New Jersey has an economic policy?

We must, because the Burlington County Times reports that a BurlCo resident is in charge of directing it. The director, Donald Scarry, is "a self-described economic conservative" who claims,

"I'm a professional economist," he said. "I'm not pro-business, pro-labor or anything else."

This sounds great! A government official who isn't pro-labor must be a good thing, right? Oh, wait. There's more to the story.

1. This is a brand-new, $110k/year position.

He said his new job was to advise Labor Commissioner Thomas D. Carver on economic policy in the state and evaluate department programs.

Strike one. New Jersey already has enough $110k bureaucrats.

2. He believes job-training is an incentive to hiring:

On job creation, Scarry said the Department of Labor needs to continue promoting efforts to train the state's work force in order to lure high-wage, high-growth businesses from other states.

How about lowering taxes and easing regulations as an incentive? Make New Jersey the cheapest place to do business in the Northeast, not the most expensive. Strike two.

3. Supports the acting governor's plan to tax us all to death:

On tax policy, Scarry said the recent budget address of acting Gov. Richard Codey echoed the positions Scarry had taken in his economic columns over the past 10 years.

Strike three.

Turns out that he's not really a conservative economist after all. In fact, it turns out that he's really a Democrat politician.

We need a real conservative economist to turn his attention toward New Jersey.

Update: a real conservative economist has turned his attention toward New Jersey. Welcome to readers from "The Conspiracy to Keep You Poor and Stupid."