No thread yet for the NJ Government Shutdown (the world shrugs its shoulders?)

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So here we are, day 6. I'm off work as a result, as I depend on the State Courts for work (though I'm not paid by them).

At issue is a hike in the state sales tax from 6 to 7%. Democrats in the assembly say this is a regressive tax measure. Is it really? NJ doesn't tax essentials like food or apparel (even luxury apparel), and we don't tax paper products. So would this penny increase really hit the poor all that hard?

― Abbadavid Berman (Hurting), Thursday, 6 July 2006 16:22 (nineteen years ago)

the world shrugs its shoulders

― lf (lfam), Thursday, 6 July 2006 16:27 (nineteen years ago)

This s the first I've even heard of a gov't shut down.

xpost - pretty much!

― Thermo Thinwall (Thermo Thinwall), Thursday, 6 July 2006 16:30 (nineteen years ago)

i saw tourists in atlantic city being interviewed on tv last night. they were so angry that they came ALL THIS WAY and they couldn't gamble! ooh god forbid they have to find something else to do on their vacation. it's not like they're in between two major cities or anything.

― jacques lu c on t (Jody Beth Rosen), Thursday, 6 July 2006 16:32 (nineteen years ago)

according to the tv report the casinos are losing $16 million a day while they're closed.

― jacques lu c on t (Jody Beth Rosen), Thursday, 6 July 2006 16:34 (nineteen years ago)

And the govt is losing 1.3 mil a day in taxes.

― Arial Pink (account), Thursday, 6 July 2006 16:38 (nineteen years ago)

NJ democrats remember what happened to jim florio = one of the REAL reasons why they're fighting the state sales tax increase. (my theory as to the other major reason [which may be wrong!]: sen. roberts from camden county -- and his "boss" norcross -- are still pissed that corzine picked menendez over andrews for the U.S. Senate -- i.e., it's an old-fashioned political turf-war.) roberts et. al. don't really give a shit about whether or not sales taxes are "regressive," so they're hardly credible if they claim that they're standing on THAT principle.

on the merits (both re: the taxes and selecting menendez over andrews) corzine is of course in the right -- his budget is a real attempt to end trenton's annual budgetary games (which started under whitman AND were continued under mcgreevey), and menendez is looking more & more impressive (and less slimy) every day (it also helps that tom, jr. is proving to be total upper-class doofus [like dubya!].) the NJ dems are really only in power b/c as corrupt and mud-dumb as they are, the NJ GOP has been even more so on BOTH counts since whitman left trenton.

― Eisbär (llamasfur), Thursday, 6 July 2006 16:38 (nineteen years ago)

NYT news hit

― kingfish du lac (kingfish 2.0), Thursday, 6 July 2006 16:40 (nineteen years ago)

10 years ago, i would've gagged at the thought that 10 years in the future that i would be reminiscing about ANYTHING concerning christie whitman. then again, i'm sure that she wasn't thrilled that her party members chose to nominate an unelectable right-wingnut (schumer) or a whiny dimwit/bitch (forrester) to replace her as governor.

― Eisbär (llamasfur), Thursday, 6 July 2006 16:43 (nineteen years ago)

whoops, make that SCHUNDLER. schumer's on the other side of the hudson.

― Eisbär (llamasfur), Thursday, 6 July 2006 16:44 (nineteen years ago)

Gov. Corzine caught swimming in the quicksand sea of mixed metaphors:

"When I was thinking about what to say this morning, I was reminded of something my father used to bark at me when I was off track: If you’re trying to get out of a hole, why don’t you just stop digging?

We are certainly off on the wrong track.

We need to get out of New Jersey’s budget hole and this recurring sea of red ink,"

― Abbadavid Berman (Hurting), Thursday, 6 July 2006 16:46 (nineteen years ago)

I predict the first wave of displaced NJ refugees will arrive on the shores of Manhattan around, say, 8pm tomorrow night.

― nabisco (nabisco), Thursday, 6 July 2006 16:59 (nineteen years ago)

what is on their itinerary

― Machibuse '80 (ex machina), Thursday, 6 July 2006 17:16 (nineteen years ago)

"... escaping with nothing but pink feather boas, two-sizes-too-small hot pants and half-empty bottles of drakkar noir; these refugees swarm into the city both stunned and saddened by the failure of their local government. Sir, can you tell our audience what you're feeling right now?"
"WHASSUP JOEY, I'M ON THA TEEVEE WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"

― Forksclovetofu (Forksclovetofu), Thursday, 6 July 2006 17:25 (nineteen years ago)

Overheard in a Japanese restaruant in a Freehold shopping center:

Jersey dude: "Yo, did you see that show 'Craziest American Talent'?"
Jersey chick: "It's 'America's Got Talent,' you dumbass."

― Abbadavid Berman (Hurting), Thursday, 6 July 2006 17:52 (nineteen years ago)

― nervous (cochere), Thursday, 6 July 2006 18:03 (nineteen years ago)

whoa whoa whoa

i meant

i <3 nj

stupid html

― nervous (cochere), Thursday, 6 July 2006 18:10 (nineteen years ago)

P.S. I'm totally ashamed of that very mean joke (especially since just the other day I was in a bar on the Lower East Side, and this girl asked where I lived, and I said the Upper West Side, and then she started acting like I was some kind of weird lost out-of-my-element interloper and talking about which bars she'd go to if she had friends over from the Upper West Side -- you know, the kinds of places where they'd be comfortable -- and so what I'm saying is that I feel the sting of regionalism, man)

― nabisco (nabisco), Thursday, 6 July 2006 18:11 (nineteen years ago)

So like good luck with your government, and thanks for the extra fireworks.

― nabisco (nabisco), Thursday, 6 July 2006 18:11 (nineteen years ago)

I think I speak for all of New Jersey when i say "Geddafuckouddaheah".

― Forksclovetofu (Forksclovetofu), Thursday, 6 July 2006 18:23 (nineteen years ago)

Hmm, so they approved the sales tax hike, but half of it goes to reducing property taxes this year and all of it next year? Doesn't that imply that we'll be back in the hole again by the same amount next year, so how is this not business as usual?

― o. nate (onate), Thursday, 6 July 2006 19:32 (nineteen years ago)

Ah, a regressive tax to benefit landowners. Nice.

― milo z (mlp), Thursday, 6 July 2006 21:00 (nineteen years ago)

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