By Andrew Martins, Managing Editor
Standing at the entrance of Manville High School on Tuesday, Republican state Assemblyman Jack Ciattarelli formally announced his candidacy to become the 56th Governor of New Jersey.
The Hillsborough resident, who served four years as a Somerset County Freeholder from 2007 to 2011 prior to becoming a representative for Legislative District 16, pointed to the existing political climate within the state, as well as a perceived lack of focus from the legislature, as the impetus for his run.
“I did not go to Trenton to vote on the state song, the state butterfly or stink bugs,” he said. “And as much as I enjoy groundbreakings, ribbon-cuttings and parades, that’s not why the citizens…sent me to Trenton.”
Stating that he wanted to affect change within the state, Mr. Ciattarelli said he had a plan to address a number of key problems in the state if elected.
“This plan generates savings. This plan provides fiscal flexibility,” he said. “This plan allows us to make underfunded school districts whole. This plan addresses the property tax crisis. This plan funds the pension system. This plan points us in a more prosperous direction.”
Chief among his concerns was the way school districts receive state aid.
Of the more than 600 school districts throughout the state, Mr. Ciattarelli said that approximately 200 were “overfunded” by approximately half a billion dollars in taxpayer money while many districts were left with little support from Trenton.
“This inequity is causing a crowding-out effect of epic proportion, causing some school districts to suffer unfairly, pensions to go unfunded and property taxes to skyrocket,” he said. “The people of this state deserve better.”
The assemblyman said he specifically chose Manville for his announcement, since he said the district received approximately $9 million less in state aid than it should have gotten for the 2016-17 school year.
“Manville provides the perfect backdrop for my signature issue, the thing I’m most passionate about, the thing that holds the key to our future: the school funding formula,” he said.
So important is the school funding issue to Mr. Ciattarelli, that he said it directly impacts other “crises” affecting the state, including high property taxes.
“You cannot solve the property tax crisis or the pension tax crisis until you solve the school funding formula,” he said.
Referencing school districts in Hoboken and Jersey City, Mr. Ciattarelli said one of the current issues with school funding is the fact that schools that received inflated amounts of state aid in previous years continue to do so, even though they have become more financially stable in recent years.
“State aid, in all forms, was never meant to be a subsidy in perpetuity. It was a bridge until a community could stand on its own,” he said.
Referencing Gov. Chris Christie’s “Fairness Formula” plan for school funding, which would evenly divide the state’s public school funds by the number of students in each district, Mr. Ciattarelli said the state needs a plan that’s “in the middle” of what exists today and what the governor proposes.
“The challenge I have with the governor’s plan is that it does not take into account that not all communities have the same ability to pay and not all children are equally educationally intensive,” he said.Along with school funding reform, Mr. Ciattarelli said his five-point plan would tackle many of the state’s ills.
If elected, he said he would require that the state no longer provide post-retirement healthcare if an individual’s pension and Social Security is worth more than $50,000 a year. He also said he would institute a 401k plan for public employees with less than 10 years in the system and new hires, as well as discontinuing “Cadillac” health insurance plans.
In the case of taxes, a regularly maligned issue in the state, Mr. Ciattarelli said he would move to abolish the estate and transfer inheritance tax, increase the retirement income exclusion and allow for the carry forward of capital losses.
He also said he would call for the end of taxing the sale of primary residences, as well as secondary homes if never used for commercial purposes.
“Your home is a home. It’s not a stock or a bond,” he said.
Other tax issues include: “the exclusion of the first $5 million on the sale of family-owned businesses; the restructuring of marginal tax rates on taxable income over $750,000 to $1 million; and closing the ‘combined reporting’ loophole on corporate income, followed by a 10 year phasing out of the corporate business tax.”
Mr. Ciattarelli also said he would look to streamline the governemnt by reducing the state government workforce by five to 10 percent and using the money that would go to salaries to pay for “state-of-the-art technologies” at agencies like the Motor Vehicle Commission.
“If elected governor, my brand of leadership and my administration will be very different from any other,” he said.
Following his prepared remarks, Mr. Ciattarelli commented on various other issues, including the Transportation Trust Fund and related 23 cent gas tax hike, which he called “a bad deal for New Jersey.”
He also weighed in on Republican Presidential nominee Donald Trump’s tax returns and the alleged information that he may have paid little to no taxes in two decades.
“The tax code is the tax code is the tax code,” he said. “I’ve practiced as a CPA and there’s this thing called ‘net operating loss carry forward.’ (Trump) has taken advantage of it, but that doesn’t mean it smells good or smells right.”
Mr. Ciattarelli’s announcement makes him the third individual vying for the governor’s mansion.
Last November, Ocean County entrepreneur and political newcomer Joseph Rudy Rullo announced his intentions to run as a Republican. For the Democratic ticket, former United States Ambassador to Germany and former Goldman Sachs executive Phillip D. Murphy announced his candidacy back in May.
Other individuals, including Lieutenant Governor Kim Guadagno, New Jersey Senate President Stephen Sweeney and New Jersey Democratic State Committee Chairman Tom Byrne are among the potential names to run.
