Assume you run an organization, and you discover that your revenues (income) are being exceeded by your expenses. What would you do? Would you, (a) Immediately close down your sixth largest source of income, (b) Close down your fourth and fifth largest sources of income, (c) Increase your budgeted expenditures by 9%, (d) Anger your customers by eliminating their recreational options, or (e) Increase your prices by 16.67% to cover the revenue shortfall (further angering your customers)?
If you’re Democratic Governor Jon Corzine of New Jersey, you would do all of these. Already the New Jersey Lottery is closed; horse racing and casinos will close tomorrow morning at 8am EDT (the New Jersey Supreme Court rejected their appeals); state parks and beaches will close tomorrow; and the only option that Governor Corzine is offering the state legislature (controlled by Democrats, by the way) is a sales tax increase. The Speaker of the State Assembly, Joseph Roberts (D-Camden) has rejected the tax increase.
So Governor Corzine moves down a path where he has put thousands of state workers on unemployment. Tomorrow he hits the private sector, casting thousands in Atlantic City to the unemployment lines. He has exacerbated the problems dramatically. Governor Corzine even makes Gray Davis look good! Today, as we celebrate Independence Day, his actions stand in stark contrast to what our Founding Fathers wrought. Luckily, the voters in New Jersey will head to the polls in November to vote for Governor. I haven’t seen any polls for New Jersey, but I’d expect that the Republicans in the Garden State won’t have any shortage of issues to campaign on.