TRENTON, N.J. – With the General Assembly set to vote Thursday on Gov. Phil Murphy’s unconstitutional scheme to borrow $5 billion and impose a new statewide property tax, Assemblyman Jay Webber pointed out that Assembly Democrats are hitting the borrow, spend, and tax trifecta.
“While it sometimes has been tax-and-spend, and other times it’s been borrow-and-spend, with this scheme Governor Murphy and the Assembly Democrats have hit the Trenton trifecta of borrow-and-spend-and-tax all in one punishing package,” said Webber (R-Morris). “Even though we’ve never heard a New Jersey homeowner say, ‘my property taxes are too low, please raise them,’ Governor Murphy and the Assembly Democrats are pushing their new statewide property tax on top of the terrible current local property taxes our people already have to pay.”
Using bond proceeds as revenue for a balanced budget is unconstitutional under the New Jersey Constitution, and the state’s inability to repay the bonds will trigger provisions increasing property taxes statewide to repay the loans.
“It’s a borrowing binge backed by the collateral of our residents’ homes and properties, essentially putting a massive mortgage on every property in the state,” continued Webber. “And Governor Murphy and the Assembly Democrats care not a whit that the scheme is plainly unconstitutional, even as they seek to enforce every dubious law, order, rule, decree, and edict against almost everyone else in the State.”