State Senator Henry McNamara

McNamara Remarks on State of the State Message
Corzine’s First Year is Combination of Failure on Property Taxes & Radical Social Policy

Senator Henry P. McNamara (R-Bergen/Passaic/Essex) issued the following statement on today’s “State of the State� message by Governor Jon S. Corzine:
Senator Henry P. McNamara (R-Bergen/Passaic/Essex) issued the following statement on today’s State of the State message by Governor Jon S. Corzine:

Governor Corzine’s address was a stark admission that he and the Democrat Legislature have failed to deliver on their promises of property tax relief and ethics reform. The Democrats wasted 2006 in a fruitless effort to stem the increases in property taxes fueled by their continued policies of tax, borrow and spend. Now, in 2007 the Governor speaks about solving the property tax crisis that he and his party have created. The promise of 2005 to reduce property taxes by 40% in four years has been forgotten as middle class families flee this State in record numbers.

Instead of delivering on their promises of property tax relief, Governor Corzine and his Democrat allies in the Legislature have devoted their energies to a radical agenda of voting rights for felons, gay marriage, giving taxpayer-purchased needles to addicts, abolishing capital punishment for cop killers and awarding generous pensions for corrupt politicians. This agenda shows how far out of touch the Democrat majorities are from the values held by the majority of people in this State.

New Jersey needs to adopt real caps on State spending, not raise taxes as they have in 2006 by $1.84 billion, which was by far the largest total tax increase among all the states in the nation. We need to reduce the burden of property taxes, not allow them to soar by an additional 6.8 percent in one year. We need to preserve jobs for the middle class and promote economic growth, not push through policies that actually drove 72,000 people out of New Jersey for other states. We need to adopt real ethics reforms, and not turn a blind eye to the culture of corruption that has been permitted to flourish over the past five years.

The ‘State of the State’ will not improve until Governor Corzine and the Trenton Democrats finally get serious about lowering property taxes by controlling their penchant for spending, taxing and borrowing, and abandoning a radical social agenda that is more suited to Berkeley California than Bergen County New Jersey.