Stile: Jim Johnson’s liberal vision comes without sacrifice – NorthJersey.com

Democratic candidate for N.J. Governor Jim Johnson meets with the edit board at The Record on May 16, 2017. Mitsu Yasukawa/NorthJersey.com

Photo of Democratic candidate for N.J. Governor Jim Johnson meets with the edit board at The Record in Woodland Park on May 16th, 2017.(Photo: Mitsu Yasukawa/NorthJersey.com)

Jim Johnson, aDemocrat running for governor, envisions a liberal paradise in the post-Chris Christie New Jersey that will be achieved without pain or sacrifice -- unless, of course, you're a millionaire.

In the Johnson utopia, cash-starved public school districts will be awash in a new bounty once the school aidlaw of 2008 is fully funded for the first time in a decade. Every district will have pre-kindergarten programs.

The minimum wage will be boosted to $15, an idea also endorsed byPhil Murphy, a former Goldman Sachs executive, and Assemblyman John Wisniewski, two rivals for nomination who are peddling their own visions of a pain-free, progressive future,

Johnson is not inclined to cut benefits for public employees and retirees, even though the state pension system is on track to collapse in 10 years without sweeping reforms. He envisions tax credits to encourage developers to build affordable housing units and credits to discourage millennials from leaving New Jersey. He wants sweeping ethics reforms.

Johnson acknowledged his ambitious plans will be costly, and he pushed back on the notion that his plans won't come without sacrifice -- he calls for trimming political appointees, cutting back on corporate subsidies, for example.

"I haven't said that I'm going to get these things in the first year or the first two years,'' Johnson said during an editorial board meeting at The Record on Tuesday. "We don't have the money to do it. But I know where I want to go."

Johnson laid out his glowing vision on the same day state officials laid out the sad sack reality of the New Jersey's finances. And those numbers don't leave Johnson or his other allies with money for a liberal utopia.

Photo of Democratic candidate for N.J. Governor Jim Johnson meets with the edit board at The Record in Woodland Park on May 16th, 2017.(Photo: Mitsu Yasukawa/NorthJersey.com)

Revenues the current fiscal year, which ends in six weeks,are expected to fall $600 million below what was originally planned to come in, state officials reported Tuesday. And Christie officials also tempered revenue expectations for the next fiscal year, lowering the initial forecast by $443 million.

Those numbers do not suggest that the state is now plunging intoa fiscal crisis -- the shortfall represents a small slice of a $35 billion budget.State officials have no intention of slashing the pension payment, like Christie did when confronted by revenue shortfall in 2014. Treasury officials also plan to blunt the shortfall by dipping into the surplus and by transferring money from programs that have unspent funds.

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Yet, the dismal forecasts are not the kind on which to builddreamy visions for the coming years. Despite the improvement in New Jersey's economy, there is still not enough tax revenue pouring into the coffers to cover its year-to-year operating costs.

That suggests that the kind of boom that generated enough money to pay for a progressive utopia -- a boom like the one in the 1980s during Gov. Thomas Kean's two terms -- is not around the corner awaiting the next governor.

It comes as no surprise, then, that Johnson and the rest of the Democratic field embrace the idea of raising taxes on millionaires, a plan thwarted six times by Christie's veto pen. But that tax plan, if it does become law, would raise an estimated $600 million, roughly the same amount of the projected shortfall for the current fiscal year.

Johnson has other revenue-generating ideas, like reinstating some version of the estate tax, which was abolished in a deal Christie brokered last year that included a 23-cent hike in the gas tax. Johnson also calls for a more aggressive push for shared services and scrubbing the state finances for pockets of waste undisclosed by the Christie administration.

Johnson, a former federal prosecutor who lives in Montclair, acknowledged that he is casting a vision. And its one that the liberal, Democratic grass-roots is hungering for after 7 1/2 years of Christie's union bashing and conservative cost-cutting on programs like funding for women's health clinics.

"Part of this election is: where do you want the state to be in four years or in 10, rather than, 'how can we fix the problem of the last six years,' " Johnson said.

Yet, the problems of the past six years are the point. Without hard choices -- as in cuts in spending, an overhaul in public employee costs -- the problems of the past will haunt the liberal vision of the future.

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Stile: Jim Johnson's liberal vision comes without sacrifice - NorthJersey.com