Author: James

AFP says New Jersey is at a crossroads. Our elected leaders in Trenton must work to put New Jersey back on a path to fiscal sanity now

AFP

According to Americans for Prosperity this state budget is an opportunity to turn our state around. No longer can Trenton spend and borrow with abandon.  Elected leaders can no longer ignore reports like the one issued last week by Treasury showing that our state debt and unfunded liabilities continue to grow. They can no longer ignore warnings from ratings agencies like Fitch and Moody’s that the current path is unsustainable. They can no longer ignore that our state is in the worst fiscal condition of any state in the nation. And they can no longer ignore that our weak economy and high taxes are leading to economic malaise.

The state has committed itself to a $2.4B payment into the pension system–$1B more than last year. AFP believes making the full pension payment for FY 2015 is the right thing to do, but this should not be accompanied by more borrowing or higher taxes. Those in the Legislature who pushed to make this full payment now need to lay their cuts on the table. Those in the majority party cannot have their cake and eat it, too.

While AFP supports the pension payment, this is not pro-growth policy. New Jerseyans need and deserve tax relief to stimulate economic growth and create jobs. Voices in the majority party, beginning with Assembly Speaker Prieto, argue we cannot afford a tax cut. But we cannot afford NOT to have tax relief.

The fact of the matter is spending has risen almost 14% over the past four years. Our state budget for FY ’14 is $4.5B higher than it was in FY ’11. At the same time our economy has barely grown at a 1% clip. We must streamline the budget now in order to allow hard-working New Jersey families and job creators to keep more of what they earn. Families and businesses have had to do just that since the Great Recession hit and now it’s Trenton’s turn.

Members of the Legislature must also work with Gov. Christie to address the ticking time bomb that is our pension system. Gov. Christie and lawmakers on both sides of the aisle came together in 2010 to enact changes to public employee pension and benefits. This was a step in the right direction but not enough to fix the problem. Additional changes must be put in place to avoid a catastrophe in the future. The current path remains unsustainable and the status quo is unacceptable.

New Jersey is at a crossroads. Our elected leaders in Trenton must work to put New Jersey back on a path to fiscal sanity now.