom Kean (Sr.) Brahmining, "New Jersey and You, Puhhhfect Togethuh".

Yup, what NJ really needs is some good PR. That’ll do the trick. Maybe NJ natives (and expats) Kirsten Dunst and Queen Latifah – maybe even Bruce Springsteen – all telling the world what a great place NJ is to live:

"Come to NJ where you can pay the highest property, sales, and income taxes in the country. Where you can live in a state which shutters its parks while wasting billions on urban areas. Where you can live in a bankrupt state about to bury itself under another mountain of debt. Where we’ll force you to purchase health insurance and let your employees take off 42 days a year – with pay – and forbid you from building on that small portion of your property we don’t seize through eminent domain. But come here anyway, because we’re all smart enough not to care about trivialities like confiscatory taxation."

This is the Jon Shure view of economics: NJ offers so many advantages that people will flock here because " ... a skilled workforce, good proximity to the marketplace and a general high quality of life can overcome the tax issue," as the Administration folks put it. Of course. Who are you going to believe? The Administration or the evidence of your own eyes?

As the Record reports, the Growth folks continue:

"Some businesses may be leaving for tax- and toll-friendly Pennsylvania, but New Jersey can stay competitive, particularly in North Jersey, with its reasonable occupancy rates."

Of course!! All those businesses fleeing NJ must have freed up scads of office/business space, and we’ll use that to our advantage!! Why didn’t we think of that before?

There is one – and only one – way to turn NJ’s reputation around: eliminate it’s well-founded causes.

Massive tax cuts – and accompanying massive spending cuts – are clearly necessary, but insufficient. Idiocy – like paid family leave and mandatory health insurance – will do nothing but drive further nails into the coffin of NJ’s reputation. Government must stop trying to "help"; all it does is harm the folks it purports to assist.

So. How to do it? Where to cut? What reforms to embrace?

Obviously, when faced with a spending problem, one cuts spending. The biggest money pits are no secret. Consider a few modest proposals:

First, instead of cutting back aid to small towns, zero it out altogether. NO municipal aid whatsoever. Just as the people of Randolph should decide for themselves how many cops they need – and can afford – so the people of Newark should decide whether their Mayor is worth more than $200K per annum. Each municipality gets the government it wants – and can afford – nothing more, and the local pols answer to the local electorate for their priorities.

Second, instead of shuttering state parks, eliminate COAH. If the Supremes get uppity again, pass a constitutional amendment evicting them from making housing policy.

Third, reform education aid, so that every child receives an equal share of state funding. If the people of Newark want to pay teachers half-again the state average, that’s their call, but not on someone else’s dime. If Newark public schools can’t deliver a quality education on what folks in Boonton spend, private schools can, and vouchers should be expressly permitted. Again, if the Court decides to intervene, it should be politely invited to leave the arena.

Fourth, abolish all public employee pensions for new hires; everyone gets a 401(k). Abolish all health insurance after retirement. Not much present savings, but it defuses a long-term fiscal time bomb. At the same time, proscribe public employee involvement in, and contributions to, partisan politics.

Fifth, stringently enforce the requirements that people show ID to work here. As illegals cannot find work, they’ll leave, thereby saving the taxpayers billions per year.

Sixth, either abolish elected Boards of Education altogether or move their elections to November, when people actually show up at the polls.

Seventh, zero-out NJN’s taxpayer subsidy and sell of its property; the license, too, if we can. Why do we need taxpayer financed TV?

Eighth, abolish cost-generating frills – like prevailing wage laws – which cost taxpayers hundreds of millions extra on necessary infrastructure projects.

These suggestions are just of the tip of a huge governmental iceberg. The point being the state government should do a few things and do them as inexpensively as possible, while removing the incentive – and the ability – on the part of anyone to vote themselves other people’s money.

Making NJ economically competitive again requires no governmental study, no governmental programs, no governmental subsidies, no governmental commissions. It simply requires government to do less, be less expensive, and impose fewer mandates. That is, it requires a wholesale repudiation of leftist philosophy.

Which, of course, is why the prospects look bleak.