Lawmakers today continued to point to some ugly choices when Gov. Corzine unveils his budget March 10, including the likelihood of cuts to property tax rebates and even opened the door to the possibility of tax increases.

"This may be the most dire budget situation that I have seen in all my years in the Legislature," Assembly Speaker Joseph J. Roberts Jr. (D., Camden) said after a late morning meeting with Gov. Corzine and other legislative leaders. "There are bad choices and there are worse choices."
 

Roberts, a member of the Legislature since 1987, and Senate President Richard J. Codey (D., Essex), confirmed that Corzine is considering scaling back property tax rebates. They said he hoped to preserve the checks for senior citizens - "rebates for seniors will be kept, there’s no question about that," Codey said - but are considering how to handle the program for people under the age of 65.

The rebates cost $1.7 billion last year. Roberts said $1.1 billion went to non-seniors. That makes the program a large target as Corzine and lawmakers look to cut spending. The state's revenue picture, Roberts said, is getting worse each day.

Codey had previously said he did not expect major tax increases, but that possibility appears to be on the table. Asked today about the possibility of tax hikes, Roberts said, "We had a very preliminary discussion of a whole range of options. If you’re losing revenue and you want to provide programs that are important in this state we have to look at where the revenue’s going to come from."

Corzine has said all along he must consider every option to balance the budget and has refused to rule out tax hikes.

Roberts and Codey said preserving rebates must be balanced with priorities such as aid to schools and municipalities. Cutting that support, they said, would only drive up property taxes while they tried to save the rebates. They said they hope to preserve rebates, but clearly left open the idea that they may be cut.

"I think the public understands there’s going to be a lot of choices in here that nobody likes, but the fact is that we have dramatically lower revenues and with those lower revenues we’re going to have to curtail some things that we might otherwise want to do," Corzine said in an earlier news conference with reporters.

Assemblyman Louis Greenwald (D., Camden), the Assembly budget chair, also eased off of comments Wednesday that he would "fight to the death" to preserve the rebates. He said property taxes remain the top issue in the state but that there is debate and discussion every year and eventually compromise. 

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