NJ Legislature: The Silly Season Begins...

As we have commented in the past, the New Jersey does their best impression of fiddling while Rome burns after election time each year. It is during this time that our elected representatives in the Assembly and Senate take a look at the prevailing issues of the day and then completely ignore them. Prior sessions gave us critical legislation like their apology for slavery. And while you tend to expect a certain amount of legislative stupidity out of Trenton, the stakes right now for our state are high and the citizen's want seriousness.

So what are the silly season highlights so far?

A Democratic state lawmaker has introduced a bill that would force Republican Gov.-elect Christopher J. Christie to select a Democrat to replace New Jersey's U.S. senators - both of them Democrats - if either was unable to complete his term.
(From the Inquirer)

When Republican Chris Christie unseated Democratic Gov. Jon Corzine in the gubernatorial election last month, it gave gay-rights activists more urgency to try to achieve their long-held goal of getting a same-sex marriage bill through the Legislature before Christie takes office Jan. 19.

The reason is simple: Corzine supports the bill. Christie says he would veto it.
(AP)

In summary, our legislators think the most pressing issues of the day are some pre-planning for election gerrymandering and gay marriage. It is interesting that exit polls from our most recent election didn't mention either one of those topics. And to refresh our esteemed legislators minds, here is what the PEOPLE want them to concentrate on:

1. Economy and jobs
2. Property taxes
3. Corruption

Well, it least they are working on continuing the third one. But for some reason, I don't think that's what the voters were looking for....

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Let's investigate Goldman Sach's alumni conflict of interest Mr Corzine

As Jon Corzine continues his hypocritical accusations of Chris Christie, maybe it is time for a real account of the ties between Goldman Sachs alumni like Corzine and government influence. From this article in the Policy Examiner:

The Times points out that Goldman alums include:

Former treasury secretary Hank Paulson
Paulson's bailout chief Neel Kashkari
Interim Treasury investment officer Reuben Jeffrey
Key Treasury players Dan Jester, Steve Shafran, Edward C. Forst, and Robert K. Steel
Key New York Federal Reserve players Stephen Friedman (head of the New York Fed board of governors, who sat on Goldman's board and owned a substantial stake in Goldman while he was making official decisions - and see this), William C. Dudley (head of the New York Fed's unit that buys and sells government securities), and E. Gerald Corrigan (charged with convening a group to analyze risk on Wall Street)

Of course, the avalance of former Goldman alumni seemed to start with Jon Corzine. From this opinion piece in the Trentonian:

That $300 million-plus that Corzine left Goldman Sachs with and used to bankroll a mid-life-crisis career change to politics was “fattened” by IPOs, says Taibbi.

He says Goldman Sachs manipulated the price of IPO stock by encouraging “best clients” to get in early at low prices and clean up before the suckers were enticed in at higher prices, driving up Goldman Sach’s take. That tactic is called “laddering,” says Taibbi.

Then, before moving on to other alleged Goldman Sachs iniquities, the writer takes a parting pot shot at Corzine. “One of the truly comic moments in the history of America’s recent financial collapse came,” writes Taibbi, when Corzine insisted, “I’ve never even heard the term ‘laddering’ before.”

Jon Corzine. Ethically challenged. Mathmatically challenged. A weak Governor. Not quite the lion we were promised (not even a cowardly lion) rather a mouse with the political courage of an anonymous political staffer the media so adores.

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Corzine won't tolerate corruption...except when he does.

The Washngton Post today had an article discussing this week's corruption arrests of mostly Democrat politicians and reached into Corzine's cabinet. From the article:

Corzine has not been implicated in the investigation, but the scandal did reach his Cabinet; Joseph Doria, commissioner of the Department of Community Affairs, resigned after FBI agents raided his home and office Thursday. Doria has not been charged.

Corzine was close to Hoboken Mayor Peter Cammarano III, 32, one of the three mayors arrested. The governor lives in Hoboken and attended Cammarano's inauguration ceremony on July 1. Cammarano, a former Hoboken council member, is accused of taking $25,000 in bribes from an FBI informant posing as a building developer who needed expedited zoning approvals and permits.

All of this has been business as usual with politics in New Jersey. But the real howler is this Corzine comment:

Corzine said he was "sickened" by the arrests and called on all those public officials to follow Doria's lead and resign, even though none has been convicted. "I will not tolerate even the hint of corruption," Corzine said.

Ah, come on Governor...you have tolerated massive corruption in your ranks since you entered into politics. Your Senate colleague from New Jersey was the center of a major corruption investigation that precipitated Lautenberg's return. Your girlfriend was considered so honest that the union she worked for while dating you (only a major public employee union with a direct conflict of interest for you) dumped her after you negoiated significant contract. And how about those emails you won't share Governor? And why did your opponent the Federal attorner convict 128 of your Democrat friends for corruption versus 0 for your state Attorney General.

I know Governor Corzine. You don't tolerate corruption. Except when you do. Which is always.

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Another day, another 30 corruption arrests in NJ

The story speaks for itself at this point(from the Wall Street Journal):

Federal agents swept into northern New Jersey towns Thursday morning, arresting about 30 people including several mayors, in a federal investigation into alleged public corruption and a high-volume, international money-laundering conspiracy.

Even by New Jersey standards, this one seems like a weird one. I am sure we will get a lot more after the news conference later, but I have a question that always arises when these things happen. Why is it never a member of New Jersey law enforcement or the Attorney General's office who make these busts? New Jersey has the second highest cops per capital (USDOJ Expenditure and Employment) behind New York and yet the police can never seem to identify or arrest any corrupt politicians. Why?

According to a statement released by the U.S. Attorney's office in Newark, the arrests related to the public-corruption probe included Peter Cammarano III, the newly elected Democratic mayor of Hoboken; Dennis Elwell, mayor of Secaucus, also a Democrat; state Assemblyman Daniel Van Pelt, a Republican; and Democrat Leona Beldini, the deputy mayor of Jersey City, the state's second-largest city after Newark.

Arrests that are part of the money-laundering portion of the investigation include several rabbis in New York and New Jersey, the statement said.

We will be following this as it unfolds. Read the entire Wall Street Journal article here.

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Another NJ Politician Sentenced for Corruption

From the Star Ledger:

A "crass, immature" Passaic ex-councilman was sentenced yesterday to more than six years in federal prison for accepting $44,500 in bribes for himself and other onetime city officials.

Every time I see one of these articles, I am struck by the sheer audacity of the corruption. It is often in plain sight and the citizens keep re-electing these people who do not act in their interests. And more shocking is that the charges are NEVER leveled by New Jersey prosecutors. They are always Federal investigations.

His undoing was an FBI investigation that led to indictments of 11 New Jersey public officials, including convictions for mentor and Mayor Sammy Rivera; Passaic Councilman Marcellus Jackson; Paterson schools trustee Chauncey Brown III, and Democratic Assemblymen Alfred E. Steele of Paterson and Mims Hackett Jr. of Orange.

In a separate trial yesterday, also before Thompson, a fourth Passaic official became a casualty of that investigation: Councilman Gerardo Fernandez was convicted of perjury for lying to a grand jury reviewing evidence of corruption.

"Clearly, for a significant portion of the City Council, corruption was just part of doing business," acting U.S. Attorney Ralph J. Marra Jr. said in a statement. "We can only hope that all of these convictions in Passaic will have the desired deterrent effect and give the public hope that their other current representatives are honest and working in their best interests."

Of course, I guess we can expect these to end with the election of Barack Obama. New Jersey corrupt Democrat politicians can breathe a sigh of relieve with AG Holder in charge as he is only interested in prosecuting Republicans for political purposes.
At least we can hope that we get rid of Corzine and let Christie take over and put teeth back into prosecutions at the state level.

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State deficit - Corzine says everyone is doing it!

Jon Corzine made a comment meant to suggest that New Jerseys fiscal woes a the same saying "almost every state is in the same situation". Do the facts back him up(from CBPP)?




So, while many states have deficits, they all do not. And while many states are revising their numbers (these were prior to most states evaluating their revenue collection for 2008), it is not all states. As a matter of fact, 29 states have budget deficits. 21 do not. And 7 states have a deficit in excess of 10 percent of their budget, New Jersey being one of them.

So maybe Governor Corzine should say "7 states have completely failed in their fiduciary responsibility to the taxpayers and we are one of them". That would be a lot more accurate.

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Morristown Tea Party Update 3

Two updates to the Morristown event. First is that they have a new web site for the event. You can find it at the following link:

www.MorristownTeaParty.org

They have also put out a new invite that you can send to all of your friends. The next invite reads as follows:

Are you tired of all the talk about raising your taxes by the Obama Administration and the Corzine Administration? Are you fed up with all of the corruption in government at all levels? So are we! Our group - Morristown Tea Party - will be holding a Tax Day Tea Party on April 15, 2009 at Noon on The Green in Morristown, NJ, right in the heart of the city. We will be rallying against the Obama Administration' s Porkulu$ $pending and for a return to America's core values of less spending, smaller government and self determination. We are part of a national movement which will be holding these protests on April 15.

Why did we choose The Green for this activity? Of particular importance in the history of the Green is its role in various aspects of the American Revolutionary War period, linking local history to the history of the United States as a whole. General George Washington was headquartered at the Green in Arnold's Tavern during his first encampment in Morristown (January - May, 1777), and was in town again during the winter of 1779-80. As a result, the Green was frequently the center for military and political activities related to the period, and was visited by many of the national military leaders.

We hope to see you there on April 15, 2009 at 12:00 Noon rallying for honesty, responsibility, accountability and transparency in government.

Please get in touch with myself, or our Group's point person,
Jeffrey M. Weingarten, at: 973-272-3341 or JeffreyMW@gmail.com
..
Thank you and best regards,

Remember Boston - 1773!

Peter Glenn, Media Liaison
MorristownTeaParty
(TeaPartyMorristown@yahoo.com)

Be seen on the GREEN on April 15!
(Morristown, NJ)

If you are in the area, this promises to be an excellent event. Be there or quit complaining about how bad New Jersey and the federal government are beign run.

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Corzine's budget folly

Governor Corzine gave his state of the state speech yesterday. The most interesting part of the Governor's speech is the complete lack of real content and ideas for changing New Jersey's fiscal situation.

From the start, it was clear that this was not a business speech, it was purely politics. Shortly into the speech, Corzine alternated from patting himself on the back to throwing out some anecdotes to citizens hard times and his trip to Iraq. One should note here that while Iraq is may be a good topic for a speech on military families or military spending or securing our bases in New Jersey, it is a distraction in the state of the state address. And it represented just one of 10 stories designed to avoid the real topic and addressing it with any substance.

While Corzine called the economy priority #1, #2 and #3, he immediately switched to Bush bashing. And then spending. And then more spending. He went from patting himself on the back for saving 800 million dollars in spending last year and then proceeding to borrow 3.9 BILLION. He also mentioned 3 times that he cut spending by 1.4 million this year but doesn't once mention what he actually cut.

He touted the following accomplishments:

These highlighted achievements and work in no way describe the entirety of our agenda and activities.

Keep in mind:

We enacted a family leave insurance program, the second in the nation

A completely anti-business program that will not help anyone with real family issues as we have commented on previously.

We strengthened our worker’s compensation system
We continued reform of our public pension system

What strengthening? You made it harder for businesses to hire and keep workers employed? And when and where did the public pension reform occur. I follow his every move and I have not identified anything substantial.

We appointed record numbers of women and minorities to the bench
We created the office of supplier diversity

Wouldn't it be nice if we felt these appointments were about awarding excellent individuals and minority companies rather than political correctness. I would love this governor to say that he helped give 100 kids from Trenton the wherewithal to get a law degree. But he won't say that because he didn't do anything to really help minorities in this state. This is pure drivel.

We built and dedicated a long-overdue World War II memorial
We reformed the Charity Care funding formula to better protect health care for our most vulnerable, especially in our urban areas

Sorry if I am underwhelmed by these achievements.

We created an inter-agency Council on the Prevention of Homelessness
We finalized the Highlands Master Plan

What would we do without commissions and plans. I wonder how many new state jobs it took to do these projects?

We built and participated in a regional auction system for carbon credits
And, we delivered a nationally recognized Energy Master Plan as well as a Greenhouse Gas Reduction Plan

Hey Governor? Didn't you hear? Global warming is on hold due to the impending ice age.


He finished up with a plan of caps, and projections and hopes that Obama will bail the state out. But not one concrete plan. Not one.

If you would like to read the text of the speech in its entirety, you can access it here.

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A Proposal for NJ Pols - Budget neutral or you pay

I had an idea for politicians in New Jersey. You see, in this state, politicians get elected and then immediately push their pet priority (having no relevant support from their constituency). And usually (since most of our politicians are democrats), these ideas involve more spending. Spending is fine if it is coupled with accountability.

So here is the rule. If you are elected and have a spending proposal to better our state, you have to prove two things:

1. You have an accountability plan. That means that you anticipate up front that your proposal needs to be examined by the people and measured according to your proposed promise.
2. If your spending fails to succeed, your constituency pays the rest of New Jersey for your failure to be effective.

Of course, I don't think there are many politicians in NJ who are willing to sign up for this plan. One, because it is far easier to throw money at the constituent and claim anyone who disagrees is a scrooge. And two, accountability is not popular in our state. As a matter of fact, indictments are more popular than accountability due largely to the sad state of our electoral awareness.

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Please say it is so....Chris Christie for Governor

I received this in my inbox yesterday:

Subject: Message from Senator Kyrillos

Dear Friend,

I spent time over the weekend with my good friend, former US Attorney Christopher Christie and I am very encouraged by what I heard.

Chris is being urged to run for Governor by Republicans, Independents, and even some prominent Democrats. They've read what the newspapers wrote about what Chris achieved as our state's US Attorney, and they're telling Chris that he can provide the leadership and make the tough decisions needed to fix our broken state.

Chris's record of integrity and effectiveness has been praised by virtually every paper in the state, as well as the New York Times and Philadelphia Inquirer.

By contrast, NJ Monthly's January profile had this to say about Jon Corzine:

"It's hard to imagine a governor more qualified to fix the state's finances and less able to get the job done."

Our state's problems are too great, our taxes too high, our economy too distressed.
We need a leader like Chris Christie. Stay tuned! I have a feeling we will hear some good news real soon.

Sincerely,

Senator Joe Kyrillos

If an announcement is imminent, this is great news for the state of New Jersey.

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Illinois corruption coverage still mentions New Jersey

This week as the story of Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich looking to sell Barack Obama's senate seat to the highest bidder broke, I expected to see plenty of coverage of the history of political corruption in Chicago. I have always thought that the Chicago political machine represented the worst political corruption of all the 50 states (or 57 if you are Barack Obama). But I was wrong.

Apparently, New Jersey is considered one of the elite for political corruption(from the AP):

If it isn't the most corrupt state in the United States, it's certainly one hell of a competitor," Chicago FBI chief Robert D. Grant said when the charges were announced against Blagojevich.

The top competitors seem to be New Jersey and Louisiana. More than 130 public officials in New Jersey have been found guilty of federal corruption in the past seven years. And Louisiana more than holds its own. A congressman once described the state this way: "Half of Louisiana is under water, and the other half is under indictment."

And this article is not the only one that mentions New Jersey while discussing this scandal. It seems like our state has a lot in common with a series of corruption scandals are the country:

1. While the scandals cut across both parties, they Democrats are the current hands on winners for sheer numbers. In New Jersey, almost all of the 130 corruption convictions the past few years were Democrats.

2. The stupidity associated with this current crop of corrupt politicians is amazing. Selling a senate seat while under investigation for corruption with Tony Rezco(Blagojevich), Cash in the freezer (Jefferson)and tax fraud in at least two states and one foreign country followed by pay to play with donations(Rangel).

3. When the politician in trouble is a Republica, you can count on the media to mention the word Republican over and over again. When a Democrat gets caught, party is rarely if ever mentioned.

4. The media outrage is comical if not pathetic as it concerns the two parties. It wasn't that long ago that the media was in a frenzy over Foley's instant messages (he was never charged with any crime), Tom Delay's airplane rides and Larry Craig's foot tapping. But they can't seem to whip up any interest in William Jefferson's freezer bags of cash, Chris Dodd's sweetheart deal on his mortgage while ignoring his oversight responsibility for the mortgage mess, an army of Democrats running Fannie/Freddie into the ground.

Some day, it will be great when the people have the last word. I know it will happen at the Federal level because it always does. I have a lot less confidence that New Jersey voters will ever wake up and realize the corruption that they accept every day in this state is neither normal nor acceptable in a civilized society.

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Chris Christie has resigned. Democrats breath a sigh of relief.

From the Wall Street Journal:

Two down, one to go? New Jersey U.S. Attorney Christopher Christie has announced his resignation, effective Dec. 1, after nearly seven years at the office.

It's a sad day when the state of New Jersey loses the only adult fighting corruption on behalf of taxpayers. Christie has successfully prosecuted 130 public corruption cases without an acquittal. He will be missed as I guarantee you he will be replaced by a lightweight who will make the NJ Attorney General look like...well...another lightweight attorney. Sad but true.

Here is hoping that Christie will run for Governor.

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Corrupt Camden Pol Sloan El has a plan to head the Democratic Party

I was shocked to read today about a former Camden City Councilman who was sent to prison for corruption. What did he do(from AP)?

Former Camden City Councilman Ali Sloan El is out of prison after serving 15 months in federal prison.

Sloan El was sentenced to 20 months after he was convicted of taking $36,000 in bribes from an FBI agent two years ago.

The AP story goes on to say how the poor politician found his incarceration to be less than a country club:

Sloan El says the minimum security prison in South Carolina where he served his time had "terrible food, terrible library, terrible health care, no gym and a tyrant in charge."

I suppose we are all supposed to pity a politician who abuses the public trust and actually gets caught and has to pay the price. But this is New Jersey after all and Mr Sloan isn't going to let a felony corruption conviction hold him back. While he can't hold office, he can sure do something else for the Democratic Party:

Sloan El, who is barred from elected office, says he hopes to head Camden's Democratic Party within three years.

And you know what? I bet he actually does. And noone will think that anything is wrong with that.

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Wayne Bryant - The NJ Democrat Culture of Corruption Marches On

Former State Senator and power broker in South Jersey politics Wayne Bryant rested his defense in his corruption trial yesterday(From the Courierpostonline):

In closing arguments, the attorneys attacked the prosecution's case as an overzealous concoction, a blend of "innuendo, spin and interpretation," in the words of Bryant attorney Carl Poplar, emanating from what he called a "nasty investigation."

"They have accused, alleged and asserted," Poplar said of the prosecution team from the office of the U.S. attorney for New Jersey. "But they have not proven that a single crime was committed, much less that Wayne Bryant committed any."

The entire case apparently is about perception according to the defense. But across the river, there is another Democrat politician being prosecuted for corruption for the "perception" that he strong armed donors to maintain his shore house, give him gifts and prop up his lifestyle. For if you accept the "perception" defense, anything goes if you believe that you are "entitled" to receive taxpayer money for doing nothing.

Here are the facts of the case:

1. The Wayne Bryan strong armed the College of Medicine and Dentistry to give him a $35,000 a year job. In essence, he suggested that the Dean of the school Michael Gallagher that we would allowed him to pad his salary in return for the bribe of a job.
2. This would be a job he very rarely showed up for nor did he show any interest in the school when he was there.
3. He used his chairmanship of the Senator Budget committee to funnel in excess of 10 million dollars of taxpayer funds to the school during 2003 through 2006.
4. He engaged in a pension padding scheme to bolster his pension by having others do his legal work while he did nothing.

You can view the full indictment here.

The defense was simple. Everyone does it so it is okay.

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Good Govt NJ Style - Hide the Senator!

Senator Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ) has decided to come off his mountain and debate Dick Zimmer on November 1, 2008. The State of New Jersey is awash in government corruption scandals. The perpetrators in these scandals are almost exclusively Democrats. Lautenberg is allegedly one of the parties leaders and yet, he refuses to debate, speak or really appear in public that much.

At the heart of good government is the access citizens have to the process and the people who run it. Every citizen of this state has a right and a responsibility to hear from the candidates from elected dog catcher to governor to (yes, Mr Lautenberg) Senator. Yet, Frank Lautenberg refuses to even pretend that he has to act like he wants our votes. True, this state has a lot of people who will vote for this man because they are told to by their union or their boss. But there are also people in New Jersey that want to hear from the man.

But even then we are shortchanged. For example, in a recent Newsday story about King Frank agreeing to a late debate, there were plenty of quotes from Zimmer. But from Lautenberg-only a "spokesman". This was the same trend during the primary. Is this man even alive anymore? Can someone check his pulse? (I can't wait for a spokesman for Lautenberg to issue a press release that yes indeed, the senator is alive)

New Jersey citizens have a right to hear from you Mr Lautenberg.

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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.

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NJ spending is fixed by courts? So fix the courts.

In this article in the CourierPostOnline, Sharon Schulman discusses the budget options available to New Jersey legislators. Her point is that there are not too many options available to cut:

There is no magic bullet that allows a governor or legislature to give us property-tax relief without creating pain elsewhere. They are constrained by the nearly 75 percent of the state budget that is fixed and cannot be touched. So in a $30 billion budget, $21.5 billion is fixed and cannot be cut. The idea of cutting the state budget 10 percent really only means cutting 10 percent of $8.5 billion -- not from $30 billion. A brief look at the 75 percent of the state budget that is fixed shows us that 60 percent is mandated programs and results of court decisions. They include:

Medicaid

State labor contracts, including contractual commitments to provide health care and other benefits

Court-supervised child welfare reform

Court-ordered spending in Abbott districts

Debt service payments

Great points all. So here we go with suggestions.

1. Our supreme court in New Jersey is frankly a political patronage mill. These people are not exceptional jurists. They are partisan appointees. So what to do?

-Fight the Abbott ruling and have the legislature refuse to follow the courts. New York did and and was successful in getting the payments down and under control.

2. Medicaid rules do not specify all of what should be covered and by what amount. Re-evaluate the New Jersey exposure and cut it to the median of the 50 states expenditure per person.

3. Revisit state labor contracts. Situations change and with a state that is closing in on bankruptcy, everything should be on the table. If the unions won't meet halfway, maybe the citizens will see that only those of us in the private sector are expected to take a hit in bad times. And the result of that will be a taxpayer revolt.

4. Stop borrowing. While the current administration bemoans debt service, they decided to borrow another 3.9 BILLION dollars. Stop it.

These changes would immediatelry have an impact on the budget and the care and feeding of corrupt patronage feeder systems in New Jersey. If EVERYTHING is on the table, then changes can happen.

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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.

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Lehman and the mortgage crisis-Obama points finger...at himself.

We have all heard Barack Obama tell the world that he is a new kind of politician who "doesn't accept special interest money". That claim has always been dubious to me as fundraising statistics clearly show this to be untrue. But I figured that maybe he doesn't include unions and other organized labor donors in his definition of "special". But that apparently isn't the entire story. This morning, Barack Obama said this(from the AP):

Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama said Monday the upheaval on Wall Street was "the most serious financial crisis since the Great Depression" and blamed it on policies that he said Republican rival John McCain supports.

"This country can't afford another four years of this failed philosophy," Obama said after the shock-wave announcements that financial giant Lehman Brothers was filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy while titan Merrill Lynch was being bought by Bank of America for about $50 billion.

So, it's greedy CEO's, John McCain and Republicans that are the problem? Maybe not as this report from the Heritage Foundation makes perfectly clear:

In what some observers are calling a reshaping of Wall Street, two of the world’s largest investment banks, Merrill Lynch and Lehman Brothers, are set to disappear. Lehman has announced it will file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, and Merrill Lynch was bought by Bank of America. For all the complicated financial instruments and relationships involved in the current financial turmoil, the underlying cause is still relatively simple: the bursting of the housing bubble.

Ok. Step one is for Mr Obama to understand that the mortgage crisis caused this problem. But what drove the mortgage crisis?

When President Bill Clinton took office, Fannie and Freddie were viewed as “key” to Clinton’s plans to expand home ownership. The Washington Post reports: “The result was a period of unrestrained growth for the companies. … The companies increasingly were seen as the engine of the housing boom.” As the companies grew, conservatives repeatedly warned that their size posed a systemic risk to the financial system. As Sarah Palin put it, thanks to the implicit federal guarantee of their debt, Fannie and Freddie had become too big and too expensive to the taxpayers.

So, this clearly had double benefits for the Democrats. It drove economic expansion and allowed politicians to say more people owned homes (whether or not they could afford them is a different story). But how did this problem keep brewing for so long?

But Fannie and Freddie pushed back hard, turning to friends on the left for protection. Former Walter Mondale and Barack Obama campaign adviser James Johnson led a fierce lobbying campaign to fight reform of Freddie and Fannie. Clinton administration OMB director Franklin Raines told investors when he was Fannie Mae CEO in 1999: “We manage our political risk with the same intensity that we manage our credit and interest rate risks.” Fannie and Freddie’s lobbying power over the left continues to be strong to this day. According to the Center for Responsive Politics, the top three recipients of campaign donations from Freddie and Fannie’s PACs and employees are all Democrats. From 1989 through today, Sen. Chris Dodd received $165,400, Barack Obama $126,349, and John Kerry $111,000. The Washington Post concludes: “Blessed with the advantages of a government agency and a private company at the same time, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac used their windfall profits to co-opt the politicians who were supposed to control them.”

Barack Obama should shut up for two reasons and avoid sticking his foot into his mouth on this topic. The first reason is that he and his fellow Democrats have their hands deep in this mess. As a matter of fact, to date the one person who has had to accept government settlement terms to avoid being convicted of defrauding investors is Franklin Raines (Clinton's former White House Budget Director). The second reason Obama should refrain is that to keep talking is to show what a complete hypocrite he is on the special interest issue. It took Chris Dodd 20 years to get his share of the loot. Obama almost caught up in three. It is Obama himself whose hands are not just dirty, they are filthy. McCain for the record received less than 1/6th the amount Obama did from this quasi-government mortgage and lobbying entity.

Again, who is at fault here?

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NJ Democrats Missed Filing Deadline - But don't worry.

From this article in Politicker:

Democrats not concerned they missed deadline to pick Obama electors

That was the headline. The heart of the matter is this:

The New Jersey Democratic State Committee failed to hold a meeting to formally select its electors for Barack Obama, but is still on track to meet the Division of Elections filing deadline of Sept. 12.

State law requires political parties to hold a meeting to nominate electors within seven days of its national convention. The parties then have an additional week to file electors' names with the Division of Elections.

Democratic Committee Executive Director Rob Angelo said the elector certification process, generally completed at the committee meeting, is now underway.

It is now September 13, 2008. They have officially missed the deadline. Of course, you don't have to worry about it because this is New Jersey. This is the state that if a candidate is losing and is a Democrat, they can swap another candidate in their place against all precedent and election law. All because the state is corrupt and the Supreme Court in this state is political.

I am shocked that the Democrats in the state haven't made it law that all citizens are required to vote for Barack Obama. I am sure they thought about it.

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Lautenberg up in polls and NJ residents just don't get it!

From this article in Newsday:

A new poll shows incumbent U.S. Sen. Frank Lautenberg enjoys a comfortable lead over Republican challenger Dick Zimmer heading into the fall election season.

The Fairleigh Dickinson-PublicMind poll has Lautenberg up by 11 percent, with the low-key Zimmer still struggling to get his name known to the electorate.

Here is what I don't get:

1. Lautenberg has frankly presided over the largest decrease in net return of federal taxpayer dollars to NJ residents in history.

No one cares.

2. Lautenberg is one of the leaders of the Democrat party that has had more that 100 of its elected officials convicted of public corruption in the last four years.

No one cares.

3. NJ keep debating gun rights and abortion in our state elections, neither of which matters in the live of many NJ residents. Issues that do matter like taxes, standard of living, education and government spending never get discussed.

No one cares.

4. NJ residents pay more taxes that any other state.

No one cares.

5. NJ has experienced the largest outflow of business and people of any state in the country EXCEPT Michigan in the past four years.

No one cares.

6. The Democratic legislature is only capable of spending more of residents money and enacting meaningless legislation (slavery apology).

No one cares.

7. Both Democrat and Republican apologists for the status quo have no ideas, no answers, no ethics and no action plan to change anything.

And no one cares.

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NJ Democrat's Culture of Corruption Continues

From the Associated Press:

Ex-NJ politician headed to trial on fraud charges
By GEOFF MULVIHILL – 47 minutes ago

MOUNT LAUREL, N.J. (AP) — A former New Jersey lawmaker with a national reputation for pushing welfare reform is facing charges of using his political clout to land no-work government jobs as a way to boost his income and increase his pension benefits — from $28,000 a year to $81,000.

Wayne R. Bryant is also accused of steering state money to one of his employers, the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey. The Democrat could face several years in prison if convicted on all counts.

So another Democrat is to go to jail for public corruption. When will the citizens in this state finally wake up and realize that the money this man ripped off came right out of their state taxes and property taxes. Wake up New Jersey!

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Lautenberg - Let them eat cake!

From this article in Newsday:

Sen. Frank Lautenberg is facing some criticism over some comments he made to ABC World News about parties hosted by lobbyists.

In Denver for this week's Democratic National Convention, Lautenberg told ABC News' Brian Ross "with a smile" that it is his "duty" to attend the parties.

"Of course, you must visit, make sure that the food they serve is OK, that it passes the taste test and the liquor is the right vintage," Lautenberg said.

Is it not bad enough the we have a constant wave of Democrat politicians in this state being investigated, indicted and going to jail for influence related criminality? Now we are supposed to laugh off comments made by a Senator that owes his seat to another ethically challenged Senator (remember, NJ politicians don't retire, they go to jail).

Lautenberg does not serve the people in this state. He serves himself. Just as he told ABC.

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NJ Democrats Culture of Corruption Continues

From this article in today's Trentonian:

Federal agents raided the law office of one of North Jersey's most powerful Democrats Thursday, part of their continuing investigation into the dealings of the political powerbroker, Joseph Ferriero, and party lawyer Dennis Oury.

The Record of Hackensack reported that 18 boxes of documents and computer hard drivers were seized.

The inquiry is said to focus on Government Grants Consulting, a consulting firm where the two men were partners. The now-defunct firm held contracts with local governments in North Jersey.

Another day, another Federal raid. The sad thing is that this will probably result in another Federal indictment and conviction. And the voters in New Jersey will continue to do nothing about it. And that is mainly because they will never have the opportunity to vote on candidates that will change anything.

Meanwhile, Assembly Republican leader Alex DeCroce questioned Gov. Jon Corzine's leadership on political corruption issues.

"If Jon Corzine is truly committed to cleaning up New Jersey, he could start by using his clout within the Democrat Party to stamp out the appearance of corruption within the party's leadership."

Neither Ferriero nor Oury have been charged with any crime.

As the head of Democratic politics in the state's most populous county, Ferriero has significant influence. Many officials owe their election to the party's financial backing.

His lawyer said Ferriero still planned on going to Denver for the convention.

Asked about Ferriero's role in Denver, Corzine defended the party boss' right to attend.

"I believe in Constitutional due process, and there is a fundamental issue of him being elected a delegate," Corzine said during a meeting with reporters Friday.

And there you go. Corzine himself is supporting another Democrat who is going down to corruption charges. Afterall, he is a superdelegate. Remember from the primaries what that is, a non-duly elected party boss designee. Corzine is wrong. He wasn't elected by the people at all, he was elected by party insiders. And he is corrupt and corrupts every politician to who he directs funds.

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NJ Corruption - Soprano State Update

For those of you who went out and purchased The Soprano State by Ingle and McClure, you will be pleased to know that their reporting doesn't stop on the last page of the book. They have continued keeping notes on the pathetic corruption of New Jersey's politicians at all levels of government. Many of their topics have appeared here on NJ Tax Revolution when they happened but there is a good summary page here.

If you haven't yet read the book, do it. It is well worth your time and if enough of us do it, we may fix this state yet.

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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.

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Menendez doesn't believe in checking on illegals!

From the Corner on the National Review:

Making an Offer We Can't Refuse [Mark Krikorian]

New Jersey's junior Democratic wiseguy, Sen. Bob Menendez, has put a hold on legislation to re-authorize the E-Verify program, which enables employers to determine whether new hires are legal. He's holding this successful enforcement effort hostage to increased guestworker visas. Here's what a reader sent me this week about the value of the E-Verify program to his firm:
I work for a temporary staffing firm that uses E-verify on every candidate that comes through the door. It has helped out tremendously in screening out people who are not legal to work in the US. It is easy to use and instant in its results. Whenever we do have someone come through that E-Verify says needs to go to DHS or SSA those people 9 out of 10 times do not return because they know that they have been caught. We put up signs that state that we use E-Verify on every candidate and that has had a dramatic effect on our fail rate. When the illegal folks see it they just turn around and walk out the door. It has been a very good program for us.

I recently sent a correspondence to Senator Menendez office regarding energy policy. I received both email and snail mail correspondence telling me that while he respected my position he already had his own and would not be entertaining any more ideas that weren't his. I would bet that more than 70 percent of New Jersey voters would have agreed with me in regard to the energy issue and gas prices. And I GUARANTEE you that more that 80 percent of legal New Jersey voters would disagree with Senator Menendez opposition to the simple checking of illegals when they apply for jobs.

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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.

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Daily Record Letter - Little hope for this corrupt state

Every so often you see something that speaks completely for itself. The following is a letter to the editor of the Daily Record that really sums up the state of things in New Jersey. It is printed in its entirety.

To the editor:

Wednesday's Daily Record contained what was practically an inventory list of what's going wrong in New Jersey. In a single day, the following items appeared:

• The state, already up to its eyeballs in debt, borrows more money for school construction after previously running through billions for the same purpose without achieving the stated goals of that funding. Much of that money disappeared, unaccounted for.

• With great fanfare, Gov. Jon Corzine signs legislation to expand state level government-funded health insurance coverage. The fact that Jersey is broke seems of no consideration.

• Corzine expresses his desire to further expand government-funded health insurance to achieve universal health insurance. Again, the fact that Jersey is deeply in debt seems of no consequence to him or his party.

• Several hundred jobs left New Jersey from the pharmaceutical industry, supposedly a crucial employment sector for the state.

Days like that leave little hope for a turnaround in this mismanaged, corrupt state.

John Rice

Morristown

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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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More Bribery in Irvington

It makes me sick to my stomach. Irvington is an economically disadvantaged area. Do the so-called leaders of that community really have to suck more money from it?

Another former Irvington Mayor is facing bribery charges. Michael Steele is accused of accepting at least $120,000 in kickbacks for rigging school district contracts while he was the business administrator for the Irvington Board of Ed....Steele's successor, Sara Bost was indicted in 2002 on accepting 85-hundred dollars in bribes. She later pleaded guilty to a lesser charge.

I hope he doesn't fare as well as Bost. I hope they throw the book at him so hard his teeth break.

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Penalty for Receiving Bribes: Now You Can Only Single-Dip

It's nice to know that crime doesn't pay...

Assemblyman Mims Hackett says he will resign his seat in the New Jersey State Assembly and will withdraw his bid for re-election to a fourth term. His announcement comes two days after his arrest in bribery charges, and one day after state Democratic leaders asked him to step down.

He will remain as the Mayor of Orange.

...more than one salary at a time.

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New Jersey - The Corruption State

Newsday today reports on New Jersey's corrupt political culture and the massive number of indictments and convictions of public offials in the past few years:

Since 2002, 128 public employees in New Jersey have been convicted on federal corruption charges. About a third of those were elected officials, including state lawmakers, mayors and town council members.

Those numbers back up New Jersey's reputation as a corruption hotbed, fueled by TV shows like "The Sopranos." Experts say the state's labyrinth of local boards, commissions and councils has created fiefdoms where fraud and abuse flourish.

This amounts to a lot of work the federal government to prosecute. What strikes me however is the complete lack of local and state prosecution of corruption. With the number of both local and state police jurisdictions around the state, it seems that if public corruption is being ignored that our entire justice system in NJ is only serving to provide traffic enforement and to protect citizens from the recidivist drug and criminal culture in our cities.

New Jersey's federal corruption arrests in 2007 included:

_ Six former mayors, including James, who was convicted of steering cut-rate city land to a one-time mistress.

_ Assemblymen Alfred Steele and Mims Hackett, Jr., charged with trading public influence for bribes. Steele pleaded guilty in October. Hackett has pleaded not guilty.

_ State Sen. Wayne Bryant, charged with steering millions to a medical school in exchange for a no-work job worth tens of thousands of dollars every year. He has pleaded not guilty.

_ Five Pleasantville school board members convicted of steering public contracts in return for bribes.

Of New Jersey's 150 public employees facing federal corruption charges since 2002, 49 held elected office, including 18 mayors, 15 councilmen and six state lawmakers. All but 20 defendants pending trial were convicted by plea or by jury. Two officials charged in 2005 died before they were tried, according to an AP analysis of U.S. attorney arrest announcements.

Federal. Always Federal.

Read the entire article here.

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Is This Guy Getting a Pension?

Read about this guy first. Note this:

Nanni retired from the Port Authority after 20 years of service. As part of his sentence he will forfeit hold any future public office in New Jersey.

It only mentions that he's forfeiting future public office. What about his pension? Are we taxpayers still paying for this thug's living expenses?

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Where does the average citizen sign up for a few state jobs?

The Asbury Park Press has started a multi-part series on the practice in New Jersey of politicians and patronage employees double dipping (having more than one state job, a practice that is illegal in most state including New York). In an article entitled More Hold Multiple Jobs in the State, the paper outlines the effect of this practice:

The ranks of highly paid double dippers — government employees with two or more public jobs that paid more than $100,000 together — swelled by 20 percent last year, despite calls to end the practice, Gannett New Jersey has found.

A review of pension enrollment data found that:

A total of 853 highly paid double dippers were in the state's largest public employee retirement fund last year, an increase of 20 percent from 2006 to 2007.

Those same multiple-job holders had a collective salary of $107.8 million, also up 20 percent from 2006. They held an average of 2.8 jobs each and had an average pay of $126,000 in 2007. All totaled, there were 6,271 multiple-job holders — including one woman with 12 jobs — pulling down $354 million in salaries.

This practice has long been ethically suspect as these are not positions that are advertised and open to any applicant around the state. These jobs are pure patronage and those who held multiple positions are actively gaming a flawed system as insiders.

Does this practice make you angry? You will get angrier if you follow the information provided by the paper below:

To view salaries for all employees, and a searchable list of multiple-job holders, visit www.DataUniverse.com and click on "What's New." DataUniverse is the Asbury Park Press' public records site on the Web.

Gannett New Jersey has found numerous examples over the years of independent contractors, mostly lawyers, receiving far better government pension benefits than full-time government employees. By cobbling together multiple part-time posts, some multiple-job holders can amass an annual public salary that eclipses the amount New Jersey governors are entitled to under state law.

And with higher salaries come higher pension payments upon retirement

Go to the site and follow the NJ Employee link. Then select the "multiple job holders" report. And then feel the steam come out of your ears....

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You can't make this up - Rebates no but Free Healthcare YES

In a stunning example of institutional incompetence, a state audit panel discovered that the administrators of subsidized healthcare in New Jersey didn't bother to do their job. From Kaisernetwork.org:

NJ FamilyCare, a subsidized health program in New Jersey, did not verify eligibility for all of the program's beneficiaries, and more than 873 people with annual gross incomes more than $85,000 received benefits through the program, according to a report by State Auditor Richard Fair, the Bergen Record reports. Uninsured children and parents in families with annual incomes below 350% of the federal poverty level are eligible for the program. According to the three-year audit, state Department of Health and Senior Services officials sought to check applicants against the state's wage, disability and unemployment records to verify income, but the records did not have data on self-employment and rentals, interest or dividends.

So just to put this in perspective. If one of these individuals applied for the Federal Economic Stimulus funds, they would not receive it as they make too much money. But in the state of New Jersey, they can receive free healthcare? We wonder why the state is broke and Democrats want to raise taxes?

The real question, is who will be help responsible. I bet noone.

Read it all here if you can stomach it.

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Farmers Expose Corzine's Fake Budget Cuts.

In an NJHerald.com article yesterday, it seems clear that farmers have figured out the scam that Corzine is perpetuating in regard to the budget.

One squealing piglet wore a T-shirt Tuesday that delivered their message succinctly: "Cut the Pork, Not the Department of Agriculture."

Angered by the governor's proposal to eliminate the popular department, more than 1,000 farmers, nursery operators and supporters — many riding tractors or hauling landscaping equipment — rallied in front of the state Capitol.

While the protest was not short for symbolism, it represented an opportunity to expose Corzine's plans for what they really represent.

Sen. Steve Oroho, R-24, said he found it "appalling" that Corzine wants to eliminate the Department of Agriculture while continuing to pay for attorneys to analyze other parts of his budget proposals. While cutting the department would save about $500,000, Oroho said in a statement that a "politically connected" law firm was paid about $9 million to study Corzine's proposal to raise fees on New Jersey toll roads.

So, in case we are aren't getting it. Corzine eliminates a very small department to save allegedly 4 million. Of course the 4 million is not the savings as it represents the entire budget of the department whose mission will still need to be accomplished. The net savings is likely a half a million dollars.

At the same time, Corzine is paying an outside law firm 9 million taxpayer dollars to study ways to extract more taxpayer dollars via his toll tax plan. Corzine refuses to address real money saving efforts and instead keeps picking fights with small constituencies to make press about how he has tried to do his job in cutting spending but can't get it done. It is politically cynical. If he wants a fight, he should go after the teachers unions and the public employee unions which are the cause of our bloated state budget. But he doesn't have the guts for that. How could he?

He is literally in bed with the unions. Or was.

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Corzine - All out of big ideas. AG Cut is ALL PR and means nothing

In the AP today there was an article entitled NJ Taking Garden out of Garden State. The article is about Governor Corzine eliminating the Agricultural department in an attempt to save money to cover the state budget deficit. Corzine has used this "departmental elimination" as a flag to show he is standing up for reduced government. However, apparently not many people are reading the fine print on this one:

His administration contends the move would save $4 million by having the environmental protection and health departments take over the agriculture department's functions.

Those savings would hardly put a dent in the state's $33 billion budget and "would send the worst kind of signal," said Mary Jo Herbert of the Hopewell Heritage Farm.

"I am a third-generation farmer and I, perhaps naively, believed that our state government was committed to preserving our farming heritage," she said.

I understand that we have to make hard decisions and sometimes innocent people get hurt in the process. I also understand now that this move by the Governor is a BIG JOKE. His 4 million dollar savings is laughable and the Governor knows it. This Governor has absolutely no courage to do anything or stand up for anything that doesn't soak the voters. He is afraid of the public employee unions and that only leaves him room to pick on the under-represented:

1. The Taxpayer(defined as people who actually pay taxes) who has no representative in Trenton (the legislature is representative of special interests and political bosses not the voter)
2. The Farmer
3. The Small Town
4. The Traveller either from NJ or other states
5. The Business Community

Here's a big idea for you Mr. Corzine. Eliminate the no contribution pension fund for state employees (other than public safety)and replace it with a 401k. That would put state workers on par with the average taxpayer. And make is retroactive. That way the public employee would then be subject to the same rules as everyone else in this state. But you are afraid. Afraid that state workers and political patronage employees would cry foul over their poor treatment. Only in New Jersey is the is the business life of the average taxpayer considered cruel and unusual punishment.

Corzine. All big ideas when thinking of new taxes. But microscopic when cutting spending.

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NJ's AG - Prosecute the internet instead of Corruption!

The Star Ledger's Paul Mulshine piece today on NJ AG Anne Milgram:

I'm talking about state Attorney General Anne Milgram. With her latest maneuver, Milgram seems determined to become the next Eliot Spitzer.

Hold on. Don't take the kids away. We aren't going there. But the issue Mulshine refers to is Spitzer's penchant for grandstanding.

Milgram could have a wonderful career corralling corruption within six blocks of her office.

But instead of cleaning up Trenton, Milgram is going to clean up the Internet. She recently announced that her office is going after a California-based gossip website under the consumer fraud statute. That won her praise all around when newspapers reported some of the nasty gossip from the site's section concerning Princeton University, the sole New Jersey college represented.

New Jersey Attorney's General are famous for their ability to NOT prosecute anyone. Why? Most people in New Jersey do not even realize that their Attorney General is not elected. They are a political appointee. And as such, they owe their allegiance not to the people but to the political machine that was either in power or traded influence to get the slot.

Someone please tell Milgram to set her sights much closer to home. Read the entire article here.

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