Governor Corzine Asked for a Better Plan

Governor Corzine stated in his State of the State Address that if anyone had a better idea than his Asset Monetization scheme that will raise a 35 cent Parkway toll to nearly $2 then he wanted to hear it.

Here’s the plan.

New Jersey’s state spending has increased from $21 to $33 Billion under Governors McGreevey, Codey and Corzine. That’s a 57 percent increase in just six years – far above inflation. To start, Governor Corzine needs to shut down dozens of liberal big government spending schemes created in the last six years, such as $37 million for Trenton Capitol Aid, $12 million non-competitive special arts programs and $8 million for the bogus Regional Aid Program that arbitrarily benefits five Hudson towns run by dual office holders.

New Jersey’s leaders cannot fund every costly idea politicians conjure up.

It is essential to determine just what government should be doing and return all functions feasible to the private sector. In short - downsize, prioritize and privatize.

Downsizing starts with the general appropriation budget, rampant with billions in pork barrel spending programs. The Governor needs to use his line-item veto to eliminate all of these items and a lot more.

Privatization will cut costs dramatically. Bookkeeping, maintenance and a host of functions can be bid on a competitive basis. Privatization also takes people out of the pension system and eliminates sick and vacation days. This means layoffs, a highly unlikely scenario unless the Governor is serious about putting his job on the line to put our state’s fiscal house in order.

New Jersey has the most lucrative pension systems in the country. The Governor should call for a roll back in the pension increases granted in 2001 when politicians in both parties claimed the fund was solvent. Taxpayers are subsidizing the pension system through direct taxation and that’s wrong. New employees should be placed in private 401(k) plans, ending the stagnation that occurs when employees remain to build their pension well after they are productive, a key reason for Trenton’s large entrenched bureaucracy.

The state’s bloated budget can be reduced by leadership committed to achieving fiscal stability and fundamental change. The goal should not be to make government “more efficient” - translated into taking taxpayer dollars faster and spending them quicker - but rather to reduce its size, scope and interference in our daily lives.

New Jersey should bring our state’s public employee medical benefits in line with the private sector. Even Governor Corzine realized this before submitting to pressure from public employee union bosses. New Jersey taxpayers provide state government workers the finest medical benefits available while requiring little or no employee contribution. This must change.

Legislation requiring that state, county and local governments, and school boards, must pay high union wages on all construction or repair projects raises the cost of these items by 30 percent – a cost passed on to taxpayers. Project Labor Agreements, as these are called, was Jim McGreevey’s first Executive Order, later codified into law. This legislation must be repealed if local governments are to have any hope of controlling the highest in the nation property taxes.

Another impediment is big state debt. But rather than foist that debt on New Jersey’s motorists with a scheme that increases debt even more, Governor Corzine should give voters an opportunity to vote on the tens of billions of dollars in debt from school construction bonds to tobacco bonds to bonds sold to balance Jim McGreevey’s budget. This debt was sold without voter approval and if the voters say no the Governor is under no obligation to repay these Independent Agency bonds, default of which would have no effect on the state’s credit rating.

The biggest obstacle to implementing change is the legislature itself. New Jersey legislators have proven Benjamin Franklin right in saying “no one is safe when the legislature is in session.” Our legislature is almost always in session, constantly imagining ways to borrow and spend. Twice a week legislative sessions should be replaced with a fixed legislative session in January and February and the destructive lame duck session should be eliminated. Legislators should be removed from the state’s pension and medical benefits program. People should not be encouraged to make serving in the legislature a lifetime job.

Since 2001, NJ has added over 50,000 new government jobs while the private sector has remained stagnant. More than 70,000 residents fled the state in 2006 and tens of thousands more in 2007. New Jersey has the fastest growing tax burden in the nation and as other states are building surpluses we are creating deficits.

Give Governor Corzine credit: he is committed to his big government vision at any cost. Unfortunately, that’s the exact wrong way to put our state’s fiscal house in order. It’s time for a change in New Jersey, but the “change” Governor Corzine is proposing would make a bad situation even worse.

Steve Lonegan is the Executive Director of Americans for Prosperity - New Jersey. Americans for Prosperity (AFP) and Americans for Prosperity Foundation (AFP Foundation) are committed to educating citizens about economic policy and mobilizing those citizens as advocates in the public policy process. He is a prolific writer, having been published in newspapers and blogs. He just published a book, Putting Taxpayers First: A Blueprint for Victory in the Garden State, that discusses the impact of the Trenton government on the well being of the taxpayers of the state. He offers solid and workable solutions. Learn more at lonegan.com.