I don't know why I'm surprised about another story of where our tax dollars were meant to go, but to pay cable television bills? In 2006 Gov. Corzine signed a law which created a new tax on cable television companies. The money collected from the tax was to be used to help low income residents pay their cable bills. In typical political fashion the law was passed, but a way to distribute the money was never devised. The money sat unused until Gov. Christie put it toward the budget gap the state was facing. The total collected was $9.2 million.
There are many problems with this story. The first being, if you can't afford to have cable then don't subscribe. What's next we tax the alcohol companies to help those that can't afford their beer or whiskey? I would be all for a law making it mandatory for cable television companies to provide their basic services for free to anyone who is disabled or has a really low income. However, why should we help someone pay for HBO or Showtime when some of us who are not low income choose not to have that expense ourselves.
Secondly, how many taxes do we not know about, that the money never gets spent where it was supposed to go? Are there taxes to help the elderly or school children where the money has never been distributed? Who is watching where the money that is collected goes?
Finally, while I'm not totally ok with our governor just taking money from where it was taxed to be spent to fill the budget gap, my bigger problem is with those that sponsored the tax. Why didn't they follow through to make sure the money was properly distributed? Just seems like more politicians acting just to get votes and improve self image, not really wanting to help anyone.
If you want to read this story yourself check out NJNews
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