Some thoughts from former NJ residents...

My wife and I recently took a long weekend off down south to visit some former lifetime NJ residents. These were folks who were born and raised here in the state and had all of their family here as well. So I was curious whether or not they regretted their decision to leave the state 8 years ago.

One of our friends was very emphatic. No way no how would they ever return to the Garden state. Even with the current economic conditions, business is good enough, they make less than when they lived here but take home more. All in all a good deal and a much better standard of living.

The other friends moved nearby. Again, no one has any desire to move back and have been attracting other family members to come. I had an interesting conversation with one of our friends who took a job as a equipment operator for the state. He told me that he was following the news in NJ that state workers wouldn't give up their raises or accept temporary furloughs to save money and cut the state's budget deficit. I was curious to see his reaction.

He went off that the people who work for the state of NJ are nuts. If his current state asked him to take days off as a way to save his job-he is in 100%. If his current state pared back a raised that was already agreed-he would accept it. He said everyone is in it together in these tough economic times and we should all be happy we have jobs. No one is entitled to anything.

Indeed.

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A Society of Whiners!

Former Senator Phil Gramm sparked a major controversy this past week by saying that we have become a nation of whiners. Now, of course from a political standpoint, this was a completely stupid thing to say. McCain did the expected two-step backwards and threw Gramm under the bus. Obama responded with his typical snide and condescending "we don't need another Dr Phil" comment that sounded less funny every time it has been played. But the real question is whether or not Gramm is right.

The Media

The media outlets in this country live to whine. The New York Times front page is less often filled with real news than it is with whiny pseudo-news opinion pieces. For example, with all of the constant drumbeat over warrant less wiretapping for terrorism, no one has yet to find a single person to come forward to declare that they were unfairly targeted. It's like listening to my children complain because one or the other is "looking at me". In addition, the television media has created so many cable shows that propagate constant bleating like a sheep on steroids. Need proof? Watch Keith Olbermann just once.

The Political Class

All whiners. There are no statesmen left in politics. What remains is a pack of political hacks bought and paid for by union and industry money. The only ones who go against the grain are the outright kooks (see Kucinich and Paul) who are so marginalized that they will never advance politically. Too many of the elected class serve to feed the media whining about the topic of the day. Chuck Schumer of New York has made a career of the Sunday Morning Whine. You see, it is much easier to get in front of a camera and blame someone else that it is to do something about it. Need proof? Every knows that the oil situation is a problem. Democrats refuse to act as they refused to act 10 years ago. So now, they will go home for the summer having done nothing. But you will find them in front of the camera every day moaning about gas prices.

New Jersey's leaders

I used a small 'l' because I really don't consider there to be a single leading figure in the state's political classes. There is far too many political positions in the state and the bureaucracy is downright silly. The entire state is completely unhappy and the leaders don't care. Why? Because between state workers unions and paying off inner city poor, they remain in power. They whine about worker benefits, rebates for people who don't pay taxes, free health care, national politics, global warming and drilling offshore. But they never whine about the leadership in Trenton that is driving families and business out of the state at a rate unheard of anywhere but Michigan.

Bloggers

Of course bloggers whine. We exist because we feel that we have little of no influence on the political process as taxpayers and voters. If you are of the working class in this society, you have no say. Why? There is no lobbyist organization advocating for you. So we blog. It is the one opportunity to have your voice heard beyond your circle of friend (where you really don't want to advocate anyway). Thank God we are in this country where blogging is robust and our freedom of speech is protected. Been to any good Chinese blogs lately?

Me

Hellooooo? This post is one big WHINE!

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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.

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Paul Mulshine on "Unaffordable, Unfathomable Housing Plan"

"Each town's COAH committee has a dozen or so members, so when you multiply that by the 566 towns in New Jersey, you get ... lemme get out my calculator. Oh yeah, you get an incalculable waste of time and money."

No doubt. You really do need to read the whole thing.

And when you're done, thinking to yourself that it can't possibly be as bad as all that, go pull your copy of The Soprano State off of your bookshelf and read the section on the Mount Laurel Doctrine, which deals with affordable housing. In just a few pages, it shows how much worse it is than you think. Here, for instance:

The court gave developers the "builders' remedy," which says a builder can bring suit if it thinks zoning allows too few units on a parcel of land. If zoning only allows four houses per acre, for instance, the builder can bring suit for, say, twenty units per acre -- allegedly so that it can build affordable housing. This usually involves condos and apartments since builders wouldn't want affordable housing among their high-priced McMansions. Usually the threat of a suit is all it takes for a town to modify its zoning. If the issue never makes it to court, there is no order forcing the builder to provide any affordable housing although he does get the more dense zoning, which can be used solely for market-rate housing.

Follow that? The threat of a lawsuit gives builders the ability to quintuple the number of units on a parcel of land without actually providing the affordable housing that the denser zoning is supposed to enable. And the town residents' desires be damned.

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Gill's Bill is Fishy

To understand your legislators, read their press releases. The PR for Senator Nia H. Gill's "Save New Jersey Homes Act of 2008" shows how little Gill (D-Essex and Passaic) understands the current fiscal crisis.

She says, "New Jerseyans are losing their homes at an alarming rate due to foreclosure and the home loan crisis which is going on nationwide." Fair enough, foreclosures are up. But then she adds:

The Legislature has an obligation to create a statutory scheme to allow protection for consumers who are struggling to live with the effects of a crisis created by the subprime lending practices of some predatory mortgage lenders.

Okay, I get it: mortgage lenders are evil. (Never mind the fact that nobody would own houses without them.) The best response to evil people is to pass laws that prevent them from hurting you (unless the evil person is Willie Horton, in which case the best response is to put him on furlough). So how should the New Jersey Senate's new law protect homeowners from "predatory mortgage lenders"?

The bill...would require mortgage companies to notify borrowers at 60 and 30 days prior to the date that the interest rates on their home loans reset. These notices would include information regarding the current interest rate under the introductory terms of the mortgage, the date at which the interest rate resets, an explanation of how the reset interest rate would be calculated, and the best estimate by the creditor of the amount of the monthly payment after the reset date. The notice would also include a list of alternatives the borrower can pursue prior to the reset date, including refinancing or renegotiating with the creditor, or applying for an extension on the introductory interest rate.

Ah, the solution is nagging -- forcing mortgage companies to spend millions on mailings to tell people things that they should already know.

Typical Democrats. In Godless, Ann Coulter said that writing letters to the New York Times is what people who don't fight do when they think they're fighting. This is the Senate's letter to the Times. It won't do anything -- if anything, it's an additional economic strain on an already strained industry -- but it will make them feel like they did something.

Where's the beef, then? Apparently, the Senate bill calls for more bureaucracy to ensure that

borrowers would be able to apply for an extension on the introductory mortgage interest rate, up to three years, if they could not afford the monthly mortgage payments after the interest rate resets. They would have to complete a certification of extension prior to the reset date, indicating that they do not have sufficient monthly income, after deductions for necessary living expenses, to pay the monthly payment on the post-reset mortgage, and that they agree to continue payments during the extension period of principal and interest calculated at the introductory rate. Eligible borrowers would still have to pay back the interest deferred during the extension when they sell their homes, and would forfeit the deferment of interest if the borrower fails to make regular payments during the extension.

...in other words, it puts the burden of absorbing the cashflow crunch onto the lender.

So the evil predatory mortgage lenders will be forced to spend more money on notifications to people and to do the things that they do anyway to avoid foreclosures, regardless of the lender's financial situation. This is in an industry that has seen billions of dollars in writedowns and tens of thousands of layoffs. The result is that they'll be more conservative in their loan-making, which will make it less likely that people will be able to afford New Jersey housing. (And have I mentioned property taxes recently?)

Good thing our legislators are spending their taxpayer-funded salaries thinking up ideas like this.

The press release for the Assembly's version of the bill (A-2780, link in PDF) deals with this fact in an even funnier way.

Finally, the legislation would benefit mortgage lenders by providing them with a continuing revenue source. Many lenders have had to close due to declining revenues linked to the loss of mortgage payments coupled by the additional expenses of having to own and maintain foreclosed properties. Lenders have stated they do not want to be real estate owners, particularly since the drop in real estate values means many cannot recoup their original investment.

Interesting. Before this bill, was there a requirement for lenders to foreclose on their borrowers? If not, then how does this "provide" them with a continuing revenue source? It simply forces them to do things that, if it were in their best interest, they would do anyway.

And as long as we're talking about their press release, consider their justification for the bill:

According to published reports, foreclosure rates in February 2008 – the latest month for which such statistics are available – were up 60 percent nationally over the same time from last year. A total of 223,651 homes received at least one notice from a lenders related to an overdue payment, with nearly half of the homes slipping into default for the first time.

New Jersey saw 53,652 foreclosure filings in 2007, a 34 percent increase over 2006.

Nationwide, over 2.2 million foreclosure filings – including default notices, auction sale notices and bank repossessions – were reported on 1.3 million properties in 2007, a 75 percent increase over the prior year. In excess of 1 percent of all U.S. households were in some stage of foreclosure during the year.
Industry analysts estimate that nationwide another 1.5 million mortgages are due to reset in 2008 and that as many as three million subprime mortgages could end up in foreclosure over the next three years.

They're trying to mislead us somewhat, of course -- the 2.2 million filings are up by 75% nationwide, but we're talking about 1.3 million properties -- but even if you look at the things they say in a straightforward way you see that things aren't as bad as they seem.

• "Nationwide, over 2.2 million foreclosure filings...were reported...in 2007, a 75 percent increase over the prior year", but "New Jersey saw...a 34 percent increase" in filings. That tells me that we're doing half as badly as the rest of the country.
• "In excess of 1 percent of all U.S. households were in some stage of foreclosure during the year" tells me that more than 98% of all U.S. households are not in dire straits.

Which makes this comment by Assemblyman L. Harvey Smith (D-Jersey City) all the more galling: "We must act, and act swiftly, before an entire generation of New Jerseyans are forced to join the ranks of the homeless."

I'm convinced that we need to reform our school system just so we can stop calling 1% of New Jerseyans "an entire generation" and to stop calling a 50% increase "a half a penny".

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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.

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Tone Deaf Corzine - It's NJ's unfriendly business climate stupid!

In an article in today's Asbury Park Press, Governor Corzine sings the praises of Nordisk expansion in Princeton:

Gov. Corzine was giddy in praising Novo Nordisk's recent decision to expand its U.S. headquarters in Princeton. He said the health care company's decision "demonstrates the state is an attractive location for innovative companies to grow."

But as usual, the Governor does not have his facts straight. Frankly, it is hard to criticize Corzine anymore because he has proven to be such a fool on so many levels from his elitist posturing on stem cell research and the public's refusal to fund it, his support of paid family leave so his rich children can get money from the state to visit him (by far the worst explanation for signing a bill in NJ history), his toll tax proposal, his absolute refusal to cut anything significant from the budget for fear of angering special interests and his complete disrespect for the taxpayers in the state of New Jersey. But on this one, he has his head somewhere unmentionable (in the sand?):

The Small Business & Entrepreneurship Council's recently released 2008 Business Tax Index placed New Jersey dead last of 50 states. The state ranked in the bottom five in personal income and capital gains tax rates and in state and local property taxes.

The adverse impact taxation is having on the state's economic health has been clear for some time. A Rutgers University report released two weeks ago found that New Jersey's private-sector job growth ranked 41st nationally over the past two years.

There is a bill to address these issues that the Democrat controlled legislature will not even debate. Here's hoping that United State Attorney Christopher Christie will indict Corzine and throw him in jail. Eighteen more months of Corzine is too long.

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NJ Rain Tax - You can't make this up(Rain Tax)!

Just when you think our politicians can't get more disfunctional, they come up with this:

Senate Bill 1166 proposes another tax to be levied on property owners. It will impose a municipal "fee" calculated on the average rainfall runoff. With this new source of funds, local authorities will be set up "to assess the potential impact to the environment of nonpoint source pollution." Just what we need: more bureaucracies and a tax on rain. The governor demands less spending and politicians like Sen. Bob Smith, D-Middlesex, the bill sponsor, respond with business as usual.

And the real question in play:

What will it take to get Trenton to stop fiddling with our lives, forcing us to leave our state, crippling our ability to attract business and, at the same time, taking care of themselves and their political buddies?

Read the entire article here.

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NJ legal climate dropping like a stone! Patronage vs Business.

From Fox Business:

The U.S. Chamber Institute for Legal Reform (ILR) today announced that New Jersey's legal climate has dropped nine spots to number 35 in Lawsuit Climate 2008: Ranking the States, an annual assessment of state liability systems conducted by Harris Interactive, a leading national market research firm.

"New Jersey's legal system is headed in the wrong direction," said Tom Donohue, president and CEO of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, "largely as a result of the plaintiff-friendly bias in a handful of trial courts, particularly in lawsuits aimed at pharmaceutical manufacturers."

It is somewhat amazing that New Jersey is trending anti-business in every possible category. Additional taxes, piling on for insurance, family leave and now a poor legal climate. And worse yet, the negative legal climate is directed the way of one of the last remaining industries still in the state, Pharmaceuticals. But is it fair?

New Jersey has also gained a reputation for allowing "junk science" to be admitted into the courtroom, dropping from a rank 13th to 35th in the handling of technical and scientific evidence.

Does anything not think that these legal issues are not the result of political patronage?

Read the entire article here.

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Taxing Porker of the Month - Bill Baroni(R-14) and the Paid Family Leave Tax (watch out John McCain)

For his support of the Paid Family Leave Tax, Bill Baroni get's this month's Taxing Porker of the Month Award. As a Republican, Mr Baroni claims to support good government, claims to be against corruption and excessive spending by Trenton. The strange this is that Mr Baroni has unbelievably large support from the unions of this state such as the NJEA (the largest public employee union in NJ) as well as several trades unions. Given the undue influence unions have in bloating the state budget, one has to question their love of Mr Baroni.

People in New Jersey wonder why Republicans do not get traction in this state despite the large number of people who in many other state would be pre-disposed to be conservative or right of center politically. It is because the Republican party in New Jersey looks too much like the Democratic party in New Jersey. And Bill Baroni is a perfect example.

I think that John McCain may want to re-evaluate Mr Baroni's position in his campaign in the state of New Jersey. It is hard to claim you are against government waste and support lower taxes when your campaign chairman in the state is for both!

Of course, it Mr Baroni somehow realizes that his constituents (who in Hamilton have been severely hurt by their representatives over the post 8 years and pay some of the highest taxes in NJ) are more important than the lobbyists for his union friends, we will happily rescind his pork skin. But I am not holding my breath.

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Stop the NJ Paid Family Leave TAX! Act now and contact your legislator!

The legislature of the People's Republic of New Jersey (the United States first Socialist/Communist State) will be bringing paid family leave back on Monday. From an article in the Daily Record:

After several fits and starts, an effort to bring a paid family leave program to New Jersey may clear its final legislative hurdle Monday.

A vote on the measure is scheduled in the Senate, where Majority Leader Stephen Sweeney, D-Gloucester, and budget committee chairwoman Sen. Barbara Buono, D-Middlesex, are sponsors. If approved, Gov. Jon S. Corzine is expected to sign the bill shortly.

When speaking of the need for the program, the governor frequently refers to having his children around him when he recovered from a near-fatal car crash a year ago this week, saying people shouldn't have to choose between work and caring for family.

I am often brought to absolute tears laughing at our current Governor. His reason for supporting paid family leave (PAID as in PAID FOR BY HIGHER TAXES) is that when he got hurt speeding in a state owned vehicle without his seat belt, he had his children by his side. Of course, Corzine's estimated net worth is in excess of 600 million dollars according to the New York times. But what about the family he wants at his side?

1. Son Joshua works in commercial real estate in San Francisco
2. Daughter Jennifer runs a tea shop in Manhattan
3. Son Jeffrey goes to NYU

So Mr Governor, tell me how paid family leave would have helped your children be by your side when you were hurt? And why should the people of New Jersey have to pay for them to be there?

This entire bill is a bad joke that being perpetuated by Democrats attempting to buy votes in the next election. Too many voters in this state think about these benefits, hold hands and sing songs and skip through the meadow happily. That is until the next tax bill comes and they scream bloody murder. Here is an idea for the Democrats who want this bill so bad. Cut state workers by 10% and you will have plenty of money to pay for it.

It's time to hold your elected representatives accountable. Go to this link to find your legislator and let them no - STOP PAID FAMILY LEAVE TAX!

Senate and Assembly members be warned. You have seen various groups marching on Trenton in recent days. The citizens of this state have told you to stop spending and get your fiscal house in order. If you want to avoid the coming rout (REMEMBER FLORIO), you had better get serious soon.

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Family leave - Not so fast!

Just when it seemed that the family leave bill was heading to join its friends of railroaded legislation that either means nothing or costs the taxpayers more, the brakes have been applied. From the Philadelphia Business Journal:

Legislation to provide paid family leave in New Jersey was not placed on the Senate's agenda on Monday, delaying for months what was to be a final vote on the issue.

An emergency vote, requiring three-fourths majority approval to pass, was necessary for the Senate to vote legally on final passage of the measure, according to the nonpartisan Office of Legislative Services. Without the emergency vote, the bill, which was substituted by the Assembly for a Senate bill, requires the usual three readings in the Senate before it can be voted upon. The delay will give state business groups that oppose the measure more time to plead their case.

Now maybe some maturity can be applied to this wonderful "feel good" exercise which is nothing more than another Trenton giveaway when the State and its citizens can ill afford it. In case someone thinks I am heartless, I would love to have any or all of the following:

1. Free health care
2. Free transportation to and from work
3. Heck, no work, just pay
4. Puppies for everyone
5. Free Girl Scout Cookies because some of them are really good
6. Free insurance
7. Free house that I get to keep


But there is one small problem. I could not ask my fellow citizens to reward my complete and utter lack of productivity. And what makes me wonder is why so many of our elected politicians are so willing to head straight for the camera and pat themselves on the back for SACRIFICING my hard earned money. It pains them so.

How about this if our elected politicians want this law. Instead of business paying for it, have all of our elected politicians give up their second (or third or fourth or fifth) state job or paid patronage appointment and take only the pension due their elected office (around $12,000-this number courtesy of the education I am provided by Bob Ingle and Sandy McClure in The Soprano State which we will be reviewing in a later post). This should more than make up the cost of this program for its life.

Of course the downside of this delay is that it will give certain politicians time to set up their new side businesses in Family Leave Counseling and bid for the soon to be (you know it's coming) let state contracts for same. Bet you the first one is in Hamilton.

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It's not just the tax burden - NJ is run horribly

An excellent article appeared in the City-Journal yesterday. I lays down the case for the fact that New Jersey is not just over-taxed, it is exceptionally poorly run:

In a new study, Governing ranks New Jersey the third worst-managed state in the country, not only because of the shambles that its finances are in, but also because of its lack of investment in infrastructure, its poor employee training and development, and a failure to apply technology and data to manage public services well. Talk about a quadruple whammy for the state’s residents, who ought to be asking exactly what the heck the state has been doing with all their money.

The article also takes on New Jersey's recent hiring frenzy in state government. When Governor Corzine talks about cutting employees, the state employee unions howl. The problem with that is that they forget that government employees serve at the pleasure of the people-they are not entitled to their jobs. And why is it that in the private sector, employees must work hard to make their jobs relevant or they will lose them. But apparently, inefficiency combined with over-staffing compared to other states is status quo in New Jersey:

One thing that Jersey’s patronage-ridden government has been doing is hiring workers at a rapid rate, far faster than most other states. Last week, when Corzine proposed cutting $500 million in spending out of the state government, he pledged to trim the state’s workforce by 3,000 employees, which drew a howl from public-sector unions, as well as warnings from some editorialists that the cuts might hurt services. Corzine might have noted that from 2000 to 2006—after the meltdown of technology stocks on Wall Street and the economic fallout from September 11—a succession of New Jersey governors added 10,000 workers to the state’s executive workforce, a 17 percent gain, even as the state’s population grew by only 4 percent.

The hiring spree didn’t stop there. Agencies and authorities subsidized by state government but not directly controlled by the governor were rapidly boosting their own payrolls, adding approximately 13,000 more full-time (or full-time-equivalent) workers to the state’s payrolls, according to U.S. Census Bureau statistics. Only a few other states increased their public payrolls as quickly; all were far larger than New Jersey and had more rapidly growing populations. By contrast, even New York State was a model of efficiency, growing its workforce by less than 1 percent during the same period.

The article closes by bringing up the patronage that has destroyed the management of the state. People are hired not for their talent but as a byproduct of a patronage society that has no real measurement culture. Of course, I really haven't heard much from the Governor or the legislature that shows that they want to change it.

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NJ Chamber of Commerce - Oppose Family Leave!

Printed from NJ Chamber website:

Paid Leave Before Senate on Monday
Continue to Voice Your Concern


The Assembly Labor Committee passed the paid leave mandate out of committee Thursday and the next stop is the full Senate on Monday. Thank you for sending hundreds of e-mail messages to legislators this week with your many reasons why New Jersey should not be the third state in the nation to implement paid leave.

Unfortunately, our elected leaders do not comprehend that their timing could not be any worse. There is more economic uncertainty than ever and the last thing our business owners need to worry about is another mandate imposed on them by government. Please continue to remind Governor Corzine and Senate President Richard Codey - as well as others - that this does not sit right with employers.

On Thursday, amendments that would have made this less damaging did not have enough support to pass. This included: exempting key employees, exempting businesses with 50 or fewer employees, or allowing employees an opt out possibility. Democrats hold a majority on the committee and these amendments were voted down largely according to party line.

Continue to send e-mails to key legislators to voice opposition to this mandate. You are also encouraged to call the Governor's Office at (609) 292-6000 to tell his staff that you are opposed to paid leave in New Jersey .

For more information, contact Jim Leonard at (609) 989-7888 or jim@njchamber.com .

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More Taxes to Kill the Economy: "Activity Taxes"

Via allbusiness.com:

"When Barry Godwin, the Comptroller of a South Carolina pleasure boat company, received a call from a New Jersey revenue agent last July, he could hardly believe his ears. A truckload of boats bound for Massachusetts had been stopped at a weigh station, and the agent was demanding $46,200 in “back taxes.”

Goodwin’s 240-employee company, Stingray Boats, has never had a physical presence in New Jersey. But the revenue agent had determined through a conversation with the driver that Stingray had a “business nexus” with the state because it supplied boats to an independent New Jersey dealer. Therefore, it owed state taxes. It was either pay up, or the boats would be impounded, he was told. The company had little choice; it paid, he said.

“The manner in which the State of New Jersey acted is commonly defined as extortion,” Goodwin told the House Small Business Committee this week."

Apparently activity taxes weren't common until around 2005. How much do you think this small business owner will want to drive through New Jersey when the tolls are eight times higher and the activity taxes suck tens of thousands of dollars out of him?

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Codey Opposes Minimum Wage Hike

From njbiz.com.

Senate President Richard Codey (D-Essex) has told NJBIZ he would block any legislation that would increase the state’s $7.15-per-hour minimum wage. . . .

Codey says it would be asking too much of business to swallow both a minimum-wage hike and paid-family leave at the same time.

Believe it or not, I want us to have a "social safety net." We can't leave the poor to their own devices. I don't think it should be managed at the federal level, but I'm okay with welfare. I struggle with the way we implement it, though.

Part of the problem is that we use language that impedes understanding rather than helps it. Check this out:

Paid-family leave legislation...is a worker-funded program... “We are hitting [business] with paid-family leave now,” says Codey.

If it were really "worker-funded", we wouldn't be hitting business with it, right?

Anyway, we have a very clunky process for dealing with the minimum wage. Do we really have to do this?

The current $7.15 minimum wage ranks 10th highest in the country and is tied with New York, Michigan and Alaska, according to the U.S. Department of Labor. An $8.25 minimum wage would vault New Jersey to No. 1. . . .

Philip Kirschner, president of the New Jersey Busness & Industry Association and a member of the minimum-wage commission, voted against the hike. “Increasing the minimum wage to $8.25 will give us the highest minimum wage in the country and will result in a 55 percent increase in just three years,” says Kirschner. “For businesses that employ entry-level minimum-wage workers, that is very difficult.”

He adds that automatic cost-of-living hikes could drive call centers, light manufacturing and other businesses to lower minimum-wage states. “Pennsylvania and New York do not have [automatic raises],” he says. “In two years, we will be $1.50 more than [New York]. There are not many businesses that will pay that much extra for the same work they can get in New York and Pennsylvania.”

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Other People's Money - Paid Family Leave

The New Jersey Senate has decided that trying to act like California and Minnesota is a good thing to do in the midst of the state's most serious fiscal crisis. I don't know much about Minnesota but California is a case study in fiscal incompetence combined with insatiable appetite for spending that has bankrupted the state (despite the fact that the official declaration hasn't yet been made).

The tax situation in New Jersey is already completely unfriendly to business. The sales tax issue (not 1 cent which would have been in excess of a 16% increase but a massive new tax infusion to a whole new range of products and services). So when business are already looking for opportunities over the rivers and past the bay, what does our Senate do? They decide to insist that business provide paid time off for family leave thereby enhance already solid national policies which allow families to have their children and get back to work in a timely fashion.

There is a reason that only two states have enacted this legislation. It is because they do not want to lose the businesses that make up the backbone of their budgets. NJ Senators don't care because this is other people's money anyway. They can stand and pontificate over how they are helping people while those same citizen's employer's say....goodbye. Need evidence? Does anyone remember when we actually were the telecommunications capital of the US? Guess not.

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