WAYNE – Governor Corzine’s proposed $29.78 billion budget is another blow to the wallets of suburban taxpayers who have been carrying the state’s financial load too long, say Republican Assembly candidates Anthony Rottino and Joseph Caruso.  The GOP candidates say the governor will continue to waste billions on bloated urban programs in an effort to bolster his re-election bid this year, while cutting aid to suburban municipalities and school districts.   “This isn’t a fair budget. It’s a budget that punishes suburban homeowners and business owners throughout the state,” said Rottino, a businessman.“The governor should be making deeper cuts into wasteful programs and demanding that cities do what suburban municipalities do: live within their means.”  Rottino noted that while cities like Paterson, Passaic and Newark are handed billions in school aid, the families in suburban towns such as District 40 “get crumbs from Trenton.” “All of District 40 shares just over $28 million in school aid, while Paterson, Passaic and Newark alone get more than $1.2 billion in school aid. And more than 80 percent  that urban aid comes from taxpayers living outside those of cities. Where is the shared pain in that,” asked Rottino.  “Why isn’t the governor trying to even out the differential in state education aid and make the cities pay for more of their education costs?” he said.  Caruso said the governor’s “proposed one year income tax increase on residents making more than $500,000 a year is “another shot in the class warfare battle that the Democrats are running in Trenton and in Washington. “How many times have we heard and are we going to continue to hear that the wealthy must pay more taxes and our problems will be solved?” asked Caruso. “Corzine sounds like Gov. McGreevey and his millionaire’s tax. How much did that help our economy?       “The reason New Jersey is in the ridiculous financial shape it is in is not the fault of people making $500,000 or $250,000. It’s because people like the governor have created an entitlement class of state workers and urban politicians who are addicted to state spending financed by hard working middle class families." Caruso also noted that elimination of deducting property taxes paid on state income tax filings, would be especially harmful to District 40 residents.  “District 40 receives minimal state aid and therefore pays some of the highest property taxes in the nation, while subsidizing urban waste. Disallowing the property tax deduction is another tax increase for homeowners in the district said Caruso.    Caruso took issue with the statement from Sen. Dick Codey (D-Essex) who said ‘the pain, if you want to call it that, has been dispensed as evenly as humanly possible.”  “Sen. Codey is living in another world if he thinks that added  taxes and more tax hikes in this budget are not going to cause additional and disproportionate pain to hard working middle class taxpayers,” said Caruso. “Is there no one in Trenton who thinks at all about the middle class families? Apparently not,” said Caruso a business executive.CUTBACKS, NOT MORE TAXES Rottino and Caruso say the governor’s proposal should have included cutbacks in state aid to big cities, new programs, such as the new pre-K programs, and an elimination of urban enterprise zones that charge half the sales tax of other areas.   “If the state is in a financial crisis, why is Corzine allowing the treasury to be shorted millions of dollars in sales taxes? said Rottino.  Caruso and Rottino are already on record saying that if the governor eliminates the property tax rebates, he should correspondingly cut the sales tax by at least a half percent.   “The rebates are supposed to be paid from the sales tax. That’s why the Democrats increased the sales tax to 7 percent. If the governor is going to eliminate rebates for middle class people, then don’t take their money all year long through the sales tax,” said Caruso.