Page-3 | Where the N.J. gubernatorial candidates stand on key issues | State | NewJerseyNewsroom.com -- Your State. Your News.

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We must reduce the cost of government at all levels. The state must continue to do its part, in concert with our municipalities across New Jersey. All levels of government must find cost savings through innovations such as consolidation of services. For the last three and a half years, I have put the following critical pieces of the puzzle in place:

Established a 4 percent tax levy cap on counties, municipalities and school districts to prioritize spending and bring down long term costs.
Prioritized significant investments in education by increasing total aid by over $1.8 billion and enacted a new school funding formula that will finally distribute state resources more equitably. While the primary mission of the new school funding formula is aimed at improving educational opportunities for our children, it is also a property tax relief measure that has contributed to the decrease of the school tax levy. School taxes account for roughly 55 percent of local property taxes. Because of my $1.8 billion investment in our children's education, last year New Jersey experienced the lowest increase in the "school tax levy" in more than 10 years. Prior to my administration, the school tax levy was 6 percent. Last year, the school tax levy was 2.65 percent.
Incentivized shared services and consolidation, and eliminated the so-called "non-operating school districts." By merging with neighboring districts, students will receive the same quality education as before, and we will also begin to bring more rhyme and reason to our system of school districts across the state.
Created new oversight positions, the executive county superintendents, which will replace the existing county superintendents and have enhanced authority to promote efficiency. The executive county superintendents will mitigate growth in property taxes by thoroughly reviewing all school district budgets, eliminating nonessential items and requiring shared service arrangements where appropriate.

It's not just about sending checks to our residents, who desperately need help. It's about taking a holistic approach – funding for education, fiscal reform and state government reform. This includes putting more funds into the pension, more than every other governor over the last 15 years – combined, and cutting 7,000 employees from the state workforce. These are major, difficult-to-achieve structural reforms that will have long-term benefits for all New Jerseyans.

More can be done. I intend to continue to work with municipalities to identify more opportunities for innovation to reduce costs to the taxpayers.

CHRISTIE: As outlined earlier, the revitalization of New Jersey's economy is critical to both the survival of the state and our municipalities. We must stabilize our communities by ending the spiral of foreclosures and developing stable employment to enable taxpayers to continue to live in this state, while we work tirelessly to reduce the cost of delivering necessary public services.

DAGGETT: The falling tax collections underscore the need to deal with state mandates as well the necessity to address the underlying cost drivers making government so expensive. Property taxes, not state taxes – local spending, not state spending – are the biggest problems. We need a governor willing to start talking seriously about reducing the real cost drivers of ever-rising salary, health care benefit and pension costs.

UNCOLLECTED SALES TAXES

As governor of a state still suffering the pangs of this economic downturn, do you consider the millions of dollars lost to the state from uncollected sales taxes which result from out of state transactions? What action would you take to urge Congress to close this loophole?

CORZINE: Maximizing tax collections is an issue of fairness that is very important to me. Earlier this year, I put into action a tax amnesty program which resulted in the reclamation of $725million in delinquent taxes. This reclamation led to the restoration of much needed property tax relief.

Uncollected sales taxes present two problems: the loss of tax revenue to the state and the loss of income to New Jersey businesses struggling in this economic crisis. I plan to continue to work with President Obama and Congress to craft a solution to this problem in order to level the playing field and ensure that New Jersey collects its fair share of the revenues that fund our most important programs.

CHRISTIE: The 2002 changes to New Jersey‘s corporate business tax contributed to the anemic private sector job growth that has afflicted New Jersey since those changes. This condition has damaged tax revenues for state and local governments. While I believe that New Jersey retailers deserve a level playing field, I also don't want to repeat the errors of 2002. New Jersey needs to be attracting new jobs, not chasing them away.

DAGGETT: The actual loss to New Jersey tax coffers from large out-of-state mail order houses is at least $1 billion – and growing every year. Failing to collect these sales taxes puts New Jersey businesses at a significant disadvantage – from large retail box stores to the small shopkeepers that make up the backbone of our municipal downtowns. The federal government, at one point, convened a task force to attempt to work out a system for taxing Internet sales and out-of-state mail orders to assure that taxes are collected on out-of-state purchases. As governor, I would push hard through our congressional delegation to enable these transactions to be taxed fully.

GOVERNMENT CONSOLIDATION

Current law allows for consolidation of municipalities, upon approval by local voters. There have been recent calls for the state to implement and mandate consolidation. What is your opinion? Based on that answer, what policies would you promote or oppose, as governor?

CORZINE: The issue of consolidation is a complicated issue and deserves careful thought, not knee-jerk reaction. We are in the middle of a nationwide recession and I think that consolidation is one area where municipalities can save money and provide much needed property tax relief. As governor I signed legislation creating the Local Unit Alignment, Reorganization and Consolidation Commission. The members of the commission must be given time to consider the issues associated with consolidation.  Through initiatives like the SHARE program, I will continue to provide municipalities with the tools they need to identify cost savings through consolidation and shared services, working together with localities to identify how we can make New Jersey better.

CHRISTIE: The governor's approach, to mandate consolidation of schools and municipalities, to arbitrarily slash aid to communities based solely on population and to attack our history of local decision making is wrong for New Jersey. We obviously need to make many changes in how we deliver public services but we do not need to eliminate the hometowns that make New Jersey so special. I will work with our mayors to ensure that they have the regulatory freedom to deliver services in the most efficient manner, supporting shared services and consolidations where and when they make sense. I will work to ensure that we reduce the duplication and waste that occurs when all 1,600 local government entities compete to deliver the same service.

DAGGETT: We have been talking about consolidation of municipalities for many years and despite all the talk, very little consolidation has occurred, largely because of the state's regard for home rule. Instead of focusing on mandated consolidation, we ought to looking at expanded sharing of municipal services, which so many communities are already doing. The sharing of police dispatchers is a great example. Mandated consolidation, however, is a political hot potato that will not bear much fruit, and will not address the pension and health care benefits programs that are at the heart of New Jersey's fiscal crisis.

STATE SPENDING PRIORITIES

Education, transportation, equal opportunity, public safety, public health, economic security, economic development, environmental protection, promotion of New Jersey agriculture, promotion of tourism, regulation of the banking, insurance and real estate industries, children's issues, senior citizens' issues, and...oh yeah, property tax relief. The list goes on from there. Where is New Jersey spending too much? Where do we need to spend more?

CORZINE: Leadership is not about promises; it is about tough choices in tough situations. The 2009-10 budget is a collection of tough choices that reflect our shared values. The budget includes the following provisions:

Provides significant property tax relief to all New Jerseyans, with more than one-half of the budget being dedicated to property tax relief. More than 500,000 senior homeowners will receive a rebate of about $1,300, while more than 100,000 senior tenants are eligible for a maximum rebate of $860. The budget also includes more than $525 million in unanticipated revenue from the most successful tax amnesty program in New Jersey history. The program made it possible to maintain property tax relief through rebates for working families.
Maintains services for our most vulnerable citizens. The budget provides energy assistance via $71 million in funding for the Lifeline program and a $5 million increase in funding for an energy assistance referral program. The budget also preserves funding for programs that support New Jersey's veterans, including veterans' nursing homes and other support services. Also, $12.4 million of funding is provided to serve clients on the Division of Developmental Disabilities Community Services Waiting List.
More than one-third of the budget is dedicated to aid for school districts to offset educational support which would otherwise be raised through local property taxes. In the 2009-10 budget, no district receives less funding than it did in 2008-09, and 171 districts will receive increases. Over four years I will have provided $43 billion in support of education, which is nearly 30 percent more than the previous administration and nearly 80 percent more than the last Republican administration.
The 2009-10 budget makes college more affordable by imposing a three-percent cap on increases in tuition and fees at the public colleges and universities. The budget also makes it possible for more than 10,000 county college students to receive part-time Tuition Aid Grants, a 2.6 percent increase over 2009-10.
Despite the difficult times, the budget preserves access to health care by maintaining current eligibility criteria and copayment levels for Medicaid programs. The budget makes available universal access to health care for all our children, eliminates premiums charged to economically disadvantaged children in the NJ Family Care program and maintains $605 million in funding for charity care.

Like most New Jerseyans, I've spent the last four years holding firm to our core values. The tough choices I made have placed New Jersey in a position to be in the lead as the country emerges from the current economic slump. We have put ourselves on the road to economic recovery, and we will come back stronger than ever from this setback because we will have learned how to do more with less. New Jersey will climb out of this recession stronger, leaner, and more efficient than before.

CHRISTIE: We need to ensure that New Jersey has a financially secure future. We must balance our budget in real dollars, just as every mayor does every year. We cannot continue to have illusions of balanced budgets and make promises that cannot be kept. This may mean that popular programs or services have to be changed or reduced. We must review every single area of expense and every service that is provided to ensure that it is absolutely necessary and being provided in the most efficient manner.

DAGGETT: As I have previously mentioned, we have to look at the entire cost structure of government at every level. While we do so, we must take steps to end corruption of the system that occurs under the cover of law: We must end the double-dipping, pension padding, dual office-holding and other abuses that have increased the cost of government and fostered widespread cynicism among voters. As for where we need to spend more, we must invest in higher education so that we can compete in the new green economy when the current recession ends. We will expand state investment in promoting tourism and travel, our state's second largest industry. We will end raiding of tourism funds, and we will build on our many natural assets and advantages to promote tourism.

– TOM HESTER SR., NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM