The Editorial Board of the New York Post surveys the climate across the Hudson River in New Jersey and finds that Governor Phil Murphy is determined to continue with tax and spend policies that will soon trickle-down to the Garden State’s middle class:

“Indeed, state tax revenues for the current year are already falling short (up less than 3 percent when last year’s budget assumed they’d grow 7.5 percent), mainly because the income-tax take is down more than 5 percent from the year before.

Which means Murphy’s “tax the rich” approach, without serious genuine spending cuts, will soon lead to higher rates for the middle class, too.”

As Governor Phil Murphy’ prepares to give his Budget Address, Bloomberg News’ Elise Young analyzes New Jersey’s fiscal crisis and the potential for protracted political warfare between the Governor and legislative leaders of his own party:

“Governor Phil Murphy, stung by his own party’s cutthroat politics, led New Jersey to the brink of a shutdown last year when fellow Democrats blocked his tax increases. This time, budget negotiations are fraught with even deeper fiscal and political peril. “

GSI’s president, Regina M. Egea, authored the following op-ed which appeared in the Asbury Park Press following the issuance of our report Adding It All Up: New Jersey’s Opportunity to Reduce $200 Million in School Transportation Costs:

“Operational and policy changes will be where the “rubber meets the road.” Savings can be achieved in student transportation. But it will require collaboration and coordination on both the state and school district levels and perhaps most importantly a change of attitude to get beyond “how we’ve always done things.”“

Steven Malanga, the senior editor of City Journal and the George M. Yeager Fellow at the Manhattan Institute, takes a look at the failure of the big Blue State model, with a special emphasis on New Jersey and Governor Phil Murphy:

“In New Jersey, we are moving in a new direction,” Murphy wrote in his Dallas Morning News piece. An unfamiliar reader might assume that the state was catching up after years of low taxes and underinvestment. But Jersey has been one of the nation’s most heavily taxed states for decades—and its financial woes date back more than 20 years. The question that Murphy and other big-government advocates ignore: What happened to all the money?

NJSpotlight.com’s John Reitmeyer reports on the latest report in GSI’s series on the true cost of New Jersey’s government and opportunities for savings: Adding It All Up: New Jersey’s Opportunity to Reduce $200 Million in School Transportation Costs:

“taxpayers could see annual savings of as much as $146 million with better use of technology and more consolidation of student bus services, according to a new report that analyzes everything from how the state’s school districts hire bus drivers to how they design daily routes.“

John Reitmeyer of NJSpotlight.com takes a look at the contrasting style of Senate President Steve Sweeney and Governor Phil Murphy as they approach the state’s upcoming budget season. The Senate President has been aggressively holding town hall events to discuss his Path to Progress NJ proposal to reform the state’s finances, while the Governor has been sticking to scripted and tightly choreographed events.

In a New York Post op-ed, famed economists Dr. Arthur Laffer and Stephen Moore revisit their predictions on the impact of federal tax reform on high tax, big spending states like New Jersey:

“We are sticking with our warnings from last year, which are turning out to have been spot-on. If the tri-state area doesn’t reverse its taxing ways, let alone makes things worse every year, these once prosperous and dynamic states will be fiscally bled to death as tens of thousands more rich taxpayers leave.

They will escape Greenwich, Long Island and the Jersey Shore for places with warmer weather, more sunshine and income taxes as low as zero. Cuomo was right: This is “as serious as a heart ­attack.” Why isn’t anyone doing anything about it?”

Opinion Editor Randy Bergmann of the Asbury Park Press (APP.com) writes on the Adding It All Up report issued by Garden State Initiative this week:

“Commissioned by the conservative think tank Garden State Initiative, the report reinforces my long-held belief that New Jersey doesn’t have a revenue problem, it has a spending problem.  The state’s $34.7 billion budget represents only about one third of all the money raised by New Jersey's 1,522 government entities – 21 counties, 565 municipalities, 590 school districts, 88 charter schools, and 257 authorities, boards and commissions. As the report notes, there is one government entity for every 6,000 New Jersey residents.” 

NJBiz.com’s Daniel J. Munoz reviewed Garden State Initiative’s new research report: Adding It All Up: An Impartial Look at New Jersey’s $117 Billion Government:

“GSI, according to the report, plans to scrutinize spending on student-transportation services, school facilities, government inspection and the road maintenance process as areas of potential savings at upwards of $1 billion.”

“Why do four different layers of government need to plow the streets?” reads the report. “Why do so many school districts need to manage their own student transportation needs?”

NJSpotlight.com’s John Reitmeyer took a deep-dive into Garden State Initiative’s new research report - Adding It All Up: An Impartial Look at New Jersey’s $117 Billion Government:

“The goal of the Morristown-based group’s complicated accounting exercise was to determine just how much it costs to deliver government services in New Jersey. The report also sets the table for a deeper analysis of whether residents are getting bang for their buck. The group is promising to issue follow-up reports exploring ways governments can save money with specific efficiencies. GSI believes it will be able to identify opportunities for at least $1 billion in potential cuts in the coming weeks.”