Maggie's Farm

While having dinner at a nice restaurant a few weeks ago, Christy Todd Whitman and friends were seated at the next table over from us. She seemed like a very nice lady. When I saw her I got some very mixed emotions.

She may be the last well-known Jersey politician who isn’t famous for corruption. She was Governor when my wife and I moved here. Back then there was hope in NJ. Taxes were relatively low compared to other states in the Northeast and there was a lot of business growth going on. So she brings back some fond memories of a time when the state wasn’t a disaster area of taxes and corruption.

Then I remember how she set the stage for that disaster. Whitman was so avidly pro-choice, she used it as a litmus test for her State Supreme Court appointments. Unfortunately this required her to appoint liberals who couldn’t read the state constitution. What we got was a group of activists who like to nothing more than to legislate from the bench.

The court has re-interpreted the state constitution to require free daycare for all children in urban areas – to be paid for by suburban tax-payers (who also have to pay for their own daycare). Urban areas also have state funds pumped into their elementary and secondary school districts at an obscene level while most suburbs get nothing from the state.

The result: the highest state income in the U.S. The highest sales taxes in the U.S. And, since most suburban districts get no aid from the state, they have the highest property tax rates in the U.S.

Thanks for the abortions, Christy.