- Hard Not To Like This Guy

A note to the Governor:

Governor Christie,

Now that I see the kind of man you are I'm probably your biggest fan. I love what you're doing and I even love how you're doing it. But the fact is, if you don't do something about NJ's excessively narrow tax base, then it will take the unions about an hour after you leave office to have everything right back the way they want it.

I have ideas about this, but none which I would consider politically feasible in NJ. My favorite tax idea was the one Milton Friedman proposed of a 'reverse income tax'. If you have an income over X, you pay a flat percentage of that as a tax. The tax form then has just three lines... How much did you make? How much is X percent of that? Sign here. If you make less than that number, and the legislature can decide what that number is, then you get a check to bring your income up to that level.

Like I said, I don't know if broadening the tax base in NJ is politically possible, but I know it's essential. Besides, you seem to make your living these days by doing things in Trenton which no one believed were possible, so I figured I'd toss it out there.