Bucco: Jon Corzine's Devastating Attack on the Middle Class

Republican Budget Officer Anthony Bucco of Morris County said today's budget proposal by Governor Corzine is a brazen attack on middle-class home ownership and exactly the wrong thing to do when thousands of people are losing their houses to foreclosure:

"Governor has proposed to impose an almost $500 million tax increase on homeowners by eliminating the tax deduction for property taxes in New Jersey, the state that has boasted the highest property tax burden in the nation for years. Only seniors would be exempt.

"Never in the history of this state has a sitting governor proposed a more onerous tax increase on hard-working, middle-class families during a recession.

"It's only common sense what the result will be if this incredibly misguided proposal is approved. More struggling residents will lose their homes to foreclosure. More of our neighbors will flee this state.

"Corzine seemed to be arguing that he's eliminating this deduction to maintain property tax rebates, but he's cutting rebates for everyone but the lowest income residents of the state. Moreover, he is the leader of a party that has increased both the income tax and the sales tax based on quickly broken promises that the money would be used for property tax relief. Not only have those promises been broken, he is now proposing another huge tax increase to pay for a shrunken rebate program that does nothing to relieve the property tax burden of the vast majority of residents of this state.

"This budget does exactly what the governor has said he would never do -- rely on accounting gimmicks and non-recurring revenue to create the illusion of balance. In fact, this budget may set a record for one-shot gimmicks that paper over long-term problems. It relies on pension deferrals, furloughs, temporary tax increases and a one-time infusion of $2 billion in federal money. If passed, it will guarantee that we will face huge deficits next year – and the year after that, and the year after that.

"Governor Corzine's speech should have demonstrated that he has a plan to put this state on track to long-term prosperity. This budget should have been delivered by a governor who isn't bankrupt of ideas for real solutions to our state's problems. Republicans will work to ensure that that real solutions to our problems are approved, not this attack on middle class New Jersey."