Senator Joe Kyrillos, senior Republican on the Economic Growth Committee, said the following after learning that New Jersey's unemployment rate has climbed to 9.8 percent, the highest level in nearly 33 years. The rate is the highest since April 1977, and remains far higher than the unemployment figures of Pennsylvania, New York, Delaware, Massachusetts and Connecticut. The state lost 12, 000 jobs in the private sector and 700 government positions, the New Jersey Department of Labor reported."No neighboring state is suffering as much in this recession as New Jersey," Kyrillos said. "There are no excuses that Governor Corzine can give that will make New Jersey feel better about the suffering of so many of our friends and neighbors."The governor's belated, half-hearted attempts at economic development are clearly too little, too late. The governor's legacy will be his role in the transformation of the most vibrant economy in the Northeast into a textbook example of job-killing taxation and regulation."The governor should be talking about how he will roll back taxes and nuisance regulation for small, medium-sized and large businesses. Instead, he has made it clear he is considering new fuel, sales and income taxes. This is exactly the wrong message to send business leaders we desperately need to create jobs during this recession."I again urge Governor Corzine to call the Legislature into a special session to come up with an economic plan that's strong enough to combat the emergency we face. Our children are counting us to repudiate the mistakes of the past and to create prosperity in the Future."Web: www.senatenj.com  Twitter: twitter.com/senatenj  YouTube: youtube.com/senatenj  Facebook: facebook.com/senatenj