| Necessity dictates that Christie's first budget will treat symptoms of NJ's fiscal problems, not the root causes. Our tax system relies to heavily on the unstable income tax. Allowing the last year's rate increase to "sunset" is a good first step at addressing the structural problem. But other structural reforms are needed. Christie should implement his pledge to require that all expanded and new programs be "sunsetted" after a fixed numbers of years. He also should implement his pledge to require that expanded and new programs include clear performance indicators by which these programs should be measured. Two more important reforms: NJ needs a constitutional spending cap. Second, labor costs will never be controlled without reforming NJ's civil service law. Today's severe fiscal problems should be used to highlight the need for significant structural reforms.
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