What do Florida, New Hampshire and Washington state have in common?
They’re among nine states that not only weathered the worst economic recession of our generation, but found ways to make their economies stronger, attract new people and create jobs when the rest of the nation floundered.
From 2001 to 2010, these nine states saw employment increase by 5.4 percent when the rest of the country remained stagnant.
What do these states have in common that allows them to grow jobs during horrific economic times?
No income tax.
In New Jersey, we’re on our way to replicating the job-creating economic successes of these “prime nine” states, even though we’re still among the “maligned nine” states with the highest income taxes.
The tax-free states grew employment by 5.4 percent, while tax-heavy states saw jobs decline by 1.7 percent.
That’s why Gov. Christie is proposing to cut income taxes for everyone. It will keep money in people’s pockets and help bring back the jobs that disappeared last decade as Trenton taxed and spent the state into economic ruin.
The Wall Street Journal recently called legislative proposals in other states to cut the income tax good “long-term growth” and attempts to use additional income tax revenue to relieve property taxes “short-term politics.”
It’s not even good short-term politics. Remember what happened to Jon Corzine in 2009 when he raised income taxes? He was one of nearly 120,000 New Jerseyans who lost a job that year.
Franklin D. Roosevelt, who knew something about emerging from horrific economic times, once said: “Do something. If it works, do more of it. If it doesn’t, do something else.”
New Jersey has repeatedly tried raising taxes to relieve property taxes. It has never worked. In fact, the income tax itself began as a way to reduce property taxes. Do you know anyone whose property taxes went down since 1976?
New Jersey lost an entire decade (and 156,000 jobs) proving you can’t lower one tax by raising another. Taxes increased by $11 billion from 2002 to 2009, and nearly every time they increased a tax, Trenton politicians promised it would relieve property taxes, yet the property tax burden increased 6 percent per year and 60 percent cumulatively from 2002 to 2010.
Remember when Trenton politicians shut down the state to raise the sales tax in 2006 to offer “historic” levels of property tax relief? It didn’t work. The higher sales tax remains, but the property tax relief was history after just one year.
We need to stop doing what doesn’t work. That’s why we ended those failed tactics and launched the most aggressive and effective assault on property taxes in New Jersey history.
We put a tight cap on property taxes, saved property taxpayers $120 billion over the next 30 years through pension and health care reform, and we are working to do more, such as ending the payout for workers’ unused sick and vacation time and allowing towns to save money by opting out of Civil Service.
Our comprehensive approach to tax reform has businesses and homeowners optimistic about our state’s future for the first time in several years.
If we continue to do what has been working, we will continue to create more private-sector jobs in addition to the 60,000 that have been added in the past two years.
Adding jobs won’t just improve our unemployment rate, but likely will achieve precisely what short-sighted critics of Gov. Chris Christie’s income tax cut say it won’t: property tax relief.
Raising other taxes has not lowered property taxes, but reducing the income tax may because it will keep forcing government to spend within its means while encouraging businesses to create jobs in New Jersey.
More businesses and jobs in our economy means a greater share of the tax burden is shifted away from property taxpayers.
Many other states have seen the wisdom of low income tax rates. They know that reducing the income tax burden creates jobs and builds a strong economic foundation. I’m eager to see New Jersey follow suit.
In the last two years, New Jersey has added more than 62,000 private-sector jobs. And our Economic Outlook Rank has improved from 48th to 45th this year, according to the American Legislative Exchange Council.
Our plan to make New Jersey affordable and create jobs is working. We can’t stop doing what is working. We need to do more.
MMM received this image in an email this morning under the heading, “Can this be true?”
In a phone call, Holly from Dr. Flynn’s office confirmed the authenticity of the ad. She said that since it was published on February 5 she has fielded several calls daily from throughout the country. Only 2 calls have been negative.
Published reports peg the cost of the Obama Hawaii vacation at $4 million dollars. The First Lady went to Hawaii before the President. Her flight alone cost at least $100,000.
Governor Chris Christie held a press conference yesterday to announce a fix that he doesn’t expect to work to the state’s misguided anti-bullying bill of rights. The anti-bullying law was overturned as an unfunded mandate in January. The “fix” announced yesterday is designed to keep the law, and its new nanny state bureaucracy in place.
From his comments above, it is clear that Christie understands that a “one size fits all” mandate, funded or not, which creates a new level of bureaucracy that will never die, will not work.
Our friend Matt Rooney at Save Jersey points out that the anti-bully law addresses a problem created by court decisions which have deprived teachers of in loco parentis powers that have resulted the loss of control of classrooms.
The courts stripped teachers of in loco parentis (in the place of a parent) powers, so the government responds by creating a nanny state bureaucracy. That’s loco.
Rooney’s old fashion solution is to empower the teachers.
Call me old fashioned, but the answer to our “bullying” problem isn’t the passage of new burdensome, expensive, hard-to-follow legislation that places additional burdens on overburdened teachers. Rather, we need to EMPOWER teachers by letting them control their classrooms again without interference from administrators who are terrified of “my kid is never wrong” parents (and their attorneys). A superior solution to burdensome “anti-bullying” laws: return control of classroom discipline to teachers!
I agree, but would go further. We need to empower teachers not only to discipline their students, we need to empower our teachers to empower children to deal effectively with bullies as a critical part of their education.
Instead of spending money we don’t have on bureaucrats that won’t solve the problem, teach kids to stand up for themselves and to get help standing up for themselves.
There is only one way to disempower a bully. Defeat him or her. Teach kids to do that and you’ll have healthier, happier and stronger kids who grow into healthier, happier stronger adults.
Create a bureaucracy and you’ll get reports and statistics that will “prove” how bad the problem is so that more money will be spent on it so that the bureaucracy can survive.
Former Acting Governor Richard Codey’s media stunt guised as an undercover investigation into the plight of homeless men in Newark is a sure sign that the author/insurance salesman/funeral director/legislator will be a candidate for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination next year.
Codey’s investigation was so “undercover” that he invited The Star Ledgerto photograph him getting made up for his 9PM visit to Newark’s Goodwill Mission last night. Codey appeared on Good Day New York and the John Gambling radio show this morning to get free media talk about the findings of his investigation. Those TV and radio producers move fast!
Codey tweeted about his appearances and make up this morning.
Codey’s investigation revealed that homeless men are turned away from shelters if they are not on welfare. If they are on welfare, they have to turn over their checks if they want to spend the night. Codey is not on welfare. He should have offered his watch.
While Codey’s stunt will do more for his political prospects than for Newark’s homeless, he did prove that he doesn’t need the taxpayer funded security detail he was enjoying before Governor Christie canceled it last December.
Ohio Congressman Dennis Kucinich lost his primary race last night to Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur. Kucinich and Kaptur were forced to face each other as a result of redistricting.
Kucinich’s former national campaign manager, Monmouth County’s Vin Gopal, was not involved in this defeat.
Gopal, a candidate for Assembly in New Jersey’s 11th district last year, is running for Monmouth County Democratic Chairman against Marlboro Councilman Frank LaRocca.
Kaptur will face Samuel Wurzelbacher, AKA “Joe the plumber” in the November general election.
After trailing Rick Santorum in the vote tally most of the night, Mitt Romney eked out a 1 % victory over Santorum in the Ohio GOP presidential primary last night.
In addition to Ohio, Romney won primaries in his home state of Massachusetts, Virginia where only Ron Paul was his only opponent, Alaska, Idaho and Vermont.
Santorum won in Tennessee, Oklahoma, and North Dakota. Newt Gingrich won in Georgia, the state he represented in Congress.
In the race for 1,144 delegates needed to secure the GOP presidential nomination, Romney leads with 415. Santorum has 176, Gingrich 105 and Paul 47.
The nominating March Madness now heads to Kansas where 40 delegates will be selected in a caucus on March 10, followed by primaries in Alabama (50 delegates) and Mississippi (40 delegates) and the Hawaii caucus (20 delegates) on the 13th. Missouri selects 52 delegates via caucus on March 17. The Puerto Rico primary (23 delegates) is on the 18th, Ilinois (69 delegates) in the 20th and Louisiana (46 delegates) on the 24th.
Congressman Donald Payne, New Jersey’s first African American Congressman and dean of the delegation, has succumbed to his months long battle with colon cancer, according to a report on NJ.com.
Far be it from me to note the superficial and inconsequential, but when I see Fluke I think more “chaste librarian” than raging “slut.”
By Olivia Nuzzi
The Sandra Fluke-Rush Limbaugh drama has succeeded in sparking a national debate about false equivalency in the media. Of course, things like sexism and misogyny exist on both the right and left. But on which side is it worse? And on which side – if any – is it fundamental?
In a piece posted here yesterday, Art Gallagher attacked “misogynists lefties” whom he admitted he had “never heard of” until The Daily Beast’s Kristen Powers brought them to his attention. Though, not knowing about these media figures didn’t stop Gallagher from blindly agreeing with Powers that they were “misogynists.”
I have a big problem with anyone making a diagnosis from a distance. Is Rush Limbaugh a misogynist? I suppose to figure that out you’d have to talk to his mother and four wives.
Does Rush Limbaugh say misogynistic things, and has he done so consistently throughout his career? From his claim that having “two or three abortions” is a part of a feminist “paying her dues” to his cracks about First Lady Michelle Obama’s figure, the evidence isn’t difficult to find.
However, none of that means that Limbaugh is without insight. And liberals who nod in agreement with the establishment left – conceding that he’s a mere useless blowhard – are not doing themselves any favors.
Limbaugh is right on occasion – there are indeed militant feminists, and what they espouse is arguably as harmful as Mel Gibson calling your daughter “sugar tits.” Admitting that doesn’t mean that I’m not a feminist, it means I’m not an ideological imbecile (though the readers on this website may disagree.)
The assertion that “lefties” are never reprimanded for their sexist or racist remarks may read as accurate if you live in a bubble. Evidently, Gallagher’s bubble hasn’t yet been punctured by reality on this topic.
Last May, MSNBC host and converted-liberal, Ed Schultz, was suspended by the network after calling Laura Ingraham a “right wing slut” on his radio program. I condemned that statement, as did every one from Alyssa Rosenberg from the left-wing Think Progress, to the Women’s Media Center’s President Julie Burton, to Keith Olbermann – that’d be one of those “misogynists lefties” Gallagher had “never heard of.”
In 2008, the National Organization for Women (NOW) circulated a petition, protesting MSNBC host Chris Matthews’ “record of ‘overt sexism when discussing women.'” They based this claim on research conducted by the known-liberal watchdog group Media Matters for America. The left-leaning NOW denounced Matthews for “sexist comments” made about Hillary Clinton, then-Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and the female correspondents who he worked with at MSNBC.
Also in 2008, MSNBC suspended Tucker Carlson’s guest-host David Shuster for suggesting that the Clinton campaign had “pimped out” Chelsea Clinton.
The late, great Christopher Hitchens was often the subject of liberal rage for his alleged sexism in the form of observations such as “Mrs. Clinton, looking like the dog being washed” and assessments of that same target as being “flagrant, hysterical, repetitive and pathological lying.” One of Hitchens’ later works, a Vanity Fair piece entitled “Why Women Aren’t Funny” saw him denounced as “sexist” by Mediaite’s Rachel Sklar and comedian Sarah Silverman.
In 2010, liberal hero Michael Moore, along with noted feminist author Naomi Wolfe, was the subject of a left-wing protest labeled “Moore and Me.” After making comments deemed “insensitive” regarding rape allegations against Wikileaks founder Julian Assange and offering to post his $20,000 bail, Moore was declared a “rape apologist.” Also smeared with the label was Naomi Wolfe, who – along with Moore and a handful of others – refused to condemn and dismiss Assange by virtue of the unclear rape allegations made against him.
And should you be under the impression that those on the left are only castigated when they’re criticizing fellow liberals, you’re mistaken.
Keith Olbermann has come under fire numerous times from the liberal and feminist establishments for his bombastic remarks about conservative women. In 2009, Olbermann was called out by the left-wing Air America’s editor of news and politics, Megan Carpentier, for “belittling” Malkin’s voice with his impersonation of her. Carpentier went on to suggest that Olbermann’s attack relied on “silly stereotypes” and “imagery that brings to mind victims of domestic violence.”
This past November, Bill Maher – another one of those “misogynists lefties” Gallagher had “never heard of” – was scolded by feminists after he made a joke about the detention of CBS’s Lara Logan, wherein he suggested that America would be willing to send Elisabeth Hasselbeck to Egypt in exchange for the safe return of the foreign correspondent.
The Sandra Fluke-Rush Limbaugh episode is a unique one, mainly because Sandra Fluke is not a public figure. Limbaugh did not simply take a one-shot at a commentator – he used his platform as the loudest voice in radio to verbally batter a civilian for days.
Far be it from me to note the superficial and inconsequential, but when I see Fluke I think more “chaste librarian” than raging “slut.” Not to mention, Fluke’s testimony itself had nothing to do with sex. Which leads me to believe that Limbaugh didn’t even bother to listen to her speak – and perhaps he didn’t even bother to look at her. Had he done so, he would’ve witnessed a civil woman discuss a friend who paid, out of pocket, for the birth control pills she was prescribed to treat a medical condition.
It’s true that both the liberal and conservative movements have leaders, followers and mouthpieces who often thoughtlessly employ incendiary rhetoric. But it’s also true that those with sharp tongues on both sides of the aisle face consequences.
Unfortunately for ideologues, more people are governed by their sense of Right and Wrong than Right and Left.
Olivia Nuzzi was briefly a MMM contributor until Dan Jacobson’s triCityNews lured her away with money and colorful language. We’re glad to have her back, even if only to set us straight.
Our friend Charles Measley, who wakes up every morning thinking of what hell he can unleash on Frank Pallone’s life, is having a caption contest for this photo snapped of Pallone and Bob Menendez at yesterday’s Belmar St. Patrick’s Parade:
If you leave your caption on Charles’s Frank Pallone Not For New Jerseyfacebook page you will be eligible for a $10 Dunkin Donuts gift card courtesy of Charles.
If you leave your caption here, you can read app.com for free this week.
