New Jersey voters deserve elected officials who will fix the state's problems

The recent budget crisis in New Jersey had the state's citizens up in arms. No work and thus no pay for state employees. No beaches. No parks. And let us not forget no casinos or horse racing. After a weeklong stalemate, the drama finally came to an end. But the unfortunate reality is that nothing has changed and the state continues down a path of self-destruction.

The question many political pundits are asking after this latest crisis is, Who won this game of chicken - Gov. Jon Corzine or the Assembly Democrats? The answer: Who cares? The residents of New Jersey lost, and they will continue to lose because their legislative officials refuse to change the way the state is run.

The Democratic Party in this state knows how to do one thing: tax and spend. When any family in America has bills greater than its income, its members curb their spending. They tighten their belts and live within their means. This concept does not register, however, with our Democratic legislative officials. Instead, they continue to spend and spend and raise taxes to cover the costs. This continues to drive the hardworking citizens of New Jersey out of the state.

Their latest gimmick? Raise the sales tax to help ease the property tax, while cutting property-tax rates. Then throw in additional hidden taxes on everything else under the sun, including such things as fur products, cigarettes, health clubs and automobiles - and voil, you have a balanced budget. There was reportedly even more money left over to help fund at least $150 million in projects in those municipalities controlled by Democrats. How refreshing to see that things have changed with this new administration.

In all seriousness, this is more of the same. Our legislative body punted - again. Spend money you don't have, and avoid making any meaningful cuts or reforming those issues that have led New Jersey to its current crisis. Instead, continue to come up with patchwork solutions.

This is not about Republican vs. Democrat. We don't face the ongoing budget woes that we do solely because of the Democratic Party. Having said that, our current elected officials have an obligation to right the ship and fix our budget woes. That takes vision and that takes political courage to know that you might not be making the popular decision that will win you re-election, but you'll be doing the right thing for New Jersey.

The most recent crisis and the handling of it fell squarely in the hands of the Democratic Party. We have a Democratic governor and a Democratic majority in the state Senate and Assembly, and they have failed us, the citizens of New Jersey.

A $30 billion budget, which, granted, makes not one degree of sense, was agreed to within one week. The thought of closed beaches, racetracks not operating and people not being able to play the lottery or slot machines was enough to get the legislative body pulling all-nighters to finalize a budget.

The citizens of New Jersey deserve the same effort when it comes to actually fixing the problems ailing this state, including most notably, the broken state pension system and our property-tax crisis.

Dan Brown

East Brunswick