Having been rolled by the Governor for the past five years (a little less rolled in 2007 than in years past) the GOP minority in the State Senate and Assembly must now, finally, draw a line in the sand on State spending, which has exploded under this Governor and with a few Republican votes every year.
At risk here are losing the arguments on two key principles, the premise that we have a spending problem rather than a revenue problem, the historical fact that tax increases do not now, nor ever have, increased tax revenues.
There is also the issue that nobody in elected office, nor any candidate wants to touch – education spending. Somebody explain to me why a 100% run up in education spending over 10 years with less than 15% change in enrollment can’t be reduced in a fiscal crisis? Are there no intellectuals out there to make the argument.
This is a seminal time for the GOP. A depressed nationwide base looks at a feckless Congress, a lame duck President and a Governor who has place our State at great risk while flying the GOP flag. Its not a good situation, and taking a stand on the issue of taxes would be a great help.