Since taking office in 2010, Gov. Chris Christie has approved a record $1.57 billion in state tax breaks for dozens of New Jersey’s largest companies after they pledged to add jobs. Mr. Christie has emphasized that these are prudent measures intended to help heal the state’s economy, which lost more than 260,000 jobs in the recession. The companies often received the tax breaks after they threatened to move to New York or elsewhere.It should be pointed out that there is no evidence that giving money to rich people makes them any more or less likely to create jobs. It does in fact, give them more money, usually at the expense of poorer taxpayers, who either pay more to make up the balance or don't get the services that their taxes pay for.
The generous distribution of subsidies in New Jersey has come under fire from government-reform groups, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg of New York City and some New Jersey landlords, who contend that the programs are an expensive and ineffective form of assistance to wealthy corporations.
The critics pointed out that even when the promised jobs have not materialized, the Christie administration has merely reduced, not withdrawn, the subsidies. And they say that the administration is mortgaging the state’s future by forgiving so much tax revenue for the next 10 to 15 years.
“Christie has taken this to a whole different level; it’s become a feeding trough,” said Deborah Howlett, executive director of New Jersey Policy Perspectives, a liberal policy organization. “It seems ridiculous to steal jobs from one city in the state and move them to another city a couple miles away. There just doesn’t seem to be any benefit to taxpayers.”
Also, this is another reason Republicans don't give the slightest shit about the budget, or budget deficit. If we suddenly had a balanced budget or a budget surplus it's not like they'd be happy and go home. No, they'd find a way to make the budget unbalanced again by giving trillions of dollars to rich people. Yes, this actually happened.
That's how it worked in Wisconsin: bust the unions and cut state projects to "fix the debt", then give the cash you saved back to the rich in tax cuts. It has nothing to do with creating jobs or balancing budgets, just scoring political points for conservative backers.
ReplyDeleteExactly. If we can do anything, we can make sure people stop talking about these things as budget issues. It's a "wanting to give money to rich people at the expense of everyone else" issue.
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