Posted by Matt Rooney On November 06, 2015 7 Comments
By Matt Rooney | The Save Jersey Blog
If you STILL don’t know or understand why New Jersey is almost irreparably screwed up, and a strengthened Democrat legislative majority is only going to make it worse, all you need to do is check out this quote from a celebratory SpeakerVince Prieto over on NJ.com.
He’s moving full-steam-ahead on the gas tax hike after Tuesday’s big win and isn’t ready to listen to any proposals that don’t raise taxes:
You can’t have something that’s revenue neutral,” Prieto said. “How are you going to fix the roads and then take the money from somewhere else? That is a ridiculous statement.”
There you have it, Save Jerseyans.
Translated: “The problem with Trenton isn’t Trenton, but that the people we “serve” aren’t sending us enough money.”
The man has balls, I’ll grant him that much. He also hates math. Study after study recognizes New Jersey as the worst (orsecond to worst) state for taxes in the entire country, a quantifiable fact further substantiated by a no-less-quantifiable herd of taxpayers fleeing New Jersey for other states. There’s a several mile traffic jam of moving vans heading west on I-80! And South on I-95. And Vince is worried about where we’re going to get the money for roads which no one can afford to drive…
So somehow, magically, we’re going to make New Jersey better for businesses, and families, by making it less affordable to live (and drive) here. #PrietoLogic! Which is apparently logic neutral.
And he can’t find ANYTHING he’d like to cut from the budget. Nothing. Not in a state notorious for no-show jobs, pension abuse, redundant departments, ponderous layers of bureaucracy and a school funding formula – where most of your property tax increase go – that spends $20k+ on urban education, per child, with nothing to show for it.
Look: everyone agrees the roads need to fixed. But we’veproposed alternatives to higher taxes including reducing the cost of maintaining our roads (which is – surprise! – also the highest in the nation) because, unlike the Speaker’s Assembly caucus, our Garden State businesses and families have no choice but to cut their budgets when times are tough. No cable next month! Less eating out. Less shifts at the shop. Etc. and so on.
Prieto doesn’t care. ‘Cause he doesn’t get it. The few Democrats who do get it are too afraid – or bought off – by the Super PAC backers to care. Does anyone honestly believe the Dems who just won upsets riding NJEA Super PAC cash to victoryare now going to be independent of the public sector unions?
https://savejersey.com/2015/11/prieto-assembly-democrat-new-jersey-gas-tax/
Same old bullshit from the writer of this article and the politicians, the song remains the same.
Union thug-in-Chief Sweeney, “I never saw a gas tax hike I didn’t like to help out my pal Sanzari” Sarlo, and “there’s nothing we can cut from budget” Prieto. Wonder why NJ has a $200bn unpaid credit card bill despite the highest state & local taxes in the country? Add in toll-charges and commuter pass charges to gasoline taxes, and NJ takes in more than these guys are letting on to fund the Transportation Trust Fund. All of these guys are bought and paid for by union votes. NJ taxpayers are going to get it even worse. Pennsylvania looks better every day.
Bet all of the +$100k pensionistas in the Village are happy – woo pig sooie! Be nice if these gentlemen could volunteer some of their free time to patrol the CBD to keep it safe.
Yep,and hot on the heels of Prieto’s ignorant comments comes word that the NJEA (teachers’ union) says the state must pay more toward the public pension in 2016 at the expense of all other spending. This comes after a political group connected with the union contributed $4 million to a super PAC that ran television ads in southern NJ highlighting the plight of AC casinos bankrupted by the unions, not the pension issue. Democratic leaders say they hear the pension message loud and clear, one Republicans say demonstrates the influence of special interests in the election. Assembly Speaker Vincent Prieto and Majority Leader Louis Greenwald say paying for past pension promises is their top priority without even asking if the promises made were excessive or sustainable…
The question is, how do the republicans continue to blow it? Bergen County under Yudin is a total mess. The GOP needs new leadership and candidates that appeal to the electorate pure and simple.
Because most of us republicans are busy at work, earning a living, just waiting for the day when we hang the for sale sign out and declare residency in Florida.
Per my accountant, if I spend 181 or so days per year out of state, nj income & estate taxes won’t be picking my pocket.
As the owner of a business I will take the steps as necessary.
The unions own nj along with those in the inner cities living on “entitlements”, all who vote democratic.
Very soon I will join the large group of smart taxpayers who are tired of having our pockets picked, and vote with my feet.
I’m sure the democrats won’t miss me, but they WILL miss my income taxes estate taxes, and more importantly the sales taxes on my expenditures for the 6 months I’m dividing my time between fla and Maine. And the businesses that I spend money with in nj won’t get my spending as well.
Add it up for all of a us and it makes a difference.
The problem is you can’t explain things to stupid democrats. If it eats breaths or defacates they find a way to slap a tax on it.
The Ponzi scheme will collapse on itself – there won’t be enough workers contributing to the pension funds and there won’t be enough income anymore in NJ to steal, I mean tax away to throw at the black hole. Try explaining that to a Dumbocrat in Trenton or a pension thug – they don’t care. They just want to “get theirs”, no questions asked. It’s state & municipal government mandated defrauding of taxpayers. While private sector workers have been busy earning a living, the unions and their paid friends in govt have been busy defrauding us with unsustainable CBAs that were never negotiated in good faith to begin with; they were negotiated to line the pockets of their members at the expense of hard working NJ families. How else do you explain over 50 Village employees and almost 20 Village retires individually making more in pension + benefits than the median HOUSEHOLD income in Ridgewood? Does that make any sense at all? Only in union and liberal la-la land.
@7:29, as opposed soundbytes you list real reasons. While yeah, entitlements are a mess, don’t you think home rule distorts costs with the massive duplication of services and admin across 500+ towns? Home rule has a massive cost…And our dc reps, whether democrat or republican, continue to let NJ get fleeced to redistribute our tax dollars across the country.. And actually, the magnet cities in nj for bennies are a minority of the population at large…. so while I hear you loud and clear, I think it’s more than “stupid democrats”….