DEMOCRATIC LEGISLATORS GIVE UP ON AMERICAN DREAM

“THE PRIVATE SECTOR IS NO LONGER ABLE TO CREATE ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT ON ITS OWN” N.J. ECONOMIC STIMULUS ACT, 6/11/09

“THE FINANCIAL CRISIS HAS DIMINISHED THE ABILITY OF THE PRIVATE SECTOR TO CREATE ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT ON ITS OWN” N.J. ECONOMIC STIMULUS ACT, 6/22/09

    Instead of correcting the failed business policies and tax increases enacted in the last seven years, Democratic legislators have given up on capitalism, approving a measure today that would impose more tax increases and set up funds that could be politically manipulated under the guise of economic stimulus, Assembly members Gary Chiusano and Alison Littell McHose, both R-Sussex, Morris and Hunterdon, said.

    “The Democratic governors and legislators who have controlled this state for the past seven years have crippled businesses with a steady barrage of onerous new taxes and stifling regulations,” said Chiusano, a member of the Commerce and Economic Development Committee. “Instead of acknowledging the damage they’ve done to New Jersey business, Democratic legislators pursued this legislation, which is nothing but a new twist on Christmas Tree projects that will set up slush funds to reward politically-connected municipalities and developers.”

    The measure, A-4048, would allow municipalities to increase taxes on rental cars, parking and admission tickets, suspend, but not eliminate, affordable-housing fees, allow colleges to enter public/private development agreements and expand tax credits for cities with commuter train stations.
It was approved today, largely along party lines, in both the General Assembly and Senate despite concern that it was hastily adopted during the rush to adopt the fiscal year 2010 budget without studying how much it will actually cost taxpayers.

    “The only difference between this stimulus act and the self-serving, shameful and illegal budgets enacted in the last seven years is that today we voted in the middle of the day instead of after midnight,” said McHose, a member of the Budget Committee. “Our state’s economy needs lower taxes and less restriction on businesses so that they can grow, create the jobs our economy and residents need and ultimately reduce the burden on our middle class taxpayers.”

    Chiusano pointed out that the legislation would raise taxes as it would allow Trenton to add a $2 surcharge on parking and admissions at the Sovereign Bank Arena and Newark to add a 5 percent surcharge on car rentals.

    “We want to attract people, and their entertainment dollars, to the Sovereign Bank Arena and Prudential Center in hopes of stimulating economy in these cities, yet we’re taxing them to attend events in a facility built with their tax dollars and to rent cars in the city,” Chiusano said. “This bill is another vehicle for officials to fleece taxpayers to help politically-favored municipalities and developers.”

    The 24th District legislators said New Jersey will remain an awful place for businesses so long as the Democrats who control Trenton continue to dodge blame for their tax increases and regulations that have crushed the state’s economy.

    “They can tone down the rhetoric, but the truth is Democratic legislators are blaming capitalism, not their own faulty policies and tax increases, for the fact businesses are disappearing from New Jersey’s landscape,” McHose said. “Capitalism can flourish again in New Jersey once there is an end to ever-rising taxes and restrictive regulations.”