NJ Democrats declare war on Producers, vow massive tax hikes to benefit public employee unions

6/22/2014

Steve Sweeney, NJ State Senate President and The Man Who Would Be Governor, wants to tax New Jersey into prosperity. That is, if you define prosperity as gold-plated public employee pensions and benefits.

Senate President Stephen Sweeney said today that Democrats in the upper house will not go along with Gov. Chris Christie's plan to cut funding meant for public-workers' pensions, rolling out a competing budget proposal that raises a series of taxes on wealthy earners and businesses to raise an extra $1.57 billion in the coming fiscal year.

At a Statehouse news conference, Sweeney (D-Gloucester) had tough words for Christie and drew a line in the sand: If the governor vetoes the tax increases, Democrats would consider putting them before voters in a referendum, he said.

Sweeney said shorting the pension fund next year — Christie is proposing to scale back a $2.25 billion pension payment to $681 million — was no way to solve New Jersey's "budget crisis." He and Senate Majority Leader Loretta Weinberg (D-Bergen) said Christie's policies have failed to spur enough job creation and state revenue, requiring at least temporary tax hikes to get the state's finances in order.

The Takers are declaring war on the Makers.

And really, the idea that imposing more costs on businesses will spur "job creation" is laughable on its face. Unless Sweeney means government job creation, because putting more money into the state budget always results in the hiring of more public employees.

Hey, public employees overwhelmningly vote Democrat! I'm sure that's just a coincidence.

Let me ask, would you stay in New Jersey and create jobs when faced with these new taxes?

· The tax rate on income above $1 million would rise from 8.97 percent to 10.75 percent, netting $565 million.

· The tax rate on income between $500,000 and $1 million would rise from 8.97 percent to 10.25 percent, netting $155 milion.

· A new, 15 percent surcharge on the corporate business tax would bring in $375 million.

· Suspending grants from the Business Employment Incentive Program (BEIP) for a year would free up $175 million.

That's a 20% tax increase on "millionaires," and a 14% increase on incomes above $500,000. Plus a 15% corporate penalty. So the owner of a typical S Corp (small business) would see a thirty-five percent increase in his taxes.

All so guys like Lodi Police Chief Vincent Caruso can retire at age 55 with a $342,000 lump sum on top of a $125,000 annual pension. (Notice how Sweeney's tax increases kick in at $500k, just above Chief Caruso's total payout for this year. Hmmm.)

Please, tell me how any of this idiocy makes sense.

Because it doesn't.

You want to know how screwed-up the Democrats are? Take Loretta Weinberg. (Please!) She's "retired" and collecting a state pension, but she's also earning a government salary as a state senator. We call thatDouble Dipping and it's rampant among the politicians and unionistas who regularly complain the public pension system is under-funded.

Hypocrisy, on steroids. They're all takers, and they have no shame. 

Posted at 09:31 by Chris Wysocki @ WyBlog