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		<title>Government Bytes</title>
		<description>The Official Weblog of NTU/NTUF</description>
		<link>http://blog.ntu.org/</link>
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			<title>An Image from Today's Health Care for America Now Rally</title><description><![CDATA[Notice how the New Jersey Education Association (NJEA) made "UNTAXED" the largest word on these t-shirts. The logo was also printed on the hats these attendees were wearing.]]></description><pubDate>Thu, 25 Jun 2009 14:27:21 MDT</pubDate><link>http://blog.ntu.org/main/post.php?post_id=4729</link><category>Blog Entries</category>
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			<title>Transparency Legislation in NJ</title><description><![CDATA[Yesterday witnessed a transparency press conference at which New Jersey Senators Tom Kean and Joe Pennacchio gathered to support S-445, the "Transparency in Government Act."  They, joined by the New Jersey Taxpayers' Association, Grover Norquist, and others, spoke on the importance of transparency in state spending.  If passed, S-445 would create a publicly available database containing information on New Jersey's revenues, expenditures, and bond indebtedness.

To see a version of S-445, click here.  ]]></description><pubDate>Tue, 09 Dec 2008 08:40:13 MST</pubDate><link>http://blog.ntu.org/main/post.php?post_id=4059</link><category>Blog Entries</category>
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			<title>A conservative alternative?</title><description><![CDATA[The Republican Study Committee, a group of conservative House members, has come out with an alternative to the Paulson bailout plan. Here are their core ideas:REFORMING A TAX CODE THAT DISCOURAGES CAPITAL FORMATION
Two-Year Suspension of the Capital Gains: Immediately suspend the capital gains rate from 15% for individuals and 35% for corporations.  By encouraging corporations to sell unwanted assets, this provision would unleash funds and materials with which to create jobs and grow the economy.  After the two-year suspension, capital gains rates would return to present levels but assets would be indexed permanently for any inflationary gains.

REFORMING A FAILURE IN GOVERNMENT INSTITUTIONS
Schedule the GSEs for Privatization: Transition Fannie and Freddie over a reasonable time period to truly private companies without special government privileges and open them up to real market competition.  This reform would 1) establish commonsense limits for their capital requirements and portfolio holdings relative their size, 2) focus their mission on affordable housing only, not profit making, 3) require them to pay an appropriate risk-based amount for the government guarantee they enjoy, 4) subject them to state and local taxes and accurate SEC filings like every other private for-profit corporation, and 5) ultimately provide for the phase out their GSE charters once their conservatorship has ended.  In a matter of mere weeks, Fannie and Freddie have gone from too big to fail to too dangerous to repeat.  This hybrid illusion must not be allowed to continue.

Stabilize the Dollar: Repeal the Humphrey-Hawkins Full Employment Act which diverts the Federal Reserve’s attention from long-term price stability to short-term economic growth.  In an effort to fuel the economy, this additional mandate has encouraged the Fed to keep rates artificially low, fueling economic boom and busts, and now a strong up-tick in inflation and the decline of the dollar (as investors free dollars for hard assets).  This reform would require the Fed to establish a numerical definition for price stability and maintain a policy that promotes it over the long-term.

REFORMING A FAILURE IN GOVERNMENT REGULATION
Suspend “Mark to Market” Accounting: Suspend the mark-to-market regulatory rules for long-term assets.  These rules require financial firms to mark assets at current market levels, even where the no market exists and any immediate transactions would result in fire-sale prices.  Instead of allowing firms to mark these assets to their true economic value, these rules contribute to a downward spiral as firms have to evaluate their assets not on the basis of their long-term investment but rather on a short-term mania. 
]]></description><pubDate>Tue, 23 Sep 2008 09:39:52 MDT</pubDate><link>http://blog.ntu.org/main/post.php?post_id=3761</link><category>Blog Entries</category>
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			<title>New Jersey Legislator Report Card Initiative</title><description><![CDATA[The New Jersey Taxpayers' Association announces a new state Legislator Report Card Initiative:The local effort is modeled after the National Taxpayers Union's annual Congressional voting study and is designed to grade members of New Jersey's 212th Legislature on their actual votes on key bills that significantly affect taxes, spending, debt and regulatory burdens on New Jersey residents and taxpayers.Kudos!]]></description><pubDate>Fri, 17 Aug 2007 09:57:54 MDT</pubDate><link>http://blog.ntu.org/main/post.php?post_id=2480</link><category>Blog Entries</category>
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			<title>Belated Easter Eggs: Savings Bills in the 110th Congress</title><description><![CDATA[NTU Foundation's BillTally project examines each bill introduced in Congress to determine its effect on federal outlays. A list of the savings bills that we have identified so far in the 110th Congress is available for download as an Excel spreadsheet: BT110_Savings Bills.

These bills either reduce spending outright or increase offsetting receipts, which the Congressional Budget Office defines as "funds collected by government agencies from other government accounts or from the public in business-like or market-oriented transactions." Revenues ("funds collected from the public that arise from the government's exercise of its sovereign or governmental powers") are excluded from the BillTally study. More information is available in our Methodology.

We are still in the process of scoring legislation so this list may not be comprehensive. The file will be updated as we find more savings.

Any feedback, questions, or information about additional savings bills can be addressed to dbrady at ntu.org.

]]></description><pubDate>Fri, 13 Apr 2007 15:12:53 MDT</pubDate><link>http://blog.ntu.org/main/post.php?post_id=1942</link><category>Blog Entries</category>
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			<title>Property Tax Reform in New Jersey Will Be Up To The Voters</title><description><![CDATA[As unsurprising as the sun setting in the west, New Jersey politicians for years have done absolutely nothing to address sky-high property taxes in the Garden State and have not seemed interested in making any attempts either.  The only time there is any talk about the matter is when an election looms; but as soon as the polls close, discussion of property-tax reform ends.  The situation is no different today and New Jersey residents still face the highest per-resident property tax burden of any state in the Union---double the national average.  When politicians refuse to address something that clearly is a problem and are willing to let the problem fester, it can mean only one thing: Those politicians don’t fear the voters.

As fear of being voted out of office is the only way to ensure that politicians are responsive to their constituents, it is incumbent upon New Jersey voters to let their representatives know what is expected of them and to make clear to them that their continuation in office is dependent on what they do between now and election day to meaningfully address punishing property-tax levels.  The Silver Brigade, a property tax reform group in New Jersey, is starting to get out that message.  Last week the group sent letters to the party leadership in both the state Assembly and the state Senate that paint the picture of a voter revolt against incumbents if there is no action on the property-tax reform front.  This week, letters will be sent to select local legislators, too.

Of course, the voters have to do their part and draw a line in the sand.  Rebates and other tax-shifting schemes are no substitute for capping annual property-tax increases and reducing state spending by, among other things, renegotiating state employee contracts.  If Trenton comes up with nothing more than rebates or a tax trade before the June primaries or the November generals, voters need to show incumbents the door.

If they don’t or if they simply replace the tired old bums with a set of sprightly new bums, the cost-of-living in New Jersey will continue to spiral upward and the vestiges of the middle class that are rumored to still exist in the state will completely vanish.

It’s all up to the voters.  Good government always is.]]></description><pubDate>Mon, 08 Jan 2007 13:38:20 MST</pubDate><link>http://blog.ntu.org/main/post.php?post_id=1696</link><category>Blog Entries</category>
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			<title>Thanks, Union Bosses! (part II)</title><description><![CDATA[New Jersey residents can thank these lovely folks for their high property taxes.]]></description><pubDate>Mon, 11 Dec 2006 15:09:03 MST</pubDate><link>http://blog.ntu.org/main/post.php?post_id=1633</link><category>Blog Entries</category>
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			<title>NJ State Senator Watching Too Many Episodes of the Sopranos</title><description><![CDATA[The Star-Ledger reports that "Sen. Wayne Bryant, the powerful chairman of the Appropriations and Budget Committee, stepped down from the influential post yesterday amid mounting political pressure over a federal monitor's findings that he ordered the state's medical university to give him a no-show job."

The job was a legislative-outreach position so that he could essentially "lobby himself" to get public funding for the school.
]]></description><pubDate>Tue, 26 Sep 2006 08:55:19 MDT</pubDate><link>http://blog.ntu.org/main/post.php?post_id=1445</link><category>Blog Entries</category>
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			<title>Attend a Property Tax Summit in New Jersey</title><description><![CDATA[A group of New Jersey taxpayers have banded together to form a statewide grassroots organization named the Silver Brigade, and they’re dedicated to achieving major reforms in New Jersey’s property taxes.

They’ve been holding a series of rallies and summits across the state to call attention to the unfair taxation burden on modern day property owners, and you are encouraged to join them:

Property Tax “Tea Party” Protest
September 12, 2006 (rain date September 20, 2006)
10am to 3pm
Bergen County Annual Senior Citizens’ Picnic
Van Saun County Park, Paramus, NJ

or

Statewide Citizens’ Tax Summit
September 14, 2006
7pm to 9pm
Randolph High School Auditorium
511 Millbrook Avenue, Randolph, NJ

For more information, please visit www.silverbrigade.com or contact Jerry Cantrell at 973.252.9274 or email jcantrel@optonline.net today.  ]]></description><pubDate>Fri, 08 Sep 2006 07:55:10 MDT</pubDate><link>http://blog.ntu.org/main/post.php?post_id=1402</link><category>Blog Entries</category>
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			<title>Tax Hell</title><description><![CDATA[Where else but New Jersey?
]]></description><pubDate>Mon, 28 Aug 2006 14:46:37 MDT</pubDate><link>http://blog.ntu.org/main/post.php?post_id=1370</link><category>Blog Entries</category>
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			<title>Grassroots Continue to Rally against Corzine</title><description><![CDATA[Taxpayers in New Jersey have had just about enough of Jon Corzine. After $1.5 billion in tax increases, Garden State citizens are finally taking to the streets…or in this case the boats.

The Silver Brigade will be holding Tea Parties (Samuel Adams style) to draw attention to skyrocketing property taxes. 

If you’d like to join them, the next event will be tonight at the Cherry Hill Community Library: 1100 Kings Highway North, Cherry Hill, NJ, 08034, 856-667-0300.

The event is from 7:00 to 9:00, if you’d like to give your aching rotator cuff a good workout.

Here is the link 
 
]]></description><pubDate>Mon, 14 Aug 2006 13:15:30 MDT</pubDate><link>http://blog.ntu.org/main/post.php?post_id=1335</link><category>Blog Entries</category>
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			<title>Scandal Hits New Jersey Treasury Department</title><description><![CDATA[The Star Ledger is reporting that the "state's taxation director and five other Treasury Department employees were indicted yesterday on official misconduct charges, accused of taking thousands of dollars worth of dinners, entertainment and other gifts from a state vendor."  According to the article, the alleged gifts included:
A Sept. 22, 2004, New York City outing including limo service, tickets to the Broadway musical "Wicked," and meals and drinks at two restaurants. Value: about $2,470.Spa services in September 2004 at the Cliffhouse Spa in Ogunquit, Maine. Total value: $626.Three golf outings between June 2001 and May 2003. Total value: $2,560.Various meals at restaurants in New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Delaware between September 1999 and November 2004. Total value: more than $3,600. I suppose the conclusion is that New Jersey state employees don't make enough money and that if they had a raise once in awhile, then they wouldn't be so corrupt.

HT:  Tim Wise

]]></description><pubDate>Fri, 11 Aug 2006 09:47:08 MDT</pubDate><link>http://blog.ntu.org/main/post.php?post_id=1330</link><category>Blog Entries</category>
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			<title>Memo to Governor Corzine: Not Everyone is a Millionaire</title><description><![CDATA[But you wouldn’t know it from his budget and  recent startling indications  that New Jersey might raise sales taxes once again. I’m not sure if Governor Corzine genuinely despises poor people (sales taxes hurt them the most), or if he just really loves power (probably the latter). 

After the largest tax increase in the nation, and now the highest state-level sales tax rate, Corzine wants to permit towns to levy their own sales taxes in addition to the state rate. Taxpayers across the country can study New Jersey as an example of how not to run a state. 

Good luck attracting future residents and businesses Governor Corzine. Perhaps you should go back to your days as a coffee runner at Goldman Sachs. A majority of your state might facilitate that change in a few years.
]]></description><pubDate>Tue, 01 Aug 2006 15:16:58 MDT</pubDate><link>http://blog.ntu.org/main/post.php?post_id=1302</link><category>Blog Entries</category>
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			<title>$31 Billion and NJ Still Can't Obey the Law</title><description><![CDATA[Fresh off the highest tax increase in the nation ($1.5 billion), and the promise (note: the phrase "honest New Jersey politician" is an oxymoron) of property tax relief down the road, taxpayers in the Garden State are still having a tough time with their government.

 The Open Public Records Act  mandates that budgets, payrolls, and other government information be readily accessible. As you can guess, most of them are not. Millions of taxpayers in New Jersey have no idea of the intimate functions of state government. In a poll conducted last month, only one in three participants knew that the average northeast New Jersey police officer made a cool $100,000. 

Some municipalities in Jersey are even charging upwards of $750 for local budgets and audits. 

Garden State taxpayers pay close to $4,000 in state taxes alone, will soon be straddled with the highest state-level sales tax in the nation, and can’t even get a local budget. 

I imagine the Jersey exodus will continue for the next few years. Can you blame them?
]]></description><pubDate>Fri, 21 Jul 2006 13:38:23 MDT</pubDate><link>http://blog.ntu.org/main/post.php?post_id=1277</link><category>Blog Entries</category>
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			<title>"Taxes are the crack of New Jersey lawmakers"</title><description><![CDATA[The Record of New Jersey is running  a series of articles on the history of New Jersey's fiscal mess and how the government managed to sink into a $4 billion deficit. One problem is that the lawmakers need "tax detoxification":Taxes are the crack of New Jersey lawmakers. Pure and simple. The more they get, the more they want. The more they want, the more they need to get the same results.The series should be an ineresting read. Check it out here: "Runaway Pay."
]]></description><pubDate>Wed, 19 Jul 2006 08:42:05 MDT</pubDate><link>http://blog.ntu.org/main/post.php?post_id=1268</link><category>Blog Entries</category>
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