Fact check: Unspinning Christie’s State of a State
In his State of a State address, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie farfetched some sum and boasted about swell that doesn’t demeanour so considerable when compared with inhabitant trends.
• Christie boasted that New Jersey’s stagnation rate has forsaken from 9.7% when he took bureau to 6.4% (as of November). But New Jersey was doing somewhat softened than a inhabitant normal when he took bureau and is now doing somewhat worse.
• The administrator touted a origination of 150,000 private zone jobs. But New Jersey’s rate of private zone pursuit expansion is reduction than half a inhabitant average; in fact New Jersey ranked 49th out of 50 states in private zone pursuit growth.
• Christie crowed about New Jersey being “No. 4 in per capita income.” The state is indeed third in per capita personal income, accurately where it was a year before Christie took office. It ranked second for some-more than dual decades before that.
• Christie pronounced that state skill taxes “increased some-more than 70%” in a 10 years before to him apropos governor, and that they’ve increasing by “less than 2%” in any of a final four. That ignores a impact state rebates have played in obscure a skill taxation weight before he was governor, and a impact of a remission cuts he implemented as governor.
• Christie done a dubious explain that “taxes were lifted 115 times in a 8 years before 2010,” a year he took office. But that list includes fees, not usually taxes, and a administrator himself due 23 price hikes in a 2015 budget.
Christie is a potential claimant for a Republican presidential assignment in 2016The New York Times remarkable that his annual State of a State speech
UNEMPLOYMENT RATE
In his speech, Christie asked New Jerseyans to cruise “where we were and how distant we have come,” observant that a state’s stagnation has been cut by a third in a final 5 years.
Christie, Jan. 13
It’s true, as Christie said, that when he took bureau in Jan 2010, a state’s stagnation rate was 9.7% and over 440,000 New Jerseyans were out of work (442,318 to be exact, according to a Bureau of Labor Statistics
But here’s what was left unsaid: When Christie took office, New Jersey’s stagnation rate during 9.7%national stagnation rate5.6%worse than a neighbors
JOB GROWTH
Christie also boasted that New Jersey has “created over 150,000 private zone jobs in New Jersey in 5 brief years.” The tangible figure, according to BLS, is 142,700. That might sound impressive, though that statistic wilts when noticed in light of inhabitant trends.
In fact, a rate of private zone pursuit expansion in New Jersey, 4.5%, is good next a inhabitant normal of 10.2%. Under Christie, New Jersey ranks 49th out of 50 states in private zone pursuit growthdead last
Christie also remarkable that, “Since final January, a sum series of people employed in New Jersey has grown by over 90,000, and a series of impoverished has forsaken by scarcely 30,000.”Those sum are flattering accurate, according to race surveys conducted by a U.S. Census for BLS. The series of employed New Jerseyans grew from 4,157,733 in Jan to 4,250,823 in November. That’s an boost of 93,090. And a series of impoverished New Jerseyans forsaken from 317,118 in Jan to 291,870 in November. That’s a diminution of 25,248.
But Christie was wrong to contend those were people employed inTheAsbury Park Press noted, “Economists have pronounced many of them expected are operative in New York and Pennsylvania, where a pursuit marketplace has been stronger.”
Also left out of Christie’s narrative, TheNew York Times, New Jersey has usually recovered about half a jobs mislaid in a Great Recession, while a republic as a whole has recovered all those jobs and afterwards some. Nationally, about 8.6 million jobs were strew from Feb 2008 to Feb 2010. Since then, a inhabitant economy has combined about 10.4 million jobs. By comparison, New Jersey mislaid 253,800 jobs between Feb 2008 and Feb 2010 though has usually recovered 121,800 of them.
PER CAPITA INCOME
Christie also bragged about a state’s singular resources in assisting to captivate businesses. He noted, for example, that New Jersey is “No. 4 in per capita income.” Actually, New Jersey’s ranking is softened than that. New Jersey placed third in per capita personal income in 2013 (excluding a District of Columbia), according to a U.S. Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Economic Analysis
But that considerable ranking is not new and has not softened underneath Christie. New Jersey ranked third in per capita personal income each year between 2009 and 2013, solely in 2012 when it ranked fourth. And it ranked second
PROPERTY TAXES
Christie pronounced when he came into office, New Jersey’s “property taxes had increasing some-more than 70% in 10 years. We averaged a 7% expansion in skill taxes per year.”
It’s loyal that, on average, skill taxes increasing about that most statewide between 1999 and 2009, according to sum from a state Department of Community Affairs
However, Christie’s explain doesn’t cause in rebates that some perceived over that time that eventually lowered their skill taxation burden.
When factoring in a normal taxation remission homeowners and tenants perceived — $111 in 1999 and $1,037 in 2009
Christie also pronounced that given he’s been in office, “we have had 4 years of reduction than 2% annual skill taxation growth.” That’s not accurately right.
Property taxes increasing 1.6% in 2012 and 1.3% in 2013, after Christie signed a check capping
Christie’s explain of 2% annual expansion also ignores large cuts in a skill taxation remission program
TAXES VERSUS FEES
In his speech, Christie boasted about not lifting taxes in his past 5 budgets and, by contrast, he pronounced “taxes were lifted 115 times in a 8 years” before he became administrator in 2010. That’s misleading.
Christie’s list of 115 “taxes” indeed includes both taxes and fees. And a administrator himself has lifted countless fees. In fact, Christie due 23 price hikes in his 2015 budget.
Christie done a eminence between taxes and fees in his 2013 State of a State address
We indicate this out since politicians, including Christie, pull a eminence between taxes and fees.
What’s a difference? Some members of a open might not see a vital inconsistency between fluctuating a sales taxfee
For example, Christie saidwas explaining 23 due price increases
And, in fact, a check included a due taxation on e-cigarettesthe administration estimated
The inactive state Office of Legislative Services’ analysis
The Record
During a 2008 presidential election, we fact-checked
PolitiFact New Jersey initial published a list of 115 taxes and fees
Christie can’t have it both ways. If fees are taxes — as is pragmatic when Christie says “taxes were lifted 115 times in a 8 years before 2010? — afterwards Christie is guilty of proposing during slightest 23 taxation increases in his check final year.
Also, Christie’s offer to need out-of-state online retailers to assign sales taxation to New Jersey business puts him during contingency with conservatives who conflict some-more unconditional sovereign legislation, a Marketplace Fairness Act. The regressive Freedom Works calls itcalls it
The magnitude was sealed into law by Christie final summerNew Jersey taxation law
– Robert Farley, D’Angelo Gore, Lori Robertson and Brooks Jackson, with Carolyn Fante
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