How Steve Oroho finished what Jay Webber started

In the Legislature, you can be a conservative in one of two ways... broadly speaking.  One way is to be a conscience, sit above it all, and vote accordingly.  You could not find a more perfect example of this than Assemblyman Michael Patrick Carroll, who negotiates the prickly halls of Trenton with a Zen assuredness.  He always knows the right thing to do... and he always does it.  Instead of the wilting figure of John McCann, the YR's and CR's could do no better than to adopt Assemblyman Carroll as their Sensei.

The other way is to wade into the muck in an attempt to climb aboard the ship of state and steer it in a more desirable direction.  Sometimes the engine isn't even working and you might need to get down into the boiler room -- knee deep in waste -- and grapple with the machinery of government, just to get it sputtering in some direction.

Assemblyman Jay Webber takes this course... to a point.  He seems well enough suited to steer, but when it comes to the engine room, he doesn't want to get his hands dirty.  That's where he differs from Senator Steve Oroho.  Oroho accepts that he will have to endure the heat and muck in order to get the machine running -- and he doesn't mind busting a knuckle or two while grabbling with a boiler wrench.

A prime example are their differing approaches to preventing the Transportation Trust Fund (TTF) from going bankrupt and ending the Estate Tax.  Two very conservative causes.  The TTF, funded by a gas tax, was right out of the Reagan mantra of using user taxes to fund public infrastructure.  Those who use the roads should pay for them, said Reagan, no free rides!  While the death tax -- which is what an Estate Tax is -- has been identified by conservatives for years as the destroyer of small businesses and the ruination of family farms.

Jay Webber waded into the issue assuredly enough.  On October 14, 2014, the Star-Ledger published a column by the Assemblyman.  It's title was "Fixing transportation and taxes together."  Webber was writing about how to raise the gas tax to re-fund the nearly bankrupt TTF, while offsetting that tax increase with cuts to other taxes.  He zeroed in on the Estate Tax:

"NEW JERSEY leaders are grappling with three major problems: First, New Jersey has the worst tax burden in the nation. Two, New Jersey's economy suffers from sluggish growth. And third, our state's Transportation Trust Fund is out of money. There is a potential principled compromise that can help solve all of them.

Of the three problems, the Transportation Trust Fund has been getting the most attention lately, and for good reason: It's broke. There is just no money in it to maintain and improve our vital infrastructure. Without finding a solution, we risk watching our roads and bridges grow unsafe and unusable and hinder movement of people and goods throughout the state. That, of course, will exacerbate our state's slow economic growth.

...we should insist that if any tax is raised to restore the TTF, it be coupled with the elimination of a tax that is one of our state's biggest obstacles to economic growth: the death tax. By any measure, New Jersey is the most extreme outlier on the death tax, with worst-in-the-nation status...

New Jersey's death tax is not a concern for the wealthy alone, as many misperceive. We are one of only two states with both an estate and inheritance tax. New Jersey's estate-tax threshold of $675,000, combined with a tax rate as high as 16 percent, means that middle-class families with average-sized homes and small retirement savings are hit hard by the tax.

It also means the tax affects small businesses or family farms of virtually any size, discouraging investment and growth among our private-sector job creators. Compounding the inequity is that government already has taxed the assets subject to the death tax when the money was earned. Because of our onerous estate and inheritance taxes, Forbes magazine lists New Jersey as a place "Not to Die" in 2014.

That's a problem, and it's one our sister states are trying hard not to duplicate. A recent study by Connecticut determined that states with no estate tax created twice as many jobs and saw their economies grow 50 percent more than states with estate taxes. That research prompted Connecticut and many states to reform their death taxes. New York just lowered its death tax, and several other states have eliminated theirs.

The good news is that New Jersey's leaders finally are realizing that our confiscatory death tax is a big deal. A bipartisan coalition of legislators has shown its support for reforming New Jersey's death tax..."

Taking Webber's lead, Senator Steve Oroho got to work and began the painstakingly long process of negotiation with the majority Democrats.  Oroho was animated by the basic unfairness that New Jersey taxpayers were under-writing out-of-state drivers to the tune of a half-billion dollars a year.  He understood that if the TTF went bankrupt, the cost would flip to county and local governments... resulting in an average $500 property tax increase.  Oroho went to battle to prevent this disaster and even had to stand up to Governor Chris Christie, who wanted to end negotiations too soon and accept a weaker deal from the Democrats.

Unfortunately, Assemblyman Webber didn't stick with it.  When the time came for Jay Webber to be counted as part of that bipartisan coalition, he couldn't be counted on.  Jay got scared off by the lobbyist arm of the petroleum industry and what's worse is that he started attacking those who did what he advocated doing only a short time before. 

Remember that it was Webber who wrote these words in that column more than three years ago:  "Any gas-tax increase should be accompanied by measures that will help alleviate, or at least not increase, the overall tax burden on New Jerseyans." Jay Webber wrote those words, setting the direction.  Steve Oroho was left on his own to get the job done -- to do the negotiating.  The helmsman had abandoned the engineer. 

Webber said at the time that he believed the bipartisan tax restructuring package worked out by the legislative leaders (minus Senator Tom Kean Jr.) and the Governor would result in a net tax increase.  Oroho and others disagreed with him.  Webber is by all accounts a good lawyer, but Oroho is the numbers man.  He's a certified financial planner and CPA.  Before beginning his career of public service, Steve Oroho was a senior financial officer for S&P 500 companies like W. R. Grace and  Young & Rubicam.  It was this knowledge that enabled him to fashion the compromise that he did -- one that turned out to be the largest tax cut in New Jersey's history.

In the end, the Democrats' 40-cent increase on the gas tax was paired down to 23-cents.  The gas tax, the proceeds from which funds the TTF, had not been adjusted for inflation in 28 years, had not provided enough funding to cover annual operations in 25 years, and wasn't even bringing in enough money to pay the interest on the borrowing that was done to keep operations going (in 2015, the state collected just $750 million from the gas tax while incurring an annual debt cost of $1.1 billion).  Even so, Senator Oroho knew exactly where to draw the line... at the minimalist 23 cents and not the 40 cents the Democrats plausibly argued for.

In the end, the engineer got the job done.  Senator Steve Oroho emerged from the boiler room triumphant.  He ended the Estate Tax and secured tax cuts for retirees, veterans, small businesses, farmers, consumers, and low-income workers.  He secured property tax relief by doubling the TTF's local financial aid to towns and counties -- and prevented a $500 per household property tax hike.  He made out-of-state drivers pay for using New Jersey's roads -- and ensured that New Jerseyans will continue to have safe roads and bridges to drive on.

Oroho's tax cuts were praised by conservative groups like Americans for Tax Reform and conservative publications like Forbes, which called his tax cuts "one of the 5 best state and local tax policy changes in 2016 nationwide." 

That's getting something done.   

Murphy wants to raise taxes. Pity there's not enough GOP legislators to stop him.

And whose fault is that?

The NJGOP Establishment's second blog (both appeared during the Christie Project, the New Jersey Globe being the latest incarnation of the project's first one) decided to prate a bit over Governor Phil Murphy's threat to undo part of the compromise reached in 2016 and raise the state sales tax to 7 percent.  The NJGOP Establishment's blog thinks this an "I told you so" moment when, as anyone with even a little gray matter should know, Governor Murphy was not part of the 2016 compromise, as he did not take office until January of 2018.

In fact, the compromise is working very well for New Jersey.  The state's infrastructure is being repaired, restored, and improved upon.  Out-of-state drivers who use our roads have assumed more of the responsibility for paying for them.  More infrastructure funding is flowing to counties and municipalities, with the result that property taxes are being held in check or -- in some cases -- actually reduced.  And revenues from state taxes -- in particular, the state income tax -- are increasing above projections.  Now the Democrats who control the Legislature (some of whom participated in the 2016 compromise) might wish to jeopardize this in order to fulfill the election promises made by candidate Murphy, or they might not.  Time will tell.

The Establishment blog makes an argument against legislative compromise, calling it "unadulterated BS."  Of course, the writer cannot be so stupid as to fail to see that the Founders of our Republic fashioned a system to ensure such compromise.  Indeed, compromise has been the working necessity of every representative democracy since the beginning of Western history. 

Now compromise is quite different than surrender.  Compromise is when you give something and get something back in return.  Like re-funding the Transportation Trust Fund (TTF) through an increase in the gas tax for doing away with the Estate Tax, plus four other taxes, while doubling the flow of money to counties and municipalities for property tax relief. 

This is different from what the NJGOP normally does.  Because what the NJGOP normally does is to provide votes for far-left Democrat legislation for free -- for NOTHING in return.  Yes, they just give it away.  Like they did on legislation to end the death penalty, impose the Highlands Act, fund Planned Parenthood, give tax money to illegal immigrants, pass the original sales tax increase, and gut the Second Amendment.  Heck, the other day, legislators in the NJGOP leadership cast their votes to allow people to re-write their own birth certificates and pretend that they were born one way, when they (as a matter of genetic science) were born another.  It seems science only matters when we're talking climate change. 

They gave away all this for free... and got back NOTHING in return.  And our Establishment blog criticized it not a word.

The Establishment blog complains bitterly about the lack of leadership from the NJGOP.  We agree.  The Establishment blog claims that the "gas tax increase" could have been "weaponized" for the 2017 elections.  It could have been, but that would have meant NJGOP leadership -- up front.  Instead, the GOP Senate Leader gave encouragement to both Pro and Anti compromise leaders, never actually choosing a side until it didn't matter.  In the Assembly, it was no different, waiting for word from the Governor.  As for the state party, well only a fool would have looked to them for leadership.

You cannot blame people for not following, when you will not lead!

Having no principles or platform beyond that which bellowed from a single man (apart from those placed into his head by a small coterie of handlers) the NJGOP was NEVER going to "weaponize" the gas tax or indeed anything else.  Ha!  The NJGOP failed to "weaponize" the twenty-point election landslide of a sitting Republican Governor!!!

As for Kim Guadagno.  She did a dance all right.  She literally danced with the LGBT Left and the Pro-Aborts until realizing too late that they already had a perfectly fine candidate to vote for in Phil Murphy (and he's a DEMOCRAT too!)  When Guadagno's campaign team finally decided it was time to motivate the base, it was just weeks before Election Day and way too late.  The 2017 Guadagno campaign team (the same moes who managed to lose an incumbent Republican Congressman in 2016) have been rewarded by getting to run Bob Hugin's campaign for U.S. Senate this year.  Hey, it's the NJGOP, and nothing gets you promoted quicker than a crushing defeat -- the more, the better.

And that's the heart of the matter, isn't it?  The NJGOP are losers.  They are content to lose.  After eight years of having all resources directed at one entity and everyone else being told they had to lose rather than disrespect some scumbag deal with some disreputable Democrat, the NJGOP has adjusted to losing.  That's why so many of its "leaders" are "lobbyists" -- eels feeding off the bloated carcass that once held a majority in both Chambers and the Governor's office.  The NJGOP's leaders are literally in business with the Democrats.

Don't expect any of this to change any time soon.  There are still crumbs to be gathered, still bits of the carcass to eat off.  Only yesterday, the "mastermind" of Christie project visited a legislative caucus to bask in the praise of NJGOP leaders (reminiscent of the video below).  Under this "mastermind" the NJGOP lost ground in EVERY election cycle, even as "love" for the entity grew.  Christie was elected with legislative control a very real prospect... and left with a hollowed out party and legislative numbers so low that you have to go back to the period just after Watergate.

For his next act... the "mastermind" wants to de-conservative the NJGOP.  Get rid of all those folks who persist in having principles or who continue thinking in terms of the RNC platform.  They gotta go.  What needs to replace them are Republican candidates with the principles of... LOBBYISTS. 

Before the NJGOP Establishment thinks about providing us with another lecture, it should put these few things in place first:

(1) Get Republican leaders who aren't conflicted by having business dealings with Democrats.  Make sure they support the RNC platform.  Otherwise, it's like having a Roman Catholic leader who doesn't believe in Transubstantiation. 

(2) Sell Republican principles, ideas, solutions.  Lead.  Recruit candidates accordingly.  Build the party up by recruiting and sustaining believers. 

(3) Hire people who win elections.  Don't expect someone who has never tasted victory to find it.  That's like asking the wrong dog to sniff out a hamburger stand.  What you'll end up at is a truck stop shithouse.

Phil Garber and the NJ Democrats' Fake News machine

Phil Garber is a small-time editor of a weekly newspaper operating out of Mount Olive, in Morris County.  Garber has never heard of the Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ), the oldest association of writers and editors in the United States, and if he had heard of them, his actions over the years confirm that he's never read the Code of Ethics of the SPJ. 

In a recent headline, Garber reported that Mount Olive is getting $292,500 from the state for a repaving project.  Garber noted that the funds were possible because of the recent gas tax increase that has more than doubled the amount of funds for local road and bridge safety improvement projects.

Of course, Garber had pissed all over the Republican who led the fight to prevent the bankruptcy of the Transportation Trust Fund (TTF), from which those funds were drawn.  That was in 2016.  The Tax Restructuring Package that cut five taxes and re-funded the TTF through a 23-cents a gallon increase on gasoline was passed in 2016 and signed into law by Republican Governor Chris Christie on October 14, 2016.

But that did not stop Editor Garber from making this the first sentence of his story:  "The first fruits of the new administration of Gov. Phil Murphy have been harvested in terms of a grant of $292,500 for the first phase of repaving International Drive North."

No shit.  Phil "the swallower" Garber wants us to swallow this.  The "first fruits" of an administration that didn't take office until January 16, 2018.  How did that work?

Garber works for a newspaper that is owned by the wife of Mark Magyar, one of Senate President Steve Sweeney's top aides.  In December of 2014, Magyar was hired as the Democrat's new Director of Policy and Communications.  Magyar had been a statehouse reporter for the Asbury Park Press and the Bergen Record, as well as the editor of the New Jersey Spotlight.

The corporate and political empire of Democrat Party boss George Norcross -- the political machine of which the Senate President is a part -- has a history of co-opting or attempting to co-opt local and regional newspapers in that part of New Jersey where his authoritarian rule is almost uncontested.  The machine is in the process of solidifying its rule in its southern New Jersey base, while expanding its power across the state -- and beyond.  The machine is allied with powerful lawyer-lobbyists like former Governor Jim Florio and Camden County Freeholder Director Lou Cappelli, who are expanding into neighboring states.  And while the machine's first such foray ended in prosecution and tumult, it might well be successful, and could usher in a period of sustained, anti-democratic ruthlessness, unique in the experience of post-Prohibition America.

Mark Magyar is the spouse of Elizabeth K. Parker, Co-publisher and Executive Editor the New Jersey Hills Media Group.  The group is controlled by the Recorder Publishing Company, a privately held entity in Bernardsville, that owns and publishes 17 local newspapers in Republican Morris County, Somerset County, and Hunterdon County -- and in Republican towns in Essex County.  Their readership comes from towns that usually get the short end of the sick from the Democrats in Trenton.

Elizabeth Parker owns Recorder Publishing with her brother, Co-publisher and Business Manager Stephen W. Parker.  He oversees the print and on-line advertising operations.  The company also sells other services, including website development, search engine optimization, "Reputation Management", and "Social Media Management".

Some of the newspapers they control have been around for more than a century -- like the Hunterdon Review, established in 1868; the Bernardsville News, 1897; Madison Eagle, 1880; and The Progress, 1911.  Recorder Publishing was started by the late Cortlandt Parker, who founded the Morris Observer in 1955.  His company expanded to its current size with the acquisition of the Eagle-Courier Group in 1991. 

Cortlandt Parker, who died in 2002, had residences in Portsmouth, Rhode Island, and Boston, Massachusetts.  His New York Times obituary describes him as having progressive positions on "social issues" and cites as an example his refusal to accept cigarette advertising in his newspapers "before it was common to do so."

While taking a position against the generally working class pleasure of tobacco, Mr. Parker was an advocate of that upper class pleasure -- wine.  He founded the Greenvale Vineyards in Rhode Island and published several magazines about the wine industry in the Finger Lakes region of New York, New England, Long Island, and Virginia.  The New England Wine Gazette is published by Recorder Publishing, at its Bernardsville operation.

Newspapers were never as pure or disinterested as their cheerleaders would have us believe, but at least -- once upon a time/ just yesterday -- they did constitute a locus of power independent of political machines.  Not necessarily of their corporate advertisers (per Herman and Chomsky), but certainly of base political machines.  Those days are drawing to a close. 

New Jersey is unique in its forms and ways of political corruption -- especially of systemic corruption -- in that it rides the wave just ahead of the rest of America.  Sadly, it appears that what we once called journalism is on a rapid descent into the realms of propaganda and in future will be little more than coarse party broadsheets -- advertisements using histrionics worthy of Pravda or the Völkischer Beobachter.

AC women's event fails to mention Dem accused of stalking

Apparently it is "Democrat comes first" with women like Colleen Mahr, the Democrat Mayor of Fanwood, and Bernadette McPherson, the Democrat LD36 District Chair.  Ms. Mahr comes from Joe Cryan country... ouch!

True to form, while hosting a forum on "the importance of women in politics" at the Irish Pub in Atlantic City, the two never brought up the status of this sitting Assembly Democrat...

Oh, and by coincidence, the alleged stalking happened in Fanwood.

Meanwhile, back in Sussex County, the focus of the Democrats' ire this year -- Assemblyman Parker Space -- is sharing in the enjoyment of a clean sweep by the GOP in that county, after pundits,  prognosticators, and assorted moe-moes had been predicting trouble for Space and the Republicans there.  Last year, Senator Steve Oroho was warned by GOP Senate operatives of his impending demise should he become associated with the tax restructuring deal that refunded the state's Transportation Trust Fund (TTF).  He went ahead and became a central figure in the deal and ended up needing to tear down and rebuild his local party in order to be re-elected.  But he did and was -- easily in both the primary and general elections.  In addition to Space, some county Republicans and a great many out of county "observers" forecast a Democrat pick-up in the county Freeholder contest.  Instead, it was a beat down by the GOP.  Lessons can be learned from these pugnacious mountain men.

In the meantime, it looks like the NJGOP needs a new theme song, so here is our suggestion:

Hank Lyon: I lied, I didn't move from my parents' house

Freeholder Hank Lyon recently found himself before a judge again, accused -- once again -- of violating New Jersey election law.  Lyon, who is a candidate for the state Legislature in next week's Republican primary election, could face serious ethical and legal issues in the weeks and months ahead -- and could endanger the seat (even handing it over to a liberal Democrat) if a court finds that, as in 2011, he violated the law.

At issue is Freeholder Lyon's residency and the honesty and integrity of the voting process itself.

We all remember how Hank Lyon won a seat on the Morris County Freeholder Board in 2011.  A late infusion of cash from a corporation controlled by his father -- an infusion allowed only because of an election law loophole that says if a candidate still lives at home with his parents, their money is treated as if it was the candidate's own money.

D. Use of Personal Funds  Use of a candidate’s personal funds on behalf of his or her campaign must be deposited into the campaign depository and must be reported as either contributions or loans to the campaign in the same manner as all other contributions or loans. If the candidate intends to be reimbursed fully or partially for personal funds used on behalf of his or her campaign, then the funds must be reported both as a loan and as an outstanding obligation to the campaign if still outstanding at the end of the reporting period. Once a candidate’s personal funds are reported as contributions, the funds cannot be later characterized as loans and be repaid to the candidate. There is no limit to the amount of personal funds a candidate may contribute or lend to his or her own campaign (except for publicly funded gubernatorial candidates). See Gubernatorial Public Financing Program Manual for more information.  Also, a corporation, of which one hundred percent of the stock is owned by the candidate, or by the candidate’s spouse, child, parent, or sibling residing in the candidate’s household, may make contributions without limit to a candidate committee established by that candidate, or to a joint candidates committee established by that candidate.

That infusion of corporate cash was improperly reported.  A judge overturned a close election, a lawsuit followed, another judge overturned the first decision, while an appeal wasn't pursued after the opposing candidate received a gubernatorial appointment.   Lyon's campaign still owes a huge amount of money to this corporation -- $75,966.66 -- according to the New Jersey Election Law Enforcement Commission (NJELEC).

Per the NJ election law loophole, this large infusion of corporate cash is only legal while Freeholder Hank Lyon and his father reside in the same household (according to corporate records, Lyon's mother resides in Texas).  Here's where the story gets interesting. 

Hank Lyon has long chaffed at the idea of his political career simply depending on "daddy's money."  He's worked to appear to be outside his father's shadow, going as far as lying on his official Freeholder biography:

"He is a lifelong resident of Morris County, specifically the Towaco section of Montville Township, where he was a member of the Montville Housing Committee.  He now lives in Parsippany."

Lyon even pictured his new home in his legislative campaign's advertising, with the words:  "Recently bought his first house, pictured above."  But if Hank Lyon no longer lived at home with his father, then how is he still using his dad's corporate money and keeping to the law? 

In February 2016, Freeholder Lyon did purchase a residential property in the Lake Hiawatha section of Parsippany-Troy Hills.  However, Lyon never occupied the property.  Neighbors claim to have no idea who lives at 45 Manito Avenue.  Mail has piled up and apparently gone unanswered.  Repairs and renovations have been pursued in a more or less desultory manner.  Then, on April 3, 2017, Lyon executed a mortgage on this property -- borrowing $125,000. 

According to the New Jersey Election Law Enforcement Commission (NJELEC), Freeholder Hank Lyon loaned his legislative campaign $35,000 on May 12th and $83,000 on May 16th.  His campaign then purchased $99,997 in cable television advertising that began airing on May 19th.

The mortgage stipulates that the borrower (Freeholder Lyon) "shall occupy, establish, and use the Property as Borrower's principal residence within 60 days after the execution of this Security Instrument."  This Saturday, June 3rd, those 60 days are up.

When Freeholder Hank Lyon moves, in three days' time, the loan his father's corporation has with him will go sour.  It was only allowed while the candidate made his father's home his principle residence.  Freeholder Lyon should have paid off the corporate loan that will clearly place him outside normal, ethical, campaign finance limits.  Instead, he borrowed more to finance another campaign for political office.

Little wonder then that as a candidate for the Legislature, Hank Lyon supported borrowing and debt to pay for basic road and bridge maintenance.  He opposed adjusting the revenue source of the Transportation Trust Fund (TTF) for inflation, despite it having failed to produce enough revenue to fund the state's transportation needs since 1990.  Because of this "credit card" policy -- endorsed by Lyon -- by 2015, the revenue source (the tax on gasoline) brought in just $750 million annually, but the interest on the debt to fund all that borrowing cost taxpayers $1.1 billion annually. 

Borrowing, paying your bills with a credit card, is not the way of the fiscal conservative... it is madness. 

Spadea promotes Guadagno at LGBT PAC fundraiser

So Bill Spadea brought super-far-left Democrat Jay Lassiter onto his show to promote Kim Guadagno attending a fundraising event for New Jersey's top PAC involved in pushing a far-left social agenda. 

Corporations such as banking giant PNC and Prudential insurance paid as much as $20,000 to host the event -- so don't ever try to claim "otherness" for the LGBT cause -- it is the latest fashion statement by the Establishment, pure and simple.  Corporate backers aside, the ticket price for ordinary people is $250.00.

Our biggest gripe with Garden State Equality is that they oppose democracy.  Instead of leaving important issues to the voters, they lobby to have the unelected judiciary decide for us and then to push major social changes down our throats.  If the TTF and Bail Reform were such big issues that they needed to be placed on the ballot as Public Questions -- why not Same-Sex Marriage? 

We also object to the never-satisfied, unending outrage that flows from the mouths and pens of Garden State Equality.  Needing a cause to sustain the flow of money that keeps their professional activists in pocket money, no sooner one undemocratic victory is wrapped up, they are on to the next "outrage" that must be corrected.  And so within months after same-sex marriage we have the endlessly boring "outrage" over adult males who "identify" as females not being allowed to swing their schwantz in the little girls' toilet.  Really?  Can't we as people work this out... community by community... with a wink and a nod to some (who we know, love, and tolerate), but without the totality that allows a predator in with the teenage girls?

We have been warned about this kind of "totality" before, in another context, by that good liberal, Mrs. Lillian Smith.  A Southern writer, she was a pioneer in the battle to end segregation.  We recommend her book, The Winner Names the Age.  In it, you will find this passage she wrote when she accepted the Charles S. Johnson Award for her work:

“It is his millions of relationships that will give man his humanity… It is not our ideological rights that are important but the quality of our relationships with each other, with all men, with knowledge and art and God that count.

The civil rights movement has done a magnificent job but it is now faced with the ancient choice between good and evil, between love for all men and lust for a group’s power.”

“Every group on earth that has put ideology before human relations has failed; always disaster and bitterness and bloodshed have come.  This movement, too, may fail.  If it does, it will be because it aroused in men more hate than love, more concern for their own group than for all people, more lust for power than compassion for human need.”

“We must avoid the trap of totalism which lures a man into thinking there is only one way, one answer, one option, and that others must be forced into this One Way, and forced into it Now.”

Erick Erickson and Bill Blankschaen recently published a book called "You Will Be Made to Care" about the threat posed by groups like Garden State Equality to the right of every human being to think as he or she chooses and the freedom to express those thoughts.  Along those same lines, although much more powerfully written, is "Submission" by Michel Houellebecq.  It is a reminder of how easy it is to conform, and by conforming, to lose the freedom of one's own conscience.

If you think that you can be a modern Amish today, that you can opt out and be left alone, that doesn't appear likely.  To date, there has been a certain lack of generosity by the winners of these cultural battles.  In every state where same-sex marriage was legalized, people of conscience who objected to participating in someone else's "celebration" were targeted and made to pay for their dissent.  After the Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriage in every state, what did the winning side do?  It started talking about stripping religious organizations of their tax exempt status.

Groups like Garden State Equality do not look for compromise or for tolerance.  They want hegemony.  The totalism warned against by Lillian Smith... "one way, one answer, one option, and that others must be forced into this One Way, and forced into it Now."

For this reason, they must be opposed by all free-thinkers.  For this reason, we note our disappointment in those so-called Republican leaders who promote and support Garden State Equality.

Did Guadagno and others "hide" from fiscal reality?

By Wm. Winkler

From all quarters, this is the season of madness.  We have the "Trump Derangement Syndrome" of the Left and in New Jersey, we have the irrationality of those who believe that you can go on forever without paying the cost of basic infrastructure.  And the madness is growing in its intensity and violence.  Recently a GOP county committeeman showed up at a meeting looking for me, walking up and down the rows of folded chairs, brandishing a firearm -- and all because I had disagreed with him on the gas tax. 

The police have had to investigate this and other incidents because certain demagogues have painted as monsters those who said it was time to face up to a debt crisis.  What should have been a rational, civil debate over tax policy has produced such violent emotion that there are now a number of people who wouldn't mind relieving themselves on our graves -- and the sooner the better, they say.  Hence a political environment where a gunman comes calling.

Is this America -- or Weimar?

Two recent direct mail pieces by Republicans illustrate the irrationality that has poisoned the debate.  One mailer, by Assembly candidate John Cesaro, attacks an opponent for voting to increase the tax on gasoline that funds the Transportation Trust Fund (TTF).  Mr. Cesaro, an incumbent Morris County Freeholder, makes his attack apparently oblivious to the fact that the county he runs and the half-dozen municipalities he works for have applied for and received millions in TTF funding for road and bridge repair and maintenance, as well as for other construction projects.  Without the money from the TTF, those repairs and maintenance would have to be paid for by increases in local property taxes.

Another mailer, this one from the gubernatorial campaign of Lt. Governor Kim Guadagno, goes into histrionics over the "outrageous 23 cents gas tax hike" that she was directly responsible for.  Even before taking power, her transition team endorsed $1.2 billion in new borrowing for the TTF.  They kicked the need for a gas tax increase down the road by relying on massive borrowing -- the very thing that they had criticized Governor Jon Corzine for and claimed that they would not do.

There was another enormous influx of borrowing in 2012, with the Transportation Trust Fund Renewal (V) that authorized $1.6 billion in spending each year until 2016.  More spending was authorized despite the fact that the last time the gas tax produced enough revenue to pay for transportation infrastructure needs in New Jersey was in 1990. 

The gas tax remained at 14 1/2 cents since 1988.  While every other state in America raised its gas tax to keep up with inflation, while President Ronald Reagan doubled the federal gas tax to keep up with inflation, New Jersey's political establishment did the dishonest but popular thing of not raising the gas tax and instead borrowed more and more -- and New Jersey fell deeper and deeper into debt.

While everything else was adjusted for inflation again and again, the gas tax was not.  Why?  Because politicians could point to low gas prices whenever a property taxpayer complained about having the highest in the nation property taxes.   As property taxes doubled and then doubled again -- costing taxpayers thousands upon thousands each year -- politicians would point to the gas tax and tell them they'd saved a couple hundred. 

But they hadn't saved anything.  They just passed the costs on to their children and grandchildren. 

It was all an illusion, a dishonesty willingly believed by a public who on some level must have known that it was all bunk.  After all, the average new car cost $10,400 in 1988.  Today it is $33,560.  It went against every knowledgeable fiber in their bodies to believe the nonsense that the cost to maintain the roads and bridges they drove those cars on would remain the same for 28 years.

The average citizen understands "adjustments for inflation" because they depend on them.  Retirees and others on social security receive yearly cost-of-living increases based on such inflation adjustments.  Here are the adjustments for inflation that should have triggered increases in the gasoline tax, year-by-year, since 1988:  4.0% in 1988, 4.7% in 1989, 5.4% in 1990, 3.7% in 1991, 3% in 1992, 2.6% in 1993, 2.8% in 1994, 2.6% in 1995, 2.9% in 1996, 2.1% in 1997, 1.3% in 1998, 2.5% in 1999, 3.5% in 2000, 2.6% in 2001, 1.4% in 2002, 2.1% in 2003, 2.7% in 2004, 4.1% in 2005, 3.3% in 2006, 2.3% in 2007, 5.8% in 2008, zero in 2009, zero in 2010, 3.6% in 2011, 1.7% in 2012, 1.5% in 2013, 1.7% in 2014, zero in 2015, and .3% in 2016.  But instead, New Jersey's gas tax remained at 14 1/2 cents since 1988.

They ignored the fact that the principal revenue source funding transportation in New Jersey hadn't been adjusted for inflation since 1988 and hadn't produced enough revenue to pay for New Jersey's transportation needs since 1990.    Because of the debt that was allowed to accumulate, by 2015 the annual cost of that debt to taxpayers was $1.1 billion -- outstripping the $750 million in revenue from the gas tax.

Last year, we were treated to cries about how much it cost to build a road in New Jersey.  The source was a report from the Reason Foundation, a libertarian think tank.  One was led to believe that the report was a singular event.  In fact, these problems were first identified in October 2008 and then annually after that.  Why were they not addressed?  Why was there no outcry over "road costs" from the politicians, the press, and the public when more billions were borrowed in 2009 and again in 2012?  Why was no one concerned about "road costs" so long as the state was borrowing more and kicking the costs down the road?  Why did it only become a problem when some people suggested that, after 28 years, it was time to face up to reality?

In public the politicians fretted about the size of the gas tax increase, but all the while they knew exactly why.  If members of New Jersey's political establishment wanted to know why it was necessary to raise the gas tax by 23 cents, all they had to do was look into a mirror.  23 cents a gallon, all in one hit, is what you get when politicians suspend the iron rules of economics and tell people that they can have something for nothing.  This is what happens when you don't adjust the cost of something for inflation.  A business would have gone bankrupt, but politicians know they can be heroes today and get re-elected, by passing the bill to a future generation.  It will be some else's problem.

Freeholder Cesaro and Lt. Governor Guadagno are not bad people.  In their records of public service, there is much to commend them for.  They are both good Republicans who have had positive effects on the growth of our party and on the well being of their communities.  As a stand-alone position, their opposition to a tax increase on gasoline is perfectly defensible and could well be described as "conservative."  But it is not defensible in the context of the immoral dereliction, nonfeasance, and dishonesty by the political establishment in New Jersey, who wantonly ignored the fact that for decades the gas tax had not produced sufficient revenue for the state's transportation infrastructure needs as defined by the Legislature and the Executive. 

And the violence of the emotions, deliberately stirred-up, hasn't illuminated the discussion any. 

Is Kean out to make Codey Senate President?

There are two kinds of labor unions -- those whose rank and file membership voted for Trump and those whose membership voted for Clinton.

President Trump and Republicans who want to build a sustainable GOP majority for the future, seek to work with those unions whose members are inclined to vote Republican or who will consider voting Republican.  These are the largely blue collar trade unions -- Teamsters, Ironworkers, Carpenters, Cabinetmakers, Plumbers, Bricklayers, Electricians, Heavy Equipment Operators, Laborers -- the Building Trades and such. 

On the other end we have the teachers, professors, administrators, and white collar government bureaucrats, clerks and such.  They love everything the Democrats stand for.  They voted for Hillary Clinton -- although some would prefer a "real socialist."  We aint getting these people.  Ever.  Not unless we lose everyone else.

So why are some Republican candidates this year running around telling conservatives that they have the backdoor support of the NJEA and it is a "game changer"?  Haven't we been here before?  Doesn't anyone remember the aftermath of Whitman years when the NJEA and those other liberal unions whose butts we had kissed for eight years turned on us and helped usher in this endless Democrat legislative majority?

We get that Senator Tom Kean Jr. still holds a grudge against the Governor and Senate President for interfering in his leadership election in 2013.  He had every right to be pissed.  It was a legit gripe.  But there comes a point when you have to do the Christian thing and let it go.  But as the AFP screw card showed, it hasn't been let go, it's been expanded to those members of the GOP caucus who sided with the Governor. 

There was more evidence this week, when the Senate Staff -- those same folks who conspired with AFP on the screw card -- sought to crank it up the asses of a few GOP Senators with a release about repealing the tax reform package and replacing it with... Nobody seems to have got that far.

We could go with the plan Senator Jennifer Beck came up with that froze state education aid for seven years to ensure seven years of brutal property tax increases.  Any takers?

In suggesting that they can "repeal the gas tax" what these assbandits actually mean is that they will repeal the Tax Reform package, the whole thing.  So every assbandit candidate who tells the voters that he or she supports "repealing the gas tax" is actually saying that he or she wants to get rid of $1.4 billion in tax cuts, which is just another way of saying that you want to raise taxes by $1.4 billion.

Here are the $1.4 billion in tax cuts these candidates want to shit-can: 

- A tax cut on retirement income.  Most New Jersey retirees will no longer pay state income tax. This tax cut would be worth more than $2,000 annually to the average retiree.

- Elimination of the Estate Tax. This will protect family farms and businesses from being forced to close to pay taxes.

- Tax cut for veterans.  Honorably discharged active duty, guard, and reserve veterans get an additional $3,000 personal income tax deduction.

- Tax credit for low-income workers.  Worth $100 annually to the average worker.

- Sales tax cut.  Worth another $100 annually to the average consumer.

- TTF local government aid:  $400 million in property tax relief for local governments.

That's a pretty sucky platform.

If these machinations are successful and Senator Dick Codey replaces Senator Steve Sweeney as Senate President, conservatives and Republicans who believe in their party's platform will go from having a pragmatic Democrat who from time to time screws us in order to pander to the Democrat base; to a genuine far-left, true-believer, who will spend his every waking hour screwing us simply for the joy of it.  That's not to say that Senator Codey isn't a charming man with a certain integrity.  He just really doesn't buy anything we have on offer and thinks that conservatives and Republicans (the RNC platform variety) are all just full of horse manure. 

Take the Second Amendment for instance.  Senator Codey has proposed two bills to do away with the Second Amendment in New Jersey.  Both S-1159 and S-351 "prohibited the sale, importation, possession and carrying of handguns except by certain authorized persons."  Now why would anyone calling him or herself a conservative or a Republican or even an American ever want to see this despoiler of the United States Constitution and the Bill of Rights in ANY position of power?

Our worst nightmare will be Governor Phil "Jon Corzine II" Murphy, Senate President Dick Codey, and a Leftist Democrat Speaker.  Then we will know the meaning of being screwed.  Republicans and groups like AFP should not be conspiring to get us there.

A Challenge to Assembly candidate Hank Lyon

Yesterday an opinion piece appeared in another blog by yet another Morris County Young Republican.  This young man told the story about how his finances are being put out of kilter by the additional 23 cents in taxation applied to each gallon of gasoline he purchases in New Jersey. 

We question this, because unless he started doing his finances only very, very recently, the price-per-gallon of gasoline is lower today than it was 18 months ago, and well over a dollar less than it was in 2014.  He suggests that he cannot balance his budget now, so how did he balance it then?

The writer, we understand, makes his living as an educator, a teacher.  It is a noble profession and we are sure that he is deeply committed to his work.  But it is a profession which relies on the public purse -- on the taxation of others, regardless of whether or not they use his services as an educator.  And if they don't pay, they face punishment, sanctions, foreclosure, and so on.  This is one kind of taxation.

The gas tax is another kind of taxation.  The gas tax is a classic "user tax."  This is a tax imposed on someone who chooses to access a service or facility.  With a user tax, someone pays for something he or she wants and receives what he or she has paid for.  So if you want to use New Jersey's roads and bridges, you pay for them through a tax on gasoline.  Conservatives believe that user taxes represent a "fair exchange."

The writer attempts to cast doubt on the proposition that if the Transportation Trust Fund wasn't funded, "our roads would be dangerous, bridges would be falling, and people would be out of work."  Well, he would have to take that up with the American Society of Civil Engineers -- professionals, like himself, and the experts in their field.  They issued a report in 2016 and we've taken snapshots directly from it:

Now that is what the professionals -- the best in their field -- had to say.  Some on the Alt-Right and the Far-Left say that we should doubt all professionals, the way they did during the French Revolution.  But we note that the writer himself is a professional, and we doubt that he would want to see his degree rendered meaningless.  If you erode respect for a hard science like engineering, how far behind can a more subjective matter, like education, be?   

The writer continues:  "Now we know that the gas tax and amendment was a ploy by Trenton politicians for their pet projects, such as the Bergen-Hudson Light Rail Extension and we also know half of New Jersey’s gas tax is going back to pay back old debt and not towards infrastructure."

Well, what we actually know is that this writer has been listening too much to the broadcasts coming from the Alt-Right.  What the Alt-Right calls "the gas tax" is actually a Tax Reform bill numbered S-2411/A-12 that included five tax cuts totaling $1.4 billion in cuts and an increase in the tax on gasoline. 

S-2411/A-12 was the result of more than two years of negotiations between Republicans and the majority Democrats who control both Chambers of the Legislature.  Those negotiations were conducted under pressure, with the knowledge that in modern times no political party has controlled the Governor's office for more than eight years.  The Republican negotiators understood that all that stood in the way of the Democrat majority imposing a 40-cent increase on the gas tax -- with NO tax cuts -- was Republican Governor Chris Christie.  They understood that the clock was ticking.

Yes, a great many people use mass transit.  Make it so shoddy and unstable that people stop using it and then imagine what all those hundreds of thousands of commuters returning to the roads in automobiles will do to your rush hour commute -- not to mention the wear and tear on those roads and bridges you don't want to pay for.

And yes, after 28 years of failing to adjust the gas tax for inflation and borrowing to make up the difference there is a whole lot of "old debt."  The last time the gas tax produced enough revenue to pay for New Jersey's transportation needs was in 1990.  Because of the debt that was allowed to accumulate, by 2015 the annual cost of that debt to taxpayers was $1.1 billion -- outstripping the $750 million revenue from the gas tax.  That's what happens when you suspend the iron rules of economics and tell people that they can have something for nothing.

Perhaps this young professional is suggesting that New Jersey goes the way of Argentina?  Ever try building a bridge without financing?  Imagine those property tax increases -- up front -- every time you faced a capital project.    

The writer has some very uncharitable things to say about Assemblywoman Betty Lou DeCroce.  He is very critical of her plan -- the Tax Reform bill numbered S-2411/A-12  that she voted for.  Well, here is what her plan did:

   - A tax cut on retirement income that means most New Jersey retirees will no longer pay state income tax.  This tax cut is worth about $2,000 annually to the average retiree.

- Elimination of the Estate Tax.  This protects family farms and small businesses from being forced to choose between paying taxes or closing and laying-off workers.

- Tax cut for veterans.  Honorably discharged active duty, guard, and reserve veterans now get an additional $3,000 personal income tax deduction.

- Tax credit for low-income workers.  Worth $100 annually to the average worker.

- Sales tax cut.  Worth another $100 annually to the average consumer.

- Property tax relief.  The legislation doubled the amount going to county and municipal governments to repair roads and bridges and so offset property tax increases.

The plan Assemblywoman DeCroce voted for, S-2411/A-12, the Tax Reform legislation -- the bill some people simply call "the gas tax" -- actually cut taxes by $1.4 billion. 

Yes, it did raise the tax on gasoline by 23-cents a gallon.  The Transportation Trust Fund was broke.  Road and bridge projects funded by the TTF were frozen.  That included all those county and municipal projects dependent on TTF funding.  Work had stopped.  Without funding from the TTF, local governments would have had to raise property taxes by an average of more than $500 a household just to make up for the lost aid to keep county and local roads safely maintained.  And if county and local governments failed to repair roads and bridges and allowed people to use them anyway, the eventual cost in litigation to cover the injuries sustained as the result could vastly outstrip the costs to maintain them in the first place.

Yes... hard choices.

Finally, the writer -- this Young Republican -- praises the work of the fellow he would like to see replace Assemblywoman DeCroce.  He's another incumbent Republican named Hank Lyon.  He's a Morris County Freeholder.

Now Hank is a nice young man, but being elected to an all-Republican Freeholder Board doesn't actually provide you with the skills you need to get anything done in a Legislature controlled by Democrats.  You have to be a good negotiator, not an arguer but a builder of trust and of relationships.  You have to leave your comfort zone and learn to sell your colleagues from their point of view.  You have to have humility. 

That... or you can raise the resources to win control of both chambers of the Legislature and capture the Governor's office again, after eight years.  Then you can be as cocksure and prideful as you want.

We know Assemblywoman DeCroce's plan.  She voted for it.  It passed.  A Republican Governor signed it into law.  So here is the challenge to Assembly candidate Hank Lyon:  What is your plan?

We are looking for details here.  Spreadsheet level details.  Work it out and convince us.  And spare us the Alt-Right sloganeering and the NJ 101.5 hashtags.  This is a serious assignment.  Show us what you have. 

We will print it here, without edit.  We await, at your convenience.

Even NJ 101.5 now praising the TTF deal

Even NJ 101.5 have had to acknowledge the good coming from the tax cuts that are part of TTF deal passed by the Legislature and signed into law by Governor Chris Christie.  In a news story today, reporter Michael Symons wrote:

Three-quarters of certified public accountants in New Jersey have advised clients to leave the state because of the estate and inheritance taxes, according to the head of the New Jersey Society of CPAs.

That tax is ending – and so is the advice, even before the law is off the books, said Ralph Albert Thomas, the CPA group’s chief executive officer and executive director.

“Not only our members, but I know estate attorneys have been sending out correspondence about, look, they need to reconvene with their clients to relook at what they proposed,” Thomas said. 

The survey found 83 percent of respondents felt estate and inheritance taxes had prompted clients to leave New Jersey. A follow-up survey is planned for the spring, to see how much the advice has changed.

The estate tax is paid on approximately 3,500 estates annually, around 5 percent of the approximately 70,000 deaths in the state each year.

Currently, New Jersey’s estate tax threshold is $675,000. The full value of any estates worth more than that is taxed. That will be changed to a $2 million exclusion at the start of 2017 – meaning, for instance, that an estate worth $2.5 million would be taxed on the $500,000 over the excluded amount. 

The tax is then eliminated entirely at the start of 2018.

...Sen. Steve Oroho, R-Sussex, said the change will help the state by improving its economy and retaining residents. He said annual state revenues would be around $3 billion higher if the state’s economy was growing at the national average.

“We need to have a major, major tax restructuring in New Jersey,” Oroho said.

Business groups are already focusing on the next potential tax cut. Thomas said help for small business is likely to be his organization’s focus.

“If you think about it, just thinking off the cuff, 300,000 small businesses – if only 10 percent of them hired one other person, that would be 30,000 new jobs,” Thomas said.

Over the last year, New Jersey’s economy has added, 53,4000 jobs, but only 11,100 of those have been added over the last nine months.

On Q2 who is Spadea, Guadagno, Peterson listening to?

The "no camp" on Ballot Question 2 is a coalition that's more like a collection of misfits from Dr. Moreau's island of the damned.  You have everything from warmed-over Holocaust deniers, to Tea Partiers who claim that the Roman Catholic Pope is the anti-Christ, to Alt-Right "Red Shirts", to eccentric neo-Marxists without a party to call home. 

The latter includes a far-left couple from Essex County who have had a rather problematic relationship with local Democrats there and who now find their views embraced by alt-rightists like "Red Shirt" leader Bill Spadea.

Last week, Bill Spadea had leftwing Democrat Peter Humphreys on his show to explain why he and Spadea are opposing Ballot Question 2.  Spadea described Humphreys, who is a lawyer, as a "financial expert".

Here's the deal.  If you want to know where a person is coming from, follow the money.  Where does Humphreys put his money when he donates to candidates for public office?  Well, the answer is simple:  Left-liberal Democrats.

What kind of Democrats?  Humphreys and his wife have contributed to John Kerry for President, Barack Obama for President, Obama-Biden, Hillary Clinton for President, Robert Menendez for Senate, Frank Lautenberg for Senate, Linda Stender for Congress, Donald Payne for Congress, the New Jersey Democratic State Committee... need we go on?

This is who Bill Spadea gets his "expert" financial advice from  on policy questions, such as Ballot Question 2.  And not only Spadea, but more mainstream characters like Lt. Governor Kim Guadagno and Assemblyman Erik Peterson are ever eager to lap up the swill put out by these career lefties. 

Spadea, Guadagno, and Peterson are ignoring the words of real experts, like the Reason Foundation’s Baruch Feigenbaum, who studies transportation policy for a living.  Speaking of the TTF deal, Professor Feigenbaum said:  “The best change the bill made was introducing an amendment to constitutionally guarantee that all gas tax revenue funds transportation purposes ONLY.  In the past the Christie administration has used gas tax revenue to balance the general budget. This is a violation of the users-pay/users-benefit trust fund that transportation policy is based on and should NEVER occur.  New Jersey residents are strongly encouraged to vote for the amendment (Ballot Question 2).”

Did it never occur to anyone that the reason left-liberals like Humphreys want Ballot Question 2 to fail is so they can use the revenue from the gas tax for the kinds of social programs they think are important -- like more money for Planned Parenthood, COAH housing, gun buy-back programs, needle-exchange programs, and such?  Lt. Governor Guadagno is an openly avowed liberal on social issues, but it's a surprise to find her wanting to turn over the money from the gas tax to the whims of the Democrat legislative majority in Trenton.

While it may be expected for some of the more freakish characters who have emerged from this debate to act out as baboons would -- to see mainstream Republicans, chased in circles by fear, agree to articulate their pursuers' demands, is something new.  Again it's Guadagno, having rejected Trump while embracing the Big Lies of the Alt-Right, who is the most notable headshake here.

The "no camp" on Ballot Question 2 has argued their case with as much energy and common sense as this fellow has:

Come Wednesday, November 9th, if the Democrat majority has the power to spend the gas tax money on left-liberal programs that have nothing to do with transportation, we will have the likes of Guadagno and Peterson to blame

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

###

NJ GOP must fight Red-Shirt Fascism

On Friday night, a couple members of Bill Spadea's Red-Shirt movement held a "rally" at the former headquarters of the notorious American National Socialist Bund.  For some strange reason, instead of demolishing the former Camp Nordland, the town leaders of Andover Township have maintained the building that hosted numerous Nazi, Fascist, and Ku Klux Klan rallies in the 1930's.  Sussex County historian Wayne McCabe has written a book about the goings on at "the barn at Lake Iliff in Andover Township."

The Red-Shirts were voicing their opposition to Ballot Question 2, which simply states:

A "yes" vote supports this proposal to dedicate all revenue from gas taxes to transportation projects.

A "no" vote opposes this proposal, thus devoting the same levels of revenue to transportation projects.

The non-partisan organization ballotpedia.org provides the following details:

Amendment design

Question 2 would create a constitutional requirement that all revenue derived from taxes on motor fuels be deposited into the Transportation Trust Fund (TTF).[1] Currently, only 10.5 cents of the gasoline and diesel fuel taxes is required to be deposited into the TTF.

Transportation Trust Fund

Question 2 would require all revenue from tax revenues on motor fuels to be deposited into the Transportation Trust Fund (TTF). The TTF was designed to fund the Department of Transportation and NJ Transit, which then use the revenue for transportation-related projects.[2]

Question 2 and the gas tax

Question 2 was intended to complement a gas tax increase. The amendment itself does not increase the gas tax.[3][4] On September 30, 2016, Gov. Christie (R) and the Democratic-controlled state legislature agreed to increase the gas tax 23 cents per gallon. As part of the agreement, the estate tax was eliminated, the Earned Income Tax Credit was increased, a tax deduction for veterans was created, and the state sales tax will be reduced from 7 to 6.625 percent in 2018.[5] Question 2 would guarantee that revenue from the additional 23 cents gas tax and the existing 10.5 cents gas tax to the Transportation Trust Fund.[6] Gov. Christie signed the bill on October 14, 2016.[7]

Americans for Prosperity, a leader in its opposition to the gas tax increase, supports the passage of Ballot Question 2:

"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."

Ballot Question 2 is the latest BIG LIE seized upon by Red-Shirt founder Bill Spadea for the purposes of (1) increasing his value to the Townsquare Media Corporation, owners of radio station NJ 101.5; and (2) stirring up mistrust, anger, and rage against government and existing political parties for the furtherance of the Fascist Red-Shirt Movement. 

Spadea's argument appears to be that the tax cuts in the Tax Restructuring program (eliminating the estate tax, the tax cut on retirement income for most New Jersey seniors, the sales tax cut, the $3,000 personal income tax exemption for veterans, and the earned income tax credit for low-paid workers) will take revenue that is needed for pension payments for public employee unions. Spadea speciously argues that a vote on Ballot Question 2 would leave "teachers without proper funding".

First of all, this is nonsense and based on some entirely false premise that the Red-Shirt leader cooked up in his head.  Second, it is essentially a left-wing argument, one made by Walter Mondale against Ronald Reagan, at odds with the political spectrum Spadea and the other Red-Shirts claim to represent. But then again, they didn't call it national socialism for nothing!

The anger is the thing.  Getting listeners to act out in an emotional rage is what Spadea's mission is and the level of sometimes violent rage he's built up is truly remarkable.  The foul and pornographic language, the threats of violence against legislators and their families posted on social media, have been breathtaking. 

Townsquare Media permits Spadea to spew hatred against people who use public transportation as though they were a lower form of human being -- and his Red-Shirt followers (and some elected officials) lap it up.  As a salesman, politician, and movement leader, Spadea appears to know more about transportation engineering than civil engineers and planners, who explain the common sense fact that public mass transportation removes millions of cars from the road that would otherwise be clogging said roads and adding to road wear and lengthening commuting time.

Spadea's latest argument against putting the money from the gas tax into a lock-box for road and bridge repair is that capital projects should be purchased up front instead of being financed over the life of the project.  That would be like buying a house or a car for cash.  Few can afford to do that and taxpayers cannot afford to see their property taxes go up to pay for a new bridge up front  Capital borrowing spreads the cost out over the life of the bridge. 

It's common sense but common sense is not what Bill Spadea and his Red-Shirters are about.  They want anger, they want rage, they want fear, they want hate... and increasingly, they are succeeding.

Spadea's rants have so frightened Assemblyman Erik Peterson, that last week his office put out a press release stating "Peterson has consistently opposed these measures" while apparently forgetting that he voted to put the Question on the ballot in January of this year:

ACR1 Amends State Constitution to dedicate all State revenues from motor fuels and petroleum products gross receipts tax to transportation system.

Session Voting:
Asm.  1/11/2016-  3RDG FINAL PASSAGE   -  Yes {75}  No {0}  Not Voting {4}  Abstains {0}

Peterson, Erik - Yes

What a knucklehead!

But that's how it is now.  Emotion trumps reason.  The Big Lie conquers factual truth.  Fear makes people forget their own voting records.  And anger, rage, and hate are the order of the day.  We have been here before, as this footage from a speech by an American Brown-Shirt leader in Madison Square Garden reminds us.  Yes, we have been here before and we have defeated the forces of rage and have survived. 

Townsquare Media launches campaign against GOP

On Monday -- October 17, 2016 -- Bill Spadea, an agent of Townsquare Media, launched a campaign aimed at defeating conservative Republican legislators who voted for the tax restructuring plan that ended the Estate Tax, eliminated the tax on retirement income for most New Jersey seniors, cut the sales tax for consumers, provided a tax credit for low-paid workers, provided an income tax cut for veterans, and funded the bankrupt TTF through a rise in the tax on gasoline instead of by increasing property taxes.  On Monday, Spadea wrote: 

"Even if the current crusade by courageous community leader, Senator Kip Bateman is successful in forcing a vote it’s not gonna pass.  Even if by some miracle the legislature voted to repeal the (tax restructuring package) they overwhelmingly supported, it would be met with a veto by the Governor who led the charge for the largest tax (cut in New Jersey's history)." 

That said, this repeal push is not about actually repealing the tax.  It’s about giving notice to the politicians that we’re watching and we’re gonna #remember in november. 

...Kudos to Senator Kip Bateman for stepping up.  Think twice before attacking what may seem like a quixotic battle.  It’s actually necessary to identify who we need to thank and vote out in November 2017."

Spadea makes it pretty clear that this a political action campaign.  Instead of reporting the news or even commenting on it, this is the news.  Spadea has long craved this kind of political power.  Remember when he was using the money of some pharmaceutical millionaire to build a party structure?  Remember Spadea's "red shirts."  No, we're not kidding, like those old boys back in the 1930's, Spadea did the whole shirt thing too.  It goes nicely with the cult of personality.

Note the intensity and the anger in the singing.  That kind of rage -- unreasoning, stage-managed, and directed at some scapegoat -- may be found almost any day on radio station NJ 101.5 FM.  But then, radio is a very old vehicle for this kind of thing.

Townsquare Media is the corporate entity that owns the license (Townsquare Media Trenton License, LLC) to operate radio station NJ 101.5 (FCC Facility 53458).  The license is a for-profit monopoly granted by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). 

Townsquare Media is owned by Oaktree Capital Management.  This corporation dates from the mid-1990's.  Media sources note:  "Oaktree quickly established a reputation in the high-yield and distressed-debt markets."  The Securities & Exchange Commission fined Oaktree and ordered them to disgorge profits after the SEC ruled they had "sold securities short".

According to Oaktree Capital Management's filings with the Securities & Exchange Commission, it has important holdings in the petroleum sector, with one of its most important funds dependent on oil and gas profits from Alaska's North Slope.  So yes, boys and girls, raising the price of gasoline is not in their economic self-interest.

The federal government grants for-profit corporations a monopoly on the use of a certain frequency provided that they abide by a very few rules and regulations.  One is that they should at least try to be honest.  The FCC website states:

"As public trustees, broadcasters may not intentionally distort the news. The FCC has stated publicly that 'rigging or slanting the news is a most heinous act against the public interest'."

What this means is that a radio station shouldn't out and out lie just to inflame public opinion in an effort to jazz up the ratings in order to sell more advertising and reap a windfall in corporate profits.  But this is exactly what the corporation that owns NJ 101.5 has allowed Bill Spadea to do for months.  Now it has stepped that up and launched a political action campaign against Republican legislators.

Townsquare Media/ Oaktree Capital Management's choice of Senator Kip Bateman to play the hero is hilarious.  We will have more on that later.   

Spadea lands candidate against Oroho

Franklin Borough Mayor Nicholas Giordano, a Republican, recently bragged on Facebook that he had voted for both Bill Clinton and Barack Obama.  The Mayor, who is said to be seeking a political appointment at the Sussex County Municipal Utilities Authority (SCMUA) while dodging questions about a land deal that benefits his family, has been a controversial figure since replacing longtime Mayor Paul Crowley in January.

CONSTITUENT:  Don't talk conservative when you brag about voting for Bill Clinton and Barack Obama Mayor.

Franklin Mayor Nick Giordano: Yup cause I vote best candidate at the time not by party.

"He's a critter in a big hurry," said one county insider, while another dismissed Giordano as "Mayor Thuglife".

Mayor Nicholas Giordano:  Obama was the "best candidate".

Nonetheless, Giordano seems ready to heed former GOP candidate turned talk radio host Bill Spadea's call for candidates to primary the anti-debt Republicans who stood up and took on the Transportation Trust Fund debacle after 25 years of deficit spending, debt, and lies to cover up the can being kicked down the road.  He's told supporters that he's preparing to run and will launch a recall effort against Senator Steve Oroho (R-24).

The Mayor has also trashed the state League of Municipalities for taking a position opposite his on the TTF.  On Facebook, Giordano exhibits a stunning lack of knowledge on the subject of how the TTF is funded, operates, and about the Tax Restructuring legislation passed on Friday.  Just one example is that Giordano insists that the 23 cents a gallon tax is on home heating oil and is unmoved by evidence to the contrary.

Given Bill Spadea's political history, a Giordano candidacy makes sense.  Spadea's campaign manager in his last attempt at elected office (Assembly) was none other than Tea Partier Leigh Ann Bellew.  She challenged Republican Senator Joe Kyrillos in 2013 the year after she ran Spadea's effort against conservative darling Donna Simon.  Her campaign was dreadful and ended even more dreadfully.  A popular video was circulated to describe the effort, start to finish:

This is the way with so many "Tea Party" members.  Rational discussion is suspect.  It is the anger that matters (aka, "Heart and Soul").  Welcome to Spadea's toilet.

More Republicans are now vulnerable

The NJGOP is a party organization without a base of support -- and after the Governor leaves, the views held by its leadership will not match the aspirations of a heavy majority of its natural electorate.  They disagree on issues like abortion, upholding the Second Amendment (as well as other Bill of Rights issues), and gender morphism (the new fundraising tool of the same-sex marriage lobby). 

They will also be more deeply divided than ever along lines of class.  If New Jersey Republicans were already living in a time-bubble of Kean-Whitman attitudes, that will get worse as they react to the flood of blue-collar and post-collar voters into the party, courtesy of Donald Trump.  As the GOP's voters become poorer and grungier, the NJGOP's leadership will want less and less to do with them.

At the same time, the unification of the powerful New Jersey Democratic Party, the joining up of massive resources and a huge activist base behind a single mega-wealthy candidate for Governor sets in motion an existential struggle for the NJGOP in 2017.

In the era of SuperPACS, Republicans would have been lucky to have had the resources to defend all their incumbents in the General Election next year. But the way in which the TTF debate was handled this year has made the prospects for next year much worse.  The antics of Jennifer Beck, Bill Spadea, AFP, and some in the tea party movement have opened the door to several expensive primaries. That will spend down an already limited supply of money and drive up the negatives of the eventual GOP candidate in a growing number of districts.  Given the resources of the now unified Democratic Left the TTF debate itself has opened the way for them to contest a growing number of heretofore "safe" Republican seats. 

The Democratic Left has the resources.  Remember too that the Democrats already hold all three legislative seats in the 1st District -- the 5th most Republican district in the state.  In theory then, there could be just 12 Republican legislators left standing when the dust settles.  But the Democrats have won even in rock-ribbed Warren County, where they held the Freeholder Board within memory, and pre-Oroho they were able to contest and win a seat on the Sussex County freeholder Board.  Given the right candidate and resources, the Democrats have been able to elect a Senator in Morris County.

The failure of legislative Republicans to debate their policy choices in an adult manner has led to everything from accusations of criminal misconduct to death threats against those traditional conservatives concerned about the monstrous growth of debt.  The tone of the TTF discussion within the Republican tent has been suicidal and whatever is to be gained from building the radio career of former GOP candidate Bill Spadea will be lost in the pointless rage he has directed with malice and on purpose at Republican legislators.  Through one-sided interviews, misrepresentations, and outright lies, Spadea magnified the significance of a 23 cents-a-gallon tax increase and taken the focus away from New Jersey's highest in the nation property taxes and highest in the nation foreclosure rate.

Liberal GOP insiders, like Senator Jennifer Beck, have stoked Spadea, given him permission to behave so irresponsibly.  While refusing to address the TTF debt and opposing spending on roads and bridge repairs, Beck called for new spending for Planned Parenthood.  Then she got Spadea to put out lies about a Republican colleague who is the Prime Sponsor of the most important piece of Pro-Life legislation this session.  How is that for killing two birds with one stone! 

This Republican on Republican fratricide will most certainly lead to primaries that the NJGOP and the Republican legislative committees cannot afford.  The hatred driven by the Koch Petroleum-funded AFP, some Tea Party groups, and especially Bill Spadea at NJ101.5, is such that it should come as no surprise when legislators on both sides of what should have been a mature, civilized policy discussion end up with primary challenges next year.

Good job Beck!  Good job Spadea!  Good job AFP!  Good job Tea Party! 

Instead of a rational discussion, we have had an emotional mob forgetting that while their Social Security payouts have been increasing for inflation each year, for 28 years the tax on gasoline used to fund the TTF has not been adjusted for inflation.  Let's run those numbers:  The federal cost-of-living-adjustments were 4.0% in 1988, 4.7% in 1989, 5.4% in 1990, 3.7% in 1991, 3% in 1992, 2.6% in 1993, 2.8% in 1994, 2.6% in 1995, 2.9% in 1996, 2.1% in 1997, 1.3% in 1998, 2.5% in 1999, 3.5% in 2000, 2.6% in 2001, 1.4% in 2002, 2.1% in 2003, 2.7% in 2004, 4.1% in 2005, 3.3% in 2006, 2.3% in 2007, 5.8% in 2008, zero in 2009, zero in 2010, 3.6% in 2011, 1.7% in 2012, 1.5% in 2013, 1.7% in 2014, and zero in 2015.  But the price we paid to maintain our roads and bridges remained the same.  Didn't we ever wonder how?  

One of the most interesting aspects of the operating style of Beck, Spadea, AFP, and some tea party groups is the way in which they vilify their opponents. A policy discussion over a long neglected adjustment for inflation of a revenue source was turned into an existential drama.  As Paul Mulshine noted earlier this week, how did all these people survive when gasoline was $4 a gallon not so long ago? 

The displacement of reason by emotion is the classic way of the fascist.  So is the necessity of dehumanizing your opponents.  That is how you get people to wish someone dead, to threaten it, or even to act on it.  A colleague who you have known personally for years, who has been over to your home for supper, who has met your wife and children and you his, suddenly becomes an insignificance unworthy of human understanding. 

The followers of such people are told that it is right to despise Republicans like Joe Kyrillos and Steve Oroho and Jon Bramnick and Betty Lou DeCroce.  Their followers are told that under no circumstances should they meet with these "RINOS" because meeting another human being, on-the-level, person-to-person might give rise to thoughts of moderation, to an understanding that though we disagree on this issue, we agree on much else, or to at least the recognition that in another person's face, there is humanity.

"No, that is not the way," they hiss, "you must hate these people as you hate a cancer."  All this dark energy over a policy discussion regarding how to address a long-neglected debt, over how to repair and maintain the roads every one of these people use every day.  Wow!  Wow!  Wow and wow again!

Addiego fights for Vets, Cardinale's croc tears

Burlington County's Senator Dawn Marie Addiego made sure that the TTF agreement included more than a handshake for veterans.  She resisted the demands to screw veterans, by NJ101.5's Bill Spadea and the Koch Petroleum lobby group, Americans for Prosperity (AFP). 

Instead, Addiego fought for veterans.  She made sure that the compromise contained a $23 million income tax cut for veterans who were honorably discharged from active duty military service or from the National Guard/ Reserve.  

Some of the bigger hand-jobs out there suggest that a conservative Republican should never vote for a tax cut because, so the argument goes, some future legislature (Democrat or liberal Republican) could undo those tax cuts.  This argument is sheer assbanditry.  One might as well argue against life itself because  eventually, we all die anyway.

Let them try to take this away from veterans.  A tax cut passed is better than one just talked about.  We fight the battles as they come.  We always have. Some of us always will.  One step at a time.  Let others give up.

We also heard from Senator Gerald Cardinale today.  His detachment from conservatives continues.  It began with his votes on behalf of illegal immigrants, to extend taxpayer-funded benefits to those in the United States illegally.  The Senator defended his vote to continue to attract illegal labor to compete with American workers by telling the Star-Ledger (11/24/13): "I’ve always sort of had this penchant for bringing people into the mainstream of the economy, and I think this fits that category.  Let more folks get into the mainstream of the economy and they’ll be doing better."

Senator Cardinale has been a legislator in New Jersey since 1974.  He predates the creation of the Transportation Trust Fund (TTF).  The gas tax has not been increased since 1988.  There have been no adjustments for inflation.  The last time the gas tax took in enough money to fund New Jersey's transportation needs was in 1990.  After that, the Legislature put it all on the taxpayers' credit card and piled on the debt year after year.  For eight of those years -- 1994 through 2001 -- the Republicans held WIDE MAJORITIES in BOTH chambers of the Legislature AND the GOVERNOR.  Did they notice the TTF debt?  Did they do anything about it?  Nope.  Jack Dick!

During that long stretch, the federal benchmark for inflation, the COLA (cost of living adjustment) went up many times:  4.0% in 1988, 4.7% in 1989, 5.4% in 1990, 3.7% in 1991, 3% in 1992, 2.6% in 1993, 2.8% in 1994, 2.6% in 1995, 2.9% in 1996, 2.1% in 1997, 1.3% in 1998, 2.5% in 1999, 3.5% in 2000, 2.6% in 2001, 1.4% in 2002, 2.1% in 2003, 2.7% in 2004, 4.1% in 2005, 3.3% in 2006, 2.3% in 2007, 5.8% in 2008, zero in 2009, zero in 2010, 3.6% in 2011, 1.7% in 2012, 1.5% in 2013, 1.7% in 2014, and zero in 2015.  But the price we paid to maintain our roads and bridges remained the same.  Didn't legislators like Cardinale ever wonder how?

Does Senator Cardinale even care?  We have remarked before on the practice, by so many legislators, of leaving New Jersey with their pension and moving to low tax states after they retire.  Lots of New Jersey legislators own homes outside New Jersey.  Senator Cardinale owns a luxurious resort on the Caribbean Island of St. Martins.  A pool, private beach, horseback riding, water sports, and nearby French gourmet restaurants and Parisian style shopping.  That's not our description of the place, it's the Senator's. 

Part of the TTF compromise is the elimination of taxes on retirement income for those residents of New Jersey.  Senator Cardinale could vote to give retirees in New Jersey an average $1,200 tax cut.

He said he won't.  But there is still time.

ICYMI: Mulshine explains the gas tax

Paul Mulshine is New Jersey's top conservative columnist.  He writes for the state's largest circulation newspaper.   

The 23-cent gas-tax hike: Pigs will fly before the opponents find an alternative.

By  Paul Mulshine | The Star Ledger

October 06, 2016

The weather was sunny with a light breeze outside the Statehouse Wednesday after the state Senate took a key vote on a package that would raise the gas tax by 23 cents a gallon.

It was perfect flying weather for pigs.

My reference is of course to that fabled Statehouse rally in 2008 at which a talk-show host from NJ 101.5-FM presided over the release of hundreds of flying-pig balloons to protest a prior attempt to bail out the Transportation Trust Fund.

That was then-Gov. Jon Corzine's  plan to generate billions by having the toll roads run by a state-owned hedge fund that would bond against future toll hikes.

"Pigs will fly over the Statehouse before there's a realistic level of new taxes or spending cuts that can fix this mess," Corzine told the legislators as he introduced his scheme.

But the plan came crashing down to Earth when drivers learned that it called for tolls to eventually rise by800 percent. 

When those balloons rose over the Statehouse, the plan was dead – laughed to death by the voters. So score one for the guys at 101.5-FM.

But if we weren't going to fill the hole in the TTF with toll money, just what source of revenue could we use?

On that score, the talk-radio guys are all talk. The guys at NJ 101.5 have become the loudest opponents of the gas-tax hike.  But a lot of porkers will have to turn into pilots before the critics can come up with a good alternative for funding the TTF.

The three main objections to this plan simply don't make sense.

The first, which is repeated like a mantra among the radio talkers, is "It's too much money" or some variant thereof.

No, it's not. If they had implemented this tax hike when it was first proposed earlier in the year, drivers would have forgotten it by now. There would still be stations charging a bit over $2 a gallon. A few years ago we were paying almost $4 a gallon.

We survived.

Another objection is that the total package is slanted in favor of that group that liberals love to demonize: "the wealthy." The Sierra Club is one of many liberal pressure groups making that point.

"We believe in a plan to fix the TTF with a gas tax, but this would be on the backs of the middle class by tying it to two other tax cuts that benefit the wealthy," Sierra's Jeff Tittel said in a release. "This plan is a complete sellout to working families and will give a huge tax break to the wealthy."

One part  of the plan is the elimination of the estate tax, which now kicks in at the $650,000 level. The plan would eliminate taxation on pension income up to $100,000 a year for a couple.

Given the cost of living here in Jersey, that would include a lot of the middle classas well as thewealthy.

But the more the merrier, I say. So does state Senate President Steve Sweeney. The South Jersey Democrat teamed up with Republican Gov. Chris Christie to push the bill, which passed the Senate yesterday on a procedural vote and is expected to win final passage in both houses Friday.

Sweeney said those cuts will help keep people home after retirement.

"Those are the people who get up and move to other states," he said. "We recently had one person, David Tepper, leave and it cost us $100 million."

Tepper is the billionaire hedge-fund manager who moved himself and his business to Florida. He didn't cites taxes as the reason, but plenty of other retirees become legal residents of Florida to escape our taxes.

Oroho said his fellow financial planners have no choice but to inform retirees Florida's the best option.

"We're losing income. We're losing wealth. We gotta be competitive," he said.

Then there's the third objection. Some critics of the package argue against it on the grounds that the TTF will still have to keep borrowing even after the gas-tax hike.

That's regrettable, said Oroho. In a perfect world, we would be able to put the TTF back on the pay-as-you-go basis that existed after Gov. Tom Kean last hiked the tax in 1988.

But ensuing governors just kept borrowing money rather than raise the tax a few pennies. Now we're so far behind that returning to pay-as-you got would mean some real pain at the pump.

"If you wanted to pay off the current debt plus have no future debt,  then you'd have to raise the tax by almost a dollar a gallon," Oroho said.

Or in other words, if we want to fix this mess we don't need a flying pig.

We need a time machine.

Unless the critics have one stashed somewhere, they need to accept the inevitable.

ADD - THE REAL MISTAKE: The real mistake the Trenton crowd made was to fail to index the gas tax for inflation back in 1988. Pegging it to the price of a gallon of gas did not account for the time value of money. If it had been pegged to inflation, the tax would have slowly rose from 14.5 cents a gallon to 30.5 cents a gallon.

No one would have even noticed such a small hike and the trust fund could have remained solvent. 

Instead we had the usual gutless politicians of both parties who were glad to borrow the money while pretending to be responsible by not raising the tax.

That's what got us into this mess. Judging from the comments, you readers fell for it.

What's up with Jay Webber?

Assemblyman Jay Webber looks the part of a statesman.  Central casting, send us a Governor!  But looks are not always reality.

On October 14, 2014, the Star-Ledger published a column by Assemblyman Webber.  Its title was "Fixing transportation and taxes together."  Jay Webber was writing about how to raise the gas tax, while offsetting that tax increase with cuts to other taxes.  He zeroed in on the estate tax:

"NEW JERSEY leaders are grappling with three major problems: First, New Jersey has the worst tax burden in the nation. Two, New Jersey's economy suffers from sluggish growth. And third, our state's Transportation Trust Fund is out of money. There is a potential principled compromise that can help solve all of them.

Of the three problems, the Transportation Trust Fund has been getting the most attention lately, and for good reason: It's broke. There is just no money in it to maintain and improve our vital infrastructure. Without finding a solution, we risk watching our roads and bridges grow unsafe and unusable and hinder movement of people and goods throughout the state. That, of course, will exacerbate our state's slow economic growth.

...we should insist that if any tax is raised to restore the TTF, it be coupled with the elimination of a tax that is one of our state's biggest obstacles to economic growth: the death tax. By any measure, New Jersey is the most extreme outlier on the death tax, with worst-in-the-nation status...

New Jersey's death tax is not a concern for the wealthy alone, as many misperceive. We are one of only two states with both an estate and inheritance tax. New Jersey's estate-tax threshold of $675,000, combined with a tax rate as high as 16 percent, means that middle-class families with average-sized homes and small retirement savings are hit hard by the tax.

It also means the tax affects small businesses or family farms of virtually any size, discouraging investment and growth among our private-sector job creators. Compounding the inequity is that government already has taxed the assets subject to the death tax when the money was earned. Because of our onerous estate and inheritance taxes, Forbes magazine lists New Jersey as a place "Not to Die" in 2014.

That's a problem, and it's one our sister states are trying hard not to duplicate. A recent study by Connecticut determined that states with no estate tax created twice as many jobs and saw their economies grow 50 percent more than states with estate taxes. That research prompted Connecticut and many states to reform their death taxes. New York just lowered its death tax, and several other states have eliminated theirs.

The good news is that New Jersey's leaders finally are realizing that our confiscatory death tax is a big deal. A bipartisan coalition of legislators has shown its support for reforming New Jersey's death tax..."

Unfortunately, when the time came for Jay Webber to be counted as part of that bipartisan coalition, he couldn't be counted on.  Jay got scared off by the lobbyist arm of the petroleum industry and what's worse is that he's now attacking those who did what he advocated doing only a short time ago.  And it only makes it worse that he's so darn pompous about it.

It was the same way back when Jay Webber was NJGOP chairman and he didn't have it in him to stand up to Governor Christie over the state party adopting the national Republican Party platform.  Not only did Jay fail to stand up for the principles of our party, he failed to defend those who did, and even attacked those who wouldn't sell out.

There's a lot more too, but this isn't about bashing Jay Webber, this is about a request for some humility.  Look, we all understand that sometimes people can't do what they said others should do -- but that doesn't mean that you kick at them and play holier-than-thou when they follow your advice and do it.

Now in fairness to Jay he did write these words in that column two years ago:  "Any gas-tax increase should be accompanied by measures that will help alleviate, or at least not increase, the overall tax burden on New Jerseyans."  And it is these words on which Jay is basing his current bout of ill temper.

Jay Webber thinks the bipartisan tax restructuring package worked out by the legislative leaders (minus Senator Kean Jr.) and the Governor will result in a net tax increase.  Others, like Senator Steve Oroho, disagree with him.  Now Jay is a lawyer and by all accounts a good lawyer.  Steve is a numbers man. He's a certified financial planner and CPA.  Before beginning his career of public service, Steve Oroho was a senior financial officer for S&P 500 companies like W. R. Grace and  Young & Rubicam.  Now you take your advice from whom you think best.

There is one word you won't find in Jay Webber's 730-word column.  That word is debt.  Yep... D-E-B-T.  Because there are a whole lot of Republicans who don't think on that word too much.  To their minds we can spend and spend and leave it for another generation to pay. 

We hope that Jay Webber isn't one of these Debt & Spend Republicans.  There sure is a lot of it going around.  They think that never voting to raise a tax makes you a conservative, but that's just silly.  Conservatives, real conservatives, balance their expenditures with their revenue.  They enter into debt for long term projects only when they have a plan and the means to pay it back.  Real conservatives don't starve revenue for political points while piling debt upon debt.  That's not being conservative, that's being bankrupt.

If Assemblyman Webber is truly determined to take on what he describes as New Jersey's "worst tax burden in the nation," he's going to need to focus on the state's highest in the nation property taxes.  It is the state's property taxes that gives it the highest foreclosure rate in America.

To do that, New Jersey is going to have to take a step that Jay Webber, as a lawyer, might find distasteful.  New Jersey is going to have to elect its State Supreme Court.  It was the unelected Supreme Court that seized the Legislature's power nearly 40 years ago and with it the people's income tax revenue. It is the unelected Supreme Court that to this day uses that money to its ends and not for the ends promised to the people, namely property tax relief.  And because this money is wasted, New Jersey must have the highest property taxes in America to pay for the education  of its children.   

Until you wrest away that money by voting them out of office, you will never have a low tax, low debt, and prosperous state.

The Debt and Spend Republicans

There was a time, way back, when Republicans balanced the books.  Yeah, you could trust those Democrats to maybe go off on some flight of fancy, some childish attempt to throw money at a problem, but Republicans were the party of the adults, straight-laced and bottom-lined.  Those years when the Democrats were in charge and went off the rails -- spent too much, ran up debt -- those would be followed by lean years with the Republicans cutting spending and paying down debt.

That's not how it works anymore.  Like modern families, both political parties have learned that the shortest route to becoming "most favored parent" is to buy it for the kids and put the debt on the credit card.  Under no circumstances must the voters be taught lessons in budgeting and that spending money you don't have has consequences.

The debate over the funding of the Transportation Trust Fund has produced a curious dichotomy within the GOP.  On the one hand, you have a small group of starched-assed Republicans who simply refuse to continue the Santa Claus myth that a revenue source can remain constant for nearly three decades and magically fund all our transportation needs. 

They know that the last time the revenue collected from the gas tax covered the cost of the transportation program it was designed to fund was in 1990 -- 25 years ago.  Year after year we've fallen further and further behind in debt, to the point where last year the tax on gasoline and diesel brought in just $750 million.  That same year the cost to pay the debt was $1.1 billion.  It had to be paid before a single pothole was filled.  And paid it was -- with more debt. 

For 25 years we've been using roads and bridges that we couldn't afford to pay for and nobody seemed to notice, nobody seemed to care.  And anytime anyone dared to suggest paying off some of that debt you could hear the howls and cries of the children's chorus.  Why is it that we only hear calls for savings when there's talk of paying more?  Why doesn't anyone ever notice the debt until the credit card statement is due? 

For 25 years we have watched our incomes rise in an attempt to keep up with inflation, while those on Social Security received cost-of-living adjustments to combat inflation --  increases of 5.4% in 1990, 3.7% in 1991, 3% in 1992, 2.6% in 1993, 2.8% in 1994, 2.6% in 1995, 2.9% in 1996, 2.1% in 1997, 1.3% in 1998, 2.5% in 1999, 3.5% in 2000, 2.6% in 2001, 1.4% in 2002, 2.1% in 2003, 2.7% in 2004, 4.1% in 2005, 3.3% in 2006, 2.3% in 2007, 5.8% in 2008, zero in 2009, zero in 2010, 3.6% in 2011, 1.7% in 2012, 1.5% in 2013, 1.7% in 2014, and zero in 2015 -- but the price we paid to maintain our roads and bridges remained the same?  Didn't we ever wonder how?      

New Jersey is a fiscal mess because it has the nation's highest property taxes and runaway debt.  According to the Tax Foundation, New Jersey has the worst business climate in America -- 50 out of 50 states -- because, and let's quote them here:  "New Jersey is hampered by some of the highest property tax burdens in the country, is one of just two states to levy both an inheritance tax and an estate tax, and maintains some of the worst-structured individual income taxes in the country."

So the adults in the Republican Party, fashioned a plan to attack a big part of this sorry state of affairs.  Being in the minority, in both chambers of the Legislature, they had to work out a compromise with the Democrats.  But they had an ally in Governor Chris Christie, who wouldn't let anything less than comprehensive get past his veto pen.  Painstakingly, they worked out a very detailed plan that gets rid of the estate tax before the Governor leaves office, eliminates the tax on retirement income for most seniors, cuts the sales tax to boost commerce, provides a tax credit for working people with low-paying jobs, and provides a personal tax exemption for veterans.  The plan also addresses debt by raising the tax on gasoline and diesel to make up for all those 28 years it hasn't been adjusted for inflation. 

Even with the increase, all of the existing tax and the first 10 cents of the increase is needed just to start paying down the irresponsible debt New Jersey ran up while nobody wanted to pay attention.  Without a 23 cent increase, we cannot maintain and repair our roads and bridges, fund our transportation system, and start to pay down the debt.

You know that meetings have been held with Republicans around the state, asking for ideas on what to cut and how to cut to make transportation construction more efficient and less costly to taxpayers.  And we have to tell you, that the same people who demand savings have been less than forthcoming with specifics.  Everyone has a hashtag but nobody has specifics.  And how did it come to pass that Republicans are so scared shitless of numbers?  Lots of hooting and waving of hands until you ask somebody to put it down on paper, run the numbers.  They look at you as if you asked them to go to the moon.  If we are going to have savings, we are going to have to do better.

Can  you hear the howls?  They're coming from the debt and spend Republicans.  See the hashtags?  They read #NOGASTAX.  Now there is a responsible plan... isn't it?  With such a plan we can solve all New Jersey's debt issues.  Three short words squished together gets it done.  Brilliant!

Remember when Republicans busied themselves with spreadsheets instead of hashtags?  Remember those Republicans in the boring white shirt sleeves and ties, who had survived Patton's winter drive through France, who had lived through MacArthur's island-hopping, and who came out of it to remake the Republican Party and launch the new conservative movement?  Remember them?

Well, they are not with us anymore.  Oh, there are a few who keep to the path begun by them. But for too many, understanding spreadsheets and budgeting is hard work.  Reading requires attention.  So the new Republican is content to be a celebrity-chaser who has given up reading white papers for hashtags and tweets, who requires entertainment instead of facts, ice cream lies instead of hard honesty.  Piss on knowledge.  Lie to me, they say, lie to me and make me feel righteous in my anger.  It feels so good to play the victim.

When Benjamin Franklin was leaving Independence Hall at the end of the Constitutional Convention of 1787, he was asked by a Mrs. Powel, "Well, Doctor, what have we got -- a Republic or a Monarchy?"  To which Dr. Franklin replied:  "A Republic, if you can keep it."

Citizenship was never meant to be easy.  It requires attention, interest, and vigilance.  Hashtags are no substitute for reading the legislation or for understanding the numbers.  Tweets should not replace books. 

As residents of America our distractions are many but as citizens of America our attention must be to the Republic.  We have self-governance in our hands if we merely make time for it.  But that will mean putting aside those with the too-simple-to-be-true answers that allow us to happily keep to our distractions. If we want our Republic back, we are going to have to grow a set of balls, learn to read the bills and understand the balance sheets, demand to be told the unpleasant truths, and brook no easy lies. 

And yes, we are going to have to wean ourselves off debt and learn to pay our way.  Because if we don't, we will condemn our children and our grandchildren to be debt slaves to Red China.