GOP legislators criticize Corzine on tax relief

As we well remember, Gov. Corzine and his ruling party shut down the state for seven days in 2006 while they fought behind closed doors on how best to provide what they later called "permanent" and "sustainable" property tax relief for the nation's highest taxed homeowners.

When they emerged from their secret meetings, they announced a "historic" fix to ease the property tax burden then and into the future. Of course, it came with a price — a 16 percent increase in the state's sales tax. The minute increase, they said, was worth the bigger payoff. Assembly Republicans, however, warned it was another one-shot election-year gimmick that wouldn't last. Democrats ignored our alternate plan.

Fast-forward three years and New Jersey's beleaguered middle class finds itself worse off today than it did then. Not only have property taxes increased 20 percent under the helm of the Corzine administration, but also folks are paying more in sales tax while state spending, borrowing, debt and other taxation are off the charts.

Incredulously, it gets worse. As we head into a new fiscal year, our residents face another $1 billion in additional tax hikes and fees courtesy of the governor and his Democrat cohorts. And those same homeowners who were promised sustainable property tax reform and relief in 2006 find themselves facing another increase in their property tax bills which now, on average, top the $7,000 threshold.

With a wave of a wand, the self-proclaimed wizard of Wall Street will soon make $1.7 million property tax rebate checks disappear to close another gapping budget deficit.

The question then, Gov. Corzine, is this — what happened to the property tax reform and relief you guaranteed when you and your party leaders raised the sales tax in 2006? Our long-suffering residents deserve a straight answer.
David Wolfe
James Holzapfel
Assemblymen-10th District