Gov. Christie of New Jersey is reassuring some Jersey residents that taxA tax is a mandatory payment or charge collected by local, state, and national governments from individuals or businesses to cover the costs of general government services, goods, and activities. increases are not on the horizon:
On the surface the news looked pretty grim for Garden State residents on Tuesday – thanks to an unanticipated drop in tax revenues of $402 million this year and $365 million next year.
But a new budget hole of nearly $800 million is not going to give Gov. Christie a single new white hair. At least this time, the governor’s message is “gotcha covered.”
“We’re very confident we’ve been able to close the additional budget gap in (fiscal year) 2010 and in (fiscal year) 2011 we’re going to be able to solve that problem without any new taxes at all and without any real significant cuts,” Christie said.
Skipping the “fiscalese,” what happened was the budget freeze imposed by Gov. Christie when he took office generated more savings than expected, enough to cover much of the lost tax money.
“I think we’re going to be fine,” Christie said.
…But Christie isn’t going for any new taxes. He said New Jersey taxes have already been raised an unbelievable 115 times.
“We’re not raising taxes, Marcia. That’s it. It’s not happening,” Christie said.
And this is after New Jersey got a couple million less than it was expecting in tax revenue due to a missed detail in the state’s reciprocity agreement with New York:
A research project by a state legislative worker inadvertently uncovered a $200 million bombshell, something New Jersey budget crunchers had missed when interpreting New York state tax regulations.
He noticed a line on page 49 of a New York income tax instruction form, a big red flag in black and white. “Caution,” it said, with an exclamation point inside a triangle sign. People making more than $100,000 should not use the tax tables as a guide because of new New York state tax increases.
More on New Jersey here.
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