May 2, 2005 Schundler Slams Democrats" Call for Florio-Like Tax Increase
(MOUNTAINSIDE, NJ) -- Republican gubernatorial candidate Bret Schundler -- responding to news reports indicating that Democrat legislative leaders plan to introduce a massive tax increase scheme today -- issued the following statement:
"Jim Florio must have found himself a new career, advising Senate and Assembly Democrats on fiscal matters. The odd thing is, they seem to have fallen for it. How else to explain the proposal for a $3.7 billion income tax increase? That's bigger even than the $2.8 billion tax increase that ended Jim Florio's career -- and that's just nuts.
"Of course, they"re smart enough not just to come right and out say they want to raise income taxes. So instead, they"re saying they want to raise income taxes "in exchange for" reducing property taxes.
"But we"ve been down that road before, and we"ve seen it never works. Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me.
"Democrats should learn the lessons of history. Every time we have raised taxes at the state level ostensibly for the purpose of reducing property taxes, the only thing that has resulted is that we get a higher tax at the state level, and our property taxes never go down. In 1966, New Jerseyans were told that if we went along with the creation of a sales tax, it would be used to reduce property taxes. It wasn"t. So in 1977 we were told that if we just went along with the creation of an income tax, it would be used to reduce property taxes. It wasn"t. Then along came Jim Florio, who promised he would use his biggest-in-state-history $2.8 billion tax increase to fund -- you guessed it -- reductions in property taxes. That didn"t work, either, and voters rejected him the very first they got the chance.
"You cannot get property taxes under control until and unless you directly address spending at the local level. My plan -- the Permanent Property Tax Reduction Amendments -- is the ONLY plan that does that, and is therefore the only plan that would actually REDUCE PROPERTY TAXES PERMANENTLY.
"New Jersey's homeowners already pay the highest property taxes in the nation, and some of the highest income taxes, too. No one should fall for a new Democrat scheme to raise income taxes by almost $4 billion. Instead, they should visit www.bret2005.com and read about our Permanent Property Tax Reduction Amendments, then show their support by signing our Notice to Politicians."
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