The three candidates in New Jersey met for their final debate, a radio debate as opposed to TV. The big focus of the night was the state’s property taxes, along with discussion of another big issue in New Jersey, public corruption.
Hot-button issues like health care and gay marriage were not to be found. Property taxes are a major funding mechanism for government in New Jersey — and represent a huge burden on residents, and are thus a major campaign issue. The candidates were all asked how much they personally pay in property taxes. Democratic Gov. Jon Corzine pays about $35,000 or $36,000, Republican nominee Chris Christie pays $38,000, and independent Chris Daggett pays $18,000.
They all went through their proposals about what to do to change this. Corzine discussed his administration’s accomplishments in promoting local government consolidations. Christie talked about putting pressure on local government to reduce spending, and to force consolidations by giving grants to towns to explore it — and if it’s found that consolidation would save money, they must either consolidate or pay the state the money back from the study. Daggett called for a hard cap on municipal spending, with very few exceptions, combined with an expanded sales tax base.
Christie opposed Daggett’s plan: “The property tax problem is not one that’s gonna be solved overnight, and it’s not gonna be solved by gimmicks, by raising taxes in one place so you can cut them in another.”
“I don’t believe Mr. Christie has a plan at all,” Daggett shot back. “He keeps saying he has a plan, but he never has any details about that plan.” He also said: “I, by the way, put a property calculator on my Web site, so I no longer have to buy Mr. Christie that calculator that I talked about in the last debate.”
Corzine also pounced on Christie, and to a lesser degree Daggett: “I’ll tell you a couple of things I won’t do, which both of my opponents are suggesting. I won’t cut taxes on the very wealthy and corporations and insurance companies. That leads to press to rising property taxes on lower income families across New Jersey.” And he added: “One of the things I absolutely wouldn’t do, I wouldn’t turn down $5 billion worth of federal stimulus dollars, as Mr. Christie has suggested, which would have automatically jacked up property taxes — due to the failure to take money for education, would have jacked up property taxes by $2 billion.
A big subject at the debate was the subject of corruption, especially in light of today’s conviction of former Bergen County Democratic boss Joe Ferriero on corruption charges. Christie took this as an opportunity to tout his own record as a U.S. Attorney of putting corrupt politicians in prison — and to criticize Corzine for having donated substantial amounts of his own money to the local Democratic organizations in the state.
“While I believe the governor is an honest man, and while I believe he’s conducted himself honestly in public office, the fact is his money has enabled people like Joe Ferriero to remain in power,” said Christie.
Daggett said that politicians have to lead by example — and the kinds of corruption that are legal are an even more important problem than the crimes that have been committed. He criticized Corzine for spreading money through local Democratic organizations, and blasted Christie for the fact that his brother has raised $200,000 for the Republican Governors Association, which has run ads against Corzine, in order to circumvent the state’s $3,400 limit on campaign contributions.
Corzine shot back on the matter of his donations: “Let’s be clear, when I have written checks to the Bergen County Democratic Organization, it wasn’t to support Joe Ferriero,” said Corzine. “It’s for the purpose of electing Barack Obama and Frank Lautenberg and Al Gore, and making sure progressive politics is able to compete without all this circumvention I’ve just heard has gone on.”
He also mentioned how Ferriero had previously tried to take the Democratic nomination away from reform-minded state Sen. Loretta Weinberg — now Corzine’s running mate — and Corzine supported her in the primary. “The idea that I have somehow supported Joe Ferriero when I stood up to him, and stood with Loretta Weinberg when he tried to run her out of the party, it’s just a joke.”
The election is on November 3, and Corzine and Christie have been running neck and neck in the polls, with Daggett also measuring in the teens or even as high as 20 percent. So let’s see what happens in the next 12 days.
(Ed. note: The quotes used here are rush transcriptions, and may be subject to later editing.)
