GOP calls for cutting NJ taxes, changing pensions and benefits

Just days before the election for every seat in the New Jersey Assembly, Republican lawmakers are calling for reducing property taxes and making the state more affordable.

Assembly Republican Leader Jon Bramnick said majority Democrats in the Legislature have no plan to ease the highest state tax burden in the country.

“They’re able to hide behind special interest money, most of it from the NJEA [teachers union], who is never going to let them do the reforms that are necessary,” Bramnick said.

Lawmakers must step up efforts to enact pension, benefit, and sick pay reforms to reduce taxes, said Assembly Republican Budget Officer Declan O’Scanlon.

“If we don’t do that, New Jersey will be insolvent in the not too distant future, he said. “Or it will be beyond the point where you can solve the problem without crushing either the taxpayers or our public workers.”

A spokesman for Assembly Democrats countered that the Republicans have repeatedly voted against property tax relief programs that would have especially helped the middle class. The Democrats say the only thing the GOP has consistently voted for is tax cuts for millionaires.