Ciattarelli Says NJ Is Dying 'By A Thousand Cuts' And Tax Reform Could Be Solution

NEW JERSEY — New Jersey Republican gubernatorial candidate Jack Ciattarelli sees taxes and state spending as his bread and butter in the race. The focus of his campaign, aside from the slogan "Let's Fix New Jersey" has been supporting "Main Street" or small businesses and retaining homeowners. Ciattarelli's tax plan focuses on lowering property taxes while promoting drastically lower state spending.

Ciattarelli is an accountant by trade, and often points to his experience as a former small business owner in informing his policies. In an interview with the New Jersey Society of CPAs, Ciattarelli laid out parts of his tax plan and explained why he believes the state is overspending.

"I do believe, we're dying a death by 1,000 cuts, and 990 have already been administered," Ciattarelli said in the interview.

Ciattarelli calls the state's current budget of $46.4 billion "a monster" and plans to bring it down to the spending levels seen during Chris Christie's administration, around $35 million. Although, Ciattarelli said during an event in Weehawken in September, he would be willing to settle for $37 million, which was Murphy's first budget.

Ciattarelli also plans on cutting the corporate business tax in half, a huge revenue stream to the state. According to Ciattarelli's plan, the cut would happen over the span of five years. Also part of the plan, is the adoption of Delaware's bylaws for corporate governance. Ciattarelli says it's all in an effort to make New Jersey "regionally competitive."

"To increase the sense of emergency with regard to what we need to do to improve our economy — we need to declare economic war on our neighbors," Ciattarelli said in his NJCPA interview.

New Jersey was ranked by The Tax Foundation as having the worst business climate in the country. In it's 2021 report, the foundation wrote that New Jersey has, "Some of the highest property tax burdens in the country, has the second highest-rate corporate and individual income taxes in the country and a particularly aggressive treatment of international income, levies an inheritance tax, and maintains some of the nation’s worst-structured individual income taxes."

As well as a poor climate for business, New Jersey has one of the highest unemployment rates in the nation at 7.2 percent, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor and Statistics.

Ciattarelli has also touted creating a "flatter, more equitable distribution" of state aid to schools, but hasn't quite expanded on how.

Ciattarelli has come out swinging against Murphy when it comes to taxes. He and running mate Diane Allen have emphasized a phrase Murphy used in a 2019 speech to Glassboro business owners, when the Democratic incumbent said, “If you’re a one-issue voter and tax rate is your issue, either a family or a business, if that’s the only basis upon which you’re going to make a decision, we’re probably not your state.”

A recent Monmouth poll puts Murphy over Ciattarelli by 13 points at 51 percent to 38 percent. Ciattarelli does hold the edge on taxes, where voters favor him by 39 percent to 33 percent. Ciattatelli has a slight edge on business, while Murphy holds a slight edge when it comes to handling crime.