Code Red
About
WyBlog, the best thing about New Jersey since the invention of the 24 hour diner.
Chris Wysocki
Caldwell, NJ
The nine most terrifying words in the English language are "I'm from the government and I'm here to help." - Ronald Reagan
Subscribe
Recent Posts
Recent Comments (RSS)
Twitter Feed
Blogroll
Links
Linkiest
CH 2.0 Info Center
The Jersey Report
Labor Union Report
Memeorandum
Net Right Nation
The Patriot Post Newsletter
Pajamas Media
PJTV
Victor Davis Hanson
J! E! T! S! Jets! Jets! Jets!
OpenVMS.org Portal
AVS Forum
NJ.com Caldwell Forum
The Caldwells Patch
The Jersey Tomato Press
![[socia.list]](http://wyblog.us/images/socia_list-1-200x75.jpg)
Badges
Link to me
Feedjit
Search WyBlog
The Party of "No"
Fair Use Notice
"This site contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. It is being made available in an effort to advance the understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, social issues, etc. It is believed that this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit for research and educational purposes."
Hey! I've moved to He's Pretty Fly For A Jersey Guy.
Please update your bookmarks. Thanks!
Friday, 22 July 2016
Hey NJ, if you thought the last gas tax deal was a joke, get a load of this new proposal
Remember when Vinny Prieto promised us a sales tax cut next year if we'd just let him hike the gas tax this year? And remember how that turned out to be a big fat lie?
Well, Vinny's back, this time with Steve Sweeney in tow, and boy oh boy do they have a deal for us! Is it a good deal? Bwahahahahaha!
The joint proposal would gradually eliminate the estate tax, increase a popular tax credit for the working poor, raise the tax exemption for retirement and pension income, provide a small tax deduction for spending on gas taxes and create a tax exemption for veterans.
The tax cuts are designed to offset a new 23 cent per gallon increase on gasoline sold in New Jersey that would boost New Jersey's second-lowest in the nation gas tax, 14.5 cents per gallon, to 37.5 cents. According to lawmakers, that will fund a 10-year, $20 billion Transportation Trust Fund.
So we get boned up the gas tank in exchange for what? Crumbs?
I think I'll curb my enthusiasm.
The latest, bicameral offering phases out the estate tax, raising the threshold from $675,000 to $2 million on Jan. 1, to $5.4 million in 2018, and eliminating it entirely in 2020.
Lawmakers have said they expect the estate tax cut will be transformational for New Jersey, which has the lowest threshold in the U.S. It was also considered key for recruiting Republican support for the gas tax hike.
The deal will raise the Earned Income Tax Credit to 40 percent of the federal credit and increase fivefold the amount of retirement and pension income excluded from gross income taxes.
A tax deduction once included in the Senate bill is making a comeback. It will allow New Jerseyans making up to $100,000 to deduct up to $500 of their gas tax costs. And there's a brand new $3,000 personal exemption for honorably discharged veterans.
Their estate tax phaseout won't survive the next gubernatorial election, for the same reasons the sales tax cut was never going to be enacted. Any "Republican" whose vote is swayed by this charade is an idiot.
Raising the EITC is just more wealth redistribution, ie payments to poor inner-city Democrats to ensure their votes don't wander off in search of Donald Trump in November. Ditto for that handout to the AARP set.
And then in what's gotta be the biggest insult of all, they're flat out declaring that anyone earning more than $100K a year is rich and underserving of any tax cut at all. In other words, typical Democratic Party class warfare.
The only real cut in the list is the $3,000 personal exemption for veterans, and that's probably only in there because Prieto and Sweeney don't actually know any vets, and so they're thinking hardly anyone in the state will take them up on the offer.
No thanks fellas. Your plan stinks.
Cut spending. Use that to finance your transportation boondoggles. But then, as Glenn Reynolds is fond of saying, that would provide you guys with insufficient opportunities for graft.
UPDATE 22 Jul 2016 15:46:
Well, this is awkward.
Apparently this "deal" wasn't run by Chris Christie before being announced by Sweeney and Prieto.
Brian T. Murray, Governor Chris Christie's spokesman, told MMM in an email that Christie has not seen the Transportation Trust Fund legislation that Senate President Steve Sweeney and Assembly Speaker Vincent Prieto announced today.
Oops.
Posted at 14:06 by Chris Wysocki
[/nj_politics]
Comments | Perm Link |
Technorati Tags:
New-Jersey
NJ-Politics
gas-tax
Steve-Sweeney
Chris-Christie
|
Tweet
| Previous: Game on! It's Trump / Pence vs Hillary / Satan | Next: Just when Hillary thought her email troubles were over... |
| Main | |