Posted on 11/22/2007 6:11:26 PM PST by Coleus
A new report shows New Jersey's record debt is now above the $38 billion mark, a figure Governor Corzine has vowed to slash in half with a yet-to-be disclosed "financial restructuring" plan that includes toll hikes. The new total debt number comes just as Corzine is ramping up his effort to convince residents that toll increases are the best way to fix the state's financial problems. He is expected to roll out details of the plan in early January.
The governor and others have warned that New Jersey's mountain of debt will hamper its ability to build roads and schools, or adapt to other public needs, like health care for low-income children. This year, the state paid $3.1 billion for its annual debt, or nearly 10 percent of the state's budget. In all, New Jersey residents face both the fourth-highest total debt and per-capita debt burdens in the nation, according to the report compiled by the New Jersey Commission on Capital Budgeting and Planning.
The debt translates into $3,700 for every man, woman and child living in New Jersey, the governor said. It also means the first $600 of every state tax bill goes to paying down the debt, he said.The commission's report puts debt issued directly by state government at about $30 billion. The figure rises to $38.1 billion when all debt issued by independent agencies such as the New Jersey Economic Development Authority and the Sports and Exposition Authority is included. Both the general and total debt amounts included in the report are in line with the debt figures listed in a comprehensive report on state debt published by The Record in August.
That report outlined how total state debt jumped from $13.3 billion in 1998 to more than $37 billion this year. It also showed how state officials have borrowed huge chunks of money to spend on roads and bridges, colleges, hospitals and school aid. It also detailed how the state borrowed billions to plug short-term holes in the state budget, a practice halted in a 2004 state Supreme Court decision. Lawmakers also borrowed against New Jersey's payout from its lawsuit against the nation's tobacco manufacturers. That $7.6 billion payment in the late 1990s was scheduled to be paid over 24 years, but lawmakers used the settlement to secure an immediate $3.5 billion payment from Wall Street to cover budget shortfalls in 2003 and 2004. And New Jersey residents continue to pay for $2.7 billion in "pension bonds" borrowed to plug a budget shortfall in 1996.
Voters in New Jersey may be tiring of the high debt. Earlier this month, voters turned down a ballot question on authorizing $450 million in bond funds for stem cell research. The governor said during a speech Thursday before municipal officials in Atlantic City that he may be able to cut the state's debt in half if he's allowed to change the way the toll roads are managed. "It is the ever-increasing debt burden that is sucking the life out of the state's finances and our ability to serve our citizens," Corzine said. "Make no mistake, I am willing to lose my job if that's necessary to set our fiscal house in order and get New Jersey out from the debt burden constraining our future."
Republicans have sued the Corzine administration to release a consultant's report that studied ways to leverage the New Jersey Turnpike, the Garden State Parkway and other state "assets" into a new stream of revenue for the state's needs. But a judge on Friday ruled that the report is not a finished product and thus not yet subject to the state's public records law. "The administration is using legal technicalities to avoid doing the right thing, which would be to level with the public," said Assembly Republican Leader Alex DeCroce of Morris County. "The taxpayers have a right to know what the governor is doing with their tax dollars, and no amount of legal maneuvering can justify the administration's stonewalling."
Corzine just needs the license to print money, like the Feds do.
I’ll not weep. Elect Rats, this is what you deserve.....
Newark was once a world class city.
I don’t see why the state shouldn’t follow Newark. This will take longer, maybe a hundred years more. After all there is a lot of wealth that can still be squeezed.
I could see in a hundred years, importing or breeding masses of crypto slaves into New Jersey, so that it gets more Congressmen and teams up with Detroit(istan), New York( istan) and other states and vote themselves taxes just the same way urban cities in New Jersey vote themselves money from Trenton.
Rats move.
How’s NJ doing on benefits to illegals?
No, as a matter of fact, they are spreading all across the Great State of NJ like molasses down hill
What happened to Florio?
If Corzine was Flim-Flam Florio, there would’ve been gargantuan losses in this month’s election for the legislative Dems. Didn’t happen.
I think he opened a lemonade stand in Costa Rica.
ROFL
And he sells eggs over easy & charges people for toilet paper. After they get sick from his food they can squat in the bushes. I wish he would take McGayreevey on as his partner.
No, NJ is an immensely rich state with high property values, commercial traffic, etc, all due to location between Philly and NY and squarely in the NorthEast corridor. NJ isn’t going anywhere, which is why democrats can bleed us.
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