Christie is counting on a revenue gain to fund the rollback, and he has prodded Democrats, who control the Legislature, to pass it. Lawmakers have made counterproposals that would give middle-income residents property-tax credits on their tax returns.
'Irresponsible' Tax Rollback
"With revenue projections coming in much lower and the governor's revenue estimates being ridiculously unreachable, it would be irresponsible at this time to support any type of tax cut," Senator Raymond Lesniak, an Elizabeth Democrat, said by telephone yesterday, before the April numbers were released. "I know that other members I've spoken to agree."
Gordon MacInnes, president of New Jersey Policy Perspective, a Trenton nonprofit research group that focuses on social and political issues, said this is no time to cut taxes.
"New Jersey already has the third-lowest credit rating in the country, greatly increasing our borrowing costs," MacInnes, a former Democratic state senator and assemblyman from Morristown, said in a statement. "Our leaders should concentrate first on putting the state's fiscal house in order, not on politically appealing, but reckless, proposals to cut taxes. This is exactly how we got into this mess."
Christie has "very forcibly" outlined his plan, and Democrats have followed suit, said Patrick Murray, director of the Monmouth University Polling Institute in West Long Branch.
Cornered Politicians
"Politically, you can't go back on a tax-cut promise," Murray said by telephone. "We're going to see, probably, a return to some of the one-shot gimmicks to fill budget holes."
"This doesn't look like the time that we should be giving out a tax cut for the state, but the governor has backed himself into a corner," Murray said. "Everybody's backed themselves into a corner."
Christie's spending plan for fiscal 2013 relies on "optimistic" economic projections, Standard & Poor's analysts led by John Sugden in New York said in February.
Revenue for this fiscal year and next may trail Christie's targets as taxes on income and casinos fall short, David Rosen, chief budget analyst for the Legislative Services Office, said in March. Revenue from gaming taxes trailed forecasts by 11 percent for the first 10 months of fiscal 2012.