This Times of Trenton column by New Jersey Working Families Alliance Director Bill Holland, pointing out Governor Chris Christie's failure to adequately deal with or even acknowledge New Jersey's jobs crisis. Instead, the governor insists on doubling down on the discredited trickle-down policies of the past.
Times of Trenton
By Bill Holland
On Tuesday, Gov. Christie released the fourth and final budget of his term. Legislators and advocates will spend the next weeks poring over the budget to see what’s been funded and what’s been cut. But just as important as what is in the budget is what Christie seems to have left out: a comprehensive plan to deal with the state’s jobs crisis.
Unfortunately, the governor seems unwilling to acknowledge that the jobs crisis is real, much less to offer viable solutions. Instead, he doubled down on what has so far been his only big idea for jobs creation: paying off corporations in the hope that they will someday create jobs. In his budget speech, he touted more cuts for business. His budget summary also includes $2.3 billion in “targeted” tax breaks for corporations – meaning yet more subsidies and tax credits for businesses.
The problem is that these corporate giveaways haven’t been very good at creating jobs. In 2011, Campbell’s Soup took $32.4 million while laying off 130 workers in Camden, one of the poorest cities in America. That same year, the state also awarded $12.3 million to Citigroup to move New York employees to their New Jersey offices. Citigroup took the money and then cut 276 New Jersey jobs in Bergen County two months later. And Christie’s tax break for the developers of Revel Casino has been a spectacular failure. Just last week, the troubled casino announced it’s filing for bankruptcy.
We’ve tried corporate welfare for the last three years and it simply hasn’t worked. While other states are recovering from the 2007 economic crisis, New Jersey seems stuck in a rut. The state’s unemployment rate is the fourth-highest in the nation and it ranks a dismal 47th in economic growth. Pennsylvania has already restored 75 percent of the jobs lost there since the start of the recession. New Jersey has only restored 35 percent. If we stay on the same course, we’re not expected to return to pre-recession employment until 2018.
Worse yet, corporate tax cuts have come at a cost to working families in the form of higher tuition, transit fares, public school fees and property taxes. It’s also led to cuts to pro-employment programs such as the Earned Income Tax Credit, affordable after-school care and funding for our public colleges and universities. Non-partisan think-tank New Jersey Policy Perspective found that without the governor’s budget cuts, our unemployment rate would be down a point or more. Instead, working families are paying more, getting less and looking for jobs that just aren’t there.
Christie has it backward. Instead of buying the wealthy off with ineffective tax breaks and paying for them with budget cuts, he should be asking the wealthy and corporations to pay their fair share so that we can invest in strong, safe communities, a well-trained work force, a quality transit system and the fundamentals we need to make New Jersey a great place to live and do business.
There are better choices available to him. Ending his tax cuts for the richest 1 percent of New Jerseyans could generate more than $1 billion in revenue that could help make college more affordable, keep our streets safe, and invest in transit and green jobs creation. Ending the corporate tax breaks included in this year’s budget could save $540 million more this year and much more in the years to come.
New Jersey can’t afford to double down on trickle-down policies that have failed us so far. We need a real jobs program and a way to pay for it. Legislators should have the courage and vision to fight for both this year.
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Bill Holland is executive director of the New Jersey Working Families Alliance and coordinator of the Better Choices for New Jersey campaign.
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