Back in April, I wrote about New Jersey Governor Jon Corzine's "testicular fortitude" when he announced a 2009 budget that proposed tp reduce spending below the previous year by eliminating three whole departments and 5000 jobs. I was, and continue to be, extremely impressed with what Corzine proposed.
Unfortunately, it doesn't appear as if New Jersey voters are as impressed. Since he proposed the budget, Corzine's approval ratings have dropped steadily and the primary reason appears to be the spending cuts he proposed.
The irony is that a previous New Jersey governor, Jim Florio, was bounced from office in 1993 partly because he dared to propose tax increases. Florio then lost the Democratic nomination to Corzine in 2000 when he tried to run again.
So it appears that New Jersey voters don't want a governor who increases taxes and may not want one who cuts spending, but they also want the state's credit rating restored and the budget situation fixed. In other words, they want a fiscal magician.
Corzine: Cutting or Spending
Uh, wrong conclusion. Most of us don't know about the departments and the jobs.
Most of us know that the tax rate went from 6% to 7%, and now includes services.
Whether we think that is a GOOD idea may be another question (since there was a lot of talk about 'dedicating' that 1% to 'property tax relief'--relief needed because Cokehead wrote the rules for Christie so that her X [large number] of acres with five apple trees is a "farm" and my 1/3 acre with a pear tree is a "residence"--it's arguably just Robin-Hood-in-reverse), but the reason for Corzine's support dropped is the 7% Solution, not his willingness to cut government spending as well.
It's not easy being fiscally responsible...
Stan, thanks for this post. I'm still catching up from my vacation, but this deserved a late-night post on economistmom.com. I greatly admire Governor Corzine because he's doing the right thing and trying to do so in a balanced way--on both the tax side and the spending side of the budget. But he's finding that doing the right thing on both sides of the budget also alienates him from folks on both sides of the ideological divide. It's exactly why we find it so hard to be fiscally responsible at the federal level. At least state governments typically have balanced budget requirements to force these tough choices (and force these drops in approval ratings).
Precedent indicates...
If Spitzer wasn't castrated, Corzine won't be.
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