Jon Steward discusses Glenn Beck’s interview with Eric Massa and learns that it wasn’t a total waste of time — he got a new sign-off phrase!

From Kevin Drum @ Mother Jones

Rep. Paul Ryan’s tax and spending “roadmap” is a fascinating critter: conservatives all praise it to the skies but none of them want to actually commit to supporting it. The reason for their hesitation is obvious: Ryan’s plan would cut spending dramatically, and supporting it would mean having to explain what, exactly, they’d cut. That would be electoral suicide and they know it. They much prefer their usual game of loudly denouncing “spending” without ever having to say what spending they’re actually opposed to.

However, their reason for supporting Ryan’s plan is also obvious: it would cut taxes on the rich dramatically, and there’s nothing conservatives like better than cutting the tax bills of America’s wealthy. But how much would it cut taxes on the rich? Citizens for Tax Justice has run the numbers and the answer is: a lot. The very richest of the rich would see their tax bills go down by an average of over $200,000, a whopping 15% of the income. Ka-ching! To make up for that, everyone with an income under $100,000 would have their taxes increased by about $2,000 per year.

It’s a sweet deal for the rich. But even with all the tax increases on the middle class, Ryan’s plan still raises less revenue than today’s tax code. “It’s difficult to design a tax plan that will lose $2 trillion over a decade even while requiring 90 percent of taxpayers to pay more,” says CTJ acerbically. “But Congressman Ryan has met that daunting challenge.” Details are in the table below, where you can find out how much more you’d have to pay under Ryan’s plan. Enjoy.

Vincent Solomeno, Candidate For Monmouth County Freeholder, attended the March 9th 2010 public hearing on the proposed Monmouth County Budget at the Eastern Branch of the Monmouth County Library in Shrewsbury.

Good evening, my name is Vincent Solomeno, and I’m a property taxpayer from Hazlet. I first want to thank the professional staff for the time spent preparing this budget proposal.

Monmouth County families are struggling. We owe it to them to cut this bloated budget and bring them real property tax relief. I hope you have the courage to do just that.

Has anyone noticed the signs popping up all over Middletown like the one posted to the right?

At last week’s March 4th “Community Forum on State Aid Cuts” held by the Middeltown Board of Education, School Board President Laura Agin read the following statement. The statement was frank, to the point and said exactly what many need to say and what others need to hear:

“On behalf of the Middletown Board of Education, I would like to tell you all: We Get It. We understand New Jersey’s fiscal crisis. We realize the state is running out of money and we appreciate our governor’s need to fill a multi-billion dollar budget gap. We know that no part of the public sector has been left untouched and we accept that school aid needed to be appropriated to assist in solving the state’s budget shortfalls. Middletown gave; we gave $2.8 million.

It has come to my attention that on Thursday, March 4, 2010 a meeting took place between representatives of the League of Municipalities, the Department of Community Affairs, the Division of Local Government Services and various Business Administrators and CFOs of local governments at the PNC Bank Arts Center in Holmdel.

The primary speakers were Marc Pfieffer, Department of Community Affairs, Tina Zapichi, Division of Local Government Services.

To wrap everything up in a nutshell, the word was budgets would have to be “introduced” to Trenton by March 31 and that the date Trenton has set for municipalities to adopt their budgets is May 11, 2010.

They were told that no state aid was forthcoming and not to expect any extraordinary aid for snow removal but for those cities could expect extraordinary aid, they would have to get their budgets in on time. Those in attendance were also told that there would be a 4% cap on the tax levies and a 3 1/2% cap on appropriations.

This is actually pretty heavy stuff especially for a town like Middeltown, in a good year Middeltown has never had it’s budget ready for introduction before April. Middeltown and other towns always procrastinated and dragged out the process until they heard how much aid was expected from Trenton. Well now I guess they found out and they have less than 30 days to put together a budget.

And to think, Middetown doesn’t even have a CFO. How does Mayor Scharfenberger and the Township Administrator Tony Mercantante, plan to submit a budget by March 31st without the expertise of a CFO?

I guess though that residents in Middletown shouldn’t worry to much about this, After all the Mayor has been telling everyone that he has a plan for dealing with the expected $7 million shortfall in the Township’s budget since the January re-organization day, the only problem is he hasn’t shown it to anyone yet!

During last week’s Middletown Board Of Education public forum on how the Christie budget cuts will effect the upcoming school budget, Governor Christies’ personal confidant, buddy and Middeltown resident NJ State Senator Joe Kyrillos, made a rather striking comment when answering a question.

” …That’s right, the kids are paying a price, the taxpayer is paying a price, society is paying the price…Now is the time for smart people to be really smart and creative as possible and i say that freely admitting that I am not sure I’m smart enough to figure out how to pull it all together…”

The latest issue of “It’s Your Town” Newsletter is now available and believe it or not, it’s the largest yet at 22 pages! This issue details the happenings at the March 1st Middletown Township Workshop Meeting.

Due the size of the crowd in attendance the Mayor moved the meeting to the courtroom to accommodate the large number of people that showed up to express their mostly displeasure with the plans to build a multi-field sports complex at the corner of West Front Street and Crawfords Corner Rd in Lincroft.

Some of the highlights included in the newsletter are:

• A letter written by Jeff Blumengold, a member of SONIC, that read for inclusion into the record.
• Pop Warner Chargers Vice President Kevin O’Reilly stated 8 things that would be needed to make the sports complex work.
• Committee Comments that express feelings behind the sports complex
• And numerous Ordinances and Resolutions that were introduce for discussion

Your can read all about it Here to see what you missed.

This is one more set of facts showing that New Jersey is not a high tax state as assumed by many:

• New Jersey’s sales tax is the state’s second largest revenue source, raising over $8 billion a year.
• New Jersey is 32nd nationwide for sales tax collections per capita.
• New Jersey’s 7 percent state sales tax rate is 31st in the nation. New Jersey’s local governments are not allowed by law to levy local sales taxes.
• New Jersey is 42nd in sales tax collections as a percent of personal income.

COLLECTION AND USES
While income tax revenues are dedicated to property tax relief, most of the $8 billion collected in sales taxes are available for general state purposes with three exceptions-all written into the state constitution. These voter-approved amendments dedicate approximately $1 billion of the $8 billon collected to open space preservation, transportation and property tax relief. The 1998 and 2000 amendments annually dedicate $98 million for open space preservation and $200 million for the state’s transportation system from existing tax revenues. In 2006, New Jersey raised its sales tax rate to 7 percent from 6 percent and now requires that approximately $650 million (1/2 of the 1 percent increase) in sales tax revenues be used for property tax relief.

SALES TAX COLLECTIONS PER CAPITA
The average New Jersey resident each year buys approximately $10,800 in goods and services that are subject to the sales tax and pays just over $750 in sales taxes on those items. While some might view that as a lot of money, the residents of 31 states pay more-either because the state where they live allows local governments to levy their own sales taxes, their state has a higher tax rate or it taxes a broader range of goods and services.

TAX RATES-STATE AND LOCAL
Forty six states (all but Alaska, Delaware, Montana and Oregon) and the District of Columbia have state-level sales taxes with rates ranging from 2.9 percent in Colorado to 7.25 percent in California. Thirty eight of those states (not including New Jersey) allow local governments to levy local sales taxes at rates ranging from .125 percent in New Mexico to 8 percent in Alabama. Total state and local sales tax rates range from 4.5 percent in Hawaii to 12 percent in Alabama. According to the Sales Tax Institute, 31 states have combined sales tax rates greater than New Jersey’s 7 percent rate; 12 have tax rates lower than New Jersey’s; and 2 are equal to New Jersey’s. Most of the states with lower tax rates do not allow local governments to collect their own sales taxes.

LOCAL SALES TAXES
In the 38 states where local sales taxes are allowed, state and local governments collect nearly $300 billion in sales taxes - approximately 80 percent of that is collected by states; 20 percent by local governments. As a share of total sales taxes collected in the state, New York, Louisiana and Colorado collect more than 50 percent of the sales tax revenue from local sales taxes. In 2007, California local sales taxes brought in over $9 billion; New York collected just over $11 billion in local sales taxes.

New York City and all 57 counties in New York State levy local sales taxes. The majority of them have some form of tax sharing arrangement with other local governments (including school districts and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority) within their boundaries. Sales tax revenues are a significant component of revenues for local governments in New York State. In 2004 they were 8.6 percent of local revenues. In part, this is how New York State reduces property taxes paid by homeowners.

EXPANDING THE BASE - TAXING SERVICES
Knowing the sales tax rate is not enough to compare the amount of tax people pay from place to place because wide variations exist in what good and services states tax. For example, New Jersey does not tax clothes (42 states do) or food purchased in a grocery store (20 states do). A state that taxes a broader range of goods and services can have a lower tax rate and still collect the same amount of revenue.

In 2006, New Jersey Policy Perspective analyzed possible expansions to the sales tax base including many services not taxed by most states. It found that if the state chose to enact every base-broadening suggestion, New Jersey would expand its sales tax base by 85 percent, and, by doing so, could raise an additional $5.6 billion. Alternatively, by broadening the tax base it could lower the tax rate from the 6 percent rate at that time to 3.2 percent and still collect the same amount of revenue. The analysis includes some unlikely scenarios-for instance it is unlikely that New Jersey will ever consider taxing food sold in grocery stores. It also includes things the state should consider-such as imposing a sales tax on motor fuel sales which would raise approximately $900 million. The point of the analysis is to show the impact of change and begin a discussion.

The sales tax is an important source of revenue to all states and many local governments in the U.S. For more information about it, please see NJPP’s 2006 report You’re 40; Now Get to Work, Making the State Sales Tax Pull its Weight.