The Assembly Budget Committee will meet Friday at 10 a.m. to hold a hearing on property tax caps. The meeting is scheduled in Committee Room 11, 4th Floor, State House Annex, Trenton.

Various state officials have been invited to testify. The committee also will entertain testimony from members of the general public. The hearing will be streamed live at: http://www.njleg.state.nj.us/media/live_audio.asp.

Star Ledger
Editorial
June 30, 2010

The budget signed yesterday by Gov. Chris Christie will reduce state spending for the third year in a row. The total now is roughly at the same level it was in 2005.

No serious person disputes the need for austerity in these times. We are headed in the right direction.

The pity is that this governor failed to demand the shared sacrifice that he himself made a central criteria for judging the final product. Yesterday, he continued to deny that central fact.

“We tried to spread the pain as evenly as we could,” he told a national television audience.

Here are the facts: The 16,000 families in New Jersey earning more than $1 millon will get an average tax break of $40,000 apiece under this budget. At the same time, a single mom working for minimum wage will pay $300 more in state taxes.

The biggest cuts in this budget are painful but unavoidable. That includes the deep cuts in aid to schools and towns, and in property tax rebates. His single biggest move was to short the pension fund by $3 billion. Together, those moves account for the bulk of the governor’s spending reductions.

The problem is the tax break. If the governor had not insisted on that, he could have softened the blow on the needy considerably.

He would not have had to increase taxes on that working poor mom, or make deep cuts in health care, affordable housing, child-care subsidies and school lunches.
So no, the governor is not spreading the pain. This budget plainly favors the wealthy.

NJ Assembly Budget Committee Chairman Greenwald Floor Speech on Gov. Christie's FY 2011 Budget (A-3000) from NJ Assembly Democratic Office on Vimeo.

(TRENTON) – Assembly Budget Chairman Lou Greenwald (D-Camden) released the following statement Tuesday after Gov. Chris Christie signed into law a budget that raises taxes by more than $1 billion on New Jerseyans:

“With a stroke of his pen, Gov. Christie has delivered tax increases on nearly everything that’s important to hard-working New Jerseyans.

“Property taxes will skyrocket. Health care will be taxed and slashed. Education will be cut. Public safety will be slashed. Auto and health insurance costs will rise. Job creating business incentives will be decimated.

“This is a tax-laden Christie budget that hits working families and businesses hard. It’s negative impact will reverberate throughout this state and make life unaffordable for millions of New Jersey residents.”

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For Release: June 30, 2010

Assemblyman Greenwald on his push to restore critical prescription assistance aid to seniors struggling to afford their medications:

Assemblyman Greenwald on his efforts to restore property tax rebates for 600,000 seniors by not giving a tax cut to 16,000 millionaires: