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Cory Booker on Tax ReformMayor of Newark; N.J. Senator |
ANALYSIS: President George H. W. Bush lost his 1992 re-election in large part due to breaking his "no new taxes" pledge. Booker should have learned the lesson of absolute no-tax pledges; he ignored that lesson for political expediency in 2002.
A: Well, look, unfortunately we've had to, but to me, I always say we're a slave to the tyranny of a quick fix. Unfortunately, whether it's at the federal level and what we're all watching right now or the local level, you just can't get out of the problems we have dug ourselves into by one solution or the other. So what do we do in Newark? We cut the size of our government by nearly 20% of our employees. We have made very dramatic cuts into overall government, because that just has to be done. But in addition to that, we have also raised taxes because the problems that we are in could not be gotten out of by one solution. There's no one trick to this. You have to have a comprehensive strategy to attack these issues. Right now what frustrates me, looking at the federal level, is that our politics is not serving the kind of nuanced complicated problems that we have; people are indulging in deeper and deeper partisanship that does not serve progress.
The balanced budget originally presented by the Mayor was no longer feasible. The City is pursuing another option to avoid a seriously damaging tax increase: a sale/leaseback of certain municipal buildings. This plan is projected to cut the remaining budget gap by 53%, and it will also provide much-needed funds to improve several city buildings. Governments across the country have pursued this option as they face similar struggles. This one-time revenue combined with other measures will significantly temper the required increase; however, some tax increase will still be required.