Americans for Prosperity (AFP) says “Yes” on Question 2

Americans for Prosperity (AFP) a group that consistently opposed the gas tax increase, dispels all the nonsense being pushed by liberals like Harvey Roseff and Ray Lesniak, and makes its position clear on Question 2.

Americans for Prosperity Advocates “Yes” Vote on Public Question 2

Ballot measure would increase constitutionally dedicated revenues to the Transportation Trust Fund

Boonton, N.J. – Americans for Prosperity, the state’s leading grassroots advocate for economic freedom, is encouraging voters to support Public Question 2 this November which concerns the dedication of certain remaining revenues to the Transportation Trust Fund (TTF).

Specifically, the referendum asks voters to approve dedicating the remaining 3 cents from the 13.5 cent tax on diesel fuel, as well as all of the revenues from the petroleum products gross receipts tax to the TTF. The current dedication from the petro tax is a minimum of $200 million. The tax has generated $215 million in each of the past two fiscal years.

AFP state director Erica Jedynak provided the following statement.

“Americans for Prosperity supports the ballot measure and constitutionally dedicating the remaining revenues collected from the tax on diesel and the petro tax to the transportation fund.

“At the same time, AFP wants voters to be clear that this referendum does not authorize a gas tax increase, nor does it in any way resolve the transportation challenges the state is facing. The remaining revenue from these two taxes amounts to less than $30 million, a mere fraction of the $1.2 billion collected for the TTF last year.

“Americans for Prosperity is steadfast in our opposition to a gas tax hike. We continue to urge lawmakers to pursue reforms to rein in wasteful spending and to ensure our transportation dollars are used solely for our roads and bridges.”

For further information or an interview, please contact Mike Proto at MProto@afphq.org or 201-400-3666.

Americans for Prosperity (AFP) is a nationwide organization of citizen-leaders committed to advancing every individual’s right to economic freedom and opportunity. AFP believes reducing the size and intrusiveness of government is the best way to promote individual productivity and prosperity for all Americans. For more information, visit www.americansforprosperity.org state and taxpayers

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Five lies the Tea Party should refrain from

It's the Tea Party, so you can be sure there will be histrionics aplenty at their rally on Saturday.  Former Freeholder and town council candidate Harvey Roseff, late of the NJTA, will be on hand in his usual role as Carnac the all-knowing.  So the slogans, born from lack of study, will be flying as well.

Nevertheless, the Skylands Tea Party and Roseff with his NJTA should try to avoid re-telling a few of the bigger lies they've been pedaling.

First.  The Skylands Tea Party is not the same as "We the People of the Garden State."  You are a very small handful of the 9 million people who live in New Jersey.  You have every right to speak for yourselves, but nobody elected you to speak for "the people of New Jersey" -- and you are generally very disrespectful towards those who have actually gone before the people and who were elected.  This is probably because you see them as occupying your rightful place but... this is America, and in America we vote for our leaders.  Nobody voted for you.

Second.  Please do not refer to members of construction unions as "thugs."  The only thuggish behavior exhibited has been by members and associates of the Tea Party on social media with their pornographic insults and threats of violence.  Many thousands of building trades workers reside in Sussex County with their families.  They vote, pay taxes, read newspapers, and patronize businesses.  And while we are on this subject, if Tea Party candidate Mark Quick attends, Skylands (or Roseff) should remember that at a similar protest in July he was ordered out of the Lafayette House because of his loud and violent behavior.  He needs a minder.

Third.  "This tax increase never even got a public hearing."  Harvey Roseff and the NJTA have been pushing this lie for weeks.  And again yesterday, Roseff posted this lie on the Sussex Watchdog website.  The facts are that there were extensive public hearings on this legislation by both the Senate and Assembly.  The Reason Foundation actually gave extensive testimony at one hearing.  On top of this, Senator Oroho has publically spoken before a number of groups in Sussex County on this topic.  Just because Roseff couldn't find the time to attend, doesn't mean it never happened.

Fourth.  Carnac the all-knowing (AKA Harvey Roseff) has been shopping around the lie that he can fund the TTF through savings.  He told the NJ Herald: "The audit and the repeal go together.  You do the audit to find out how the money is being spent and to find savings. With the savings there is no reason for the gas tax." 

Two questions come to mind:  (1) How does Roseff know what savings he will find if the audit hasn't been conducted yet?  And how can he speak so assuredly that those savings will be sufficient if he has no clue as to their amount?

(2) The fact is that not since 1990 has the state's user tax on gasoline and diesel produced enough revenue to cover the cost to maintain the state's transportation system.  Today the debt service alone exceeds $1.1 billion.  In contrast, the gas tax collected just a bit more than $750 in 2015.  That means if Harvey found 100% savings -- if he found a way to build the roads for free -- he would still need to increase the gas tax just to pay for the yearly debt payment the TTF has accrued over the last decades.

As you can plainly see, Harvey Roseff is full of bullshit.

Five.  The gas tax applies to "all petroleum products."  This lie was put out there by the Skylands Tea Party in an email blast dated October 18th that invited people to the rally.  This is part of a nasty whisper campaign to frighten people into believing that the tax applies to home heating oil.  In response, the Office of Legislative Services released this definitive statement:

"Assembly Bill No. 12 (2R) of 2016, recently enacted as P.L.2016, c.57.  Home heating oil, which includes number 2 heating oil, number 4 heating oil, and number 6 heating oil,  used for residential heating is exempt from the Petroleum Products Gross Receipts Tax.  The exemption is included as part of the definition of 'petroleum products' under the 'Petroleum Products Gross Receipts Tax Act,' 54:15B-1 et seq.  The definition of petroleum products was not amended as part of Assembly Bill No. 12 (2R), and therefore the exemption still applies." 

Memo to the Skylands Tea Party and Harvey "Carnac" Roseff:  Stop telling lies.  Deal in the real world. 

Is the Tea Party anti-First Amendment?

Earlier this week the Skylands Tea Party ran a paid advertisement in the New Jersey Herald inviting members of the public to attend a rally on Saturday, October 22nd.  It was accompanied by a press release, which formed the basis of the following NJ Herald story:

Rally planned for Newton Green Saturday in wake of gas tax hike

New Jersey Herald: Oct. 17, 2016 12:01 am

NEWTON -- The Skylands Tea Party and New Jersey Taxpayers' Association will hold a rally on Saturday, Oct. 22, at the Newton Green to demand a forensic audit of NJ Transit, the Transportation Trust Fund and Port Authority in response to the approved 23-cent gas tax hike signed by Gov. Chris Christie on Friday and set to take effect Nov. 1.

"We, the people of New Jersey, have been overtaxed and poorly governed for far too long," states a joint news release submitted by Harvey Roseff, vice president of the NJTA.

"The increased gas tax, one of the largest tax increases to ever hit the family, was a bridge too far and is unconscionable. Tax policy can't fix management problems -- the problem festers and grows."

The public event is scheduled to run 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.

"We are inviting friends and families to stand tall and ask for low-cost, efficient government to become the governing priority," states the event announcement.

http://www.njherald.com/20161017/rally-planned-for-newton-green-saturday-in-wake-of-gas-tax-hike

This was followed by an email from the Skylands Tea Party on October 18, 2016:

"We the People of this Garden State are staging a protest on Saturday, October 22nd.  It will be held at the Newton Green on the corner of Route 94 and Spring Street, beginning at 11:00 AM and ending at 1:00 PM."

That's an open invitation to a public meeting on public property.

But when some of the organizers of the rally found out that folks who don't necessarily share their point of view were thinking of taking them up on the offer, they flipped.  Sources claim they went to the Newton mayor's office with their concerns. 

We don't know what action the Mayor, a political ally of Assemblyperson Gail Phoebus, took.  What we do know is that a Newton police officer called people and suggested that they do not belong at the rally.  We don't know why these people were targeted or who gave their names to the police.  What is clear is that these people do not share the Tea Party's point of view.

How is that for silencing the opposition?  How is that for bullying the First Amendment? 

Anyone who uses armed government officers to eliminate the presence of opposing viewpoints, inconvenient as they may be, is nothing more than an old-fashioned Fascist.  Speech should be met with speech, ideas with ideas, not by men with guns.

Of course, we can understand the concerns some in the Tea Party might have for what some of their members might do to anyone at the rally who holds a different opinion.  Tea Party members have been going overboard using violent and pornographic images and language on social media to describe anyone who disagrees with them -- like this charming Tea Party member from Sussex County:

"All 545 sitting in DC right now are guilty of treason. And all those living who have sat over the past 2 decades, since the signing of NAFTA are, too. That is our reality, they should all be indicted, dragged out in chains, the evidence a matter of congressional record and unimpeachable. And all should be subject to all the consequences the law provides up to the firing squad."

If the Tea Party allows its members to behave this way then they should take responsibility for them.  They should not seek to protect them from any alternative opinion that might result in them going off their meds.  And they certainly should not be involving armed government officers in what should be a civilized, human-to-human exchange of ideas.

The Clintons and tax cheat Marc Rich

The New York Times has been beating its partisan drum regarding Donald Trump's taxes.  But, as Sussex County citizen activist Harvey Roseff points out, there is an even larger tax story out there that "better deals with proper ethical behavior."

Roseff writes:

"Today's NY Times story is that Trump filed his taxes and it was proper. That's all that matters - nothing was avoided or illegal.  In fact, Trump filed to laws and regulations that Bill Clinton was in charge of.  Irrespective of if we are for or against Trump or Hillary, the story that taxes were 'avoided' is wrong - the government got what it wanted.

So let's look at Bill Clinton's pardon of Marc Rich.  A tax cheat who was on the FBI's most wanted list.  Rich undermined US sanctions and hugely profited. Rich was pardoned and many leading Democratic leaders (and of course Republican) denounced Clinton's act. So compared to the Trump tax story, here we have one person thwarting the will of the people's government.

And ever since, Rich's interests have taken care of the Clintons."

Roseff links to a story from the New York Post (January 17, 2016):

Bill Clinton’s pardon of fugitive Marc Rich continues to pay big

By Peter Schweizer

January 17, 2016 | 6:00am

Fifteen years ago this month, on Jan. 20, 2001, his last day in office, Bill Clinton issued a pardon for international fugitive Marc Rich. It would become perhaps the most condemned official act of Clinton’s political career. A New York Times editorial called it “a shocking abuse of presidential power.” The usually Clinton-friendly New Republic noted it “is often mentioned as Exhibit A of Clintonian sliminess.”

Congressman Barney Frank added, “It was a real betrayal by Bill Clinton of all who had been strongly supportive of him to do something this unjustified. It was contemptuous.”

Marc Rich was wanted for a list of charges going back decades. He had traded illegally with America’s enemies including Ayatollah Khomeini’s Iran, where he bought about $200 million worth of oil while revolutionaries allied with Khomeini held 53 American hostages in 1979.

Rich made a large part of his wealth, approximately $2 billion between 1979 and 1994, selling oil to the apartheid regime in South Africa when it faced a UN embargo. He did deals with Khadafy’s Libya, Milosevic’s Yugoslavia, Kim Il Sung’s North Korea, Communist dictatorships in Cuba and the Soviet Union itself. Little surprise that he was on the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted List.

Facing prosecution by Rudy Giuliani in 1983, Rich fled to Switzerland and lived in exile...

Read the rest of the story here:

http://nypost.com/2016/01/17/after-pardoning-criminal-marc-rich-clintons-made-millions-off-friends/

Starting with Atlantic City, State Focus Should Return to Fiscally Responsible Management

By Harvey Roseff

For too long now, New Jerseyans have been subjected to a political nightmare with each Political Party pandering to its constituency.  The New Jersey Taxpayer Association ("NJTA") asks for a return to prudent management and respect for the State taxpayer.  It should start by the State exiting from any involvement with Atlantic City's plight.

Atlantic City's fiscal problems are local in nature.  Without involving the State taxpayer, there exist proper State and Federal legal venues to resolve business disputes between creditors, employees and residents.  It is irresponsible for State party politics to now insert itself and expose the State taxpayer to heavy burdens of distracted management focus, expensive legal actions and what always happens in the end, an unacceptable, uncalled-for State bailout packed with expensive contractors and professional legal "help".

Forty years ago, the State of New Jersey handed Atlantic City, a city endowed with an incredible gift from nature, an additional prize that most municipalities would die for - a windfall in the form of a statewide business monopoly (casinos).  This came at the expense of the rest of the State and became quite a "cash cow". 

How the State and local municipalities invested their individual takings from the "cash cow" is today of their respective responsibilities.  On their own volition, each individually derived out-sized benefits and exposed themselves to future liabilities.  Therefore, the State taxpayer should not be involved with Atlantic City's Master Plan, employee pay scales or bond debt responsibilities.  Neither should Atlantic City residents and creditors have access to State taxpayers' pockets and free legal and professional help to pay for their choices. Each should re-prioritize and restructure without external interference and should not place burdens on outsiders. 

NJTA is quite concerned that Atlantic City's unfortunate circumstance has led to a State partisan fight that will eventually attack the State taxpayer pocket. The State legislature and Governor should not be picking sides, nor adjudicating disputes, between local labor, management and creditor groups.  The fact that this is happening only means the State taxpayer is being set up to pay for something that is  fiduciary  wrong.

The State taxpayer doesn't need added burden that delivers nothing to their lives and communities.  If the local parties can't resolve their business and financial issues, Atlantic City belongs in bankruptcy court - a venue that will not burden and tax the general State public to pay for a local dispute. Bankruptcy court has recently and well served Jefferson County, AL and California cities. It is bankruptcy court that was designed for the plight of Atlantic City, not so our legislative and executive branches. Don't now stack the deck against State taxpayers.

Harvey Roseff is the Vice President of the New Jersey Taxpayers Association.  You can read more about the group and its work at njtaxes.org.