What is Your Opinion on NJ Governor Chris Christie...

[mrstickball]

HappySqurriel said:

numonex said:

Aggressive cuts to health, education, public service job cuts. Tories increase taxes on the lower and middle income classes who pay for the rich and business tax breaks and concessions. Republican Tea Party = cynical politics driven economic ideologue stooges. Chris Christies is a conservative stooge with a bitter cold axe to grind against the low to middle class. Tories/Republicans only serve the rich corporate elites and powerful interest groups driven by neo-liberal ideology as free market fundamentalism. 

Tories shaft the young, poor and working classes to please the business/firm owners and rich elites. Republicans are right wing extremists pushing their politics to comply with their Victorian 19th century conservative Christian views on society. Tories encourage wage freezes or wage reductions on lower classes to increase the bottom line for the rich business/firm owners.

So, being that New Jersey already had one of the highest tax rates in the country and had the largest debt and deficit in the country, where should they have gotten the money from to balance the budget?

Increasing taxes on the wealthy will only result in the wealthy increasing their gross income, avoiding taxes through loopholes, passing on the costs, or moving out of the region (capital flight); increasing taxes on businesses will only result in New Jersey being at a competitive disadvantage, and businesses (and jobs) leaving the region to more business friendly regions; increasing taxes on the middle class will only result in decreased economic activity as people can afford to buy less or leave the state.

This leaves cutting spending ... From my understanding of American State finances, the vast majority of spending is on education and social spending; and this means that education and social spending need to see significant cuts.

 

You might want to maintain your belief that this government spending translates to increased economic activity which justifies the spending, but the current position of states like California and New Jersey would indicate the opposite.

Don't forget that NJ has one of the worst business climates due to taxes already. Raising more taxes would see few returns due to flight, as you said.