Campaign News

March 16, 2010
By Adrienne Lu and Jonathan Tamari

A day before Gov. Christie was to unveil his first budget, Democratic lawmakers and policy advocates criticized reported elements they said would hurt the middle class and lower-income families.

For Release: February 17, 2010
 

NEWARK, NJ – As the Assembly Budget Committee held a public hearing over the declaration of fiscal emergency by Governor Christie, Better Choices for New Jersey spokesperson Margarita Hernandez issued the following statement:

“Governor Christie has shown that he’s more interested in cutting taxes for the wealthy than in preserving vital services and preventing higher tuition rates, transit fares, and property taxes when working families can least afford them.”

“Last year, New Jersey took a balanced approach to weathering our economic crisis by modestly increasing income tax rates on those making over $400,000, which prevented devastating cuts and maintained property tax relief. By refusing to extend the rate increase for the remainder of fiscal year on those who can most afford to pay, the Governor is leaving $500 million on the table and underfunding programs that provide working families with relief in hard times.”

WNYC

Wednesday, December 23, 2009
Bob Hennelly

A coalition of 40 New Jersey labor, education, and health-care groups is blasting Gov. Jon Corzine's plan to cut nearly $1 billion to close a budget gap.

In a statement, Gov. Corzine says the economic crisis and the fall-off of state tax revenues left his administration no choice but to make the cuts.

Eva Bonime is with Better Choices for New Jersey. She says the 40 coalition groups are particularly concerned the income tax surcharge on the state's top earners will sunset at the end of this year.

"Giving the rich a tax cut really makes no sense," she says. "You know it is a recession. Average New Jerseyans are being asked to sacrifice. Everyone has to tighten their belts and yet the wealthiest New Jerseyans are actually going to get a tax break."

In addition to the current year's $1 billion budget gap, the state faces an $8 billion shortfall next year. Gov.-elect Chris Christie has warned the state must make major spending cuts in order to be able to make payroll in March.

For Immediate Release

The FY 2010 budget is a mixed bag for New Jerseyans, the Better Choices Budget Campaign said today in its new evaluation of the $29 billion FY 2010 budget signed by Governor Corzine. Its analysis took into account how the budget provided for vital government services, whether it raised revenue to meet the state’s needs in a fair and fiscally responsible manner, and the budget’s ability to meet New Jersey’s long-term fiscal needs.

“Even though this budget takes promising steps towards fairly sharing the burden of this recession by enacting many of the revenue proposals endorsed by the Better Choices Campaign, it still contains far too many program cuts and one-shot solutions,” said Eva Bonime, Executive Director of the New Jersey Working Families Alliance and coordinator of the Better Choices Budget Campaign. “That is why we are going to keep up the pressure on legislators and fight for long-term solutions that will New Jersey to meet its needs and invest in its future.”

Below is a summary of the Better Choices Budget Campaign’s findings.

The Daily Journal

That's the wrong choice for New Jersey. Too many of the more than $4 billion in budget cuts impair critical services that help working families make do in an economic downturn, such as after-school programs that let parents keep their jobs and training programs that help residents get good jobs.

Yet these legislators want to make even more shortsighted cuts. What services do these legislators think we have too much of? Is our air and water too clean? Are our roads too safe? Are our children's class sizes too small? The real risk we face is under-investing in areas that make New Jersey a great place to live and do business.