Wanna REALLY close the budget gap?

Start here:

New Jersey forgoes more than $15 billion a year in tax revenue through various credits, deductions, exemptions and other special provisions in the state's tax code, a new state report shows. 

A 35-page report on these so-called "tax expenditures" was released quietly last month by Gov. Chris Christie's administration, to comply with a new law passed by the Legislature in January and signed by lame-duck Gov. Jon S. Corzine.

The report projects that 84 such provisions in the tax code are worth an estimated $14.9 billion in the coming fiscal year. But it's also missing data on some 190 other items, meaning the revenue loss to the state could be significantly higher.

And guess what report shows up yet again?

Kirschner, citing a Tax Foundation study, said New Jerseyans pay the nation's highest taxes per capita already. "That has to be an overview when you read about these tax expenditures," he said. "You can't read this in isolation."

It's time to pick this study apart...