Welcome to Budget Week, when deals are cut in Trenton that sometimes exceeds even your farthest imagination.

State Senator Stephen Sweeney sent fellow legislators “some New Jersey political history to consider. Sweeney says that a 3% sales tax imposed by the Democratic Governor and Democratic Legislature in July 1966 resulted in a loss of 19 Democratic Assembly seats in November 1967, that an increase to 5% in the sales tax in March 1970 by a Republican Governor and Republican Legislature led to a loss of 20 Republican Assembly seats in November 1971, and that the 7% sales tax passed by the Democratic Governor and Democratic Legislature in July 1990 resulted in the loss of 10 State Senate seats and 22 Assembly seats for the Democrats.