From the Philly Inquirer:
Treasurer: N.J. needs new revenue sources
The state treasurer argued yesterday that New Jersey’s ability to pay for important but unmet needs could rest on whether it can make money off assets such as toll roads, the lottery and properties.
“New Jersey is perilously close to slipping into a state of fiscal paralysis,” Treasurer Bradley Abelow told the Assembly Budget Committee.
Gov. Corzine’s proposed $33 billion budget does not rely on tactics such as leasing the New Jersey Turnpike or other toll roads, selling the lottery, or selling development rights to state properties.
But Corzine – a former chairman of the brokerage Goldman, Sachs – has said doing so will be necessary in coming years and has ordered his administration to analyze options.
Such moves could earn the state billions of dollars to pay debt and free up money for unfunded projects such as public school and state college construction, open-space preservation, and tax relief.
Abelow said he hoped to present a recommendation to Corzine by the end of June.
“We can’t put ourselves in a position where we fail to invest for an extended period of time or we’ll put ourselves on a downward slope,” Abelow said.
The state has to pay about $3 billion in debt for the 2008 fiscal year, which starts July 1. It owes about $30 billion in total debt.
Abelow compared it to making the minimum payment due on a credit card.
Why is the focus in NJ always exclusively focused on raising new sources of revenue and not cutting spending?
If a person up to their eyeballs in debt went to credit counseling, what do you think the counselor’s advice would be; “You need to find more money to keep up with your lifestyle and spending habits”? Of course not, they would tell you to live within your means!
Why can’t NJ do this? It may mean cutting some services, pushing back on the unions and even laying off public employees, but what are the alternatives?
Indentured servitude for everyone!!
Maybe New Jersey can create a sponsor a government worker program. Like those TV ads where you sponsor some poor child from a third world country. Every week a couple of hundred dollars gets taken out of your pay to help a poor staving NJ government worker and you’ll even get photos too of their nice cars, homes and the retirement packages they get with your contributions.
It’s only a few hundred dollars a week. Give us a call now….And help make a difference.
Why not just add a VAT of say 20% ,and increase all tolls to raise money