The Spadea Plan for New Jersey – Bills that will be introduced and co-sponsored in the first 90 days
In his first 90 days serving in the Assembly, Bill Spadea will focus on legislation to accomplish the following:
- Create Jobs through Dramatic Tax Reductions
- Eliminate Wasteful Government Spending and Overlap
- Reform School Funding and Create Accountability
- Further Pension and Benefit Reform to Reduce our Debt
Cutting taxes
Corporate Tax Reduction – Focusing specifically on small businesses in order to alleviate their tax burden and open up the hiring process. Business hiring in New Jersey and relocating employees to New Jersey would receive a reduction in the corporate tax burden.
Eliminate the Realty Transfer Tax – This is a hidden tax that drives up the cost of purchasing a home in New Jersey by making closing costs less competitive than our neighbors- it’s been raised continually – in 05 and 07 specifically resulting in less revenue not more.
Eliminate the Millionaires Tax – we should be attracting millionaires to purchase homes in New Jersey – it will create additional ratables for municipalities and bring additional tax revenue – without targeting higher incomes with excessive burdens
Eliminate Wasteful Spending
Consolidation of Services – The Princetons have demonstrated by voting overwhelmingly for consolidation that there is a plan to share services and consolidate government departments. While Police and Fire Fighters need to be evaluated based on public safety needs first, there are plenty of bureaucratic overlaps discovered in the latest example that other municipalities could be encouraged to follow.
Reduction of operating costs in state government – This takes real world experience to successfully accomplish. While there is an understanding that there may be a need to account for inflation and merit increases budgets for state government operations must be reduced. I’ve got 15 years of experience as business leader, department head and manager of budgets and people holding the line on spending and reducing costs in order to save jobs and maintain profitability in a shrinking Real Estate market. Not unlike the jobless rate and recession reducing the amount of cash flow to government, the fallout in the real estate market forced many of our competitors to close or take on massive amounts of debt. At our company, we’ve remained debt free and continue to see a rise in production while reducing our costs throughout the past five years.
Public School Funding Reform
The School Children First Act – Assembly Bill A-4168 was introduced into the Assembly on June 23, 2011 and the legislature has failed to act. This reform act will change the rules by holding school teachers accountable for effectiveness when evaluating tenure and compensation. This is a simple way to reward those teachers who are truly making a difference in our children’s lives. Taxpayers need to be defended against the bullying tactics of the union leaders forcing families to bear an increasing burden whether our kids are getting a quality education or not.
The Opportunity Scholarship Act – Assembly Bill A-2810 was introduced into the Assembly on June 10, 2011 and the legislature has failed to act. This reform bill will empower low and lower middle income parents to choose a school outside their district public or private in order to empower their children to receive a better education. The bill offers tax credits to districts participating so this is a simple way of addressing the failing school issue while at the same time reducing the tax burden on middle class taxpayers. Instead of forcing taxpayers to continue to sink money into failing districts, we’ll be able to encourage school choice which will help the kids and reduce the tax burden.
The Charter Reform Bill – Assembly Bill A-4167 was introduced on June 23, 2011 and the legislature has failed to act. This critical piece of legislation addresses the rising costs of education and failing school districts. Perhaps the most important part of the bill is empowering local school boards to act as charter school authorizers. By establishing local control the community will have a greater say in approving, overseeing and evaluating the performance of the schools. The bottom line is that school choice and efficient management of education delivery addresses the problem of failing schools – not simply bilking the taxpayers and throwing money at the problem as the Democrats have been doing fr decades.
Pension Reform
Sick Pay Reform – It’s time to phase out the egregious cash payouts for sick days for government employees. As a hiring executive and manager of employees in the private sector for one of the larger employers in the state, I have firsthand experience on how systems can be abused. The fact that sick days can accrue over time in the public sector resulting in massive payouts on the backs of the taxpayers is wrong and must be stopped to get our fiscal house under control. In the private sector employees must show a physicians note after a certain period of illness – usually 3 days. The Governors proposal is to make that 6 days in the public sector. Considering that public employees in New Jersey have very generous pension and benefits, asking this group to come more in line with the private sector to relieve the taxpayers and alleviate the over-burdened middleclass worker is not only fair, but necessary. The cost in 2010 was $43 million. The total liability with all government workers in NJ - $825 million!
Civil Service Reform – It’s time to give local government the power to control spending. They need to be able to opt-out of the civil service system. We need to remove barriers to sharing services. As a member of the Princeton Zoning board and leader of an organization that training and empower local candidates, I’ve got the experience fresh off the successful consolidation vote in Princeton to share the success with communities across the district. The Assembly needs to take the lead and help local towns move forward. Local governments need the power to institute temporary layoffs and furlough employees in order to control spending in times of economic downturns.