New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) today formally announced his intention to implement a 10 percent cut in New Jersey’s income tax. “Lower tax rates will relieve over-burdened middle class families,” Christie said in his annual budget address.

Gov. Christie presented a $32.1 billion budget to the state Legislature this afternoon that increases school aid by $212.5 million, makes the largest payment toward public employee pensions in state history and uses rosy revenue projections to help pay for an income tax cut.

NJTV’s New Jersey Capitol Report had NJPP president Deborah Howlett on as a guest February 10 to discuss Gov. Christie’s proposed 10-percent income tax cut. “If the point is to stimulate the economy, a 10-percent income tax cut isn’t going to cut the mustard,” she said.

Among the accomplishments that Jersey City’s mayor touted during his speech was the luring of Goya Foods to the city and the jobs that will come as a result. But as the Reporter rightly notes, the jobs number Healy is citing isn’t quite accurate.

Gov. Chris Christie’s plan to spend $300 million less on Medicaid this year has hit a snag with the federal government that jeopardizes about $107 million of the savings he anticipated in the current state budget.

A new bill introduced in Trenton would add $1 billion to the tax credits available for the corporate incentive program that rewarded Panasonic and Goya Foods for staying in New Jersey. The legislation would increase the total pool of tax breaks available under the controversial Urban Hub Transit Tax Credit program to $2.5 billion.

The first in a long series of steps toward healthcare reform was taken yesterday, when a bill that will introduce sweeping changes to the way insurance is sold in New Jersey was voted out of an Assembly committee.

NJPP president Deborah Howlett was on My9′s public-affairs show New Jersey Now this weekend talking about Gov. Christie’s proposed 10 percent income tax cut. The clip is embedded in this post.

Lawmakers, lobbyists and businesspeople this morning will continue the New Jersey Chamber of Commerce’s 75-year strong tradition: a four-hour chartered train trek to Washington, D.C. for networking and a speech from the governor.

“There are legitimate meal expenses and those sorts of things for a campaign, but a campaign account is not just carte blanche,” NJPP president Deborah Howlett says of Joe DiVincenzo’s expenditures. “There doesn’t seem to be a reason that someone running for executive of Essex County or any other office to have to put plane tickets to Puerto Rico on an expense account.”