{"id":2323,"date":"2017-12-14T17:10:27","date_gmt":"2017-12-14T22:10:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.musingsbymichael.com\/blog\/?p=2323"},"modified":"2017-12-14T17:10:27","modified_gmt":"2017-12-14T22:10:27","slug":"is-the-grinch-coming","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.musingsbymichael.com\/blog\/2017\/12\/14\/is-the-grinch-coming\/","title":{"rendered":"Is the Grinch coming?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Who<\/a><\/p>\n

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Is the Grinch coming in January 2018 or are things going to get better here in New Jersey as far as cost of living is concerned?<\/span><\/p>\n

A new governor and legislature will be in office this coming year, Phil Murphy (the new governor) has promised to pay in full the Teacher’s pension fund and the other state workers funds, fully fund education, restore family planning and establish a state bank.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Teacher’s pension fund, which every governor from Whitman to Christie has been not paying the state’s share, it is woefully short of the money needed to pay pensions in the near future. Per NJ.com<\/a>, \u201cIn July, Christie committed to making a\u00a0$2.5 billion state contribution<\/a> to the $73.6 billion New Jersey Pension Fund, with about $1 billion coming from the proceeds of the state lottery.<\/i>\u201d Murphy has stated that he would at the least match what Christie has done, but he wants a Millionaire’s tax to be able to fully pay the state’s share of both the Teacher’s and state workers pensions. Will the millionaires stay or flee the state because of a drastic increase in taxes?
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Murphy wants to have the State of New Jersey pay the full amount of funding to the school systems that Christie has not been doing. Per NJ.com, \u201cThroughout the campaign, Murphy criticized Gov. Chris Christie’<\/a>s administration for underfunding education by nearly $9 billion over the past eight years. He’s vowed to fully fund the school funding formula,\u00a0which will cost about $1 billion more per year.<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

He’s proposed about $1.3 billion in tax increases on the wealthy,\u00a0marijuana sales and corporations to help pay for that and other initiatives. Murphy\u00a0told the Associated Press<\/a> he wants this funding in place “immediately.” That likely means he plans to include the additional funding in the budget he’ll introduce in February.<\/i>\u201d If Murphy does this he will have to raise taxes by a large amount as the state does not collect enough revenue to fully fund education. This is a dangerous game that he might be playing as this may very well be the straw that breaks the camels back causing people and businesses to flee New Jersey for lower taxing states.<\/span><\/p>\n

As far as restoring Family planning, this is a minor budget item and the reason it was cut seems to me to be of more a religious problem for Christie, rather than the state saving a minuscule amount of money in the budget.<\/span><\/p>\n

Lastly is the Murphy’s idea of creating a state bank, something that more or less disappeared after the Civil War. Per Politico.com<\/a>, \u201cThe idea is that a state-run bank could house some of New Jersey\u2019s tax revenue, currently spread across a number of local and international banks, and leverage it in ways that directly benefit the state \u2014 like loans for small-scale infrastructure projects or small businesses \u2014 and then return any profit back to the state\u2019s budget.<\/i>\u201d As far has I am concerned this would end up being a fiasco, the state does not have the expertise plus it has shown itself as a poor manager of funds in the past. All this would do is further damage the people of New Jersey economically and line the pockets of the politically connected.<\/span><\/p>\n

That is my opinion- Jumpin Jersey Mike<\/span><\/p>\n