Lockdown won’t stop Gov. Murphy from raising YOUR taxes (Opinion)

If you asked yourself “can things get worse in New Jersey?” the answer is yes, yes they can.

Gov. Phil Murphy is sticking to his campaign promise of raising taxes and increasing government spending. The latest budget tops $40 billion and includes more than $1 billion dollars in new taxes. Of course he’s selling it as a "tax relief" for the middle class, so if you make less than $150,000 as a family and have a child, you’ll get up to $500. Wow, that barely covers the increase in the gas tax, toll hike, real estate taxes, debt service — you get the picture.

Thousands of small businesses will be impacted by the so-called millionaires tax. Thousands more may never be able to reopen and recover from the unnecessary and prolonged lockdown. Murphy has ruled without the Legislature through executive orders for months. He’s taken away economic and civil liberties in an arbitrary and cold way admitting he never considered the Bill of Rights when making his decisions. We’ve seen him change the metrics and selectively use "science" throughout the past few months to support his own egregious actions.

The first weeks of the pandemic, we were told to stay home in order to make sure that we could handle the influx of COVID-19 patients. We did that. No hospitals were overrun. Empty beds were more common across the state than not. We knew from actual science that most people would be touched by the virus and that most would have little or no health impact. Still the governor dug in, locked down and now continues to lecture us about public health moths after the actual health crisis passed. Making it even worse, he’s increasing spending on things unrelated to the lockdown and raising taxes. It’s a nightmare that we just can’t seem to awaken from.

The good news is that there are some champions of normal in positions where they can help. One of them is Michele Siekerka from New Jersey Business and Industry. She joined me to discuss the impact of the latest action from Trenton. Who speaks for New Jersey?

The post above reflects the thoughts and observations of New Jersey 101.5 talk show host Bill Spadea. Any opinions expressed are Bill's own. Bill Spadea is on the air weekdays from 6 to 10 a.m., talkin’ Jersey, taking your calls at 1-800-283-1015.