Schaer defends Corzine's budget as pro-middle class

Arguing that Gov. Jon Corzine’s $29.8 billion budget proposal should be a vehicle of “unity, not separation, a statement that we are all in this together, all of us affected by the cuts,” Assemblyman Gary Schaer (D-Passaic) defended Corzine’s working document in the face of his own party’s doubts about forestalling tax deductions on income taxes and capping property tax rebates at $75,000. 

And against blistering, out-of-the-gate attacks by the GOP.

“I think that most people initially look at a budget in terms of how they will personally be affected,” said Schaer, who chairs the Assembly Institutions and Insurance Committee. “In that regard, what people need to look at are those fundamental areas where the budget is strong: in education, higher education and medical care. In that sense, the budget is addressing historic values of the middle class.”

The specific middle class invocation came on the heels of a days-long effort made by the GOP to brand Corzine’s budget proposal an attack on New Jersey’s middle class.

Recognizing that the budget process will create opportunities for the legislature to change Corzine’s proposal, Schaer noted that the proposal is $3 billion smaller than last year’s budget and called it “an excellent first step.”

“It’s a very difficult budget, but it addresses the needs of seniors head on, education and of those most in need real,” Schaer added. “As a bare bones budget, it is one of the first steps toward redefining New Jersey’s priorities.”

Schaer was one of those Democratic assembly people who quickly emerged last week to defend Corzine’s efforts as the governor himself went underground to combat what his handlers said was a case of laryngitis. 

Today, the governor unveiled his first radio ad buy of the campaign season on 101.5. 

Schaer and his running mate, Assemblyman Fred Scalera (D-Nutley), face their own reelection this year against Republicans, businessmen Carmen Pio Costa and Don Diorio, in a District 36 tousle most political observers believe has the potential to blow up into one of a handful of the state’s general election battlegrounds.

But first, in a test of local strength, Schaer and his Passaic City ally, Mayor Alex Blanco, hope to fend off city supervisor Vincent Capuana in a May mayoral rematch. In November, with Schaer’s help, Blanco beat Capuana and a field of three others to succeed Mayor Sammy Rivera, who’s now in prison on federal corruption charges.