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

Bateman embraces the Big Lie (who will follow?)

Senator Kip Bateman has held elected office since 1983.  He's been in the Legislature for over two decades.  During all that time, while the fund that pays for our roads and bridges was running out of money, Kip Bateman did nothing but borrow more and kick the can down the road.

The gas tax has 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 increased the federal gas tax to keep up with inflation, people like Kip Bateman did the politically 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 like Kip Bateman 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 like Kip Bateman would point to the gas tax and tell them that he'd save them a couple hundred. 

But he hadn't.  He just passed the taxes on to their children and grandchildren. 

The last time the gas tax produced enough revenue to pay for New Jersey's transportation needs was in 1990.  Because of the debt politicians like Kip Bateman 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.

If Kip Bateman wants to know why it was necessary to raise the gas tax by 23 cents, he should look into a mirror and ask the question, because the answer is:  Senator Kip Bateman. 

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 Kip Bateman knows that he can be a hero today and get re-elected, by passing the bill to a future generation.  It will be their problem, not his.

What Bateman and the other "Red Shirt" Republicans are doing to children, piling debt upon them so that their future begins in a hole, is made worse by the current lie coming out of the "Red Shirt" camp:  That the 23-cents increase applies to baby oil. 

This lie is up there with the "Protocols of the Elders of Zion," the "Flat Earth" movement, and George Bush "is responsible for September 11th."  What makes it even more disgusting is that those who are spreading this lie have consistently voted to kill unborn babies in the womb and have resisted humanitarian legislation to recognize (as does almost every other civilized nation outside of North Korea, China, and Vietnam) that 20-week old unborn babies feel pain. 

Europe recognizes this medical fact.  So does Latin America, Australia, most of Asia, and Africa.  But not New Jersey.  And it is because of those "baby oilers" that this state doesn't

20,000 NJ businesses applaud end of estate tax

The New Jersey Business & Industry Association (NJBIA), represents more than 20,000 businesses in New Jersey.  These 20,000 member companies employ more than 1 million people in New Jersey -- that's right, 1 million NJ jobs. 

Michele Siekerka, NJBIA president and CEO, wrote the following column.  Her research shows her that eliminating the estate tax will improve New Jersey’s economic climate.  Siekerka writes: "Scrapping it signals we might finally address the issues that make the Garden State so expensive for residents and businesses."

Along with other conservative leaders, Senator Steve Oroho has long championed eliminating the estate tax.  Unfortunately elements of what can only be described as the "Alt-Right" or alternative right (alternative to the traditional American variety of conservatism practiced by William F. Buckley and Ronald Reagan), have attempted to incite opposition to ending the estate tax by using various, often openly Marxist, arguments.  At the forefront of these efforts has been Bill Spadea and his fellow "Red Shirts" -- like Sussex County's Kevin Mazzoti, whose writings are violent and pornographic, nearly every sentence containing the word "f**k."

In this column, published today in New Jersey Spotlight, the New Jersey Business & Industry Association President and CEO explain the benefits that come from eliminating the estate tax:

The elimination of the estate tax was one of the key provisions of the recently enacted law that increased the gas tax but reduced taxes in several other key areas, including taxes on pension income for retirees.

Getting rid of the estate tax has been a very high priority for the New Jersey Business & Industry Association.

First, the name “estate tax” is very unfortunate. The name itself connotes wealth — yachts, country clubs, private schools and heirs. Although the opponents of estate tax elimination would surely like it to be so, the estate tax is really about none of these things.

New Jersey is only one of two states with both an estate tax and inheritance tax and its estate tax has the lowest threshold in the nation at $675,000. This means that if a small business is worth more than that — as many are— or if a taxpayer owns a home, has a life insurance policy and a small 401k, they are likely over that limit and will be taxed.

In particular, the estate tax hurts business succession planning, most specifically with family- owned businesses. It’s not uncommon for a family-run business to have to sell business assets in order to pay the estate tax bill. In our 2016 Business Outlook Survey, two-thirds of our members said they take the estate and inheritance taxes into account when making business decisions and that they would not retire in New Jersey.

Opponents of the estate tax elimination are fond of pointing out that general fund revenue would be lost if the estate tax was eliminated. To only fixate on the potential lost revenue completely misses the point. Rather, we need to focus on the revenue that would be kept in state if residents did not leave to avoid the tax.

NJBIA has found that this amount is significant.

If just 20 percent of the taxpayers older than 45 who left the state in 2013 had stayed it would have resulted in an additional half a billion dollars in adjusted gross income that would have stayed here, flowing through the economy along with over $300 million in economic activity.

As we have learned, outmigration is a significant issue that is hurting New Jersey and its economy. The state’s tax burden is a significant factor. New Jersey is now at or near the bottom of every category including, income, sales, property, corporate and estate and inheritance taxes. And where do the residents go? While the naysayers are fixated on Florida, it is actually Pennsylvania and New York that are the top two outmigration states, both of which fare better on these taxes than New Jersey.

During the last 11 years we have lost a total of $20.7 billion in net adjusted gross income. The loss of these funds resulted in a loss of $13.1 billion in economic output, nearly 87,000 jobs, and $4.6 billion in total lost labor income.

The elimination of the estate tax is an important signal that New Jersey is finally serious about addressing real tax reform and the issues that impact affordability for our businesses and residents. It is only the first step in what we hope will be an ongoing discussion about comprehensive tax reform in which we take a deep dive and look closely at how we raise revenue and, most importantly, how we spend that revenue.

We thank our courageous policymakers for taking this very necessary step toward comprehensive reform. NJBIA will continue the difficult and challenging work of making New Jersey affordable for businesses and for families.