Sloppy journalism lets Christie rewrite history

by: Adam L a/k/a clammyc

Fri May 01, 2009 at 09:30:00 AM EDT

The "governorship was over right then," Christie said, because Corzine struck a deal with lawmakers to hike the state sales tax and dedicate millions in new revenue to property tax relief and legislative pork.

"The Legislature learned during those three or four days they could roll him," Christie said.

"They put the [budget] bill in front of him and said, 'to get the government reopened, it's going to cost you $300-plus million for our members,' " Christie said. "And you know, after that we sent all those subpoenas up there and that's why Joe Coniglio's in jail."

This entire statement is, pardon the language, complete and utter horseshit, and even if Reitmeyer wasn't a NJ resident during this budget fight, he could have found a large number of articles and polls from the summer of 2006 that make a mockery of Christie's outlandish comments by doing his job and conducting some basic research.

For starters, the typical Christie use of buzzwords instead of substance shows through with him flinging around terms like "legislative pork".   Here is reality of Corzine's budget proposal (emphasis mine):

 The most contentious aspect of the plan - which includes $2 billion in cuts and increases in taxes on cigarettes, alcohol and luxury cars - may be the governor's proposal to raise the state's sales tax to 7 percent from 6 percent.

---snip---

But whatever decisions are ultimately made, it is clear that the ambitious agenda Mr. Corzine articulated in the campaign has run up against reality.

He had hoped to make housing and higher education more affordable. Instead, he has proposed cutting aid to colleges and universities by $169 million, and property taxes are expected to rise because he has not proposed increasing municipal aid.

Additionally, it was not Corzine who "was rolled" here.  Corzine stood tough, and a poll released right after the budget battle found that the Legislature was found to be at blame  by a 3 to 1 margin.  Corzine's approval rating rose as a result of the budget battle as well.  The compromise legislation that included the sales tax increase, some of which was used for property tax relief was approved of by a 21 point margin, and Corzine was viewed as a leader, not a "bully", by a 49% - 42% margin.

Sure, the compromise had half of the sales tax increase going towards property tax relief, but with property taxes consistently being at the top of many NJ residents' lists of concerns, does Christie really want to argue for higher property taxes (given he has already pledged to reduce them along with billions of dollars in other taxes with no plan on how to offset these tax reductions)?  Further, Corzine used a line item veto to make $51 million more in reductions to the budget.

As for that phantom $300 million that Christie made up out of thin air, it is interesting to note that the only time Christie gives definitive numbers, they are completely fabricated.  It would be nice to see Christie talk about the $3 billion dollars that he would have to come up with in order to offset his tax reductions.

It would be nice if reporters like Reitmeyer would do some basic fact checking when it comes to outlandish statements by Christie - truthfully, I don't know who looks worse here - Christie or Reitmeyer.  Maybe that is why the newspaper industry is doing so poorly - it takes a "lowly blogger" to actually do some real reporting and factchecking.

The lie that is the threat of "millionaires flight"

by: Adam L a/k/a clammyc

Mon Mar 23, 2009 at 10:45:00 AM EDT

On the facts related to the current economy, the argument doesn't hold up.  Based on history, the argument doesn't hold up.  And on the merits of this particular proposal, the argument doesn't hold up.

Let's start with the current economy.    Home sales are predicted to drop substantially over the next year in Northern New Jersey - home to some of these very millionaires.

HousingPredictor.com is projecting a 19.4% decline in Manhattan home prices in 2009. And Moody's Economy.com is predicting that condo prices in New York City, Northern New Jersey, and Westchester County will fall 29% by the fourth quarter of next year.

"Nationally, we think this recession is going to be worse than anything we've seen in 40 years," said Marisa DiNatale, senior economist for Moody's Economy.com. "If the economy gets that bad, then you will start to see foreclosures in Manhattan as well."

This has already started in the Northeast as both the number of home sales and sale prices dropped dramatically - pretty much the worst region in the country:

The number of existing homes sold in January in the Northeast plummeted nearly 15 percent compared with the previous month, far outpacing the rest of the country, according to a report released today by the National Association of Realtors.

Year-over-year, existing-home sales fell 23.8 percent in the Northeast, while prices fell 14.7 percent, the report stated.

Anecdotally, I live close enough to or drive through some of these communities, and there are a LOT of for sale signs - many of which are for houses well in excess of $1,000,000 and many of which have been on the market for quite some time.

Quite simply, who would take a loss (or decline in value) on their homes of hundreds of thousands of dollars - voluntarily (since they are choosing to move due to a few thousand dollars of income tax)?  

Nobody that isn't already planning on or needing to move to begin with, that's for sure.

And what about history?  Well, this was the same threat we heard a few years ago when the top income tax rate had to be increased slightly:

New Jersey raised taxes on the wealthy in 2004, increasing by 2.6 percent the tax rate levied on those making more than $500,000 a year; and Gov. Jon S. Corzine this month proposed a new increase on high earners.

But a study by Professor Massey and two colleagues, published in September, estimated that the previous tax increase cost New Jersey only 50 to 350 existing "half-millionaire" households - a relatively small number against the total of 44,000 such households in the state.

While those departures cost the state about $38 million a year in revenue, the study estimates, the higher taxes levied on those who stayed have brought in an average of $895 million a year.

So let's see, not only does it not make people leave, it brought in close to $1 billion EACH year, net of the lost revenue from the people leaving.  Seems like a no-brainer there.

And lastly, as part of the "where are they going to go?" reply - both Pennsylvania and Connecticut have personal income tax rates that are far below NJ's top rates, and have for quite some time.  And the proposed increased rate of 10.25% is still lower than the combined NYS/NYC rate of 10.498%.  

If you want to compare the "incredibly high property taxes paid in NJ", then consider that nearby Westchester County in NY had one of the three highest property taxes in the nation just 2 years ago.   Interestingly, the entire top 10 for 2006 was all NY and NJ, and there was no meaningful difference between the various counties.  So there are basically similar property and income taxes between New York and New Jersey.  Connecticut and Pennsylvania already have lower taxes, so people could have moved there at any time due to the much bigger tax differential.

And looking at the falling home prices, the costs of moving and the reality of historical data, it is crystal clear that this so-called threat is nothing more than empty rhetoric by those whose loyalties lie with the poor ones making more than $500,000 per year.

The Only Time It's Safe To Get Between Christie and a Microphone

by: huntsu

Fri Oct 12, 2007 at 07:25:05 PM EDT

In short, he just loves answering the call when it's the media on the phone.

Unless, of course, the questions are tough.  Then he folds up and hides in his office.

Today Wally Edge of Politics NJ ran a piece where he questioned Chris Christie about his attendance at a Bruce Springsteen concert where Bruce blasted the hell out of George Bush both in song and in comment.  George Bush is, of course, the guy who gave Christie his job after Christie and his brother donated about a million dollars to the Republican cause.

Christie refused to answer the question.

PoliticsNJ.com asked Christie what went through his mind when he heard "Last to Die," which is being criticized by some Bush supporters as decisively against the war in Iraq.  And we asked him what he thought about "Living in the Future," where Springsteen told one crowd of concert-goers"that in addition to cheeseburgers, French fries and motorcycles, the United States was now known for voter suppression, illegal wiretapping and attacks on the Constitution."

Has "Magic" changed Christie's mind about Springsteen?  We don't know: he didn't repsond to our questions.

Of course he didn't respond, because the question was tough and or embarrassing.  It doesn't fit into the Chris Christie mystique, so he just pretends the question never happened.

It's sort of like yesterday when Christie sent out three press releases touting indictments or sentencings of corrupt Democrats (troll protection: yes, I am glad he nailed them) but for some reason didn't send out a press release about the corrupt Republican his team arrested.

Or it's like the time  back in August when we caught three different stories in the newspaper telling how Christie found out he was on the list to be fired, then off the list.  The stories were very specific in their detail -- 1) he heard in December he was on, then in January he was off; 2) he never said a thing about when he learned about the list; and 3) he learned both he was on and off the list on a Florida vacation in March -- and we just wanted to know on the record which one if any he told the paper.

When we asked Christie's spokeman Michael Drewniak for a statement clarifying which of these stories was the one he told the Record, Drewniak refused to provide it.  All we asked for was a simple denial that Christie told a contradictory story in the editorial board with the Record, and suddenly the prosecutor named most likely to speak to the media got laryngitis and refused to speak.

It's a pattern with Christie.  He likes to speak out when it is on his terms, at his time, and about the subject he chooses.  When there is a conflict or any potential embarrassment he hides away until the subject is dropped.

That's fine when you are the US Attorney, because you serve at the pleasure of the President Bruce Springsteen is pillorying. 

But it's not going to work out too well if Christie wants to run for office again.  Frankly, the more I think about it the more I want this guy to try for Drumthwacket because the Republicans couldn't beat him back in a primary, and his mouth and temper will destroy him in a general.

Scott Garrett Represents Taxpayers, On Average

by: dfa_lewis

Wed Aug 09, 2006 at 03:29:32 PM EDT

The claim:

Unless Congress acts to make the various tax relief provisions enacted between 2001 and 2005 permanent, in 2011... 115 million taxpayers will see their annual tax bill increase more than $1,700

Just 'Cause You Say It Doesn't Make It So

by: Juan Melli

Tue Mar 28, 2006 at 08:34:35 PM EST

You might remember the other day Politics NJ had an article by Bill Albers that began “Stender takes gloves off in race against Ferguson". What happened to the article?
...
The Albers piece quoting Stender has disappeared from the Politics NJ website and it’s obvious to us why this has happened. Politics NJ published the message Stender wanted to send to the Dump Mike and other extremist groups throughout New Jersey and the country. This “first thing I’ll do if elected message� is great for fund raising and whipping up support from those outside the congressional district. Two, now that the message has been received loud and clear by the target audience, Politics NJ has removed the article at Stender’s request. In other words, Politics NJ is helping Stender have it both ways.
...
Politics New Jersey.com is actively working to help Linda Stender and the Democrat Party in New Jersey.

We've known for a while that these smear-mongers have zero credibility and spread lies to suit their political purposes. Now we learn they're crazy conspiracy nuts who also make up their own lies to suit their political purposes. They also lack basic computer and fact-checking skills.

Either that, or they're desperate for a distraction.

UPDATE: The Enlighten folks have added an update to their story:

Update: The Politics NJ article by Bill Albers “Stender takes gloves off in race against Ferguson" is now on the website.

Instead of just admitting they got it wrong and attacked for no reason other than their own inability to use a scroll-bar, they are pretending that their sluething forced Wally Edge to repost a story he was hiding.

What a bunch of ...