Steve Lonegan's blog

“Capitalism is responsible for the current food crisis and starvation around the world,” the voice on the radio said. “Attend our Introduction to Marxism conference this Friday and learn about the merits of Marxism.” Driving up the New Jersey Turnpike, I was shocked to hear this commercial on a popular radio station, though I shouldn’t be. The Left is on the march and more emboldened than ever. So, like any good capitalist wanting to learn what the radical left is up to, I registered.

The 2009 New Jersey State Budget  is not the stunning tribute to sound fiscal policy The Trenton insiders  would have you believe, but just a shallow campaign scam that reeks of political showmanship, while failing to address the state’s dire financial woes.

Last fall, the state conducted its second “Fair and Clean Elections Pilot Project” which included state Senate and Assembly races in legislative districts 14, 24, and 37. The first pilot project took place in 2005 and included assembly races in two legislative districts –the 6th and 13th. This month, the legislature will consider a bill expanding this taxpayer subsidized political campaign scam far beyond its current level, which cost taxpayers over $4 Million in 2007 -- including $625,000 for one candidate alone.

Below is the text of the sppech I gave to Americans for Prosperity-New Jersey activists at our Defending the American Dream Summit in Trenton, May 29th, 2008:

I am going to talk of controversial things. I make no apology for this because today we stand at a crossroads, a time in our history as Americans that we will choose our destiny. We are to choose whether we will follow a road towards Liberty and Prosperity, a road whose course was mapped by the vision of our Founding Fathers. Oh, yes, a difficult road because freedom and liberty come at great expense. It is a road paved with the blood and sacrifice of the hundreds of thousands of men and women who gave so much so we may live free.

FOR 190 YEARS, New Jersey had no income tax and no sales tax. As recently as 1966, it had only the third-highest property taxes in the nation.

Through home rule, local governments delivered efficient and inexpensive services. New Jersey's small towns powered the state to become an economic powerhouse, capable of turning on a dime to meet economic challenges as local governments capitalized on geographic strengths.

Trenton’s legislating machine is running in over-drive. The radicals who are running the engine of big government have opened the throttle of central planning and are bent on ramming through their agenda, regardless of disturbing economic indicators, skyrocketing taxes and the evacuation of job producing taxpayers.

The Swedish-style Paid Family Leave scheme is being railroaded through the legislature, despite its destructive effect on the state’s small business community.

It is clear that the big-government radicals running Trenton today will stop at nothing to advance their vision of an even bigger nanny state no matter what or who is destroyed on the way to achieving the “Common Good.” So much so that they will pass drastically flawed and dangerous bills that will destroy New Jersey’s competitive business climate in favor of emotion based, job destroying politics. This time, however, they got caught on a procedural technicality.

New Jersey has the highest property taxes in the nation; its top income tax rate is the fourth highest in the nation; and we have one of the highest sales taxes. There is no question. New Jersey citizens are among the highest taxed in the country.

The question is why,

New Jersey has one of the most poorly-run state governments in the nation and Governor Jon Corzine has only made it worse. In just two years, he has raised the sales tax after a government shutdown, pushed a sham so-called property tax relief that amounts to larger rebate checks (that are unlikely to continue beyond a couple of years), enacted a dubious new school-funding formula, and now is pushing the largest debt issue in U.S. history, funded by a massive 800 percent hike in New Jersey’s tolls.

This year’s toughest political battle in New Jersey may be the biggest gimmick in Wall Streets history. Governor Corzine’s Asset Monetization proposal is said to reach as high as forty billion dollars and may be the largest borrowing plan in the world. It is a gimmick that will leave a legacy of massive government growth and several life times of financial destruction resulting from poor judgment.