EDITORIAL

Politicians — and their words — can confuse.

   Words are important, and not wanting to be too snippy about it, we wish some of our fellow journalists would be more careful about the words they use.
   Much of the time, reporters will use words because officials and politicians use those words.
   But too often that leads to confusion, misunderstanding and, frankly, inaccurate reporting.
   To make the point, we’d like to consider recent use of the phrase "property-tax cut," as in "the Legislature approved a 20 percent tax cut."
   Uhmm, no, it didn’t.
   No one in Trenton has ever voted on a property-tax cut — nor will they ever.
   Property taxes are local creations and state legislators can’t cut one dime — they can greatly affect property taxes, of course, through other tax and spending policies at the state level.
   But they can’t cut your property-tax bill.
   What they’ve done is agreed to send larger rebate checks to New Jersey residents, which will help most families but is not a cut in their property taxes.
   Rest assured, the bill you get from the township/borough will not be going down by 20 percent this year.
   We think it would be more appropriate for the politicians to admit they’re increasing the rebate checks — and we think it’s vital for reporters to say this.
   It’s not only inaccurate to call this a tax cut, it makes it sound as if the state has really done something about our highest-in-the-nation property taxes. Which it hasn’t.
   To do that, they’ll need to do some really heavy lifting — make hard choices and cast decisive ballots — but those are not traits of long-term New Jersey politicians.
   This year, enjoy your rebate — and hope they can afford to do it again next year.
   And keep hoping for a real property-tax cut.
   Also on the topic of word usage, we’re troubled by the debate over President George W. Bush’s proposed "troop surge." "Surge" suggests a short-lived increase — a quick in and out and we doubt anyone but former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld could still be so optimistic.
   Rather than use the more negative "escalation" phrase some of the president’s critics use, we think it would be more accurate to call it "redeployment" — many of troops have been there before and the number of troops stationed in Iraq will total that of about a year ago, so it’s a true redeployment.
   We understand why politicians use words in the ways they do — that’s easy enough to spot.
   But journalists are held to a higher standard and are expected to find the words that most accurately report the reality of what the politicians are saying and doing.
   That way, we’ll be prepared for the property-tax bill when it comes — or for more troops stationed in Iraq, if they go.