7-1-19 in New Jersey

Insider New Jersey reports that President Trump congratulated Senate leader Steve Sweeney and the NJ legislature for standing strong against Governor Murphy and his virtue signaling millionaire's tax:

The legislature is run by machine Democrats, including Speaker Craig Coughlin and Senate President Steve Sweeney, who together are locked in an ongoing political fight with progressive Democratic Governor Phil Murphy.

At various junctures of the budget battle, which ended yesterday on the last day of the month when Murphy signed the legislature’s $38.7 billion budget rather than force a government shutdown, the governor and his rivals each attempted to paint the other as the more Trump-friendly side of the divide.

Murphy repeatedly pointed out that Trump’s tax policies and SALT deduction freeze punished New Jersey’s middle class, which could benefit from a state millionaire’s tax in the name of tax fairness.

Machine Democrats. 

Do we detect a taste of sour grapes from editor Max Pizarro? 

As far as the SALT Deduction freeze goes, hey Progressives, you love taxes. Pay 'em!

It's not like Trump knows anything about New Jersey's business environment.

6-17-19 in New Jersey

New Jersey Legislature to Governor Murphy: Drop Dead:

In the state budget they will unveil Monday, Democratic lawmakers reject Gov. Phil Murphy’s calls for tax hikes on millionaires and increased fees on gun owners, corporations, opioid manufacturers and bear hunters in New Jersey, NJ Advance Media has learned.

The Democrats who control the state Legislature have insisted they won’t support a millionaires tax, and their proposed $38.7 billion budget preserves just one of the Democratic governor’s proposed tax increases. They would raise a single tax — paid by HMOs — while taking money out of the state rainy day fund, cutting spending and tweaking revenue estimates for the coming fiscal year to balance the budget.

Rainy. Day. Fund.

New Jersey, while expensive, is actually pretty well run. The roads get fixed. The snow gets cleared.

New Jersey is also not as blue as you think. We've had a GOP governor in every decade since the 70's, including the last one. The northwest part of the state is mountain wilderness with an anual bear hunt, which the usual dip heads want to end. Hence the legislsature killing the hunting and gun fees.

Anyway, this budget is a victory for New Jersey, common sense, and not becoming California.

6-14-19 in New Jersey

Public sector unions rally to support Governor Murphy's stupid Millionaires Tax:

The coalition of unions included members of the powerful New Jersey Education, which represents teachers, and the Communications Workers of America, the largest state workers union. The unions have supported Murphy...

Well of course they do! Tax payer's money, who wouldn't want more of that! And they get summers off, a week vacation in the spring and at Christmas. Tough work, those teachers do.

But he needs the Democratic-controlled state Legislature to agree to the tax hike. Sweeney, D-Gloucester, and state Assembly Speaker Craig Coughlin, D-Middlesex, remain against it, arguing that cost-cutting government reforms should come before taxes.

Sweeney is pushing a comprehensive 27-bill reform he calls a “Path to Progress,” saying New Jersey can no longer afford soaring costs.

The unions are steadfastly opposed to Sweeney’s plan because it includes cuts to their benefits. They are deriding it as “a path to poverty.”

Path to poverty...Oh my god....

Taxpayers, no matter how much you pay into their pensions it will never be enough for the public sector unions.

6-13-19 in New Jersey

Governor Phil Murphy presses ahead with his stupid Millionaires Tax. 

Murphy has been pushing for months for New Jersey to enact a millionaires tax to infuse the taxpayer-funded state budget with more money for education, transportation, and public-worker pensions.

But he needs the Democratic-controlled state Legislature to pass the plan. And the top lawmakers who decide which bills come up for a vote — Sweeney, D-Gloucester, and state Assembly Speaker Craig Coughlin, D-Middlesex — have remained fiercely opposed to a millionaires tax. They say the upcoming budget doesn’t need the money and New Jersey is already rife with taxes.

That's the Dems telling Murphy no, mind you.

Senator Sweeney would much rather do something about the state's huge unfunded liabilities:

Meanwhile, Sweeney is pushing his own controversial “Path to Progress” proposals to scale back public-worker pension and health benefits, which is opposed by government-employee unions and unlikely to be supported by the progressive Murphy. The Senate president said the current cost of pensions and benefits is not sustainable for the state.

Quite right and sensible of Sweeney, no?

Murphy understands that Trump is going to be reelected and wants to be in position to run in 2024, doesn't he?

If virtue signaling toward the Dem nomination means turning New Jersey into California, then Murphy's willing to do it.

6-11-19 in New Jersey

Governor Phil Murphy wants to institute a so called Millionaire's Tax here in New Jersey, for fairness, you see.

Like the plastic bag ban, this is about virtue signaling.

Senate President Steve Sweeney, a giant in state politics, opposes the idea with every fiber of his being.

Here's a good primer on the Murphy-Sweeny fight and the fiscal issues at stake. The state's finances aren't a complete mess, but they are messy, pensions, healthcare costs, etc.

Gee, wonder whose picking up the tab for that?

In this blog's opinion, Murphy is going to virtue signal New Jersey right off the fiscal cliff, Illinois style.

What's Murphy want to do with the Millionaire's Tax money anyway?

6-3-19 In New Jersey

Governor Phil Murphy virtue signals:

HACKENSACK - Gov. Phil Murphy says property taxpayers would get a $125 refundable credit on their income taxes under a plan he's proposing that includes imposing higher tax rates on millionaires.

Murphy in May first proposed using better-than-expected revenue proceeds this fiscal year to fund $250 million in property tax relief.

The proposal hinges on lawmakers also increasing income tax rates on those making more than $1 million.

To be honest not a lot happens in New Jersey, so this leaves the governor with little to do until it snows, or something.

There's talk of a plastic bag ban. 

Can straws be next?