Press of Atlantic City Editorial:

State of the State / (Published: Wednesday, January 14, 2009)

Gov. Jon S. Corzine, facing re-election this year, was expected to give a relatively optimistic State of the State address that listed past accomplishments and expressed hope for the future, while still acknowledging the state's serious economic challenges.

In that respect, he did not disappoint. The speech, while somber, was as "feel good" as it could be considering the nation is in the worst recession in decades and the state is facing billions of dollars of shortfalls. Corzine attempted to rally the state with a progressive message: "We are positioning as many people and businesses as possible to survive the national recession and then thrive once the inevitable recovery begins," he said.

But where the speech did disappoint was the precious few indications Corzine gave of how he will deal with those multibillion-dollar deficits facing the state now and during the next budget year. That's the proverbial elephant in the Statehouse.

Corzine, wisely, outlined no new spending programs in his address except those already passed to help people and businesses cope with the recession.

Among Tuesday's announcements were Corzine's support for a year-long moratorium on the 2.5-percent affordable-housing tax on new development, his plans to instruct the Local Finance Board to enforce the 4-percent cap on local government tax levies and his plans to get recommendations on how towns can consolidate or share services by March 31.

All are sensible moves. And Corzine rightly backed a measure pushed by Republicans that would post state expenditures on the Internet.

Less advisable, we believe, was Corzine's repeated insistance on allowing local governments to defer pension payments this year to head off property-tax increases. Corzine, to his credit, has attempted to put more in the state pension fund than previous governors. But government on all levels must make cuts rather than defer any more of its staggering debt to the state pension fund.

How Corzine will deal with the state's shortfalls will be unveiled in his budget address, which he pushed back until March in order to see how much federal stimulus money will come to the state. Federal money is expected for infrastructure and Medicaid, among other programs.

But New Jersey should not expect the federal government to bail it out of problems of its own making.

The state was in the hole during good economic times. This huge budget crisis comes after years and years of other budget crises - what Jon Shure, who heads a liberal think tank, called "a tornado striking a house that was already falling apart."

That's why the speech that we - and, we suspect, interested taxpayers - are most anxious to hear is the one the governor gives in March.