It's ironic that we started out with a basic commitment to economic integration and then we get to a situation where we can pay off and never handle the larger social issue. The logic is to produce economically integrated towns all over New Jersey. We have to keep our eye on the ball here.

The economic leverage of the state in terms of procurement for these commodities is something that is badly needed. And if we're providing state aid, then we need to have more to say about the prices that are paid for these kinds of products.

It's a plan that has a lot of substance to it with respect to the establishment of a partnership between the state and local government. That skin-in-the-game connection I think is a very good business principle. It should have been done a very long time ago.

The constitutional convention is well-motivated, but they are dealing only with the revenue side. The permanent solution is going to be more complicated, but I honestly believe that this 30 percent is a very good tool and is a very responsible way of providing some relief.

We need to send a signal to business that we cannot continue to hit them up. At least for four years, we're going to draw a line in the sand and say: 'No new taxes.' To do otherwise would continue to erode the kind of tax base that will allow us to pay for anything.

It's always nice to be vindicated. We've known for a year now we've done everything right.

We're engaged in a struggle here in 2005 in New Jersey.

There are school budgets that are being voted down around New Jersey even though they're efficient budgets, they're good budgets, because people can't see straight regarding property taxes. It has become such a burden that the way education funding has played its way out in the state as a result of the various Abbott decisions that we've got a real crisis on our hands.

We have seen a recklessness in the management of state government and finance that has been unprecedented.