A Waste of Time

New Jersey does not suffer from a property tax crisis; it suffers from a spending crisis.

More accurately, we suffer from a political irresponsibility crisis. In Abbott v. Burke, our Supreme Court short circuited democracy, asserting that the constitution compels certain levels of spending, regardless of what the people, acting through their elected representatives, prefer. As a result, some people get to spend money on themselves, and send the bills to others, who have no choice in the matter. Obviously, spending has exploded, and the beneficiaries demand ever more, to which demands an arrogant, out-of-control Court routines accedes.

Obviously, the only way to control property taxes is to control spending. The only way to control spending is to make elected representatives responsible for that spending. And the only way to do that is to amend the Constitution to evict the Judiciary from imposing costly mandates under the guise of Constitutional “interpretation”.

But the advocates for such spending, fearful – quite properly – that the people would NEVER endorse the level of spending they believe necessary to achieve their assertedly salutary goals, refuse to permit the people to vote on such matters. In the minds of these advocates, urban educational spending is simply too important to be consigned to the whims of the electorate.

These advocates – mostly Democrats, but also a handful of “Republicans”, including some prominent, local “Republican” elected officials – vehemently oppose any spending cuts. If gargantuan tax bills result – and they have – that’s a price they’re willing to compel others to pay.

Recently, the Democratic majority in the Legislature established a Committee to investigate whether a Constitutional Convention should be called to address ever spiraling property taxes. Because constitutional change is a prerequisite to property tax relief, virtually the entire Legislature supported the proposal.

But, now, that Commission stands revealed as a fraud, and the Convention it stands ready to propose as yet another fraud.

The Democrats, since taking the Legislative majority, have wasted no opportunity to raise taxes. New Jersey residents groan under $5 billion in new exactions. At the same time, the Democrats borrowed another $6 billion or so, simply for operating expenses. And they have done precisely nothing about property taxes.

The reason is simple; they don’t want to.

Democrats LIKE high property taxes. In fact, they like high taxes in general. High taxes are necessary to fund the kind of outrageous governmental spending they believe appropriate. They will NEVER agree to ANY tax cut if it means cutting spending.

That having been said, they know that to spend, they need power, and the ghost of Florios past continues to haunt them. Almost all of their gargantuan tax increases have been stealthy. You pay if you sell a house, file a deed or mortgage, buy tires, go to the hospital. The Dems understand that huge increases in income or sales taxes – on ordinary folks – would be necessary to actually cut property taxes while preserving spending.

But they’re too cowardly to take the responsibility themselves.

So, they intend to deflect responsibility onto a Convention. The Convention will be rigged; it won’t be permitted to propose spending restraint. It will be forbidden from addressing the root of the property tax problem: Supreme Court decisions on school funding and zoning.

So, ladies and gentlemen, why bother with an expensive exercise in providing political coverage for cowardly Democrat (and liberal Republican) efforts to vastly increase income and sales taxes?

Let’s be clear: there is one, and only one, way to address ballooning property taxes: spending cuts, primarily in hugely bloated urban public school budgets.

Or, more accurately, spending responsibility. Let the people – acting through their elected representatives – decide how much they want to spend. On anything and everything. If the electorate dislikes the results, thinks spending is too low or taxes too high, it can vote the rascals out and replace them with representatives more to their liking.

That’s called (representative) democracy. It’s the kind of government the Framers thought they were giving us, until the Court took it away.

And let’s be even blunter: if Newark can’t find a way to educate a normal second grader on what the average school district in the state spends, there are lots of Catholic schools that can.

Any convention which lacks the ability to address the entire scope of the problem is worse than a complete waste of time and money; it’s a blatant fraud upon the people. The Legislature already possess the power to increase taxes, if that’s what the majority feels is necessary. Let the Democrats demonstrate the courage of their spending convictions, propose the tax increases they believe are necessary and proper, and cut out the expensive and useless middleman.

And let the people decide at the polls whether they acted correctly.