Heeding Criticism, Corzine Restores Property Tax Deduction

 

STATE – Gov. Jon Corzine’s draconian budget proposal has drawn a lot of criticism, but the most controversial component was the plan to eliminate the property tax deduction on the state income tax for most New Jersey residents.

Realizing that his budget had little chance of passing with that proposal intact, last week the Governor announced that he’d restore the tax deduction for residents earning less than $150,000 per year. 

“Given the circumstances, allowing people to maintain their property-tax deduction is the right thing to do and will help ease the pain for those being squeezed the most,” Senate President Richard J. Codey (D-Essex) said.

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New Jersey Democrats In Trouble

By Michael M. Shapiro

New Jersey Democrats are basking in the glory of a solid national Democratic showing; however, closer to home, the prospects for this coming election are currently not looking rosy. They have good reason to be concerned.

Millions of people throughout our nation have unrealistically high expectations for President-elect Obama. A panacea where partisanship becomes a thing of the past will, in all probabilities, simply not occur. While Obama will try to tackle the problems facing our nation, there is no easy fix to the majority of them. The choices are painful and the American people will not be happy when these difficult decisions are made by the President and the Congress. Furthermore, a significant number of our most pressing issues, from the economy to healthcare to the environment to terrorism, will not be solved in a year and are most likely to get worse before they get better.

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DeCroce Allegations: Serious and Irresponsibly Late in Coming

By Michael M. Shapiro

Assembly Minority Leader Alex DeCroce (R-Parsippany) recently stated that Senate President and former Acting Governor Richard Codey (D-West Orange) attempted to strong arm him into discontinuing his efforts to investigate a legislative slush fund that was responsible for the now-infamous “Christmas Tree” grants currently under federal investigation.

He claimed that Senator Codey offered him state grant money and threatened him so that DeCroce’s pursuit of information about the slush fund would be stalled. DeCroce agreed to a lie detector test to ‘prove’ his assertions; as of this writing, Codey has not. If DeCroce’s allegations are true, they are not only damaging to Senator Codey and the Democratic Legislature politically, but they have serious legal implications, as well. DeCroce had a responsibility to alert the proper authorities to these allegations when they occurred, not two years after the fact; the public should have been informed in due time, as well.

The issue of the “slush fund” was first brought to the public’s attention approximately one month ago during the trial of former state Senator Wayne Bryant. A Democratic legislative aide testified that some legislators were allowed to spend millions of dollars of the state’s budget at their whim from a fund that required competitive merit-based applications. Codey was acting governor when he proposed the “slush fund” and the Democratic-controlled Legislature approved it while he was serving in the role of senate president.

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Corzine Ratings Drift Sideways; Views of State Drift Down

STATE—Two-thirds of New Jersey voters say their state is on the wrong track, but they split on their assessment of Gov. Jon Corzine. According to the most recent poll by Fairleigh Dickinson University’s PublicMind, just 23% of registered voters say the state is headed in the right direction, a new low during the governor’s term, while 67% say it’s “off on the wrong track,” a new high during the governor’s term.

Just 31% of New Jersey voters say the governor is doing a “good” or “excellent” job, essentially unchanged from June, while 41% rate his work as “only fair” and 25% rate his job as “poor.” Among Democrats, 45% give him rating of “good” or “excellent” while 39% rate his work as “only fair” and 12% rate his job as “poor.”

Similarly, the governor’s approval rating continues to drift sideways: Voters split about evenly with 41% approving and 43% disapproving, little changed from June when 40% approved and 41% disapproved. But a majority of Democrats (58%) approve, even if a majority of Republicans (64%) disapprove. Independents split with 34% approving, 44% disapproving and 22% unsure.

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Governor Signs Law Promoting Organ Donation

TRENTON – A new law signed by acting Gov. Richard Codey last week will soon force all New Jersey residents getting a driver’s license to consider becoming organ donors.

The NJ Hero Act also makes New Jersey the first state in the country to incorporate organ donation education into the high school curriculum, beginning in the 2009-10 school year.

“Our goal is to generate a collective awareness about the importance of organ donation so that those who want to donate, will,” said Codey, who sponsored the legislation. Codey served as acting governor while Gov. Jon Corzine was in Israel on a trade mission.

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Double Dipping Rises Despite Ban

STATE – Last fall, Gov. Jon Corzine signed a law forbidding state lawmakers from holding other elected offices such as mayor or freeholder. At the time, 17 members of the state Legislature were dual office holders. Since then, the number of legislators with another elected job has actually increased to 19.

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