June 9, 2009
Contact: Layli Whyte / (732) 933-1591Assemblyman Dave Wolfe (R-10), Assemblyman Declan O'Scanlon (R-12)
New Jersey Taxpayers Association’s New Misery Index Enumerates State’s Growing Debt, Budget, Tax and Unemployment Pain
Assemblymen Declan O’Scanlon and David W. Wolfe welcomed, but lamented, a new metric, the Misery Index, unveiled by the New Jersey Taxpayers Association that documents the rapidly growing tax, debt, spending and unemployment burden that is afflicting New Jersey taxpayers.
According to the index – a formula that includes property taxes, state spending, state debt and unemployment rates – New Jersey’s misery has grown by nearly 25 percent since 2005, the year before Governor Corzine took office, while nearly doubling since 2001 – the year before Democrats took control of state government.
“This new tool confirms an unfortunate truth: New Jersey taxpayers have suffered under Governor Corzine’s failed leadership,” O’Scanlon, R-Monmouth and Mercer, said. “Instead of considering our proposals to reduce the size of state government and stop spending money we do not have, Corzine and his Democratic allies in the Legislature have taxed, spent and borrowed at breakneck speed without consideration for New Jersey’s middle class taxpayers.”
O’Scanlon and Wolfe, members of the Assembly Budget Committee, expressed concern about next year’s figures as unemployment, property taxes and borrowing have shown no signs of abating in 2009.
“Governor Corzine has not only inflicted misery on taxpayers by continuing to tax, borrow and spend excessively, he has been tone-deaf to taxpayers’ plight taking away property-tax relief when the middle class needs it the most,” Wolfe, R-Ocean and Monmouth, said. “I commend the New Jersey Taxpayers Association for crafting a new tool to measure the state’s costly misery. I only wish the harsh truth it reflects were more kind.”
Click the following links to view a year-by-year graph showing how New Jersey’s Misery Index has grown in recent years and chart detailing the formula.
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