Sunday, July 02, 2006

Governor Fights to Raise Taxes

Alright, this is going to sound cranky but I'm extremely mad at my fellow New Jersey voters for electing this guy. Are we shocked that he would raise taxes? Why would anyone be shocked. I expected it. I hope he does raise taxes and continues to do so until the voters realize that he has got to go. I'm willing to sacrifice the extra 1% to make that happen. And if in the fall the Democrats suffer for this then that's just gravy :-)

As the state government shutdown entered its second day, lawmakers who have been unable to agree on a budget planned to return to the Statehouse to try to reach a compromise.

The rare Sunday morning gathering would come a day after Gov. Jon S. Corzine shut down nonessential government services amid a bitter intraparty dispute. The Legislature failed to adopt a budget by its July 1 deadline, leaving the state without the means to spend money.

[...]

The state constitution requires a new budget be adopted by July 1. Budget talks became heated this year as Corzine, a Democrat, proposed increasing the state sales tax from 6 percent to 7 percent to help overcome a $4.5 billion budget deficit.

Most Democrats in the Assembly — the lower house of the state Legislature — and several Senate Democrats oppose the sales tax increase, fearing voter backlash and reserving any tax increase for property tax reform. Assembly Democrats proposed a series of alternatives, some of which Corzine accepted, but both sides remained $1 billion apart as the budget deadline passed.