Newark Hawk and I have been arguing about NJ state budgets and in the comments section he has linked us to an article that reveals an error I have made in my previous posts.
|
FISCAL
YEAR
|
TOTAL
APPROPRIATIONS
|
|
FY2008
|
$33.47
billion
|
|
FY2009
|
$32.86
billion
|
|
FY2010
|
$28.99
billion
|
|
FY2011
|
$28.36
billion
|
|
FY2012
|
$29.69
billion
|
|
FY2013
|
$31.65
billion
|
|
FY2014
|
$32.97
billion
|
Sources: New Jersey Office of Legislative Services Summary Of
Appropriations Acts for fiscal years 2008-2014
The PolitiFact article stated that the last budget that Jon Corzine was responsible for was in 2009. However, that is not quite true (imagine, a fact checker was wrong!). Corzine also signed into law the FY2010 budget at a $29.3 billion price tag. When Chris Christie entered office in Jan 2010, the budget had already been in effect for several months. Christie and the state legislator were responsible for finding some cuts in that budget (about $400 million).
The claim that Christie makes on the campaign trail is that his budget is still lower than Corzine´s 2008 budget, the one that NJ had in effect when the economic crisis took place. As you can see Corzine´s budgets fell dramatically as less revenue was going to the state.
So what are the facts?
1. Christie´s budgets are lower than Corzine´s budget before the recession.
2. Christie´s budgets have slightly increased in three of his four years.
3. The greatest increase in Christie´s budget was from FY12 to FY13 which was about a 6% increase.
4. As a comparison, Texas under Rick Perry has averaged 8% increases the past few years.
So, now exactly what I was suggesting, but also now exactly bad.
I believe that truth comes before all and I thank Newark Hawk for pointing this out. What do these facts say about Chris Christie? We could do a nationwide comparison with other states, but I think we can all agree that Christie is one of the more fiscally conservative governors in the United States, certainly more so than Perry. However, the budget that he inherited is not higher than the budget that NJ currently has. That is in part due to the recession that began in 2008, which in turn caused Corzine to cut NJ´s budgets thereafter. But I will let you decide on that.
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4 comments:
Pablo -
I appreciate your intellectual honesty on this matter, even though we have a difference of opinion regarding Christie's fiscal conservatism.
My final point is that the economic recovery of the past 4 years has been relatively anemic at GDP real growth of roughly 2%, and has primarily benefited Wall Street, NOT Main Street, and it is the latter that drives state tax revenues and spending.
So I don't think the so-called "recovery" can be used to justify or excuse Governor Christie's ever-increasing budgets.
Newark Hawk:
1. I was not blaming increasing budgets in NJ on the recovery. I was blaming the recession for the cuts that Corzine had made right be he left office. My point was that under normal circumstances the 2008 was where NJ would have been.
2. My original point still stands: Christie´s budgets look better than Texas´budgets under Rick Perry. I keep bringing Texas up because he is typically thought of a "conservative." But if I had the time I would look at some of the other states. I think we would find that NJ´s budgets have increased at a slower rate, given inflation and population growth. So if Christie is not a fiscal conservative, then what are all of these other folks?
Pablo, while I commend you for correcting your error, my scoreboard currently reads as follows...
Newark Hawk 1
Pablo 0
It's an apples and oranges comparison. Perry has the money to spend in a booming economy. NJ should be compared to another small NE state.
No question, I would prefer Perry over Christie, as president. I like Cruz too, because he has the gravitas of a president. Christie is more likely to pull the Mr. Big deal and sign off on law of the sea treaty, capital punishment, guns, and other sovereignty reduction ideas in tandem with the UN.
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