The debate agitating many in New Jersey right is whether or not the state’s Governor, Chris Christie, is actually doing much to reform the state as it needs to be. I have to say that I wasn’t impressed with him during his campaign for the Republican nomination against Steve Lonagan. Having no interest in the politics of politic, he sounded like a big government Republican to me.

With that in mind, I was nicely surprised by the turn that Christie’s campaign against Corzine took and by some of his policies. He talked about small government, the need for reforming New Jersey, rejected the millionaire tax, capped property taxes and proposed budget cuts. But now that I am catching up on New Jersey reforms, I am skeptical again.

Let’s start with by comparing Christie’s FY 2011 $29.3 billion budget to Corzine’s FY 2010 budget of 29.8 billion. Given today’s economic climate, a 1.5% cut is not one that deserves immense praise. However, for a second I thought, “spending cuts are spending cuts and better that than nothing.”

That’s until I came across the alternative budget prepared by Americans for Prosperity called New Jersey Taxpayers’ Budget FY 2011. The AFP budget adds up to $25.9 billion. That’s $2.4 billion less than what is proposed by Governor Christie. Plus, they did this, without raising taxes. Unlike Christie’s budget.

That’s right, as part of a compromise on the budget, Christie made a deal with Democrats: he will put back millions into his budget (to buy things such as keeping open Hagedorn Psychiatric Hospital in Hunterdon County, funding for cultural sites including the Battleship New Jersey and the Newark Museum, more funding for projects in Urban Enterprise Zones) in exchange for a series of new tax and fee hikes are being put forward as supplemental bills.

Here are the new tax: a tax on insurance premiums, a tax on health care, a tax on new businesses.

But the best tax us is a tax on consumers that will confiscate more than 28 million dollars of gift cards purchased in New Jersey. The AFP New Jersey Blog explains:

That’s right. If you do not use a gift card to your favorite restaurant after one year, the State will confiscate the money!

Okay so now I am totally confused by the governor’s plan. His plan barely cuts spending, his cuts mainly target suburban aids (which, if done right would be a good thing), yet he keeps the taxes that funds this programs and uses the money to fund programs in the cities. Let me recap this: So Christie is cutting aids to places where the people who got him elected live, keeping the taxes that funded these programs, and funds more programs for the people who voted against him. Politicians in New Jersey are strange.

A friend, very active in New Jersey’s politics, explained to me the consequences of Christie’s budget.

His “cuts” were in suburban aid. While I don’t agree with the suburban aid scheme — cutting that alone means almost all of us will have to bear increased property taxes. [Of course,] Christie’s proposed tax cap are encouraging. However, given Christie has done almost nothing relieve the cost pressure on cities, I don’t see how this can positively play out. In fact, Christie has let stand prevailing wage mandates passed in December 09 that truly limit cost savings.

I don’t think that now is the time to find excuses for the policies that come out of political compromises that are bad for taxpayers. It is no secret that I am not over President Bush’s many betrayals of free-market ideas throughout his eight years in office–no matter how terrible the current president is–and I would hate for the same thing to happen all over again. I understand that many people are excited to have a Republican governor in New Jersey. But, that’s no reason to cut him any slack especially if he behaves like a democrat.

Plus, the state doesn’t have the luxury to wait for true reforms.