Seeking a Better Return on Tax Investment

Statement

Like most Americans, I filed my taxes this month. As I did, one thought kept coming back to me: How much of our hard-earned tax dollars going to Washington are actually coming back home to support us?

We are one of the top tax-paying districts in the country, but we are among the bottom in what we get back. What's clear is that the person who's supposed to fight for us here in northern New Jersey -- Congressman Scott Garrett, an unapologetic Tea Partier -- isn't doing a thing to bring our dollars back to our state. Nothing to fix potholes and bridges or improve our railroads, support our schools, invest in clean drinking water, or pay for additional police officers or much-needed fire equipment.

The result of Garrett's total inaction? The Garrett Tax -- the difference between what we pay in taxes and what we get back from the federal government. Here in the Fifth District, we get back $.33 on every dollar we pay in federal taxes -- less than half the $.68 average for the rest of New Jersey and substantially less than the $4.22 West Virginia and other states get. When you add it all up, the Garrett Tax is costing us $14,000 a year for every person who lives in the 5th District.

The result: we're stuck paying more in state and local taxes to close the gap of what we're not getting for our federal dollars. In part, our high property tax burden is the outcome of Scott Garrett failing to bring more money back to our communities.

Simply put, our district has become a welfare provider for lower-tax paying states. By refusing to fight for us, year in and year out, Scott Garrett is letting our tax payments go to other states that are happy to take our dollars to buy their fire trucks and improve their schools. We continue to get short-changed.
Garrett continues to get his nice government paycheck, as he has for the last 25 years -- but he does nothing to earn it.

Here's what I propose:
First and foremost, we need to cut unnecessary spending and waste, close loopholes, cut the debt, and pass comprehensive tax reform so that we can lower our tax rates.

As much as anyone, I want to keep dollars with our citizens and companies, not the IRS.
Second, until we cut our taxes, we must get back more of what we're paying out. Our members of Congress should fight for basic needs like grants for our schools, clean water, fire trucks and infrastructure. But Garrett's view is "no thanks." He'd rather stand on ideological ceremony and send our tax dollars to Wichita, Kansas.

Third, towns in the Fifth District shouldn't have to call on others, like Congressman Pascrell -- the congressman from the district next door -- to help get federal grant dollars for more police officers. This year, Garrett refused to write letters to Washington to help fire departments get life-saving equipment. And following Hurricane Sandy, he was the only member of the New Jersey delegation -- Democrat or Republican -- who refused to sign a letter seeking disaster relief. Garrett was also the only one to oppose dollars to fix our crumbling roads and bridges.

To add insult to injury, Garrett had the audacity to write in this newspaper last month that he was "fighting" for us. Really? Scott Garrett is doing anything but fighting for us. In fact, it seems like all he's fighting for is to keep his government paycheck -- not to lower the tax burden for the people he represents.

As Garrett wrote mockingly, "… If some tiny amount actually comes home, the taxpayers are supposed to thank Washington for giving some of it back." Yes, Congressman, if you got us back what we paid out, we would thank you. Until we can stop paying taxes, I want as much as I send to Washington to come back home for our community essentials. In the private sector, where I've spent most of my career, we call this trying to get a better return on investment.

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