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Henry A. Coleman - is Director of the Center
for Government Services and a faculty member at the Edward
J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy at Rutgers
University. Coleman was Executive Director of the State
and Local Expenditure and Revenue Policy Commission. Under
Gov. Jim Florio, he served as Assistant Director for Operations
and Research in the Office of State Planning, and was a
policy adviser in the Office of Management and Planning.
He has also been the Director of Government Finance Research
at the U.S. Advisory Commission on Intergovernmental Relations.
According to Dr. Coleman:
1. The State's fiscal problems are longstanding, and events
such as 9/11 and the current economic downturn will have
a long-term impact on state revenue. It remains to be seen
what type of impact these events will have on the state's
economy.
2. These problems are beyond the purview of NJ alone, and
require cooperation among the states, as well as possible
federal assistance. The State must evaluate its current
tax structure, paying particular attention to the income
tax, property tax and the Sales and Use Tax.
Dr. James W. Hughes - is Dean of the Edward
J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy at Rutgers
University, and a faculty member there. He was Chair and
Graduate Director of the Department of Urban Planning and
Policy Development, and is Director of the Rutgers Regional
Report. His most recent book is America's Demographic Tapestry:
Baseline for the New Millennium, published by Rutgers University
Press. He was on the Real Estate Task Force of the Governor's
Economic Master Plan Commission, and is a member and Trustee
of Prosperity New Jersey.
Dean Hughes identifies these issues:
1. "NJ has experienced a recessionette"…NJ
has suffered less because it no
longer relies on manufacturing as a major source of revenue.
Nationally,
the manufacturing sector has been hit hardest.
2. NJ's growing dependence on the personal income tax for
revenue is a problem. From 1998 to 2000 there were significant
revenues gleaned from capital gains taxes from investors
cashing in on their stock market windfalls.
Conversely, when the market declined, capital gains taxes
fell as well as state revenue.
Jon J. Shure - President of the New Jersey
Policy Perspective, a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization
that conducts research on state policy issues. He has been
involved in New Jersey public affairs for more than 25 years,
beginning as a reporter for The Record newspaper in Bergen
County. During his 12 years at The Record he covered both
state and national politics. On leaving The Record, he served
as Press Secretary for the US House Subcommittee on Commerce,
Competitiveness and Consumer Protection under then Congressman
Jim Florio. He was Press Secretary for Mr. Florio's 1989
campaign for Governor, and was Communications Director during
his term as Governor. Before establishing New Jersey Policy
Perspective, he was vice president of the Twentieth Century
Fund in New York.
He believes that two of the key issues that are critical
in a discussion of NJ's Fiscal Responsibility are:
1. New Jersey relies far too much on local property taxes.
2. New Jersey needs to modernize and expand the base of
the sales tax to cover other areas, such as e-commerce and
catalog sales. .
3. The state income tax needs to be restructured.
4. As it stands, the state corporate tax is unfair, and
allows many wealthy
corporations to pay fewer taxes than they should.
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