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While the Senate and the Assembly continue to disagree on how to arrive at a budget for FY07, Friday's deadline is only 5 working days away. The Senate has proposed an alternative that links property tax relief to raising taxes..."Sen. Barbara Buono, D-Middlesex, said that proposal has the potential to assuage concerns over raising taxes. "I will not support the sales tax unless there is some nexus between it and property tax relief," said Buono, a member of the Senate budget committee. "In order for that to be a viable option, we need to tie it to property tax relief, and we could start doing that right now." With Democrats holding a slim Senate majority and several senators already openly opposing the sales tax hike, any further defections against the plan could seriously damage its chances of passage. In the Assembly, where opposition to the sales tax is stronger, Democratic Party leaders remain opposed to the tax hike..."
Impasse continues over sales tax hike
Monday, June 26, 2006
By JOHN P. McALPIN
With five days to go before the law requires a balanced budget, legislators are still trying to find $1.1 billion and escape Governor Corzine's call to raise the sales tax.
Leaders from both the Senate and Assembly will meet with Corzine today after talks Sundayfailed to resolve an impasse that began as soon as Corzine was finished introducing his $30.9 billion budget three months ago.
The sticking point remains Corzine's push to raise the sales tax from 6 cents to 7 cents on the dollar. The last governor to do so lost at the polls, and so did the Democratic legislators who supported him.
Lawmakers must approve a budget by midnight Friday, the deadline set by the state constitution. Corzine has threatened to close state parks, halt road construction and even shutter
Senate President Richard J. Codey, D-Essex, said the Assembly and Senate negotiators are still as far apart on the sales tax as they were days ago. But Codey said he remains optimistic after a brief meeting with state Treasurer Bradley Abelow and Assembly Speaker Joseph Roberts, D-Camden, at the State House on Sunday evening.
"Any time that you're talking, you're not wasting time," Codey said No deal has been reached on eliminating the sales tax increase, Codey said. Roberts has led the fight against the increase and said too few Democrats in the Assembly support it. Several senators are openly hostile to the increase.
But once the sales tax issue is resolved, Codey said, the budget will be ready.
"I disagree with the governor on some issues. I disagree with the Assembly on some revenue raisers and cuts, but that all could be worked out rather quickly," Codey said.
Roberts declined to comment after leaving a brief meeting with Codey. Abelow also did not talk to reporters.
"Everyone remains as determined as ever to craft a budget by the constitutionally prescribed deadline," Roberts said in a statement. "I look forward to having further meetings with Governor Corzine so we can reach consensus and bring this year's budget process to a satisfactory close."
Lawmakers are working to avoid most of Corzine's $1.9 billion in tax increases, and several small levies, such as a tax on water use and one on hospitals, have been discarded through negotiations. Corzine's biggest tax increase would raise the sales tax a penny. It would be the first increase in the levy in 16 years.
Assembly Democrats believe they have at least half of the $1.1 billion needed to cut the sales tax hike from the budget.
At least $200 million of that comes in more budget cuts to state operations such as the Department of Environmental Protection and the state courts. Legislators would see their own budgets cut by 10 percent under their proposal.
A call to extend the sales tax to computer services would bring in $100 million. Other items such as furs and some tobacco products now excluded from taxes also are being considered.
Corzine's administration has not publicly endorsed any of the proposals offered by legislators. The governor has said repeatedly he would accept only a budget where revenues meet expenditures and which is free from what he says are gimmicks.
Corzine also has proposed extending the tax to services and products that have been exempted from the tax, including lawn services, country clubs and tanning salons.
He believes a sales tax increase is a critical piece of his plan to restore the state's finances to a firm, prudent course. He has vowed not to sign a budget patched together with gimmicks that raise stopgap sources of cash.
As a candidate for U.S. Senate in 2000, Corzine vigorously faulted the last governor to raise the sales tax. Corzine's administration insists this budget and its tax increases take great pains to avoid putting the burden on poor and working families by eliminating the income tax for people earning under $25,000 and by making some increases to social service programs.
The sales tax increase is facing stiff opposition among the ruling Democrats in the Legislature, whose support Corzine needs for passage, in part because some fear it would trigger a voter backlash like the last hike ignited in 1990. Democratic lawmakers, who endorsed former Gov. Jim Florio's package of tax hikes, lost control of the Legislature the following year and remained out of power for much of the next decade.
Others lawmakers would prefer to use a sales tax increase as part of a solution to reduce property taxes. Lawmakers are expected to convene this summer in a special session to tackle property tax reform.
Sunday budget talks produce no progress
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6/25/2006, 8:45 p.m. ET By TOM HESTER Jr. The Associated Press |
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TRENTON, N.J. (AP) — Legislative leaders clashing on Gov. Jon S. Corzine's proposed budget and sales tax increase huddled Sunday but reported no progress with the July 1 deadline to adopt a spending plan nearing and the increase lacking the legislative support needed to pass.
Senate President Richard J. Codey and Senate leaders met with Assembly Speaker Joseph Roberts Jr. and Assembly leaders in a session that started around 5:25 p.m. The meeting only lasted for about 40 minutes, and no movement was reported toward a deal.
Most Assembly Democrats oppose the sales tax increase, and a legislative official familiar with the Sunday meeting said Senate leaders who support it count only 15 of 22 Senate Democrats as ready to vote for it, meaning the plan faces a long road to get approved this week.
The state Constitution requires that a balanced budget be adopted by July 1. Without an approved spending plan, the state would have no authority to spend money, and Corzine's staff has devised plans to close parks, historic sites, campgrounds and casinos and halt road construction and the lottery, among other steps.
Corzine's administration has also begun researching $860 million in cuts in municipal, school and hospital aid should lawmakers present him with a budget he finds unacceptable.
After meeting Sunday with Assembly officials, Codey — who along with Corzine supports the sales tax increase from 6 percent to 7 percent as the only viable way to overcome a projected $4.5 billion budget deficit — met briefly with state Treasurer Bradley Abelow.
When asked if any progress had been made, Codey said, "I wouldn't say that." But he then added "any time you talk, you aren't wasting your time."
Codey said the sales tax increase remains the main obstacle.
Roberts is leading opposition to increase designed to raise $1.1 billion. And since all tax bills must start in the Assembly, his opposition is key.
"Everyone remains as determined as ever to craft a budget by the constitutionally prescribed deadline," Roberts said. "Like Senate President Codey, I look forward to having further meetings with Gov. Corzine so we can reach consensus and bring this years budget process to a satisfactory close."
Codey and Roberts plan to meet with Corzine on Monday.
Roberts and other opponents fear a sales tax increase could ignite voter anger. Some opponents also want to save a sales tax increase for potential property tax reform.
The budget will dominate a busy week in the Legislature.
The Assembly on Monday is to consider extending a property sale tax to commercial properties worth more than $1 million to raise $17 million, while a Senate panel will consider that bill and another Corzine proposal to rework how sales taxes are collected in Urban Enterprise Zones to raise $100 million.
Meanwhile, a Senate budget panel on Monday will consider whether to ask voters to approve borrowing $230 million to pay for stem cell research grants in
The panel will also consider a bill to repeal a tax on cosmetic surgery that was implemented in 2004, but has never come close to raising the revenue that was expected.
A Senate committee on Monday will also debate a bill to implement Corzine's plan to create a new state Department of Children and Families to reform
The Senate is slated to vote on a bill that would bar protests at funerals, mainly to protect funerals for soldiers killed in combat. An anti-gay
The Senate will also vote on a bill that would require a pharmacy to fill prescriptions for any drug it stocks, such as birth-control pills, regardless of a pharmacist's moral beliefs, and require it to refer patients to other places if it doesn't stock the item.
It will also consider a bill that would eliminate the statute of limitations for environmental crimes.
Another Senate committee will consider a law regarding jail time and pensions for public officials convicted of corruption. Attorney General Zulima Farber recently said she opposed the bill because it requires mandatory sentences, and she questioned the legality of seizing pensions. Democrats are ready to amend the bills, much to the concern of Republicans.
The Assembly will also vote on bills that would ask voters to amend the Constitution to dedicate more gas tax revenue to transportation and another to strengthen the state auditor's authority to investigate state spending.
Property tax playing role in budget debate
Posted Sunday, 6/25/06, in Gannett newspapers (
BY JONATHAN TAMARI
Officials wrangling over budget plans have extended property tax reform as an olive branch and wielded the threat of cuts in property tax aid as a stick to try to move negotiations along.
With just days remaining until the constitutional deadline for approving a state budget, some Assembly Democrats are pinning their opposition to a $1.1 billion sales tax increase — a key element of Gov. Jon S. Corzine's budget — to their call to instead keep that option as a resource for property tax relief.
In a push back against its opposition, however, Corzine administration memos obtained by Gannett New
The memos, obtained Friday, following a week of budget haggling among elected officials, incited a sharp response from Assembly Speaker Joseph J. Roberts Jr., D-Camden, a leading advocate for property tax reform and one of the most vocal opponents to the sales tax increase.
Some compromise plans also revolve around property taxes. One of many proposals floated during meetings last week would call for a sales tax hike with a portion set aside for property tax relief.
Sen. Barbara Buono, D-Middlesex, said that proposal has the potential to assuage concerns over raising taxes.
"I will not support the sales tax unless there is some nexus between it and property tax relief," said Buono, a member of the Senate budget committee. "In order for that to be a viable option, we need to tie it to property tax relief, and we could start doing that right now."
With Democrats holding a slim Senate majority and several senators already openly opposing the sales tax hike, any further defections against the plan could seriously damage its chances of passage.
In the Assembly, where opposition to the sales tax is stronger, Democratic Party leaders remain opposed to the tax hike.
"That sales tax must be protected ultimately for property tax reform," said Assemblyman Louis Greenwald, D-Camden, chairman of the Assembly Budget Committee.
Corzine remains committed to his plans. He repeated last week that he sees the increased sales tax as the best way to balance his budget and provide lasting revenues to help eliminate annual budget holes.
"We need to get a real structural change in the underlying finances of the state of New Jersey independent of what we have going on in property tax. We need to do both," Corzine said at a news conference Wednesday. "People trying to place (the sales tax) in an either-or situation, it's convenient at a time when you're trying to negotiate budget, but it isn't convenient when you look at we have an ongoing structural deficit in this state."
The debate about whether to increase the sales tax will likely be the central point of contention as lawmakers and the administration try to hammer out a budget plan this week. Midnight Friday is the constitutional deadline for striking a spending plan.
The Corzine administration has warned that missing the deadline could result in closing state parks and casinos and halting ongoing road construction, but past administrations have missed the due date without any impact on operations.
Despite the division on the tax plan, people involved in the negotiations insisted late last week that they have reached common ground on some issues, such as restoring some funding to colleges and universities and eliminating a proposed tax on hospitals.
The challenge, however, comes in reaching an agreement on how to pay for those restorations or replace the taxes that have been taken off the table.
The level of aid to colleges, for example, remains unclear, and a Corzine administration memo said last week that any additional aid would be unlikely if more cuts become necessary.
Greenwald said lawmakers are focusing first on replacing the money from the tax with other options, then on restoring the cuts with which they disagree.
"We have to find equally reliable replacement revenue, and then you have to find either additional cuts or new revenues to fill the gap on some of the holes that we'd like to fix," Greenwald said.
Where there is agreement, pieces of the budget plan have begun to slowly trickle through the Legislature. Friday, lawmakers advanced plans to repeal a tax on cosmetic surgery and impose a new tax on commercial real estate sales that exceed $1 million.
Other elements of budget plans, such as bills to expand taxes on some tobacco products, transfer $50 million from the disability fund to the operating budget and levy a surcharge on businesses taxes have begun working their way through the system.
However, another piece of Corzine's proposal, a call to reform some of the tax breaks given to businesses in Urban Enterprise Zones, was held in an Assembly committee. It's scheduled to be considered Monday by a Senate panel.
Jonathan Tamari: jtamari@gannett.com
NEWS UPDATE 6-26-06
Taxes, spending cuts on legislative agenda this week
By TOM HESTER Jr.
Associated Press
The state constitution requires a balanced budget be approved by Saturday, when the new fiscal year starts.
Some of the bills to be discussed this week:
-- The Assembly is to consider extending a property sale tax to commercial properties worth more than $1 million to raise $17 million.
-- A Senate panel will consider that bill and another proposal by Gov. Jon Corzine to rework how sales taxes are collected in Urban Enterprise Zones to raise $100 million.
-- A Senate budget panel will consider whether to ask voters to approve borrowing $230 million to pay for stem cell research grants in
-- The panel also will consider a bill to repeal a tax on cosmetic surgery that was implemented in 2004, but has never come close to raising the revenue that was expected.
-- A Senate committee will debate a bill to implement Corzine's plan to create a new state Department of Children and Families to reform
-- The Senate is slated to vote on a bill that would bar protests at funerals, mainly to protect funerals for soldiers killed in combat. An anti-gay
-- The Senate will also vote on a bill that would require a pharmacy to fill prescriptions for any drug it stocks, such as birth-control pills, regardless of a pharmacist's moral beliefs, and require it to refer patients to other places if it doesn't stock the item.
-- The Senate will vote on a bill that would eliminate the statute of limitations for environmental crimes. The bill has also advanced through the Assembly and stems from worries about environmental contamination in Edison, Hamilton and Ringwood.
-- Another Senate committee will consider a law regarding jail time and pensions for public officials convicted of corruption. Attorney General Zulima Farber recently said she opposed the bill because it requires mandatory sentences, and she questioned the legality of seizing pensions. Democrats are ready to amend the bills because of her worries, much to the concern of Republicans.
-- The Assembly will also vote on two key bills -- one that would ask voters to amend the state constitution to dedicate more gas tax revenue to transportation needs and another to strengthen the state auditor's authority to investigate state spending.
Published: June 26. 2006 6:29AM
State, local government jobs jumped since 2000
(GSCS has analyzed statewide enrollment growth data in time frame similar to this article comparisons – it is important to note that enrollments grew in the regular operating districts in recent years, and in particular, that special education student enrollments grew at the highest rates. Enrollment growth will result in the need to hire additional staff. In addition, staff to student ratio requirements are mandated for special education students.)
In N.J., the private sector stayed flat, analysis shows
Sunday, June 25, 2006
BY STEVE CHAMBERS AND ROBERT GEBELOFF
Star-Ledger Staff
The 11 percent increase in government jobs -- driven largely by ballooning education payrolls -- outpaced population growth and came at a time of rising anger over skyrocketing property taxes.
"It's an incredible number that leaves private businessmen and taxpayers scratching their heads and saying, 'How is this possible?'" said Philip Kirschner, president of the New Jersey Business and Industry Association. "The economy is the same for all of us, so where are the public entities getting the money? We all know the answer to that question."
It is a basic rule of economics that private-sector jobs pay the bills that government jobs produce, which explains why
"It's probably the best indicator of why we have a property tax problem," said James Hughes, a
The issue of taxation -- and voter anger -- will be center stage this week in
Senate President Richard Codey (D-Essex) and Minority Leader Leonard Lance (R-Hunterdon) have both said there must be a focus on cutting budgets, and neither said he was surprised to hear the public-sector growth statistics, which are reported by the state Department of Labor and Workforce Development.
"When you look at education, there is no question the growth has far outstripped inflation," Codey said. "There is no question it will be on the agenda this summer."
GROWTH IN MANY SECTORS
School districts statewide added 15,417 teachers, 860 administrators and 2,902 other certified personnel between 2000 and 2005. They also hired another 14,485 noncertified employees, a broad category that includes everything from custodians to teachers aides.
That means schools added 33,664 new jobs at a time when statewide enrollment grew by just 101,605 children -- one new employee for every three new students.
Education wasn't the only factor. According to a U.S. Census survey that dissects the jobs picture in more detail, the state was also adding police officers, road workers, firefighters, health workers and court personnel, all at rates that exceeded the state's meager population growth.
That same Census survey found
"I'm not surprised to see it at the county, state or school level," said William Dressel, executive director of the state League of Municipalities. "But I'm surprised to see it in city hall. My mayors have been crying poverty."
He said police payrolls may be rising due to security concerns following the 9/11 terrorist attacks and the movement of gangs into suburbs.
As for state employees, Codey mentioned court-ordered requirements to dramatically increase the payroll of the Division of Youth and Family Services. The Census bureau also shows high increases in employment at state hospitals.
When it comes to education, urban advocates and district officials said court-mandated efforts to reduce class sizes, improve the quality of preschool and build new schools in the poorest cities were putting more people on the payroll.
But not all the growth was in the cities; suburban districts also added teachers at a rapid clip.
Frank Belluscio, a spokesman for the New Jersey School Boards Association, said sprawling growth is a driver in some suburban towns, as is a demographic bubble of students entering high school, where teaching is more specialized. New federal and state requirements on special education also have mandated lower class sizes, he said.
INCREASES DEFENDED
Because of their sheer size, the increases in the state's 31 poorer districts are notable.
David Sciarra, executive director of the Education Law Center, a nonprofit group in Newark that advocates for better education for poor children, said those increases were long in coming and ordered by the state Supreme Court.
"We have to make these investments in public schools, particularly in urban districts," he said. "They are essential investments in continuing
Sciarra noted that the urban districts are not yet finished adding teachers, because more than half the buildings being constructed with $6 billion in state funding aren't finished. Those buildings will lead to additional staff being hired in coming years.
"The conventional wisdom is that by reducing class size you increase test scores," said Don Goncalves, a district spokesman. "We are impacted greatly by the federal No Child Left Behind mandates, and we are very intent on getting school performance to increase dramatically."
Lance said he supports those goals, but as one of
A New Jersey Supreme Court order requires state education officials to fund urban districts at a level similar to the wealthiest suburban towns.
While agreeing a solid public education system is vital for attracting companies, Lance and other experts said there are many factors in a state's competitiveness. They worry that rising taxes needed to balance state and local budgets are affecting affordability.
"Maybe we should equalize educational funding, but can we afford to do it at the level of the most expensive school districts?" Hughes said. "There are no controls when you do that, because it's no sweat for the most affluent districts to increase the ante."
Steve Chambers may be reached at schambers@starledger.com or (973) 392-1674. Robert Gebeloff may be reached at rgebeloff@starledger.com or (973) 392-1753.
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School Jobs Rising | |
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At a time when private sector employment is flat, state and local government payrolls have expanded by more than 11 percent. While the payroll expansion has cut across almost every sector of government, local school districts accounted for more than half of the job expansion. On this site, you can see first-hand the job picture at your local district or at others around your county or the state. Data is included for 618 for which there is complete data covering the 1999-2000 school year and 2004-05, the most recent statistics available. | |
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