New Jersey Shuts Down
EDITORIAL, NYTimes on
the Web, July 6, 2006
It's time for Joseph Roberts Jr.,
speaker of the New Jersey Assembly, to fold his cards. He and his
colleagues thought they could bluff their way through a confrontation with Gov.
Jon Corzine over the governor's proposed sales tax increase. But the bluff
has been called: Mr. Corzine shut down nonessential services and
furloughed 45,000 nonessential employees when he and Mr. Roberts could not agree
on a new budget by July 1, the start of a new fiscal year.
To help close a $4.5 billion deficit, Mr. Corzine wants to raise the state sales
tax from 6 percent to 7 percent, bringing in an additional $1.1 billion.
It is not an ideal solution. But it will provide the state with reliable,
recurring and desperately needed new revenue. Mr. Roberts, in contrast, is
proposing an ever-changing and politically driven agenda — a few tax increases
here, a few spending cuts there. It's the very kind of budgeting that has
made New Jersey a fiscal basket case.
As a result of the impasse, state beaches and parks have closed, as have Motor
Vehicle Commission offices, the state lottery, courts, racetracks and casinos.
The dispute already has cost the state millions. Thousands of casino
workers have lost their jobs temporarily.
It is hard not to notice the geographic split in this dispute. Mr. Corzine
and his chief ally, Senate President Richard J. Codey, are from north of the
Raritan River, the Garden State's equivalent of the Mason-Dixon line. Mr.
Roberts and many of his supporters represent the southern part of the state and
are aligned with George Norcross III of the powerful Camden County Democratic
machine.
Mr. Roberts insists he is calling his own shots, which ought to simplify
matters. He need only agree to a compromise offered by Governor Corzine
and Senator Codey, who support setting aside half of the new sales tax revenue
to Mr. Roberts's favorite cause, property tax relief.
That seems easy enough. So why won't Mr. Roberts act?
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