Corzine budget to sound the emergency bell

By: Tom MacDonald

Governor Corzine will presents his budget for New Jersey tomorrow. It could be filled with large scale layoffs and potential tax increases.

By: Tom MacDonald
tmacdonald@whyy.org

Governor Corzine will presents his budget for New Jersey tomorrow. It could be filled with large scale layoffs and potential tax increases.

Transcript:
Governor Corzine is preparing a budget at a time when the state faces major financial trouble. Published reports have the governor calling for a state of emergency, which would mean layoffs for five to seven thousand employees if the entire workforce isn’t willing to accept furloughs and wage freezes.

Assemblyman Louis Greenwald, who chairs the Budget Committee says in the current economy, such action is appropriate.

Greenwald: “I think it is a state of emergency I think we are facing a worldwide economic crisis and I think that summarizes the problems we face. I think the reality though is that while it is a state of emergency, the work we do over the next few months can put the state on sound footing. And we’ll begin that process with the Governor’s Budget address.”

Greenwald says rather than impose property tax increases to offset state budget cuts to counties, local municipalities should do what they can to cut their budgets.

Listen:
Click on the play button below or right click on this link and choose “Save Link As” to download. [audio: reports20090309njbudget.mp3]