State Assemblyman Jack Ciattrelli has emerged as another front runner for the Republican party to challenge current lieutenant governor Kim Guadagno for the GOP gubernatorial nomination in 2017.

The Observer picks up the story.

His platform includes the standard Republican attacks on school funding and public employee benefits, keeping in line with Guadagno’s own plans.

However, his tax plans seem to go a step further to slash taxes on New Jersey’s wealthiest residents. They include:

• Abolish the estate and transfer inheritance tax
• Allow for carryforward of capital losses
• Exclude the first $5,000,000 of gain on the sale of a family-owned (i.e., ‘Mom and Pop Shop’) business
• “Restructure” marginal tax rates on taxable income over $750,000 and $1,000,000
• Phase out the corporate business tax

How will he pay for this give-away? He simply evokes the vague promise of “cutting government waste”, the standard Republican line that always get a cheer but never seems to fulfill itself.  If it did, they wouldn't be able to use it in the next election cycle, right?

New Jersey currently has the second-worst debt grade among the states.

Cutting taxes on the rich, a go-to move by nearly all Republican governors, is not likely to change that.