Mounting debt simmers beneath budget debate -- Laws, Atlantic C...

It's an ugly budget year in cash-strapped New Jersey , and next year won't be much prettier.

[Mike from Glen Gardner]

Implement a 10% across the board reduction in government spending by department immediately, and make the department heads accountable for performance. Business and families have to continually make due with less - it's way past time that the government should have to do the same.

We cannot afford six weeks of paid family leave or universal health insurance in NJ now. When will our legislators in Trenton wake up and recognize reality??

No new spending OR NEW TAXES, TOLLS OR OTHER FEES, unti they pass meaningful spending reductions!!

School spending must also be reigned in to stabilize property taxes. I'm sick of hearing about new or revised funding scemes - it's an out-of-control spending issue, plain and simple. Consolidate districts, eliminate resulting redundant superintendents, asst superintendents, business managers, asst business managers and the other administrative hangers-on, along with all their outrageous perks.

[Elena from Jersey City]

I agree with Mike, CUT SPENDING. INCUR LESS DEBT and pay off what you already owe. These are basic things that each one of us needs to do personally when we have a budget crisis, and the same applies to the state. Pushing the problem onto the already over-taxed New Jersey residents isn't going to help anything in the long run. It's already too expensive to live here, and as a younger middle-class resident who is looking to buy a house and start a family soon, I've been seriously considering leaving the state altogether. I'm sure I won't be the only one if we keep getting squeezed out of our salaries to finance irresponsible government spending.