Conventional Weapons

Recently, Fred Snowflack of the Daily Record devoted a portion of his column to a proposal to convene a constitutional convention, purportedly designed to ease the property tax burden.  Several omissions, though, tend to promote a distorted view of the proposal sponsored by the Democrats (and favored by one of the 25th District Assembly candidates) but which Rick Merkt and I oppose.

The Democrat proposal at issue – sponsored by the Majority Leader, Camden County Democrat Joe Roberts – mandates that any convention convened be limited to making "revenue neutral" proposals. The convention would be effectively prohibited from considering ANY cost savings. Its charter precludes any power to reverse foolish Supreme Court decisions, like Abbott v. Burke or Mount Laurel, which drive up property taxes. 

Simply put, for every nickel of property tax cuts, some other tax would increase by the same amount. At the same time, Newark, Camden, and other Abbott school districts would continue spend twice to three times what some Morris County districts spend.

The Democratic convention proposal includes 14 unelected delegates (including Brendan Byrne, Jim Florio and Jim McGreevey, not noted for their dedication to tax relief), chosen, in part, on the basis of their "diversity" (whatever that means), which delegates would likely hold the balance of convention power in their unelected hands.

Oh, and before any proposal agreed upon by the convention for constitutional change goes to the people, it must first go to the Chief Justice. He/she is granted to sole, unreviewable authority to determine whether the convention delegates complied with their limited mandate.

Is this really a good idea? Trusting unelected delegates? Trusting the leader of the same mathematically challenged Court which couldn't tell the difference between 30 days and 51 days in the Torricelli case? The same Court which concluded, in the redistricting case, that 1 + 1 might equal something other than 2? The leader of the same Court which, in large measure, created the property problem in the first place? We should trust THESE folks to effect property tax relief fair to Morris County residents?

Bad idea.

It's not so much that the Legislature lacks the courage to deal with these issues, but that the Democrats LIKE bloated spending and will not support any tax relief plan which threatens the ocean of money flowing from the suburbs to the cities. The convention proposal supported by the Democrats (and by one of the candidates for Assembly in the 25th District), is designed to lock high spending policies in place and stick Morris County residents with the bill.

Assemblyman Merkt and I offer a better alternative: a constitutional convention – composed SOLELY of elected members and not subject to the whim of the Chief Justice – empowered to review the constitution generally. Such convention would possess the authority to reverse foolish decisions of the Court, which misinterpreted the Constitution, and would not have to be revenue neutral, so as to effect REAL tax relief, not a tax shift onto the backs of Morris County taxpayers.

In one sense, the Democrats (and the candidate for Assembly here in Morris County) are correct: real relief cannot be effected without constitutional change. The Supreme Court made a muddle of the educational system in this state, and the people, acting through a convention, constitute our best hope of relief, through reversing these decisions. But the purpose of the Democratic convention proposal is precisely to perpetuate those asinine decisions, not reverse them. Morris County taxpayers would see their taxes skyrocket.

And that constitutes the difference between Democrats and Republicans on this issue. The Democrats trust unelected delegates and the Chief Justice; they believe in continuing huge subsidies for failed urban schools and huge income tax increases on Morris County residents; they stand with the NJEA.

Real Republicans don't.

Candid observers, then, should consider the details of the proposals. Neither huge tax increases nor tax shifts constitute a solution. We must, instead, get to the heart of the problem, which is – as Governor Kean recently noted – the "obscene growth of government". Only by controlling spending will tax relief of any kind be possible. That will NOT be achieved by the Democrats proposed convention. The proposal is a fraud, false advertising. No Republican, let alone from Morris County, whose residents would be squarely in the tax cross-hairs, should even consider supporting it.