The majority of the Assembly moved forward on a jobs creation bill package with some opposition, including Assemblyman Jay Webber (R-26) who believes some of the measures were unnecessary, including tax credits for investors. Webber also told NJ Today Managing Editor Mike Schneider that he supports a measure that would provide educational resources for children living in domestic violence shelters. In response to the deadly Connecticut school shooting, many are calling for gun control reform, but Webber said it makes more sense to enforce the laws that already exist.
Webber said that while he agreed with some of the bills in the jobs package the Democrats put forward, he thought some measures were unnecessary. “The Democrats proposed a tax credit for so-called angel investors who are fabulously wealthy people who find companies that they are interested in investing in,” he said. “They already make these investments. They make a lot of money making these investments. I mean, I think they find some satisfaction in helping to grow a business as well, but they’re making a lot of money and we don’t need to give them a tax credit to encourage very rich people to make more money.”
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According to Webber, there are a lot of incentive programs and he tends to vote against them. He said government shouldn’t get involved in that way because “the winners don’t really need the subsidies and the losers don’t know but the money’s coming out of their pocket and going to somebody else. It’s not right.”
One measure that has gotten bipartisan support that Webber cosponsored would provide communities housing children in domestic violence shelters with the educational costs.
“These are facilities that you don’t derive any tax revenue from yet the kids who live there still need an education,” Webber said. “They go to the public schools more often than not and those communities for years have been more than happy to have those kids go to the schools, live in our communities and support them, but up until last year they never had to pay for the educational costs.”
Last year a judge ruled that the local communities had to pay for the cost of educating those children. “I thought that was wrong. I thought women and their children who are in dire straights in these facilities are really the responsibility of everybody in New Jersey,” Webber said. “And so we’re this much closer to getting the state to pick up those costs, … which I think is the right thing to do.”
After the deadly school shooting in Newtown, Conn. many have called for stricter gun control laws, but Webber questions that action. “I think we need the laws we have enforced. When a sick, twisted person gets his hands on weapons of death and destruction, obviously bad things are going to happen,” he said.
When asked about the ban on assault rifles that many, including some Republicans, have said should be reinstated, Webber said he’s not sure that’s the answer. “There are a lot of proposals put forward in the immediate aftermath. I think we just mourn, regroup and when proposals come down the pike we’ll talk about them,” he said. “More laws are usually not the solution here. It’s usually enforcement of the laws we have.”