Gov. Christie's Attack On Middle Class Working Families
Charles Wowkanech, March 18th, 2010 - 12:38pm
The budget speech given on Tuesday by Governor Christie clearly illustrates his priorities – including disproportionately shifting the tax burden away from businesses and the wealthy, and onto New Jersey’s middle class and most vulnerable. The clearest indication of this is letting the surcharge on the wealthiest New Jersey residents expire, while scaling back the earned income tax credit for the working poor. Reducing unemployment benefits for those most adversely impacted by the economic downturn while simultaneously relaxing the level of contributions to the fund by corporations and business also illustrates this; as does his actions to again fail to contribute any money to the pension system. By not funding the pension system at the state level, the obligation is being passed down to local governments to pay for the state share. This is a tax on towns throughout New Jersey. Short changing the pension systems does not save money, it simply defers costs. Blaming government for New Jersey’s fiscal problems does not recognize that New Jersey, like every other state, is in the midst of the worst global economic downturn since the great depression. Balancing the budget by imposing financial hardship on the middle class and working poor are not acceptable solutions.
