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TagsBY TOM HESTER SR.
NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM
Faced with a growing fiscal deficit that could climb as high as $10.9 billion as officials attempt to balance both the 2009-10 and 2010-11 state budgets, Assembly leaders invited the public to come to Trenton Tuesday to offer suggestions on cutting government spending.
Over 150 people turned out, forcing the bipartisan committee to split the hearing into three Statehouse Annex committee rooms in an effort to ensure they would all be heard.
The Bipartisan Leadership Committee, composed of 6 Democrats and 6 Republicans heard suggestions on cutting spending, bolstering New Jersey economy, complaints of poor response by government agencies, and in some cases, just plain rambling.
Assembly Speaker Sheila Y. Oliver (D-Essex) told the audience the hearing is part of her effort to bring transparency to state government."We wish to spend the next several hours listening to your ideas for improving New Jersey,‘' she said. "In the Legislature there are 120 of us but in our state there are 8 million people. Many have life experience in this state, working and raising families. You often observe the work that we do and say, ‘I've got a better idea.'''
Assembly Minority Leader Alex DeCroce (R-Morris) added, "We are here to listen to all of you pertaining to concerns to make New Jersey more affordable and make a better quality of life. This bipartisan panel want to improve our way of life here in New Jersey.''
John O'Rourke of Brick, representing New Jersey Fair Tax Leaders, suggested the state could end the so-called underground economy and boost the overall economy by eliminating the sales tax, the personal income and corporate income tax, the estate tax and gift tax and replace it with a flat 5.52 percent tax on New Jerseyans.
Joseph Fornarotto of the Disabled Veterans of North Jersey, proposed the state could replace tax revenue lost from the struggling casinos in Atlantic City by opening a casino at the Meadowlands sports complex. He said each Atlantic City casino could have a stake in the casino.
"The state would just collect the revenue and we would have people working,'' Fornarotto said. "This is a win-win situation for the state of New Jersey.''
The Rev. Bruce H. Davidson, director of the New Jersey Lutheran Office of Governmental Ministry, said the lack of affordable housing in all cities and towns has made New Jersey "one of the most economically segregated states in the country, with large pockets of poverty concentrated in a dozen or so areas of the state.''
He added, "Yet every town in New Jersey needs low-age workers in order to thrive economically.''
Davidson said the state government must keep in place an accountable and uniform program that holds every municipality accountable for providing affordable housing to enable people to live where they work. The state is strongly considering dropping most of its role in providing affordable housing.
"A massive public awareness campaign needs to be initiated to fight negative perceptions of affordable housing and the people who live in it,'' Davidson said. "Such a campaign should emphasize the economic and social benefits of affordable housing.''
Marie Tasy, director of Piscataway-based New Jersey Right to Life, told legislators the state could cut $7.6 million it allocates annually for family planning agencies, including those that provide abortions. She also called for the Legislature and Gov. Chris Christie to abolish the law that allows teenage girls to receive an abortion without parental notification.
"The absurdity of funding an industry that has failed miserably and has a financial interest in keeping the status quo must end,'' Tasy said. "Our young women deserve more.''
Deborah Dowdell, president of the New Jersey Restaurant Association, called for the legislators to urge Congress to use federal economic stimulus aid to finance the state's Unemployment Insurance Trust Fund to help avoid restaurant owners having to pay $300 to $1,000 per employees in July, a levy she said could drive some of business and lead to more unemployment.
"This is a crisis that we realize requires remedy in many ways in order to fix the present problem and prevent it from happening in the future,'' Dowdell said. "We also realize it is an inherited problem for our new governor, and we know that New jersey is not alone in facing this crisis with dozens of states across the nation on the cusp of these increases. New Jersey must push for a short term, mid term and long term solution to ensuring that the Unemployment Insurance Trust fund is solvent.''
Kim Taylor, a state employee, said officials should permit state employees to play a role in confronting the government's problems.
"Rather than look a public employees as problems, look at them as part of the solution,'' she said. "We are the ones on the front line who provide the services and move the government forward. You need to involve public employ as allies not adversaries.''
Former South Plainfield mayor Michael English complained to the legislators that the state Department of Environmental Protections has been unresponsive for six months to requests by the borough to approve permits to ease truck congestion on local streets. He said the truck problem has lingered for a decade.
"This is why we are having the hearing,'' Assemblyman Jon Bramnick (R-Monmouth) responded. "I am pretty convinced you will get a call back."
