May 22,2018
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood NJ, , In a new report, Moody’s Investors Service described New Jersey’s April income tax collections, which were down 1 percent from last year, as an outlier and “weaker than expected.” NJ Treasurer Elizabeth Muoio told the Assembly Budget Committee on Monday. “A reality check on the urgent need for new revenues.”
Both Democrat and Republican leadership in both houses of the state Legislature say they’re opposed to those tax hikes, and they’re now firmly in the position of having to come up with $1.5 billion in cash or slashing as much to keep the budget in balance.
The ugly reality is that increases taxes ill continue to erode the already shrunken tax base in New Jersey .
While the Murphy Administration has promised a wild spending spree with no visible budget cuts anywhere else and the pace of taxpayer exodus from New Jersey has quickened ,Holly Schepisi , New Jersey State Assemblywoman for District 39 , “While wanting to create programs such as free community college, expansion of financial programs and aid, raising salaries and providing retroactive pay increases may be laudable progressive goals of Governor Murphy, New Jersey is in a real financial crisis necessitating a combination of budget cuts, large scale reforms to our pension and health system and a restructuring of our entire tax code and school funding mechanisms. Our legislature must work in a bipartisan manner and have the intestinal fortitude to do what is needed in order for our State to become fiscally healthy. Then, and only then, should conversations regarding the Governor’s proposed increases in spending take place.”
