Headline: “Gov. Christie Expects Property Taxes to Rise in Sandy-ravaged Areas”

Michael Giberson

At least the Governor understands that emergencies can drive costs up. We’ll see if this understanding goes beyond the expenditure of public funds to include excess costs faced by small business in New Jersey once the state gets around to prosecuting price gouging cases in earnest. Christie tax story here.

One example of the higher cost of government due to the storm: in at least four cases local government officials–mayor, police chief, sheriff, school superintendent–used local-government portable generators to power their homes or small businesses during power outages.