TRENTON – In his conditional veto of the Earned Income Tax Credit bill today, Gov. Chris Christie called for a measure regarding insufficient revenues as well as a tax cut.
Addressing one of the Democrats’ leading objections to tax cuts – that revenue might be insufficient to support them – Christie offered in his veto of S2535 a way to address those concerns.
“To directly address the concerns of some in the Legislature who seemingly care little about increasing government spending but find every excuse to oppose tax cuts, I also recommend the adoption of a measure that authorizes the Legislature each year to prevent the implementation of these tax cuts if state revenues are insufficient,” Christie said in his veto message.
However, leading Democrats, including Speaker Sheila Oliver, dismissed the governor’s tax cut proposal this morning.
Oliver said that “The governor has failed to reveal how he intends to finance the higher education restructuring act he demanded to have enacted last July, finance the future infrastructure needs of New Jersey and has failed to address New Jersey’s burgeoning unemployment rate. Election year posturing to the citizens of our state is shameful.”
Christie calls for a tax cut of 10 percent, “a refundable gross income tax credit for homeowners with $400,000 or less of taxable income.” It would be phased in over four years.
