<$BlogRSDUrl$>

Drooling on the Pillow

Saturday, February 12, 2005

Courage 

Laura Mansnerus, the Trenton correspondent for the New York Times has a solution for New Jersey's budget problems. Would you be stunned to learn it involves raising taxes? Her column On Politics in the New Jersey section of the Sunday Times isn't online yet, but trust me.

Her point is that Democrats have a lock on the governorship for probably the next nine years, they own the Assembly and the Democratic Senate isn't up for election until 2007. An ideal time to show 'courage.'

Don't get me wrong, I think there are appropriate times to raise taxes, like when there's not enough unemployment and those occasions when you need to chase businesses to North Carolina. According to Ms. Mansnerus, the time is right to roll back the Whitman tax cuts and impose some new ones.

With the Jim Florio example still (I hope) fresh in their minds the Garden Solons might wonder at the application of the term 'courage' to her plan. If the small subset of base jumpers who disdain parachutes is courageous, well, okay. Otherwise the proper term is 'balls'. A subtle difference.

Wouldn't real courage consist of closing the gap by cutting spending? Of course there would be screams at lost services and no doubt some political careers would come to a screeching halt. But it could be done without further eviscerating the tax base.
Posted by: Sluggo / 1:15 PM
|
Weblog Commenting and Trackback by HaloScan.com Listed on BlogShares