|
Don’t worry if you can’t; only editors and spelling
bee kids can. The real question is whether you know a
magic show when you see one.
Magic requires two ingredients. The first: a willing
suspension of disbelief on the part of the audience.
Sure, we actually see the girl being sawed in half but
we also know people who actually do that wind up in
the Trenton State pen. New Jerseyans have actively
suspended their disbelief about Trenton affairs for
decades so this part of the magic act is already in
place.
The second ingredient is misdirection, the magician’s
ability to get us to look here when the action is
really there. Seems everyone in Trenton, from the
motor vehicle clerk to the governor is a master of
misdirection.
Let’s view Gov. Corzine’s State of the State Message
as an exercise in prestidigitation. Let me see what
really happened.
I’m going to get about $1,000 in property tax relief
on a $6,000 property tax bill. Sounds like roughly
seventeen percent, but it’s worth much less than the
price of admission to the show.
First, I won’t get a rebate check anymore; that’s a
couple of hundred my bartender won’t see. The bar will
close; my property taxes will increase to make up the
difference and we’ll have a few more unemployed
bartenders to add to the unemployed tobacconists. Only
MADD and ASH will be happy.
Second, I’ll get a mystery credit of about $1,000 on
my property tax bill. This could happen next year,
but, as these things generally unfold, probably a few
years in the future. I’m not going to see my $1,000 in
relief - ever; it’s a credit paid to my municipality.
(What makes me think my municipality, Mount Laurel,
won’t see much of it either?)
Third, to paraphrase Christie Whitman, it’s funny, but
one thousand dollars is substantial to some of us and
I could do a lot with it if I got it in one lump sum.
But, $1,000 is also only $83 a month, even less after
escrow adjustments.
It will take some time for my escrow company to make
whatever changes their greedy little hearts will
tolerate. Maybe I’ll notice the change in the first
month of 2008, maybe 2009, if I live to see it; maybe
I’ll even miss it completely. This is a distinct
possibility. Once this “relief” kicks in, it will be
as vague and meaningless as penny increases or
decreases in the sales tax.
Fourth, I am the one paying for this by giving up my
rebate check and paying higher sales taxes plus
whatever else changes. I am also going to pay for this
when my municipality, county and school district react
to the four percent cap. Is this relief or a new form
of price controls?
Fifth, lightening up on regressive taxes is progress
and the property tax is certainly regressive – its
effective rate declines as income rises, but the sales
tax is also regressive. What we’ve done is replace one
regressive tax with another and label it “relief.” No
one in Trenton knows whether the property or sales tax
is more regressive; frankly no one in Trenton cares.
Last, even this pitiful relief disappears in a puff in
four years. Why only four years? My property taxes are
$6,000 a year. If they increase four percent each year
in the future, that’s $240 annually, about $1,000 in
four years. You may call me shortsighted to focus on
this. Won’t I be better off forever? Maybe, but I’ll
forget that tomorrow. I’ll be screaming for even more
relief next year when all this comes clear.
The sad part is that this mess is the result of
Trenton’s best and brightest spending the summer in
legislative session, led by the most financially savvy
governor New Jersey ever had. Is this really the best
they can do? I doubt it.
There’s a difference between prestidigitation and
governance; governance requires two ingredients:
leadership and courage. |
