Truth-O-Meter rules on Democrat claims

Claims by Democrats did well this weekend on the Truth-O-Meter.

In case you missed it, Assembly Majority Leader Lou Greenwald (D-Camden) and state Sen. Richard "Dick" Codey (D-Essex) earned ratings of True and Mostly True, respectively, for statements they made about income tax cuts and pension payments.

Greenwald claim

After Gov. Chris Christie proposed an across-the-board 10 percent income tax cut in his recent State of the State address, Greenwald said in a news release the cut wouldn’t save enough money for a middle-class family to buy a week’s worth of groceries but millionaires would save enough to take an exotic vacation. PolitiFact New Jersey found that the proposed cut would mean an $80 savings for a middle-class family but more than $7,000 for millionaires. During a radio interview, the governor explained the savings disparity, noting that those who pay more in taxes would reap a larger tax cut savings.

Codey claim

During a recent radio interview, Codey stated that when he was governor from November 2004 to January 2006, he made the pension payment into the state’s retirement system. The Truth-O-Meter gave him a Mostly True because "the payment" implies the entire amount was paid. Codey is correct that money went into the pension accounts, but not the entire amount due: $1.45 billion. Codey made a partial payment, $164 million. "The" payment is not the same thing as "a" payment.

What’s ahead

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