Bramnick, DeCroce Debate Dems on Funding Options for TTF

Source: Asbury Park Press -

Participants in the gas-tax debate insist they’ll reach a deal before the transportation fund goes broke, but as mayors got to witness Wednesday it won’t happen without some partisan battling.

Democrats say taxes, most likely for gasoline, will have to go up to pay for future road and rail improvements. Some Republicans at a State League of Municipalities meeting said that’s not acceptable and that other options are available, such as cutting aid to some city schools. Democrats, in turn, said it’s not realistic to fund as much as $2 billion a year in transportation work without finding a way to pay for it.

Even though Transportation Commissioner Jamie Fox says Transportation Trust Fund talks are “on the 10-yard line,” with Senate President Stephen Sweeney and Assembly Speaker Vincent Prieto close to a plan to bring to Gov. Chris Christie, the gas-tax debate still could get contentious.

[Democrats] said the final agreement is going to require bipartisan support, [and stated that] an increase of the state’s 14.5-cent per gallon gas taxes is part of the solution but not the full answer.

Sen. Jennifer Beck, R-Monmouth, said she opposes a higher gas tax and that residents feel the same way, as reflected in public-opinion polls.

“I am not a genius that has a million different solutions, but I do think there are some that we should be certainly pushing and exploring,” Beck said, pointing to funding from the federal government or Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. “I don’t think we can just wave our hands in the air and say it has to be a gas tax. I don’t think it’s acceptable to the people of this state that we implement higher taxes.”

Assembly Minority Leader Jon Bramnick, R-Union, suggested that $1 billion could be diverted from school funding if the state changed the court-mandated funding formula. 

Starting in July, all of the $1.2 billion in yearly revenues committed to the state’s Transportation Trust Fund will have to be used to pay down $15.6 billion in debt that has accumulated. A new plan for funding future work will have to be approved. Sweeney and others are calling for spending to be increased to $2 billion a year, including a doubling of aid to towns and counties.

“I think that discussion is on the table to talk about,” said Assemblywoman BettyLou DeCroce, R-Morris. 

One of the last speakers at the event was Lake Como Mayor Brian Wilton, who asked for advice about how mayors can best press for a solution.

“If something is done, you have to stand behind the legislators to support them because it’s not going to be perfect for either side,” Bramnick said. “If they know you’re with them, regardless of the compromise, they’re more likely to get behind legislation.”

Fiocchi: Democrats' Plan 'Disastrous' For Struggling Middle-Class Families

Source: The Daily Journal -

Assembly Democrats are now on board with their Senate colleagues in pushing for higher income taxes on wealthy households to avoid cutting the pension payment in New Jersey’s 2015 budget.

Details of the Assembly Democrats’ budget blueprint remain sketchy, although Speaker Vincent Prieto, D-Hudson, said he hopes the spending plan and associated tax increases will be approved by the Assembly next Thursday. The deadline to adopt a budget is June 30.

“Judging from their single-minded pursuit of tax increases, the Trenton Democrats’ plan will be disastrous for middle-class families struggling to find jobs and make ends meet. The last time New Jersey tried to tax itself out of its fiscal woes, thousands of residents left our state along with more than $70 billion in wealth. Rather than fiscal solvency, we were left with the largest structural budget deficit in the entire country.” – Assemblyman Sam Fiocchi

Prieto said he hoped to start the income-tax hike at $1 million, rather than at the $500,000 level proposed Wednesday by Senate President Stephen Sweeney, D-Gloucester. He said other details envisioned by Senate Democrats, including a 15 percent surcharge on corporate business taxes and a one-year suspension of some grants to businesses, are similarly subject to ongoing talks.

“The way I look at it, the state of New Jersey has a revenue problem. I don’t think it has a spending problem,” Prieto said.

The Assembly proposes additional spending that wasn’t included in the Senate’s plan and lacks the detail about revenue-raisers that Sweeney announced this week.

Whatever the details of the Democrats’ compromise turn out to be, the plan will be vetoed by Gov. Chris Christie.

“Different day, same plan for an already severely overtaxed state,” Christie spokesman Michael Drewniak said.

This would be the fourth time Democratic lawmakers sent Christie a so-called “millionaires tax.” The governor vetoed similar plans in 2010, 2011 and 2012.

Senate Democrats estimated a 10.75 percent tax rate on income over $1 million would generate $565 million in the coming budget year, not counting a one-time infusion — estimated at $105 million, which includes the impact of a 10.25 percent tax rate on income above $500,000 — generated by applying the tax retroactively on income since January.

Foremost among the obligations that Democrats say are being shirked is a $2.25 billion payment to the pension funds, rather than the $681 million Christie is proposing to offset reductions in the forecast for income tax collections. Unions have gone to court seeking to block the cuts in both the current and upcoming budgets, which total nearly $2.5 billion.

Union leaders cheered the plan, as they did the Senate’s proposal. Business organizations and Republicans criticized it.

“This is the same old tired song we hear repeatedly at budget time,” said Assemblywoman Bettylou DeCroce, R-Morris, of the more detailed Senate plan.

“A back-breaker for job-creators,” said Assemblyman Christopher Brown, R-Burlington.

Assembly Sam Fiocchi, R-Cumberland, panned the idea of tax hikes in response to the Senate Democrats’ proposal.

“Judging from their single-minded pursuit of tax increases, the Trenton Democrats’ plan will be disastrous for middle-class families struggling to find jobs and make ends meet,” Fiocchi said. “The last time New Jersey tried to tax itself out of its fiscal woes, thousands of residents left our state along with more than $70 billion in wealth. Rather than fiscal solvency, we were left with the largest structural budget deficit in the entire country.”

DeCroce, Brown Balk As Assembly Democrats Push Income Tax Hike For Rich, Too

Source: Asbury Park Press -

Assembly Democrats are now on board with their Senate colleagues in pushing for higher income taxes on wealthy households to avoid cutting the pension payment in New Jersey’s 2015 budget.

 “This is the same old tired song we hear repeatedly at budget time.” – Assemblywoman Bettylou DeCroce, R-Morris.

 Details of the Assembly Democrats’ budget blueprint remain sketchy, although Speaker Vincent Prieto, D-Hudson, said he hopes the spending plan and associated tax increases will be approved by the Assembly next Thursday. The deadline to adopt a budget is June 30.

“A back-breaker for job-creators.” – Assemblyman Christopher Brown, R-Burlington.

Prieto said he hoped to start the income-tax hike at $1 million, rather than at the $500,000 level proposed Wednesday by Senate President Stephen Sweeney, D-Gloucester. He said other details envisioned by Senate Democrats, including a 15 percent surcharge on corporate business taxes and a one-year suspension of some grants to businesses, are similarly subject to ongoing talks.

“The way I look at it, the state of New Jersey has a revenue problem. I don’t think it has a spending problem,” Prieto said.

The Assembly proposes additional spending that wasn’t included in the Senate’s plan and lacks the detail about revenue-raisers that Sweeney announced a day earlier.

Whatever the details of the Democrats’ compromise turn out to be, the plan will be vetoed by Gov. Chris Christie.

“Different day, same plan for an already severely overtaxed state,” said Christie spokesman Michael Drewniak.

This would be the fourth time Democratic lawmakers sent Christie a so-called “millionaires tax.” The governor vetoed similar plans in 2010, 2011 and 2012.

Foremost among the obligations that Democrats say are being shirked is a $2.25 billion payment to the pension funds, rather than the $681 million Christie is proposing to offset reductions in the forecast for income tax collections. Unions have gone to court seeking to block the cuts in both the current and upcoming budgets, which total nearly $2.5 billion.

Union leaders cheered the plan, as they did the Senate’s proposal. Business organizations and Republicans criticized it.

“This is the same old tired song we hear repeatedly at budget time,” said Assemblywoman Bettylou DeCroce, R-Morris, of the more detailed Senate plan.

“A back-breaker for job-creators,” said Assemblyman Christopher Brown, R-Burlington.

DeCroce Calls Senate Democrat Budget Plan A Job Killer

Source: Assembly Republican Press Conference -

Assemblywoman BettyLou DeCroce (R-Morris, Essex Passaic) said the Senate Democrats’ budget proposal that increase taxes and cuts business incentives by $1.6 billion is a “job killer” that will send more people to the unemployment line and keep them there.

DeCroce, a member of the Commerce and Economic Development committee, decried the Senate Democrats plan for failing to include any spending cuts and again call for raising taxes on hard working, productive citizens in the state.

“This is the same old tired song we hear repeatedly at budget time,” said DeCroce. “Raising taxes is the typical response to too many in Trenton and discourages the people working the hardest to create jobs and make business investment in New Jersey.”

DeCroce said adding a 15 percent corporate business tax surcharge and suspending $175 million from the Economic Development Authority’s Business Employment Incentive Program will merely add to New Jersey’s reputation as a bad place to do business.

The Assemblywoman, a small business owner, said the last thing struggling business owners need is yet another tax on their earnings.

“I encourage my Democratic colleagues to look at the national data that continually ranks New Jersey near the bottom as the place to do business in the United States,” said DeCroce. “The state already has a bad business reputation that is responsible for high unemployment. The Senate Democrat plan will guarantee just one thing – fewer jobs.”

Forbes ranked New Jersey 48th in business costs and 38 in regulatory environment in 2013. And CNBC ranked the state 42nd in the cost of doing business and 41st in business friendliness.

“Does anyone think that adding a $1.6 billion burden on people who run businesses and guide corporate investment in New Jersey is going to encourage the creation of more jobs?” asked DeCroce.

The assemblywoman said any serious discussion on the state’s budget has to begin with cutting unnecessary spending.

“Any serious discussion of the state’s budget has to begin with cutting unnecessary spending. Any budget solution that begins with raising taxes ignores our real problems and puts jobs in danger,” said DeCroce.