$1.57 billion in tax breaks to businesses,
pension and benefit cuts for public workers
(Reuters/Jonathan Ernst)
Under Gov. Chris Christie, New Jersey supposedly can't afford to pay its public workers the
pensions they worked for and contributed to while the state failed to contribute its share. But meanwhile Christie has doled out
$1.57 billion in tax cuts to businesses, supposedly to create or preserve jobs, the
New York Times' Charles Bagli reports.
About those jobs: One program has provided $900 million in tax credits to 15 companies. The result?
The companies have promised to add 2,364 jobs, or $387,537 in tax credits per job, over the next decade.
With savvy, thrifty fiscal policy like that, no wonder:
New Jersey has recovered only 20 percent, or 51,500, of the 261,000 jobs lost during the recession, compared with 80 percent in New York City.
Chris Christie isn't spending $1.57 billion on a jobs program. In line with his priorities, it's a corporate tax break program thinly disguised as a jobs program.