Republicans can make a triumphant return to Trenton if we stand for stuff. Real stuff like property tax reform, not just throwing crumbs like "rebates". They're better than nothing, but far from a solution. We won't get very far if we simply keep saying, "Look at Corzine, he's raising taxes!" Unless we offer solutions to property taxes and related issues like school funding, we're going to remain a minority party. News flash! There are 49 other states out there, and that's an excellent place to start looking for ideas. Jersey doesn't exist in a vacuum.
The Whitman/Gluck/DiFrancesco years set the GOP in this state back 35 years! By being "Democrats lite", and sometimes not so lite, our leadership squandered a golden opportunity to enact real change in this state. When a good law did come out of the Legislature, it often fell under Whitman's veto pen. If the veto was overridden, the Supreme Court would be sure not only to kill the law, but do some legislating of its own.
So, friends, the Republican Party can still beat the odds and return as a majority in Trenton, but we have to give voters a reason to vote for our people.
Saying we're not the Democrats, but we're like the Democrats won't cut it.
5 comments:
i'll vote for the first republican who has a good one...and doesn't take money from john lynch or jack morris.
and i'ds contribute to the guy or gal as much as i could, and forget the damn donkeys and elephants.
Good points by all, except no one, not just here, any where...the press, the politicians, even the principled one's like Bret Schundler, have yet to point to the source of the spiraling cost of government and the spiraling costs of campaigns: Unions.
Not since the real Ronald Reagan has anyone had the balls to stand up to them.
michael borg said...
"We need a plan."
JIM_PURCELL said...
"i'll vote for the first republican who has a good one...and doesn't take money from john lynch or jack morris.
and i'ds contribute to the guy or gal as much as i could, and forget the damn donkeys and elephants"
OK, here's the plan:
1) Get rid of civil service, tenure and "prevailing wage"
2) Fund education on the state level via vouchers. Every child gets $8K, and all schools become private and have to compete for the tuition vouchers.
3) Get rid of pensions. All government employees can voluntarily participate in 401K like programs.
4) Roll back the state budget to the pre-McGreavey levels plus inflation(which are still too high) and cap state spending at the rate of inflation unless there is a super majority that authorizes a higher level.
5) Require a super majority to authorize all state debt.
This would work and we'd have massive surpluses in less than 5 years. Our schools would be the best in the nation and we could create a huge "entry tax" for all from out of state who want to live here. It would be a bargin for them, until their home states woke up and did the same things I propose.
This plan, or any like it, will never happen until the unions lose their grip on our government and economy. Hopefully that happens before NJ goes the way of GM
To Bill Seward and elephants:
YES! That would do it. Drastic measures and drastic times, but yes, that could be the recipe. It would change things substantially.
As politically incorrect as that is, the answer cannot be running our seniors out of the state, out-pricing our young couples, bankrupting our middle class and punishing our entrepreneurs.
And, let's talk about the way to attract MANUFACTURING back to this state...at least five years with no taxes for manufacturing plants employing over 500 people. Not Kentucky Fried, Perkins, whatever...real for god MANUFACTURING PLANTS.
Reintroduce the basic elements for a sound economy: manufacturing, commercial and service in proper degrees. it's the "dreary" old formula we all learned in economics about; how to get it right. no flash, no bang, just what works.
something has to be done and there is no more give. this economy can be rebooted. but it has to be built upon a firm foundation that is predictable and dynamic. sound economics first, political drivel last.
and bill, i think that unions would be willing to give to reinstate a sound basic formula and bring manufacturing back. giving a little would mean getting a lot.
Jim,
Alot of painful things would have to happen before NJ becomes a manufacturing economy again, and it would take alot more than tax relief for that to happen
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