Assembly Republicans

MISSION ACCOMPLISHED?

After seven months, countless weeks of testimony and endless promises, the state Legislature has approved a bill that would give homeowners what they had four years ago: a not insignificant sum of money that feels less like tax reform than bribery... New Jersey actually went backward. Besides failing to reform the manner in which schools are funded, it actually failed even to reform the funding formula to provide greater help and more equity... It is an intolerable situation. The governor once promised if the Legislature was unable to achieve reform he would call for a constitutional convention. Legislators have failed. Corzine ought to call them on their charade and demand the convention. We, and our children, deserve that much.
- A tax-reform charade, Editorial
Home News Tribune, February 12, 2007

The Legislature's six-month attempt to approve real, substantive, lasting tax reform remains, in the end, a disappointment. There's no guarantee that the 20 percent tax credit will last more than one year. There's been no major pension reform. And perhaps most disappointing of all: There will be no serious pressure on towns and schools to merge or share services - even though virtually all experts agree that there can be no real tax reform without the consolidation of New Jersey's more than 600 school districts and 500 municipalities.
- Disappointing property-tax 'reform': the blame is shared, Editorial
The Press of Atlantic City, February 11, 2007

Largely lost amid the smoke - and mirrors - of the property tax relief fiasco in Trenton was the decision this week to put off revising the school funding formula. It isn't easy keeping up with the myriad ways Gov. Corzine and state lawmakers have managed to gut property tax reforms. One of their worst failures, however, was deferring action on the gross spending inequities in New Jersey's public schools... I''s disgraceful how few of the property tax reforms recommended by four legislative committees last fall have been enacted. There is no greater disgrace than the failure of Corzine and the Legislature to rectify the unfair manner in which state aid is funded and dispensed.
- School aid fix deferred again, Editorial
Asbury Park Press, February 10, 2007

JEER: To the state Legislature, for its colossal failure on reforming property taxes.
- Cheers & jeers, Editorial
The Daily Record of Morris County, February 10, 2007

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Assembly Republican Press Office / 609-292-5339