The state’s major cities are grabbing a disproportionate amount of the state’s resources and leaving very little for suburban and more rural areas.
Corodemus said he is astonished that, given the rising taxation in the state, voters are not more determined to make a difference at the polls insofar as tax reform. Corodemus said he sees visible signs of voter apathy.
It is going to take more voter interest and involvement to get things on track.
Courier Editorial Praises Corodemus
Corodemus Blasts Assembly Majority, Rails At Corruption And Tells It Like It Is
~ By JIM PURCELL
Posted: 2006-07-27
Assemblyman Steve Corodemus has served the 26 towns of Monmouth’s 11th District for eight terms in Trenton, and has been fighting for small business owners and taxpayers and against unethical office holders for a long time.
Earlier this month, prior to the adoption of the state’s $30 billion spending plan, Corodemus said what he witnessed in Trenton was “the worst side of New Jersey.” “After watching [most Democratic leaders in the Assembly] 12 to 18 hours a day for five consecutive days after the budget deadline convinces me that no business person in their right mind would hire them to work for them,” Corodemus said. The state budget was adopted eight days past its constitutional deadline, but only after the state government was “closed down” for four days.
“I used to take offense at late night comedians who would make jokes critical of New Jersey’s elected officials,” Corodemus said. “But I realized after that they’re right.”
According to the 15-year assemblyman, the lost revenue experienced during the shutdown for the private sector alone translated into millions of dollars. Perhaps even more disconcerting to Corodemus, the end result of the process was the government raising taxes and spending and borrowing more money.
Corodemus said he is astonished that, given the rising taxation in the state, voters are not more determined to make a difference at the polls insofar as tax reform. Corodemus said he sees visible signs of voter apathy.
“I read in the newspapers and hear about citizens’ reactions about increasing the sales tax (from 6 to 7 percent) and other taxes another couple billion dollars and how they are resigned to it and that is disturbing,” he said.
When asked if patronage in state government is a problem, Corodemus was candid. “Probably the whole issue (of patronage) was summed up for me when I drove into the State House parking lot and saw a black Rolls Royce convertible in the legislators’ area with a New Jersey Senate license plate, registered to (former Newark Mayor and Essex County Senator) Sharpe James,” Corodemus said. “That said it all.”
Corodemus leveled stern criticism of James about his part in the budget debacle. “[Senator] Sharpe James was one of the people who held up the budget process by keeping the governor at gunpoint for an additional $27 million for his district.” In general, Corodemus said that the state’s major cities are grabbing a disproportionate amount of the state’s resources and leaving very little for suburban and more rural areas.
Among his other duties in the Assembly, Corodemus sits on the Joint Ethics Committee. Currently, there are more than a dozen complaints of potential legislator misconduct the committee is looking into. In some cases, the complaints involve companies the legislators work for, and involve possible inappropriate economic activity involving the legislators. There have even been cases where legislators sitting on the Joint Ethics Committee have had to step down because they became the subject of complaints.
Despite the setbacks he’s seen, Corodemus said he still believes in the two-party system. “Both parties have their place,” Corodemus said. “Someone might take a look at the way government runs here and say it’s the worst form of government possible, until they look at all the other ones.”
Currently, the Republican Party is in the Assembly minority. Corodemus said he believes that the Democratic majority on the state level, left unchecked by Republicans, would do much more harm to the state’s taxpayers than they are already doing, according to him. But, ultimately, Corodemus said the voter has to play more of a role statewide for real tax reform to take hold and for legislators to feel greater accountability to their constituents.
“Government treats business in New Jersey like a moving animal: If it moves government will tax it, if it keeps moving it will regulate it and if it stops moving then government will subsidize it,” Corodemus said.
There’s a popular phrase in government that “business can partner with the government.” However, Corodemus said that many of the business people he speaks with say they don’t want government as a partner …”just leave us alone is their message.”
Corodemus said that other states, particularly Georgia and North Carolina, are actively trying to bring business, and thereby jobs, into their states by luring companies away from the Northeast. “And, they are doing a pretty good job of it,” Corodemus said.
Where manufacturing was once a Garden State mainstay, today companies are voting “with their feet” and picking up and moving out because of excessive taxes and regulation.
“I called up a voter during my last election and he stopped me right away and said, ‘Don’t bother saying anything…I’m a builder and I won’t even be living here by the time the election comes around,’” Corodemus said. Apparently, the voter was moving to North Carolina to restart his business there because of a more encouraging outlook on small private business.
“That is a symptom of what is happening right now,” Corodemus said. “Forty years ago, manufacturing was a strong force in the state and that force created blue collar jobs that people used to buy houses, raise families and put their kids through college. Today, that’s not there because business has relocated to where it can get a better deal in many cases (because of the tax and regulation issues with government).”
Consequently, New Jersey is being eclipsed in population by Georgia, during 2006, and will be surpassed in population by North Carolina, in 2007. This represents a drop from 10th most populace state to 12th.
Where commercial and industrial taxation once carried the bulk of governmental taxes today that burden is being transferred to more and more residential property owners.
Corodemus said that government interference locally in private industry is apparent in the clamming industry. He pointed to the depuration plant in Sea Bright established by Frank Brooks and Walter Hughes. “They’re competing with a (nearby) plant subsidized by the state,” Corodemus said. “Meanwhile, these guys have put their mortgages and their personal money on the line and their biggest competitor is government.”
Corodemus said government does have a place in commerce. “President Eisenhower created the major roadways and thoroughfares in this country, which boosted commerce incredibly. But government wasn’t in the business of competing with private industry,” he explained.
In addition, when it comes to regulation, Corodemus said he recently spoke with a business owner who faced a daunting amount of paperwork that required filing with local, state and federal agencies. While this is not unusual, what was is that all of the paperwork requested the exact same information. “Something as simple as creating a standard form that is on file with multiple agencies would uncomplicated so much, but seems to be too much for government to do sometimes,” he said. “On top of that, this business owner said that there is such a parade of inspectors that go through his store front he stopped asking just where they were all from.”
And, this was the case of a business that was in total compliance. Yet, as a result of the many inspections and many forms, the business owner had to take employees they were paying off of their jobs and put them onto the tasks of filling out forms for long periods of work time.
Corodemus said he does have hope for the future. “I still have the fire in my belly and believe government can be made right,” he said. “But it is going to take more voter interest and involvement to get things on track.”
About Steve Corodemus
Corodemus is an attorney who served in the New Jersey Assembly for eight terms as a representative for the 11th Legislative District, which services communities from Highlands to West Long Branch, Brielle to Spring Lake and Wall to Sea Girt, among others. He received his law degree from Seton Hall University, Newark, and his undergraduate degree from Rutgers University, New Brunswick. He is a former Atlantic Highlands councilman, and resides in Atlantic Highlands with his wife and daughter.
Assemblyman Steve Corodemus, Republican
40 First Ave., Atlantic Highlands, NJ 07716
(732)-708-0900
http://www.njassemblyrepublican
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