>May 26, 2010
The Reform Agenda: Changing Course in N.J.
By Gov. Chris Christie
Fiscal Crisis: The Current Budget As An Example
As you all know, we have a fiscal crisis in New Jersey: a $10.9 billion deficit on a $29.3 billion budget.
At 37 percent, it’s the worst budget deficit percentage in America-worse than California, worse than New York, worse than Illinois-and we need to take bold steps to deal with it.
On March 16, we put forward a budget with $10.9 billion in reductions against proposed spending of the Corzine administration.
This was not easy to do, so I want to start off by saying that while I stand firmly behind the cuts we proposed, please don’t take my firm stance in favoring those cuts as meaning that I don’t know how painful they are.
Everybody would love to be governor in a time when you can just give things away and make everybody your friend and make everybody happy.
That’s not the time that I’m getting to be governor.
I feel an obligation to stand up and do what the people elected me to do, which is to get our government under control, and to start to reduce the amount of money that people have to pay to the government in taxes.
But if all we do is cut, and we don’t get at the underlying problem, we’re just going to be back in this spot year, after year, after year.
New Jersey Is On An Unsustainable Fiscal Course
Over the last ten years, municipal spending has grown by 69 percent, and property taxes have grown by 70 percent, until New Jersey property taxes are now the highest of any state in the nation.
This is an unsustainable course.
For nearly 30 years, the citizens of New Jersey have placed in the hands of politicians-mostly politicians from Trenton-the responsibility for fixing property taxes. And in every gubernatorial election since 1973, we’ve had folks dancing around this property tax problem, putting band-aids on it, but not doing a thing to address the structural issues that allow politicians to hike property taxes year, after year, after year.
We can’t increase municipal aid, increase aid to school districts, and increase property taxes without end. At some point, the people’s ability to pay runs out.
And now we’re there.
With property taxes up 70 percent in ten years, people in New Jersey are now voting with their feet, and they’re leaving.
Senior citizens are leaving the homes that they raised their families in, heartbroken because they can’t pay the property taxes anymore.
Young couples can’t buy their first homes, not because of home prices, but because of the property taxes.
And middle class families are suffering from 9.8 percent unemployment in New Jersey, the highest in the region-higher than Pennsylvania, higher than Connecticut, higher than New York. Many of them are finding that after they’ve lost their jobs, they’re going to lose their homes as well, because their property taxes got raised beyond their ability to pay.
In every poll you’ll ever see, New Jerseyans say our biggest problem is property taxes.
So how do we fix it?
The Centerpiece of the Solution: Cap 2.5
First and foremost, we have to impose discipline on every level of the political system. I propose that we start with Cap 2.5, a constitutional amendment to cap property tax increases at no more than 2.5 percent per year.
For 30 years, politicians in Trenton have been passing the buck, and property taxes have gone up and up and up. The people of New Jersey have had enough.
I believe in less government, lower taxes, and empowering local officials who act on behalf of the people who elected them. I came here to do what the people sent me to do.
That may lead to a disagreement or two. Just recently, I had a friendly little exchange with a reporter you might have seen….
But anyone who comes to this discussion talking about “you can’t cut this” and “you can’t cut that” who doesn’t have some way to pay for it besides jacking up property taxes is just joining that pathetic, 30-year tradition of passing along the problem for the next guy to deal with.
When we enact a constitutional amendment to limit property tax increases to no more than 2.5 percent across the board annually, we will have put in place the foundation for getting our fiscal house in order for the first time in a generation.
With that in place, then and only then can we begin to look at doing-in a sustainable way-what New Jerseyans want for urban revitalization, education, and every other big-picture issue.
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