In 1990, Governor Jim Florio responded to our nation's last major recession by hiking the sales tax to 7%. This led to mass protest across New Jersey, and a demolition of Democratic representation in the state as grassroots crowds and the skillful state GOP blocked the agenda of a liberal Governor who had gotten 62% of the vote in 1989. The first death knell for Florio was when Republican Frank Catania ousted Democrat Cy Yenarelli in a 1990 special election in a majority-Paterson district. The following year, Catania and his Republicans won a veto-proof super-majority in the Assembly. They won campaigning against the tax and they overturned it, leading to a decade of growth in New Jersey.
The constant watering-down of the GOP's anti-tax, pro-business message allowed increasingly left-wing Democrats to re-take control of the state this decade. As a result, the king of the archliberals, Jon Corzine, hiked the sales tax during a period of national growth over the objections of his own party and to plug an unexplained deficit. The GOP said little about this egregious tax.
About six weeks after this tax was imposed on New Jerseyans, Scott Rumana was elected Passaic County's GOP chair. Despite the overwhelming burden the tax had on poor urban dwellers in Passaic and Paterson, Rumana did not take the lead in making moves to repeal the tax. Then as an Assemblyman from a district with a huge retail complex, Rumana has introduced no legislation to reduce the nation's highest sales tax.
The sales tax is not Scott Rumana's fault, but it begs the question: How can the GOP win and govern when the party's leaders ignore winning issues for votes and people's bottom lines?
Gee, is somone a little obsessed with Scott Rumana? Make it more obvious -- 2 posts, 2 slams of Rumana.
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