NJ Revenue Shortfall Claims May Undercut Tax Cuts

A dire warning from a nonpartisan New Jersey budget analyst is threatening to undercut Republican Gov. Chris Christie’s claims of an economic “comeback” in the state and Christie doesn’t like it, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer.

 

Christie spokesman Kevin Roberts said Tuesday that Office of Legislative Service analyst David Rosen’s prediction the state will finish the fiscal year $788 million in the hole is a worst case scenario the facts don’t bear out.

 

Nonetheless, Democratic lawmakers seized on the estimate provided to them Tuesday to suggest that Christie may want to hold off on his plan to cut state income taxes by 10 percent over three years, which is expected to cost the state $183 million in lost revenue during the first year.

 

Christie last month referred to Rosen as the “Dr Kevorkian of the numbers.” But the governor’s critics say the lower stare revenue figures from April and May of this year seem to underscore Rosen’s estimate.

 

“I guess he’s going have to amend his banner about the New Jersey Comeback," said state Senate Majority Leader Loretta Weinberg. “I think David Rosen can make a pretty good estimate of what we have between now and July 1. It looks rather bleak.”

 

According to the Inquirer, Rosen’s Tuesday prediction of revenue shortfalls was $100 million more than the figure he provided state lawmakers just two weeks ago.