Mr Obama - For our country, please don't choose Corzine

President-elect Obama used our governor at the latter stages of this campaign on the economic issue. We can all debate that as a wise strategy but now that he has won, it probably has no significance. But Barack Obama needs to understand what New Jersey residents both Democrat and Republican already know. Jon Corzine is a complete lightweight. He came into this state with a lot of promise due to his economic experience. And all we got was "I don't want to be Scrooge".

It highlighted his cowardice and lack of vision in a big way. We are stuck with him. Our country is not. President-elect Obama, while my instinct is to play Corzine up as a winner to get him out of New Jersey, my concern for the country in this difficult time is far more important. We need a heavy hitter. And Corzine is so much balsawood.

Ballot Question 1 - It's a scam

Today, voters will go to the polls in New Jersey to elect a President, House member, Senator and various local offices. Also on the ballot are two questions. Ballot question number 2 is pretty straightforward. The current method of selecting judges for municipalities is set forth in the state constitution. However, this causes a problem when judges are appointed across multiple boundaries or multiple jurisdictions. The amendment allows that the legislature can clean this up by status, which is an inherently more flexible alternative than handling this in the constitution.

Question number 1 is more problematic. It purports to be an amendment that would force politicians to put major borrowing decisions to the voters (which last time I checked, the state constitution already mandates). But apparently, there are some major loopholes put into the legislation that would allow Corzine and others to completely circumvent the voter. Americans for prosperity detail the question here with red outline on the loophole in question.

And there is more(from Americans for Prosperity):

But here is the real kicker: "No voter approval shall be required . . . authorizing the creation of . . . debts . . . for the refinancing of all or a portion of any outstanding debts or liabilities of . . . an autonomous public corporate entity."

Our Supreme Court ruled that New Jersey voters don't have to pay a dime on any of the $29 billion previously borrowed by shell entities like the EDA-unless they vote to do it. But with a "Yes" vote on Ballot Question #1, Governor Corzine and the State Legislature could pass a simple law to refinance every dollar of the $37 billion borrowed by state authorities

So, in essence, this question pretends to put debt to the voter but really eliminates the current constitutional ban of bypassing the voter. I am voting NO on question 1.

Corzine: "We're going to fight to hold our education funding"

Thank you, Jon Corzine! Even when times are tough, we should avoid reducing our expenditures on education.

Except he's playing the typical bureaucratic trick: the fight to hold our education funding is actually a fight to expand it by a third of a billion dollars.

Budget troubles endanger $350M preschool plan
Delaying expansion of programs would be last resort, Corzine says
Thursday, October 30, 2008
BY DUNSTAN McNICHOL
Star-Ledger Staff

Mounting state budget troubles may force New Jersey to delay plans for a $350 million expansion of public preschool programs, but such a move would be a last resort, Gov. Jon Corzine told a convention of school board members yesterday.

"We're going to fight to hold our education funding," Corzine told about 500 delegates at the New Jersey School Boards Association's annual workshop in Atlantic City. "That doesn't mean there won't be any cuts. That doesn't mean there won't be any freezes. But it means it will be the last thing on the table."

This is just another example of the Nanny State -- literally, in this case -- expanding even in the face of catastrophic fiscal burdens in the state.

"But wait," you say, "I thought we had to fund pre-K programs for needy students."

You're right, we do, because of Abbot v. Burke. But this gluttonous expansion isn't part of that ruling:

Part of the new school funding formula enacted last year, Corzine's plan would be the state's biggest expansion of preschool for low-income students since the state Supreme Court's Abbott vs. Burke rulings, which ordered universal pre-kindergarten in 31 of the poorest districts.

The plan would take the court rulings a step further and order similar preschool for all low-income students, wherever they live. Depending on the numbers, districts would be required to establish the preschool themselves or contract with outside centers to provide the service for eligible students. The state would pay the tab and estimated 17,000 more students would be served as the program is phased in over six years at an eventual cost of $350 million. [Emphasis added.]

So this isn't court-mandated, it's a Corzine pet project.

Jon Corzine wants to add $350,000,000 in spending. Not expanding the budget will be the last thing on the table.

My jaw drops. It makes me wonder what it's like to be inside Corzine's head.

Well, let me try. He thinks that higher tolls will solve budgetary problems, right? So maybe I should think of it this way: It currently costs $6.45 to go from exit 18W to exit 1 on the Turnpike, so we're talking about 54,263,566 trips down the whole length of the Turnpike. Since we're already using all of the current money from the Turnpike, we'd have to increase the number of trips on the Turnpike by that much.

Somehow I don't feel better.

But I'm still not thinking enough like Corzine. After all, he wants to octuple our tolls. If he did that, each trip would cost $51.60, which would only be 6,782,946 trips.

Now that's a much smaller number. What a relief! And since he'd be forcing most people off of the Turnpike and Parkway, we'd see a massive improvement in our statewide carbon footprint, too! See? Win/win!

I'm trying, people, but I still don't see how he forces himself to ignore the fact that increasing the price of using the Turnpike will reduce peoples' willingness to use it. How does he ignore basic laws of supply and demand?

His mind must be the opposite of his budget: flexible, focused, and disciplined.

My own school superintendent gets mentioned in the piece, too:

Jerry Tarnoff, superintendent of West Orange schools, said he was encouraged that Corzine suggested the preschool funding would only be cut as a last resort. "I am pleased he would like to commit to full funding," said Tarnoff. "Anything less, if the program were to go forward, would make it extremely difficult for the local taxpayers."

Now, Jerry's a smooth politician, and I don't think he would say anything that would irritate Corzine unnecessarily. But look at what he's saying: if the program were to go forward, and the state didn't pay for it, it would be a serious burden for local taxpayers.

So there's the threat of an unfunded mandate to the towns that would increase taxes substantially, whether the towns like it or not.

And I have another question: if it would be a serious burden for local taxpayers to pay for this, who would be burdened if the state funded it?

Those rich guys in Mendham, I guess. To hell with them, though. If they can afford to live near Whitney Houston's birthplace, they should pay for the pre-K programs in West Orange and Edison and Camden. And I hear Neil Cavuto lives there! For Pete's sake, if a Fox News anchor lives in New Jersey, he should pay twice what the ordinary citizen does!

Corzine responds to financial crisis!

Corzine calls for budget cuts! A Step in the right direction.

From Bloomberg.com:

New Jersey Governor Jon Corzine directed state department heads last month to prepare to trim their budgets by 5 percent in the event revenue for the fiscal year falls short.

The fact that the Governor has finally weighed in is a good sign for New Jersey and out potential to avoid another massive tax increase because of the mortgage crisis. He should have been out in front of this. But it doesn't minimize the importance that he finally did.

New Jersey's budget for the fiscal year that began July 1 reduced spending by $600 million to cope with an expected drop in tax collections. The financial crisis goes beyond what the state planned for, Corzine said earlier this month. Democratic and Republican lawmakers have since called on the governor to consider mid-year cuts.

``The seriousness of these issues probably will require that what we began on August 20 as contingency plans will have to go forward,'' Corzine said. ``I don't think this is going to be an easy process, but it is a necessary one. We have the requirement to balance our budgets.''

Mr Governor. Cut now and cut big. This is an unprecedented crisis that will force New Jersey government to live within its means. The shore housing market is almost sure to collapse and if the entire state doesn't get serious, we will have a major problem. And while you are at it Mr Governor, just say no to the new borrowing you have planned for the corrupt Schools Construction Corporation. It will send a sign that you are serious.

Lead Mr Governor, lead.

Corzine and pay-to-play - does he inclued NJEA and other unions?

Governor Corzine wants to eliminate pay-to-play. And we believe him. From Bloomberg:

New Jersey Governor Jon Corzine proposed an overhaul of ethics guidelines covering local and state politicians, a package he said would end ``pay-to-play'' politics at all levels of government.

Corzine signed executive orders banning political campaign contributions by state-hired developers and their consultants and restricting donors from getting government contracts. He also called for several ethics measures requiring legislation, including lowering the annual limit on contributions to political committees.

``We are finishing what we've started, to end the insider deals, influence peddling and self-interest of old politics,'' Corzine, a first-term Democrat, said today in Trenton.

In keeping with our faith in Corzine, I wonder if he is including not just developers and infrastructure vendors, what about the NJEA? They are the largest contributor to all politicians in NJ per pay to play. And if you don't think they get their money's worth, check the budget.

Assemblywoman Linda Greenstein and Assemblyman Wayne DeAngelo, both Democrats, said today they would sponsor legislation to enact the ethics plan.

``This is the opportunity New Jerseyans have long been waiting for,'' Greenstein, of Monroe, said in a statement. ``The sinister mix of money and politics will be tackled once and for all, and it will be done so in a sweeping and historic way.''

This is kind of wierd. Apparently, Wayne DeAngelo doesn't do anything without Greenstien. Is she his muse or his babysitter? I also wonder if Mr DeAngelo intends to include his electrical workers union in the pay to play law. I somehow don't think so.

Read the entire article here.

When Businesses are Failing... Raise the Minimum Wage?

Governor Corzine, I don't get it. According to the Courier Post Online, your reaction to the current financial crisis includes an increase of the minimum wage.

Among the proposals discussed:

Forming a syndicate of small banks and lenders to extend credit to small and mid-sized businesses and help homeowners fend off foreclosure.

Jump-starting infrastructure projects such as schools.

Luring businesses by touting New Jersey's real estate assets.

Raising the minimum wage and extending unemployment benefits.

Partnering with utility companies to create jobs in energy conservation.

I thought that when the economy is bad, we want to make it easier for businesses to survive. I can see the appeal of extending unemployment benefits, but giving people more money for the same work? Really? How exactly will that help?

Obama needs to remind Corzine that panels are the oldest Washington stunt!

From Newsday.com:

Gov. Jon Corzine says he'll convene a special panel to assess ongoing uncertainty in the national economy and its impact on New Jersey.

The economic round-table will occur Monday.

Corzine said he'll assemble business, labor and economic representatives from throughout the state. The goal is to develop an immediate action plan.

But I thought that this was the oldest Washington stunt in the book? Apparently, Obama's buddy and economic advisor Jon Corzine didn't get the memo.

Corzine Worried - State Finances in Trouble - Duh!

From today's Trentonian. apprently Jon Corzine is finally realizing that the state is in poor fiscal shape:

"I'm worried about the state budget, the state economy in the context of the very dramatic restructuring that is taking place on Wall Street," Corzine said Monday morning during an appearance in Ewing Township. "The northern half of the state, there are many, many people who are involved with that industry. That's one of the reasons you have high levels of income in the state."

This man along with his Democrat counterparts have continued to spend like drunken sailors on shore leave for three years. Since the Democrats took over starting with Governor "I am turning gay so I don't get indicted for corruption" McGreevey, the state has seen a continual downturn in jobs(except government and patronage jobs)ability to balance the budget and a massive increase in the local tax burden through property taxes. That trend has continued unabated during Corzine's tenure.

The party in power has always based their profligate spending on the fact that New Jersey wage earners will continue to make money in New York and bring it back. Well guess what? The party is over. Wall Street is in serious trouble. Corzine is wondering about Bank of American buying Merrill Lynch? To all Merrill employees - congratulations! North Carolina here you come!

I guess all that money this legislature just threw at the corrupt school construction corporation is looking like a great idea right now. One thing that is clear, after three years of Corzine, I now know why these firms are failing. Bear Stearns, Lehman, Merrill-their balance sheets look a lot like New Jersey's budgets.

Read the entire article here.

Really, Governor?

From WBGO News:

Corzine says he is working on a plan for transportation but it will be weeks before he releases it. But the state will still need billions of dollars for it – to pay down debt, widen the Turnpike, and possibly build a new tunnel across the Hudson River. Treasurer David Rousseau has said every governor has needed money for transportation projects but was not willing to risk popularity for the sake of higher tolls.

How about being willing to risk popularity for the sake of reduced spending?

But he couldn't do that. Rousseau is talking about popularity among taxpayers. Corzine doesn't really care about them -- only about being popular among liberals who suck at the teat of big government.

So instead of trying to pull us out of a financial crisis, he's blighting the landscape for employers and taxpayers. Good going, Guv. Way to take the high road.

Give This Non-Profit More Profits!

What would you do with 7.7 million dollars?

Are your property and state taxes going up by 13%?

The questions are related, and you should be outraged.

Let's put ourselves in Governor Corzine's mindset by reading what he said in his Governor's Statement to the FY09 Budget (many links in this post are in PDF). Emphasis in this text block is mine, to highlight things I'll talk about later.

The $32.87 billion budget I signed today makes a clear turn towards long-term fiscal responsibility, rather than continuing the past practices of pushing tough budget choices off until the future.

The Fiscal Year (FY) 2009 budget makes an unprecedented cut of $600 million from the budget I signed last year, the largest absolute reduction in State history. It relies on nearly $3 billion of actions to reduce spending to offset the mandatory and inflationary growth in the budget in order to achieve the overall $600 million reduction.

This budget reduces the size and cost of government and allocates necessary reductions in a fair and equitable manner....

In February, when I delivered an austere budget message for Fiscal Year 2009, I stated that we were facing a structural gap of approximately $3.2 billion between our expected revenues...and our anticipated spending..., based on mandatory spending and inflationary increases....

In May, the State Treasurer updated the revenue and spending projections and announced an additional gap of approximately $200 million between spending and revenues. This increased structural gap again was closed primarily with spending reductions and adjustments to areas of the budget that were projected to increase. The most important of those new reductions came from our paydown of $650 million of debt, allowing a decrease of spending on debt service by $135 million.

This budget reduces the cost of State government by nearly $300 million...In this regard, the budget provides for a reduction in the operating funds for every Executive Branch department. Departmental budgets have been directly reduced by approximately $184 million, or by an average of about 5% each.

That $7.7MM I mentioned is .02% of the total budget, or 0.24% of the expected gap in revenues.

It's 1% of the $650MM debt paydown, and 5.7% of the amount that we pay just to service our debt.

It's 2.6% of the $300MM that Corzine cut out of the state budget, and 4% of the departmental budget cuts.

What if you really wanted to spend the $7.7MM instead of using it to be fiscally responsible by paying down debt?

Well, despite the Governor's claims of austerity, there are places in the budget with net increases. He says that the budget "protects vital programs" such as "property tax relief and school funding" and "vital programs that improve public safety, protect vulnerable citizens, and otherwise meet the needs of the citizens of this State."

Like what, you ask? Please note that I am not, for the purposes of this post, arguing against any of the following allocations:

• $2 million for the purchase of 250 new state trooper vehicles


• $3.5 million for a new State Police recruit training class that will graduate approximately 100 new troopers


• $8 million for an expansion of the NJ FamilyCare program


• $12.5 million to DDD to provide community residential placements and home-based services to persons on the Community Services Waiting List


• $15 million to Division of Mental Health Services for housing and support services for 200 people currently residing at five state mental health hospitals and 100 clients currently living in the community


• $15.5 million to annualize placement and day program costs for 100 developmental center clients transitioned in FY 2008.


• $24 million for the Division of Developmental Disabilities (DDD) to transition 125 clients from the seven state developmental centers into community residential placements and day programs


• $52.5 million for the State Rental Assistance Program, $19 million of which will continue support to 2,100 currently subsidized families and $15 million of which will provide vouchers for 1,500 additional families


• $60 million as an additional subsidy to NJ Transit, a 20% increase from the $298.2 million subsidy in FY 2008.

And "vital programs" like Planned Parenthood Federation of America, which received 7,700,000 dollars from the State of New Jersey. Not only did they get to keep their money, they got an increase of a quarter-million dollars from the state.

This is completely free money to them, by the way, because they're a tax exempt organization.

Planned Parenthood's annual report says that they have excess funds to the tune of one hundred fifteen million dollars ($114,800,000), while you're being asked to cope with property tax increases because Governor Corzine wants to pay them eight million dollars ($8,000,000) that he won't give to municipalities.

Don't take my word for it. Download the annual report and take a look at page 14, where it shows Government Grants and Contracts at $337MM (one-third of their operating budget), excess of revenue over expenses at $115MM, and an increase in net assets year over year from $839MM to $951MM, or 13%.

Is the 13% profit that Planned Parenthood had this year more or less than the increase in your property taxes?

This is the "clear turn towards long-term fiscal responsibility", the "unprecedented cut of $600 million", the "mandatory and inflationary growth", an allocation of "necessary reductions in a fair and equitable manner", an "austere budget".

Register your disgust with your assemblymen and state senators, and send a message to the governor here. This was my message:

I understand that almost $8MM is allocated in the state budget for Planned Parenthood, an organization that has profits of $115MM. I further understand that this is an increase of almost a quarter-million dollars from the FY08 budget. This funding should be cut completely, immediately, rather than allow to grow.

At a time when we claim to be working in austerity conditions, and when we are talking about additional taxes being placed on industry to make up shortfalls, and when property taxes are rising to compensate for decreased state subsidies, it's unconscionable that we provide corporate welfare to any organization such that they have excess money and we citizens do not.

Thank you.
Jake Freivald
[Address redacted]

Full disclosure: I hate Planned Parenthood and am firmly pro-life. But this is something that you should be outraged at regardless of your position on abortion.

Poor Spending Drunk Governors

In this article in the Press of Atlantic City, the story of how poor Northeastern governors got together to discuss how the Federal government should bail them out on transportation.

High fuel prices, crumbling roads and bridges, and how to replace a rapidly vanishing industrial base aren't just New Jersey's problems.
Governors from this and four other Northeast states commiserated about the similar issues facing them and traded ideas for the future at a Monday morning forum in Atlantic City.

Every administration of every state has challenges. But it seems to be a unique perspective that governors in this part of the country accept no responsibility for anything except begging for money from the Federal government.

But as Rendell recounted another scheme that used tax-exempt bonds to encourage private investors to underwrite highways, Corzine said there are a whole series of strategies, adding, "Our challenge is politics."

Rendell said a federal government that drastically scaled back on infrastructure spending was also to blame.

He said at the end of the Eisenhower years, the government spent 11.5 percent of the federal domestic nonmilitary budget on roads, bridges and other improvements. He said that figure is now less than 2.5 percent, with the costs shifted to the states.

Rendell said Pennsylvania started a crash $1 billion program to fix its 411 worst bridges, but it would cost $140 billion to repair them all. Other states are in similar situations. "Its craziness to think the states will be able to handle that alone," he said.

These issues like many facing the states in the Northeast are typical of today's new politics. Since Rendell and Corzine both got into office by pandering to various special interest with freebies and program enhancements, they are part of a "spend the money and hope we find a way to pay for it" mentality. And they are so vested in these politics (yes Gov Corzine-you got it right), they cannot do what is right for the state's citizens without committing political suicide.

Case in point, Governor Corzine was sold to NJ as a brilliant businessman who would fix New Jersey's fiscal issues. What we actually got was a dopey rich guy into social engineering without a trace of fiscal self control. So when this year's budget came around he praised himself for making minor cuts while increasing the burden to most towns (thereby forcing them to look to increase property taxes yet again). He also pushed through a 4 billion dollars in new school borrowing for the very agency whose corruption with money like this in the past is legendary. So cry foul and then spend.

As long as Northeastern states continue to maintain a one party system (in many cases, there is no different between the Republicans and Democrats in these states), the working class will continue to work long hours to support state workers, teachers unions and giveaways that are administered by corrupt individuals looking to line their own pockets. And then they will move south.

Corzine paying down the debt? Not yet.

In Newsday.com, this article entitled

NJ takes next step in reducing debt

would make one believe that the state has done something significant. If you believed that, you would be wrong.

Less than two months after creating a special fund to pay down state debt, the Corzine administration has taken a significant next step: identifying the bonds that will be paid off early.

Yes. It took state workers two entire months to identify what bonds to retire early. Given that the source of this news if the clearly biased AP, one wonders if this is not just a Democrat fund raising stunt. Look for Corzine to make a commercial out of it soon. But, the joke is, he hasn't done anything. And he decided to keep your hard earned money to pretend to do it.

Gov. Jon S. Corzine created the fund in June, setting aside $684 million in unexpected tax revenue and other savings. Most of the money _ $650 million _ is being used to reduce the state's crushing $32 billion debt load. The rest will go toward other pressing needs, such as improving state prisons and psychiatric hospitals, the administration said.

As I have noted here before, this is OUR tax money. And instead of paying it back, he and his cronies in the legislature kept it to fund additional spending and try to cover up the increase in debt incurred by this and our former DEMOCRAT governor.

The sad thing is that when Corzine runs his commercials in his re-election campaign, he will not mention what he really did.

Republicans commended the concept, but said Democrats' approval to borrow $3.9 billion for court-ordered school construction would erase any gains.

Sen. Leonard Lance, R-Hunterdon, estimated that the new school borrowing would cost $6.82 billion once interest and other costs were included. He has long advocated a plan to subject all state borrowing to voter approval.

Write the check Governor. We are watching.

NJ Residents Support Offshore Drilling!

As Emporor's Menendez and Lautenberg continue to fiddle at the expense of New Jersey's taxpayers, a new poll sheds some light on what the people in our state think about their policies on energy.

From MyCentralJersey.com:

With the cost of gasoline hovering near $4 a gallon, a majority of New Jersey residents say they would support drilling for oil off the Jersey coast, according to a Monmouth University/Gannett New Jersey poll released today.


Fifty-six percent said they would favor drilling for oil or natural gas off the Jersey Shore, while 36 percent opposed the idea.

So, slightly more that 1/3 oppose drilling offshore but Senator Menendez can send me a letter speaking down to me on energy policy that contained nothing of any substance that would help people. But, out politicians say, "let them eat cake!".

New Jersey's political leaders have traditionally fought against offshore oil drilling, and they said they would continue to do so, in spite of the poll results.

"New Jersey's coastline is the lifeblood of our economy and a fragile environmental treasure that helps shape our way of life, and the governor intends to fight any attempt to jeopardize it," said Sean Darcy, spokesman for Gov. Corzine.

As we continue to say at NJ Tax Revolution, until we threw this entire pack of bought-and-paid-for politicians and replace them with a representative government of, by and for the people of New Jersey, we will continue to feel the pain of their incompetence.

Read the entire article here.

NJ Democrat's Newest Tax - Porn Tax

Another Democrat from the Assembly has been caught with their pants down doing the state's work according to today's Trentonian headline.

Legislative leaders sought to install filters to block inappropriate material from being viewed on state computers two days after a veteran assemblyman's computer was seized for containing child pornography.The leaders released a statement yesterday saying they want "the most aggressive Internet filtering software available on all computers in the Legislature."

The sad thing about this article is it doesn't really talk about the Democrat Assemblyman Neil Cohen. It talks about the fact that the state is now going to have to pay for and install new filters on internet traffic because an elected Democrat doesn't have the self control not to surf for porn on state computers.

This really cracks me up. It is another example how if a conservative does something even remotely questionable, the issue becomes a "culture of corruption". When it's Democrats and liberals that:

Have porn on state computers......

Are arrested and convicted of real corruption(dozens of Democrats the past three years)...

Lie about raising taxes after promising they won't....

Lie about lowering the property tax while enacting a budget which will force the exact opposite...

Governors who bed corrupt leaders of unions while negotiating with them through email and don't think the taxpayer has a right to know....

Continuously pad state workers benefits while shafting the taxpayer...

Continue to drive business out of New Jersey at an alarming rate...

No one holds them accountable. While Zimmer thinks that this state can be saved, I am not so sure.

Read the entire article here.

Lies and Taxes - Liberals lie and we pay!

This morning I read an excellent blog entry on Powerline that discussed "who pays the taxes". If you have never read Powerline, it is an excellent blog and the one most famous for taking down Dan Rather and his bogus hit job on President Bush during the last presidential election cycle. The net of theis post today is this:

1991
Top 1%
Reported 13% of the income
Paid 24.6% of the taxes
Top 5%
Reported 26.8% of the income
Paid 43.4% of the taxes
Bottom 50%
Reported 15.1% of the income
Paid 5.5% of the taxes

2007(from the Wall Street Journal)
Top 1%
Paid > 40% of the taxes
Top 50%
Paid 97% of the taxes
Bottom 50%
Paid 3% of the taxes

The first point here is that the media constantly talks about Bush giving tax breaks to his rich buddies. It seems to me that we have a far greater problem with Corzine and Obama giving people's hard earned money to individuals who are not holding up their end of society's joint burden. Liberals lie-We pay!

And for your information, the median taxpayer last year earned $31,000. So, it you make this number or above (this represents most of the working class of New Jersey) you are paying 97% of the taxes.

So the next time you hear John Corzine or Barack Obama tell you that you are not paying your fair share, remember these numbers. It's easy to blame the other guy and say he should pay. It is much harder to stand up and say "what's fair is fair for all of us".

Read the Powerline post here.

Democrats Don't Really Believe in Conservation

Suppose you have a limited resource. More is available, but you'd have to take measures that have have a risk (though only a risk) of ill effects to get it. It would take some time for the good effects to occur -- the world doesn't react instantaneously to a policy change -- but everyone in your state depends on it, and currently available alternatives are minimal and have not shown signs of increasing radically.

If you're a New Jersey Democrat and the resource is oil, you don't care: the stuff is staying where it is.

Drilling also would yield little oil, take at least a decade to bear fruit and do nothing to bring down gasoline prices, said U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez, D-N.J.

"It makes little or no sense to most of us to be drilling on the Outer Continental Shelf anywhere, but particularly in the Atlantic and the mid-Atlantic. ... in specific," Gov. Jon S. Corzine said. "I think it's a nonstarter strategy."

"What we need to do is be moving to alternative energies and most importantly, conservation," he said.

But oil isn't the only precious resource that could be extracted from New Jersey. Remember, the second speaker here is the same Governor Corzine who wanted to spend a dozen years octupling our tolls. (A gallon of gas would cost $32 if we increased its prices proportionally.) That would have taken a decade to extract the money from us, it would have damaging effects on our economic climate, and it would have done nothing to bring down the price of government.

Yet "conservation" of this precious and limited resource, our money, is the last thing on their minds.

And consider: speculation helps drive the price of gasoline. Drilling now could shift markets. The speculation that comes from drilling would help New Jersey. But speculation about tax increases would hurt New Jersey by driving business and people away. You only have to look one state over to see proof, where a pro-business governor is helping a neighboring state drain our people and our jobs.

So yes, Democrats and Republicans alike, on the demand side, let's conserve both oil and money. Drive less (especially in gas guzzlers if you don't need them) and spend less (especially in cases where there's no immediate social benefit). And on the supply side, let's make more of each, oil and money, available for the public to use.

Hey Corzine! Paying down 130 mil while borrowing 3.9 bil is not paying down debt!

This just in from Forbes:

Gov. Jon S. Corzine on Wednesday created a new state fund to pay down debt, a move meant to push the state long plagued by budget woes away from using one-time revenues to balance spending.

"The goal is to constantly be pushing to pay down debt," Corzine said.

The law puts $684 million into the fund, of which $650 million will be used to reduce debt service by $130 million for the next five years.

The Governor and the Legislature are all slapping each other on the back today because for the first time, they didn't take a surplus and spend it.

The $684 million comes from unexpected tax revenue collected this fiscal year and other savings.

You do know what a tax surplus is right? The government 'accidentally' has too much of your money. Let's try a hypothetical.

If you place $1.75 worth of merchandise on the counter and hand the clerk a ten dollar bill, and the clerk gives you back $18.25 (and you want to do with right thing), do you:

a. Spend it.
b. Take it to the bank and pay down your mortgage.
c. Give it back to the clerk.

If you said a, you are destined for the legislature. If you said b, you too could be Governor. If you said c, you are probably following a moving van on your way to live in another state.

Corzine, Stop Buying Scotch!

At the bottom of this Associated Press story is a telling statement about Corzine's approach to borrowing and spending.

Corzine has backed requiring voter approval for new borrowing, but said the school construction money is different because it's court-ordered. The state Supreme Court in 1998 ordered the state to pay for new schools in the poorest school districts.

So if you're told that you must pay for something, you have to be able to borrow money to do it -- regardless of what the voters say.

Consider a normal New Jersey household. (You know, the kind containing a family of people who are thinking of fleeing New Jersey to avoid the outrageous taxes.)

Now consider the husband telling the wife, "Yes, I know we agreed on a budget, and I know that we are in debt up to our ears, but we have to pay taxes, so we have to be able to borrow money for them. I'm going to put them on a credit card. Now I'm going to pop over to the liquor store for a liter of single-malt scotch. Don't worry, we can afford it -- I have cash."

The wife would rightfully beat him about his head and neck. After all, she knows that when you're in debt, you have to control overall spending. When you don't have significant control over a certain expense, that's called "non-discretionary spending". When you can control how much you spend on something, it's called "discretionary spending". The budget must account for non-discretionary spending, sometimes cutting discretionary spending to avoid borrowing to pay for the non-discretionary stuff.

In other words, the wife would shout at her husband, "You idiot! Stop buying scotch when we need money to pay the taxes!"

Corzine needs the equivalent of a sensible wife. Not only doesn't he understand the fact that speculation affects petroleum prices, he doesn't even understand the basics of budgeting.

And this is the guy we elected because of his business experience. Maybe we need politicians with less experience on Wall Street and more experience managing a household budget on Main Street.

Corzine kneejerk rejection of drilling!

From NJ.com:

"I think it will only reinforce the instincts of New Jersey's blue-leaning independents to more solidly get into that camp," Corzine said. "I think New Jersey will be solidly blue this fall."

The Democratic governor spoke on a conference call with two others, North Carolina Gov. Mike Easley and Florida Sen. Bob Graham, to bash McCain's proposal as a "flip-flop" and a "cave-in" to President Bush's policies. Bush today urged Congress to lift the long-standing offshore drilling ban, following McCain's statements this week that allowing each state to decide on drilling could help bring relief as gas prices surpass $4 a gallon.

So Corzine gets a few of his liberal friends together and out of hand dismisses John McCain's proposals to change our energy independence. He pretends that New Jersey is in play in this election. That is a silly joke. New Jersey will vote for the politician who clearly advertises that he will raise taxes every time.
and we know which one that happens to be. Why didn't he have three governors on the call instead of two...

Crist was among the Republicans expressing support for Sen. John McCain's call for lifting the federal moratorium along the Outer Continental Shelf and giving states a share of petroleum revenues as an incentive for them to allow oil and gas drilling off their coasts.

"We have to be sympathetic to the pocketbooks of the people of Florida and what they're paying at the pump for gas, and balance that with: Is there any way that our state might be able to contribute in terms of resources to have greater supply and therefore lower prices?" said Crist, who has been mentioned as a possible vice presidential candidate.

"If that's possible, through good technology or whatever it might be, I think an open-minded person understands that we ought to at least study it."

So while Corzine reflexively says no, the governor of Florida (not the senator from Florida who Corzine trotted out to pretend he was in charge) showed that he has an open mind both to the voters and to change in technology. No one wants spoiled beaches. New Jersey gets them just be being in close proximity to the trash dump that is often New York. But what if China decided to start drilling 90 miles off the New Jersey coast? Seem improbable? That is what is happening to Florida. And who would you trust to drill for oil and take care of the beaches, China or the US?

Corzine also shows why he knows nothing about energy commodities.

Corzine said allowing domestic drilling has "nothing to do with the price of gas today, next month, next year or even five years from now."

To call Corzine a foolish man is to be too kind by half. These prices made it to where they are based on oil speculation. Even the Saudis recently said that fundamentals do not justify the price of oil right now. What does? It is clearly speculation. And what fuels this speculation? One thing is that the US can be relied on to ignore its own energy reserves and has no coherent energy policy. Can't build refineries, can't drill for oil, can't burn coal, can't have nuclear energy, can't can't can't. And it is Corzine and limousine liberals like him who are responsible.

If this country made a strong statement that we will:

1. Commence exploration projects immediately in Anwar and promising areas off our coasts
2. Start building refineries again
3. Advance clean coal burning technologies for natural gas
4. Look to better alternative fuels instead of BURNING OUR FOOD!!!!!

The markets would react and the price will come down. Energy speculators are laughing all the way to the bank when fools like Corzine get up and spew their anti-citizen rhetoric. But then, the governor doesn't have to pay his gas bill, does he.

Looking at the Poll Numbers

This post has been sitting in draft for a while as I coped with a hard drive failure, but I think the information is still fresh enough to look at. But before I get there, I want to make sure you read Dennis's post on Archbishop Meyers's article in the Catholic Advocate. Go read that one first -- it's getting pushed down the list, but it's much more important than this one -- and then come back.

Done? Great. Let's talk about the recently-released Quinnipiac poll. (That's KWIN-uh-pe-ack, as the press release kindly tells us.) Everyone talks about Corzine and the legislature, but let's also look at how we feel about New Jersey as a whole.

New Jersey voters disapprove 52 - 38 percent of the job Gov. Jon Corzine is doing, among his lowest grades ever, and disapprove 57 - 30 percent of the way he is handling the state budget....

A total of 68 percent of New Jersey voters are "somewhat dissatisfied" or "very dissatisfied" with the way things are going in the Garden State, while 32 percent are "very satisfied" or "somewhat satisfied." Only 10 percent of New Jersey voters say things in the state are better since Corzine became Governor in 2006, while 39 percent say things are worse and 50 percent say they are the same.

In fact, that latter question is one of the few that all groups can agree on: blacks, whites, men, women, Republicans, and Democrats. Check out the numbers. Here's the question:

15. In general, how satisfied are you with the way things are going in New Jersey today? Are you very satisfied, somewhat satisfied, somewhat dissatisfied, or very dissatisfied?

And here are the numbers. I've broken them up slightly from the press release so that they'll fit the blog template: I kept the row labels and the "Totals" column for each breakout. (If you don't see what I mean, you can look at the press release.

                  Tot   Rep   Dem   Ind  
Very satisfied      3%    2%    2%    3% 
Smwht satisfied    29    25    35    24  
Smwht dissatisfied 35    29    37    37  
Very dissatisfied  33    43    24    36  
DK/NA               1     1     1     1   

                  Tot   Men   Wom 
Very satisfied      3%    3%    2%
Smwht satisfied    29    28    30 
Smwht dissatisfied 35    35    34 
Very dissatisfied  33    33    33 
DK/NA               1     1     1 

                  Tot   Wht   Blk
Very satisfied      3%    3%    1%
Smwht satisfied    29    28    39
Smwht dissatisfied 35    34    32
Very dissatisfied  33    35    25
DK/NA               1     -     3

                              Sub   Ex   
                  Tot  Urban  Urbn  Urbn  
Very satisfied      3%    1%    4%    4% 
Smwht satisfied    29    41    32    22  
Smwht dissatisfied 35    26    38    37  
Very dissatisfied  33    30    26    36  
DK/NA               1     2     1     1  

         Philly      
                  Tot   land   Shore
Very satisfied      3%    2%    1%  
Smwht satisfied    29    26    22   
Smwht dissatisfied 35    31    37   
Very dissatisfied  33    40    40   
DK/NA               1     1     -   

                        Age  Age
                  Tot 18-44   45+
Very satisfied      3%    3%   2%
Smwht satisfied    29    34   27
Smwht dissatisfied 35    35   34
Very dissatisfied  33    28   36
DK/NA               1     -    1

That's a little hard to read, so here are some salient points:

• Two-thirds of New Jerseyans are dissatisfied with the way things are going in their state.


• It doesn't matter whether you ask Republicans (72%) or Independents (73%), and it barely matters if you ask Democrats (61%).


• It doesn't matter if you ask men (68%) or women (67%).


• It barely matters if you ask blacks (57%) or whites (69%).


• It doesn't matter if you polling near Philly or on the Shore.


• Age barely matters.


• The one thing that appears to matter is the kind of area you live in (56% vs. 64% vs. 73% -- with the smallest number of dissatisfied people in the urban areas, believe it or not).

Only a third of Democrats think that things in NJ have gotten worse under Jon Corzine, vs. half of Republicans and 40% of Independents. Since satisfaction rates themselves haven't changed much since Corzine took office in January 2006 (they dipped from about 70% dissatisfied to about 60% and have risen back to 70%), it's more interesting to note the number of people who think things have gotten worse under Corzine:

 
      Jun 11 Feb 20 Dec 11 Feb 28
        2008   2008   2007   2007
Better    10     10     14     20%
Worse     39     35     25     15
The same  50     53     59     62
DK/NA      2      2      2      3

That's enough for now, I suppose. See you on the next post...

NJ - Hamilton about to lose new Genesis Biotech project

From today's Trentonian, it looks like the writing is on the wall for Hamilton to lose a 1000 jobs business due to typical New Jersey anti-business dithering:

Word broke this week that the developer of the research facility has become discouraged by a year of being mired in local red tape as well as intensified inflationary pressures.

State economic development officials on the state level in Pennsylvania, meanwhile, have lately made an offer to woo the project to their side of the river.

In response, Mayor John Bencivengo hastily fired off a letter to Corzine requesting financial or any other help in keeping Hamilton competitive.

It seems that New Jersey can't seem to get its act together even when it means new jobs. What is sad is that while the Governor is always ready to propose a new tax on those already living here, he doesn't seem to have time for new business UNLESS is has to do with his doomed stem cell initiatives. But alas, he is weighing in:

“We heard back from the governor’s office that they are sensitive to the situation, and they’re going to do everything in their power to ensure that Genesis stays here,” Angarone told The Trentonian yesterday.

This is strange as well. Why would one have to "hear back" from a Governor who allegedly should be right in the middle of this process. You can be sure that Ed Rendell has his hands in incentives PA intends to give this company to go to Pennsylvania.

But then the developer dropped the bomb that the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania had offered the temptation of some juicy “incentives” — which, in an inflation-saturated age, could pose a real threat to Hamilton keeping the project.

Sad. Read the entire article here.

Republicans submit budget proposal-Corzine Scoffs

Why is it that when politicians like Jon Corzine talk about working in a bipartisan way, he usually means that everyone needs to capitulate to his poor tax and spending plans. NJ Republicans submitted their budget plan yesterday(from Philly.com):

The Republican proposal would restore $375 million in property-tax rebates and $150 million in municipal aid, provide $500 million for transportation and allow $195 million to be restored to what they consider "unfair" cuts, which may include charity care to hospitals and co-payments for Medicaid. It would also reduce spending from the governor's proposal by $100 million.

The money would come from a variety of sources, including massive cuts to "special municipal aid," the poorly defined state grants that were the subject of criticism in a recent state auditor's report; smaller increases for former Abbott school districts; reforming the state's procedures for procuring goods and services; increasing the retirement age for many government employees from 60 to 62, and calculating a state employee's pension based on salary in the last five years of service instead of the last three.

Of course the devil is in the details and we will review them in detail later. However, Corzine's response is typical is his spoiled rich guy approach to most everything:

"Republicans are following in the footsteps of their predecessors by talking about spending money and restoring cuts without offering any legitimate way to pay for them," Corzine said. "This is all make-believe math. This is the same sort of gimmickry and trickery that has put the state in the fiscal mess we now find ourselves trying deal with."

Governor, what do you call make-believe math? It has been clearly shown that changing the retirement age would make a huge difference in the pension obligation of the state. And also, that it is much more difficult for municipal employees to load up their pay with overtime when they need to do it for 5 years instead of three.
That is real math. The make-believe part is YOUR unwillingness to stand up to the special interests that are protecting the municipal workers and would bankrupt the state before offering a single concession. Your leadership is what is "make-believe".

I was actually impressed with Comrade Roberts:

Assembly Speaker Joseph J. Roberts, Jr. (D., Camden) was less negative, but also noncommittal.

"Every item on the Republicans' list deserves to be fully vetted for feasibility and potential impact on the state's long-term bottom line," Roberts said. "Democrats and Republicans alike are committed to delivering a final budget that makes government at all levels more accountable and will make the state more affordable. No idea that potentially could help New Jersey's taxpayers will be rejected out-of-hand."

Specifically, Roberts noted that, like the Republicans, he hopes to replace "gimmicky" property-tax rebate checks with direct property-tax credits, which should be less expensive to administer.

Here's to the hope that this proposal starts the process of getting the budget under control and stops the "where can we tax next" cycle we seem to have been in for the past 4 months.

Read the entire article here.

Why Business is Fleeing the State

It's like watching a car wreck in slow motion.

Yep. And he (Paul Mulshine) gives a very nice summary of how the wheels have been coming off.

Kudos to NorthJersey.com's Mike Kelly

While I posted earlier today a bit of a rant about our governor, I discovered an article by Mike Kelly writing for The Record. While I didn't see this post before, I agree with everything in it and believe that Mr. Kelly has identified the heart of the problem with Gov. Corzine:

Kelly: Corzine picks wrong political fights
Sunday, May 4, 2008 By MIKE KELLY
RECORD COLUMNIST

Mike Kelly is a Record columnist. Contact him at kellym@northjersey.com.

LIKE HIM OR NOT, no one should doubt that Governor Corzine is tenacious. The man doesn't like to easily give up and toss in the towel.

But a deeper political question now haunts Corzine: Does he know how to pick his fights?

Last week, Corzine and his aides found themselves immersed in discussions of three vastly divergent issues that are close to the governor's political heart: stem cells, highway toll hikes and a possible increase in the gasoline tax.

Why? Why is a governor of a state with a budget crisis even spending more than a minute or two thinking about these matters?

That question is not petty.

With gas prices rising faster than thunderhead clouds on a dog-day afternoon in August and at least two presidential candidates – John McCain and Hillary Clinton – calling for a reduction of the gas tax this summer, why would any politician talk of jacking up the gas tax?

As for stem cells, didn't New Jersey voters reject a massive ballot initiative to fund stem cell research in November?

And, finally, tolls: Corzine's initial plan to increase tolls on the New Jersey Turnpike and the Garden State Parkway by as much as 800 percent over the next 15 years seemed to have as much appeal as a 20-mile traffic jam at the start of a Memorial Day weekend. In other words, Corzine's scheme was not moving any