TAXAPHOBIA?
A Lesson in Revisionist History

Senate Republican Budget Officer Robert E. Littell (R-Sussex/Morris/Hunterdon) issued the following statement in response to the Senate Majority Leader’s call for an end to “taxaphobia� in New Jersey in an effort to ease the enactment of billions of dollars of new tax increases:
Senate Republican Budget Officer Robert E. Littell (R-Sussex/Morris/Hunterdon) issued the following statement in response to the Senate Majority Leader’s call for an end to “taxaphobia� in New Jersey in an effort to ease the enactment of billions of dollars of new tax increases:

“While I have the highest personal regard for the Majority Leader, his characterization of the Legislature as being ‘taxaphobic’ is misguided, and ignores the Democrat record of the past four years.

“Since taking total control of the State Government in 2002, the Democrats have imposed $10 billion in new taxes on the people of this State. They have levied new or increased taxes and fees on home sales, phone bills, plastic surgery, estates, recording documents, court paperwork, motor vehicles, tire purchases, ambulatory medical facilities, hotel occupancy, real estate licenses, and personal incomes. These tax increases did nothing to bring the State budget into structural balance; but rather supported a 25% increase in new spending and $17 billion in new bonded indebtedness.

“Now, when faced with a menu of burdensome new taxes proposed by the Corzine Administration that are the inevitable result of their poor stewardship of the State’s finances, the

-2-

Majority Leader calls for ‘bi-partisanship.’ This call rings hollow when Republican-sponsored structural reforms of the State budget process such as bi-partisan revenue forecasting, “truth in budgeting,� and voter approval of bonding are regularly ignored by the Majority, and when Republican proposals to amend legislation are routinely met with a debate-killing ‘motion to table’ that has been employed more in the last two years than in the previous twelve years.

“I have been fortunate enough to have been a member of this Legislature since 1968. I have served during the administrations of Democrat and Republican governors, and I have served when my party has controlled the Legislature and when it has not. Real bi-partisanship is more than demanding that the other party furnish votes for unwise and unpopular policies, and then ignoring them the rest of the time. It requires fairness and the recognition that the other party has presented real and fundamental reforms that are worthy of debate and consideration.

“I hope the Majority Leader can find some of the bi-partisanship he desires on his own side of the aisle while at the same time requesting it of us.�