Bipartisanship seems to be falling apart when it comes to the economic state of New Jersey. Democrats have said the latest economic data shows Gov. Chris Christie’s policies aren’t working and there shouldn’t be a tax cut in the immediate future, but some Republicans claim the Democrats are making matters worse. Republican Assemblyman Declan O’Scanlon told NJ Today Managing Editor Mike Schneider that Democrats are taking pleasure in the state’s less than stellar economic standing.
While O’Scanlon admits the statement by the Office of Legislative Services (OLS) may be true that revenues at the end of fiscal 2012 were off by about $250 million, he said officials don’t know the whole picture.
“Departments throughout the state budget don’t spend all the money that’s allocated to them. We’ll know that in the next couple of months and know, are those lapses enough to offset the revenue shortfall? We don’t know that,” O’Scanlon said. “For folks that jump out there and appear to be taking glee for an opportunity to beat up the governor just makes New Jersey look bad.”
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While O’Scanlon said he wouldn’t celebrate the latest numbers, he said officials should keep in mind that it represents just 1 percent of the budget. “No budget ends up a year exactly spot on,” he said. “So that’s not particularly unusual.”
He also pointed out that Democrats said nothing a couple years ago when the budget was almost $2 billion short. “We knew that going into the fall and they chose to do nothing. And they said it wasn’t apparently significant enough to have budget hearings. But now we are one-tenth of that and all of a sudden it’s a big deal and they’re jumping up and down and having budget hearings,” O’Scanlon said. “There’s definitely some politics going on.”
Democrats have used weak revenue numbers to call for a hold on tax cuts. O’Scanlon said the tax cut debate is one of differing priorities. “For the governor and for myself and members of the Republican side of the aisle, we think it should be a much higher priority to let people keep some more of the hard earned money that they make. They could use that. It would be good for the economy right now,” he said. “It’s a high priority for us. The folks on the other side of the aisle, it’s the very last priority.”
O’Scanlon said Republicans would be willing to compromise to get a tax cut in the budget. “If we have to meet and talk about cuts to other areas of the budget in order to permit the highest taxed people in the nation to keep a little bit more of their money, we’re willing to do that,” he said.
Senate President Stephen Sweeney has proposed putting a referendum on the ballot to ask voters if they want the state’s minimum wage to be raised by $1. O’Scanlon said those in the business world have said there will be fewer entry level jobs if the minimum wage increases. Having a set index of minimum wage increases is also problematic, according to O’Scanlon, because increases could fall during a time of economic hardship. That scenario could harm more than just the business owners, he said.
“It could hurt the very people that my friends on the other side of the aisle want to help by increasing their wages by eliminating their jobs completely,” O’Scanlon said. “We need to make sure that we don’t make that mistake.”