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Trenton NJ, the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) called on New Jersey lawmakers to help provide fuel cost relief for small businesses, workers, and commuters across the Garden State. NFIB’s New Jersey state director urged immediate action to either reduce or suspend the $0.329 state gas tax until fuel prices begin to stabilize.
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Trenton NJ, “Increasing the tax on gas and diesel by 4.3¢ a gallon is simply too much, too fast. While we understand and are accepting of the need for some type of increase in order to keep the Transportation Trust Fund solvent, this dramatic of a tax increase will hurt small businesses, families, and ultimately drive fuel sales even lower, creating the need for further excessive tax increases over the next several years” said NJGCA Executive Director Sal Risalvato.
Continue reading New York Cheers Administration Decision to Raise NJ Gas Tax Again!
NJ gas tax could be used to prop up public pension system
By Michael Symons December 8, 2016 6:39 PM
In a roundabout way, revenues from the increased gas tax might help shore up New Jersey’s beleaguered pension funds.
A proposed bill, S2842/A4388, would enable the Transportation Trust Fund to borrow directly from the pension funds, rather than sell bonds to investors. There would be no cap to how much could be borrowed. The pension funds are typically limited to buying 10 percent of any single bond sale.
Senate President Stephen Sweeney, D-Gloucester, said the pension funds would benefit from earning a higher interest rate than they do buying U.S. Treasury bonds. And the TTF would avoid paying the fees normally associated with a bond sale, Sweeney said.
“Why are we giving fees to Wall Street? Why are we letting other people make interest off of us when we have a pension fund that is woefully underfunded?” Sweeney said.
Sweeney estimated the impact by talking about a hypothetical $1.2 billion in borrowing by the TTF, which he said would cost the TTF $60 million in interest, at an interest rate of 5 percent, and $6 million in underwriting fees to Wall Street.
“The money is there. This is a safe bet. This is not a risk. We don’t want to risk people’s pension funds,” Sweeney said. “Why pay someone else 5 percent when we could pay ourselves?”
The bill wouldn’t require the pension funds to invest in TTF and New Jersey Infrastructure Bank bonds, but it would lift the limits on what the State Investment Council could choose to do. Other types of state debt, such as for school construction, would not be included.
Read More: NJ gas tax could be used to prop up public pension system | https://nj1015.com/nj-gas-tax-could-could-be-used-to-prop-up-public-pension-system/?trackback=tsmclip
The conservative political advocacy group created by oil billionaires David and Charles Koch has unveiled a no-frills model “Taxpayers’ Budget’’ for New Jersey, claiming there is a way to provide core services of government while freeing up money for tax relief. Bob Jordan, Asbury Park Press Read more
SEPTEMBER 28, 2015, 10:58 AM LAST UPDATED: MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 28, 2015, 11:05 AM
BY SALVADOR RIZZO
STATE HOUSE BUREAU |
Governor Christie will not consider legislation to increase the state’s gas tax, unless it is paired with reductions to other taxes in New Jersey, he said Monday.
Christie did not say definitively which taxes should be cut, but he mentioned New Jersey’s estate tax and inheritance tax — noting that New Jersey and Maryland are the only states in the country that have both.
The dual “death taxes” are preventing New Jersey from being “competitive,” Christie said. A common complaint from state residents, he said, boils down to, “It’s not that I can’t afford to live here; I can’t afford to die here.
“Republicans should not be giving away any votes for an increase in the gas tax — none, zero — unless whatever is presented represents tax fairness for the people of New Jersey,” Christie said at a breakfast hosted by the New Jersey Commerce and Industry Association in Morris County.
Christie also made reference to the state income tax and “a number of other taxes that could stand some reducing,” giving few specifics.
Senate Budget Committee Chairman Paul Sarlo
Stuck on Stupid Trenton Lawmakers look to Raise NJ Gas Tax
Potential N.J. gas tax increase comes up against Christie’s 2016 prospects
TRENTON — As the Republican governor of a blue state who has presidential aspirations, Chris Christie has spent much of the past five years carefully considering whether what plays in New Jersey will also play in more conservative states like South Carolina.
That balancing act is about to get a lot tougher as calls to raise the state’s gas tax grow louder.
New Jersey’s Transportation Trust Fund — which pays for major transportation projects — is almost broke. And Democrats who control the Legislature say that after years of fiscal maneuvers and borrowing for road projects, more revenue is needed.
The question becomes how Christie — who is widely expected to seek the nomination for the White House in a Republican Party that loathes raising taxes — signs such a measure into law without mortally damaging his presidential campaign before it even begins.
