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readers forum A Raspberry for Income Tax Hike by l.urry llavfrly l»KMfK'H/\T STATK Assembly leader Karchcr is saythat 4he staje government is insolvent and we should raise the income tax It's time for a good old fashioned raspberry from the citw<*ns. to Mr Karchcr*. and his friends .The only reason that the state has these recurring so called ••fiscal crises" is that Mr Karchcr and the Democrat majority in the Assembly want to spend more of. fttir money than they already have collected _ Their • answer is to raise taxes, not live within they-means. They have an insatiable appetite to spend, spejuINpend The state budgeted tax income for the curnent year at. v ’ :i billion, which is up'lH percent over last year Its actual income may be a bit less, but certainly a lot more of An increase than most of the taxpayers wijl be seeing in their paychecks this year Let the state tighten its belt for a change I.KST SOMKONT: THINK Ifi.n BII.UON IS not much, consider, that as recently as T965 the state operated with less than l/to of that amount. And, in many ways, services were Iletter We hear over and over that the state needs the money to provide services, but who believes that the schools are providing as Rood an education as in 1965? The SAT scores show a drastic decline Who believes that the roads and bridges or mass transit are m as good a shape? .last look around Who believes that the state s eebnomy is as healthy'’ Check the jobs Heaving the state. Have the poor been helped to a productive lifeVWe know they haven't The stale spends afore, but we get less. The citizen must send a message to Mr Karchcr and to all the politicians U’s a loud and clear "No new taxes! Live within your income as we must do." Larry Haverly Is executive director of the Taxpayers Political Action Committee'. f C'lpilal Comments Riparian Issue

Fight Vowed

By State Senator James It. Hurley KKKOItTS T<l save owners of tidal lands from paying exhorbitanl fees to the state suffered setback in the recent election with the defeat of a proposed constitutional amendment But I want to assure you that 1 will continue to fight to protect thrasands of homeowners from undue financial hardship in reclaiming their tidal lands from the state. And the Kean administration has said the slate has no intention of aggressively enforcing its claim to property washed by the tide over the last forty years. Two weeks ago. voters throughout the state defeated a proposed constitutional amendment that would have given the Legislature authority to set prices below current market value to reclaim land washed by tidal water. THK DKFEAT of the amendment, however, automatically will not result in homeowners being charged a fee based on the fair market value of (heir land to reclaim it I am looking at several alternatives that would sav£ homeowners thousands of dollars 1 will continue to push for passage of my bill that would give homeowners in tidal areas credit for all property taxes they paid on their land over the years. The savings would be’substantial and could spare homeowners from making any payment to the state to reclaim their land. I am also studying the issue to see if anogier proposed constitutional amendment would be necesar>-<l|inext year's ballot to clear up any confusion over riparttm-' claims « IK YNOTHKIl proposed amendment is necessary, the state must launch a campaign to inform voters of the urgent need to resolve this dilemma. '

' Dorh Ward GETTING HEADY FOR THANKSGIVING is eight-year-old Amy Marsden, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Marsden of Stagecoach Rd.. Cape May Court HoU|ie. Pumpkins were grown in her backyard as part of a 4-11 project.

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State Department of EnvironmentalTTrotection maps show that tens of thousands of homes and businesses along the coastline and near rivers once were washed by the tide and could be subject to claim by the State of New Jersey. It is unfair to charge innocent homeowners huge fees to reclaim land they purchased years ago with clear title. Unaware- their property was in tidal land and there

The State We're In

technically owned by the state, these homeowners paid taxes on the land and made improvements without being * compensated by the state. I will move to have this cloud over the ownership of their property lifted as soon as possible. Senator James R. Hurley represents Cape May County and much of Cumberland County.

Adversity Breeds Innovation

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by David F. Moore YOU'VE PROBABLY noticed that prices are up and employment is down. Even those still working find it tougher to get from payday to payday. Now we’re beginning to notice.that this has an impact on New Jersey, where lower spending by the public means lower taxes collected in Trenton, and suddenly a balanced state budget isn't balanced anymore. On top of that, New Jersey has depended heavily on federal grants for a wide spectrum of environmentally related activities. But the Reagan administration is telling states to go it alone more and more, while cuttintg the flow of federal money to the states. ... • • t This only aggravates ongoing neglect of what has come to be called New Jersey’s infrastructure, which is a word used to describe the hardware of our culture — things like water supply and sewage systems, highways, railroads and such. It's gratifying to find that New Jersey is the one state which has come up with a revoluntionary financial idea which may well lead us out of our worsening infrastructure problems. Fittingly enough, it has been dubbed the “New Jersey Infrastructure Bank." As explained recently by Gov Thomas H. Kean, it wdtild be a bank to make low or interest-free loans to local governments to pay for needed infrastructure construction. IN WOULD OPERATE bn the same revolving fund principle we here at the New Jersey Conservation Foundation have been using for years to buy open space: We buy the land, sell it to some level of government at no profit, and put the money back onto the fund for another purchase. But the bank would have funding front sale of authorized state bonds like the water supply bond issue, for one example It would also collect all the available federal funding for infrastructure purposes, special revenue sources, state appropriations and the interest on its own money. The revolving fund idea would get the rpost possible use out of availably money. There would be a long-range commitment of funding into needed improvements, and without prohibitive rates which would freeze out local governments. The same innovative and paralled concepts have been advanced by Robert E. Hughey, Governor Kean’s creative Commissioner of Environmental Protection, who is credited with the original idea, and Peter Goldmark, executive director of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, to deal with that agency’s capital problems and help fund local infrastructure as well. THE PORT AUTHORITY fund would be supported chiefly by rental revenues from the World Trade Center. It's believed that fpde«U funding sources would like the idea because it would make life simpler; they could hand over all the money at oifce rathar than parceling it out over long periods. The idea needs/federal legislation and a constitutional amendment in New Jersey. The latter is needed so that bond repayments and interest eaniings could be added to the funding of the Infrastructure Bank. The state constitution now says such mbnies most go pnly into the state’s general fund. Everyone I've talked to is excited about-the potential of the Infrastructure Bank. There are a few unknowns which I assume will be solved through the legislative process, like the proper checks and balances for review of expenditure of funds after all the legislatively dedicated mbnies have run out and the bank is staying afloat on its own income.' Matters like that seem pretty minor compared with the prospect of not building sewers at all, which looks like today’s and tomorrow's alternative. / Adversity breeds innovation. I guess even hard times can have their benefits! David F. Moore is executive director of the New Jersey Conservation Foundaiton.