NJBIZ Opinion Poll

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A solid majority of responders to the most recent opinion poll said they wanted to see the state spend its expected windfall from higher-than-planned income tax collection on repayment of its long-term debt.

Of course, responders were giving their input before the state Supreme Court decided New Jersey must pour another $500 million into its poorest-performing Abbott districts, so even if fiscal restraint was the plan in Trenton, it’s probably a moot point now.

“Even debating this is an appalling indicator of how stupid this state is when it comes to sound fiscal policy,” one discouraged reader commented in defending the choice of paying down debt.
In supporting debt repayment, another reader pointed out that “it’s only a projected windfall, right? Politicians have no problem spending money they don’t even have yet, and we get to clean up the mess.”

The debt was called the source of the state’s other problems by another responder, who said by paying down its obligations, “the issue of funds for teachers and police, infrastructure improvements, and tax relief will take care of themselves.”

Predictions of the rapture were weighing on the mind of at least one responder, who called the ever-increasing debt at all levels of government “a looming time bomb that grows closer and closer to an apocalyptic event. We must do something about it now. Too many of our leaders are acting as if this is all going to go away.”
A reader who responded that the debt “is killing us,” said the pizza party was a good second choice: “Seems many others have partied at the taxpayers’ expense, so it might be nice to get at least that much.”

Another responder, though, was more worried about taxpayer money winding up in a familiar place. “Anything but (putting) more into the pit formerly known as Xanadu!” the reader wrote.