Christie has Democrats hopping mad!

It was very interesting this week to see the reaction of Governor Chris Christie's executive actions to get the state's fiscal situation under control. In case you missed it and only read the newspapers, here is the action the Governor took this week (from the Office of the Governor, NJ):

Withholding $475 million in local school aid for the balance of the fiscal year, with the amount of individual aid reductions tied to surpluses in the school districts. The withheld aid will not result in any reduction in approved school spending this year.

• A $62.1 million reduction in aid to county and senior public colleges and universities, also tied to existing surpluses.

• A $12.6 million reduction in hospital Charity Care, representing a 4.2 percent reduction.

• Capture of $158 million in unexpended balances from the Board of Public Utilities‐administered Clean Energy Fund.

• Capture of $13.8 million in surplus balance from the Homestead Rebate program.

• Take a balance of $15.9 million in unused grant money remaining due to reduced service
requirements in the Division of Youth and Family Services. Delayed programs and capital projects total more than $115 million. There was no reduction in municipal aid.

Other programs that sounded good in theory but failed in practice are being scrapped and their balances used in the budget solutions. InvestNJ was designed to spur job growth by giving out tens of millions of dollars to businesses at a rate of $3,000 per new hire. However, it experienced only limited success. Consequently, $57.9 million in InvestNJ funds will be used in the budget solutions.

Funding for the Office of the Public Advocate is being discontinued, and its present balance of approximately $600,000 will be used in the budget solutions. Necessary functions of the Public Advocate will be consolidated into other parts of state government.
Where possible, the Administration focused first on programs where there would not be
any negative effect on programs. That analysis resulted in $454 million in savings or areas of over funding. The targeting of waste and abuse resulted in approximately $70 million in savings.

This is just the beginning – a down payment – on the Administration’s plan to go deeper in finding wasteful spending in the new fiscal year.

After years of watching former Governor Corzine tell us he "didn't take this job to be scrooge", it was refreshing to see an adult approach to governing the state. And if you wondered if these changes are serious, all you need to do it watch the reaction from the Democrats who caused this mess:

NJ Democrats take aim at Gov. Christie's cuts to NJ Transit, school funding
The Star-Ledger - NJ.com

Democrats critical of Christie's budget
Philadelphia Inquirer

NJ Gov. Christie's state of fiscal emergency decree brings fury from Democrats
NJ.com (blog)

Apparently Governor Christie is stirring up a bees nest. And he is just getting started. Keep it up Governor.

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A Leadership idea for Obama - Fix the Current Stimulus!

Scott Rasmussen released numbers today that showed for the first time people who strongly disapprove of Obama over strongly approve at an 8 percent (negative) advantage. For some time Obama has been happy to take advantage of bad times to ram legislation through in the hope that the economy would improve on its own and his "revolutionary" changes would transform American into his brave new ideal. But the facts on the ground are working against him and his stimulus (while never read by a single congressman) has proven to be completely un-stimulating.

So, instead of a second stimulus, he would be far better off rebuilding the current stimulus. Here is how he could pull it off:

1. Rescind every spending item outside the next 12 months.
2. Re-evaluate all of the stimulus proposals ignore in round one and convene a bipartisan "executive panel" to do it-not party hacks on either side. Folks like Warren Buffet could really add value here.
3. Submit a set of proposals that could be discussed and evaluated with proper review in the congress.
4. Engage in constructive debate (not "I won" but "I want to fix it")
5. Create a bill that the country has confidence in and both parties could rally around.

While this would not be popular with either the hard left of the hard right, it would be VERY popular with an electorate that it turning strongly against the President. And it would also allow him to actually have the confidence of the people when presenting his ideas for health care and other programs which will not only have bipartisan support but likely no support outside of hard core liberals and toadies. And it would seperate him from his Democratic party approval boat anchors Pelosi and Reid (about 70 percent of the country would agree that these two deserve a place under the front wheel of the bus).

Just an idea. He won't do it. But if he was really the transformational LEADER he claims to be, he would.

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House Democrats want higher taxes for healthcare. Big shocker.

The word is that House Democrats will be proposing higher taxes on "high" wage earners to pay for their healthcare proposals. From Bloomberg:

Two people familiar with closed-door talks by committee Democrats said a House bill probably will include a surtax on incomes exceeding $250,000, as Congress seeks ways to pay for changes to a health-care system that accounts for almost 18 percent of the U.S. economy. By targeting wealthier Americans, a surtax may hold more appeal for House Democrats than a Senate proposal to tax some employer-provided health benefits.

“The surtax is obviously more attractive to Democrats in the House because it’s more progressive, which they find attractive in and of itself,” said Paul Van de Water, a senior fellow at the Washington-based Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a research group focused on policies affecting low- and moderate-income families.

The real joke here is that Democrats and President Obama keep proposing taxes on the "rich guy". And for every one of these proposals, the "righ guy" keeps changing. I am willing to guarantee that this will eventually translate into a tax across the board for all productive members of society.

But the bigger problem is that Democrats said they were going to pay for the stimulus by taxing "rich people". Then they were going to pay for their irresponsible budget by taxing "rich people". Then they were targeting "rich people" for the carbon tax. It seems to me that they have used this tactic to "pay for" every spending increase they have proposed.

Time to wake up America. We cannot afford another House spending proposal.

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NJ Senators just plain batty!

I can't help but want to scream when I see an article like this one:

N.J. legislators join push for funding to aid ailing bats
Effort aims to understand deadly syndrome
Wednesday, May 06, 2009
BY BRIAN T. MURRAY
Star-Ledger Staff
Federal lawmakers are seeking emergency funds from the U.S. Department of Interior to help scientists in the Northeast investigate "white-nose syndrome," a phenomenon blamed for the deaths of more than 1 million bats over the past two winters.

U.S. Sens. Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.) and Robert Menendez (D-N.J.), along with 23 lawmakers from a dozen other states, signed a letter written yesterday by Vermont's congressional delegation to Interior Secretary Ken Salazar asking for his support. Citing the importance bats play in the North American ecosystem, including their consumption of insects, the letter states that white-nose syndrome "has profound public health, environmental and economic implications."

It isn't that I am anti-bat. Frankly, I have not noticed any difference in the number of bats swooping out of the trees behind my house at night. Clearly that is not a scientific argument. What galls me is that our senators should have something better to do.

One thing is clear. Senator Lautenberg and Senator Menendez vote complete lock step in line with whatever Harry Reid tells them to vote for. There is no independence. There is no real work involved with going along. And what is the evidence?

They are more worried about bats than they are about New Jersey taxpayers. Maybe they have more affinity for the former than the latter.

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Trenton Tea Party Pics!

From citizen reporter Nicole:

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Obama - The Earmark King!

During the campaign last year, candidate Obama insisted that the would not sign earmark loaded legislation if it came across his desk. He promised hope. And he promised change. From the AP:

President Barack Obama plans to sign a massive spending bill to keep the federal government running, but he is cracking down on lawmakers' penchant for stuffing such legislation with billions of dollars in pet projects.

Apparently, the 8,600 earmarks(Taxpayers for Common Sense) in the budget bill are not really earmarks. Just as the trillion dollars of pork in the stimulus was not earmarks either. But wait, the Obama team has a new spin(from Yahoo):

Orszag said: "We want to just move on. Let's get this bill done, get it into law and move forward."

Said Emanuel: "That's last year's business."

Let's examine this. Allegedly, voters picked change. The only change in this budget is that former President Bush would not sign it. So the Democrat congress held it over until President Obama took office. And he signed. Earmarks and all.

Change you can believe in.

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Tax Tea Party Movement Growing!

(photo from Instapundit)

I have avoided writing on this as many other bloggers have been taking the ball on organizing that advertising Tax Tea Parties all over the countrty. There have been significant events in Kansas, Denver, Seattle, Chicago and DC in the past two weeks. It has been enjoyable to watch but it really seems to be building.

From Michelle Malkin:

Seattle on Monday. Denver on Tuesday. Mesa AZ on Wednesday. Overland Park, Kansas today. What a week, huh? We got the anti-stimulus, anti-entitlement protest ball rolling — and now the movement, spurred further by CNBC host Rick Santelli’s call for a “Chicago Tea Party,” is really taking off.

David Hogberg at Investor’s Business Daily has a nice piece out today spotlighting the growing taxpayer revolt the rest of the MSM won’t cover. He interviewed our registered commenters Liberty Belle Keli Carender, who spearheaded the Seattle anti-pork protest, and HuskerGirl Amanda Grosserode, who organized today’s anti-stimulus demonstration against Democrat Rep. Dennis Moore in Overland Park, KS.

Read the entire post by Michelle here. If this thought has crossed your mind, you will not be disappointed following these links. I would also recommend Instapundit's coverage of some of these events including some awesome pics!

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When will Obama stop bad mouthing the economy?

It was just a week ago that Barack Obama stood up and told the country that unless the economic stimulus package was passed last Friday, doom and gloom would occur. He proceeded to set up an environment where it was physically impossible to read the entire disasterous pork bill. Well, the bill passed and Barack Obama signed it....4 days later. And the economy tanked again.

I am starting to wonder at what point Obama will be forced to stop his strategy of declaring everything a disaster so he can continue to push through policies in this country that would NEVER be passed when examine in the light of day. We now finish the week much worse than when we started it. And Obama wants another 1 trillion for banks and also wants to bail out people who cannot afford their mortgages.

The media love to compare this president to Lincoln, Roosevelt and JFK. Why is that I keep thinking that he is more of Millard Filmore than not.

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Earmarks vs Porkulus

Barack Obama and congressional Democrats keep touting a canard that this wonderful stimulus bill they are ramming through is "completely free of earmarks". Let's examine that statement. The definition of an Earmark is as follows (from Wikipedia):

In US politics an earmark is a congressional provision that directs approved funds to be spent on specific projects or that directs specific exemptions from taxes or mandated fees.

Earmarks can be found both in legislation (also called "Hard earmarks" or "Hardmarks") and in the text of Congressional committee reports (also called "Soft earmarks" or "Softmarks"). Hard earmarks are binding and have the effect of law, while soft earmarks do not have the effect of law but by custom are acted on as if they were binding.[1] Typically, a legislator seeks to insert earmarks that direct a specified amount of money to a particular organization or project in his/her home state or district.

So if we parse the words, to be an earmark it should:

a. the direction of funds in a bill
b. be inserted by a senator or member of congress
c. to benefit their states or districts financially

I have reviewed the drafts of pieces of this legislation and the summaries. I would estimate that more than half of this entire bill is an earmark. Just because the spending size is so large that multiple senators and members of congress are taking home the loot, doesn't negate it fact that it is for an earmark.

Some favorites rumored to be in the final legislation:

- LA to Vegas train (Reid)
- $30 million dollars in wetlands preservation for San Fran (Pelosi)
- $200 million dollar power plan in IL (Obama)
- Major funds for building govt building projects in Maryland, Virginia and Georgia
- 80 billion for outright payments for state who have through their out of control spending are in financial trouble (see California, New York, Michigan and New Jersey)
- 6.5 billion for National Institute of Health as a buyout for Republic Arlen Specter


If it looks like an earmark, costs like an earmark, is hidden into legislation like and earmark with no attribution....it's an earmark.

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Liveblogging Obama talk at Democrat retreat

Obama starts with two jokes in questionable taste:
- Thanks for giving me a reason to waste fuel on Air Force One
- Rahm Emmanuel teaches underpriveledged profanity in his spare time

Then he gets serious.

His initial remarks suggest that the stimulus plan is to help the downtrodden.
Has mentioned seriousness but not anything yet about stimulus.

Michelle thinks he is imperfect.

He is now rousing the troops by acting like all Republican ideas are about tax cuts. He isn't mentioning the 600 billion dollars of pure waste.

We aren't supposed to get bogged down. Don't listen to cable chatter. I am sure he doesn't mean MSNBC.

Leadership as the test of our times. Sounds like PAP to me. Liberals all stand up.

We must move swiftly to enact this massive spending bill. He is really spending a lot of political capital on one of the most indefensivable bills of all time.

He has not mentioned one thing that has concrete validity. He is repeating that magnitude means - quickly - if we don't - it will get worse - Democrats are apparently working around the clock. But still no concrete suggestions or any meat.

Scale and scope are right! What the heck does that mean?

Now he is blaming Bush for the National Debt today. Good news, right after this bill the national debt will be at least 5 times what it is right now. Why would he set himself up this way?

Best minds tell us to spend this money. But apparently those minds don't seem to agree.

No earmarks. You don't need them. The entire bill is an earmark.

This is a spending bill. He admitted it. I am sorry. His arrogant attitude has now turned me off. I have now had enough of you Mr President. You have no class and you are the most partisan president and it now clear.

Good luck to you.

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Democrat stimulus package or massive pork bill? You decide-Part 1

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Bill of 2009 is perhaps the most appalling piece of proposed legislation I have ever seen. The stated purpose of the bill is to jumpstart the economy and create jobs. The bill itself claims that there are no earmarks in this bill. That is one of the most comical claims I have seen as this entire bill is an earmark that will be shoved down the throat of taxpayers with little or no debate.

Under the guise of providing help to the economy, the democrats are proposing a spending bill that right up front promises the following:

The package contains targeted efforts in:
• Clean, Efficient, American Energy
• Transforming our Economy with Science and Technology
• Modernizing Roads, Bridges, Transit and Waterways
• Education for the 21st Century
• Tax Cuts to Make Work Pay and Create Jobs
• Lowering Healthcare Costs
• Helping Workers Hurt by the Economy
• Saving Public Sector Jobs and Protect Vital Services

In the first part of this series, let's examine each of these main points and their description to see what is really going on with this bill.

Clean, Efficient, American Energy: To put people back to work today and reduce our dependence on foreign oil tomorrow, we will strengthen efforts directed at doubling renewable energy production and renovate public buildings to make them more energy efficient.
• $32 billion to transform the nation’s energy transmission, distribution, and production systems by allowing for a smarter and better grid and focusing investment in renewable technology.
• $16 billion to repair public housing and make key energy efficiency retrofits.
• $6 billion to weatherize modest-income homes.

Half of this is alleged investment in infrastructure. For any investment in infrastructure to be considered able to produce a "stimulus" effect, it must be able to add money or jobs to the economy immediately. The transformation of the energy grid fails miserably under those terms. Anyone who has ever tried to even consider upgrading the pathetic energy infrastructure in New York knows that the minute you mention it, you are setting yourself up for years of lawsuits from environmental, neighborhood and civil rights groups. Even if this money is to go to giant windmills (no-where near the Kennedy estate please), it would take years for that money to make it into the economy.

The rest of this section is money that will go down the money pit of HUD. Because you see, the only place to distribute this money is via Housing and Urban Development, long a wasting place of billions of your tax dollars. I do not know of a single "public housing" project that I would consider truly successful mainly due to the fact that those who live in them do not consider themselves responsible for the care and upkeep of their own homes. This is welfare pure and simple. And expensive welfare at that.

Transform our Economy with Science and Technology: We need to put scientists to work looking for the next great discovery, creating jobs in cutting-edge-technologies, and making smart investments that will help businesses in every community succeed in a global economy. For every dollar invested in broadband the economy sees a ten-fold return on that investment.
•$10 billion for science facilities, research, and instrumentation.
•$6 billion to expand broadband internet access so businesses in rural and other underserved areas can link up to the global economy.

Ten billion dollars on research. For what? And how will this impact the economy any time soon? Science is by its very nature long term. This will have zero impact and is likely just liberal code for publicly funded stem cell research. The other 6 million for broadband is a joke. I don't know where these politicians are living but the public sector has expanded broadband just fine on its own. This is just a waste of 6 billion dollars and even though one more cow in Nebraska may be able to watch YouTube, I fail to see the stimulative impact.

Modernize Roads, Bridges, Transit and Waterways: To build a 21st century economy, we must engage contractors across the nation to create jobs rebuilding our crumbling roads, and bridges, modernize public buildings, and put people to work cleaning our air, water and land.
•$30 billion for highway construction;
•$31 billion to modernize federal and other public infrastructure with investments that lead to long term energy cost savings;
•$19 billion for clean water, flood control, and environmental restoration investments;
•$10 billion for transit and rail to reduce traffic congestion and gas consumption.

At least this part of the bill has been debated somewhat in light of day. The biggest issue here is that construction projects take too long to get going to help the economy. While the claim of "shovel ready" projects may have an impact, no one seems to ask why these "shovel ready" projects were not funded and build before under previous transportation bills. It is likely because in the list of state priorities, they were way down. I recently had a three year construction project near my house that netted an extra lane entering the turnpike (despite no traffic jams prior to the construction), a jub handle which now causes traffic jams and a drainage pond that wouldn't have been necessary had the skipped the project altogether. Oh, and it cost me about $2,000 in suspension work to my vehicle due to the ongoing mess and poor road conditions. Can you say "construction union payback"?

Education for the 21st Century: To enable more children to learn in 21st century classrooms, labs, and libraries to help our kids compete with any worker in the world, this package provides:
•$41 billion to local school districts through Title I ($13 billion), IDEA ($13 billion), a new School Modernization and Repair Program ($14 billion), and the Education Technology program ($1 billion).
•$79 billion in state fiscal relief to prevent cutbacks to key services, including $39 billion to local school districts and public colleges and universities distributed through existing state and federal formulas, $15 billion to states as bonus grants as a reward for meeting key performance measures, and $25 billion to states for other high priority needs such as public safety and other critical services, which may include education.
•$15.6 billion to increase the Pell grant by $500.
•$6 billion for higher education modernization.

Over 140 billion dollars to education. And not one new idea to transform our inner city public schools so that poor kids can learn to work instead of learning to become criminals. Need proof? Front page of the Trentonian this morning had the headline "City School Riot". This money is payback to the teacher's unions who excel at spending public money while resisting any accountability. We don't need
21st century classrooms. We need teachers who can teach, students and parents who want to learn and a commitment from the community that anyone who wants to get in the way of that should be removed from the equation.

Tax Cuts to Make Work Pay and Create Jobs: We will provide direct tax relief to 95 percent of American workers, and spur investment and job growth for American Businesses. [marked up by the Ways and Means Committee]

The first mention of a direct impact item on the economy. And guess what? No money mentioned. No mention of the fact that this tax cut will be coupled with a tax increase for those making more than 250,000 (IE the small businesses that will be doing the alleged hiring). This will do nothing to help the economy and will also do nothing to help business as it is just cleverly worded drivel. And while we are at it, we have mentioned before that given that 48% of workers pay no tax and this plan is to provide tax relief for 95% of workers, this is pure and simply a welfare check for half of the recipients.

Lower Healthcare Costs: To save not only jobs, but money and lives, we will update and computerize our healthcare system to cut red tape, prevent medical mistakes, and help reduce healthcare costs by billions of dollars each year.
•$20 billion for health information technology to prevent medical mistakes, provide better care to patients and introduce cost-saving efficiencies.
•$4.1 billion to provide for preventative care and to evaluate the most effective healthcare treatments.

Does anyone believe that any government plan will decrease the red tape that is crippling the nation's healthcare system and driving doctors to other jobs? Computerization will not reduce medical mistakes and will not save lives. It may make the system more efficient but how about some other ideas. For example, how about spending money on tort reform so that billions of dollars in cost can be wrung out of the healthcare system from frivolous lawsuits? Has anyone considered standard testing methodologies so that doctors do not feel that they have to prescribe tests that purely serve to protect themselves in case of a lawsuit? In any case, this is all long term investment and will have zero impact on the economy.

Help Workers Hurt by the Economy: High unemployment and rising costs have outpaced Americans’ paychecks. We will help workers train and find jobs, and help struggling families make ends meet.
•$43 billion for increased unemployment benefits and job training.
•$39 billion to support those who lose their jobs by helping them to pay the cost of keeping their employer provided healthcare under COBRA and providing short-term options to be covered by Medicaid.
•$20 billion to increase the food stamp benefit by over 13% in order to help defray rising food costs.

Help for out of work employees is not a bad thing. 102 billion dollars seems a bit out of line with the actual unemployment figures I have seen. But wait. 20 billion of this has nothing to do with people out of work. It is an increase to food stamps. 39 billion to Cobra? One of the main reasons businesses are letting people go right now is the rising employee social costs. A big part of that is healthcare. The Cobra system is an exceptionally inefficient way to provide healthcare as it costs the employer the ability to scale back their overall healthcare plan while costing the government far more than it should pay than if it created its own group insurance. Someone should get creative here. But no matter, these outlays are in no way going to stimulate anything. They are a necessary thing to do but won't help the economy.

Save Public Sector Jobs and Protect Vital Services: We will provide relief to states, so they can continue to employ teachers, firefighters and police officers and provide vital services without having to unnecessarily raise middle class taxes.
•$87 billion for a temporary increase in the Medicaid matching rate.
•$4 billion for state and local law enforcement funding.

Save public sector job. That's a winner. Does anyone not get the fact that the people who are losing their jobs right now are the people who pay the bills? And while this plan does nothing for them, it borrows from our children to ensure public sector employees keep their jobs. In New Jersey, private sector employment has been falling for several years while public sector job growth has continued unabated. Enough is enough. And much the same as the other categories, this will have zero impact on the economy.

This is frankly unbelievable. 800 billion dollars and virtually no spending aimed at fixing the economy. This bill is one big spend fest that will do nothing to turn our economy around. It's sad that no one seems to care.

Read this horrific proposed bill in its entirety here.

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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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Forbes: NJ begging for help for bad budget behavior

Forbes had an excellent article today about state governments going hat in hand to Washington to beg for relief for their bad practices in budgeting and spending.

Subsidies, whether broad or targeted, do not deliver recovery. They veil bad behavior and poor financial decisions, while encouraging more of the same--leaving the underlying causes for failure to fester. And once aid is handed out, it is hard to know when to stop. That's the Samaritan's Dilemma: when the expectation of subsidies leads to increased dependency upon them. Aid begets more aid.

The reality of this situation is that New Jersey, New York and California were is major trouble BEFORE the current business collapse. The real issue is that they all have liberal (Republican and Democrat) legislatures that can't wait to find something to throw money at or tax. And then, when a serious problem occurs, they are not prepared in any way shape or form. And here is the kicker that we at njtaxrevolution said all along:

Bad habits also persist. Gov. Jon Corzine of New Jersey found $600 million in cuts this June, only to borrow $3.9 billion for school construction projects, with another bond issue of $750 million for transportation projects underway.

This is like my wife and I deciding to tighten the belt and cutting spending on presents for the kids this Christmas. And then borrowing for a new pool, a new car and our next vacation. When will the people of this state wake up?

Read the entire article here.

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Menendez economic plan - more of the same tripe

Robert Menendex has put his hat in the ring for amateur economist today. He has a three part plan to fix our economic problems. From the AP via amNewYork:

Menendez said three steps can help right away:

_ Help prevent foreclosures by enabling bankruptcy judges to modify loan terms so homeowners' primary residences are protected.

_ Create an emergency loan program to help jump-start small businesses having trouble finding credit.

_ Offer a second economic stimulus package to create jobs and prevent cuts in essential services by funding infrastructure projects and some form of unemployment insurance extension.

Let's analyse the Senator's plan. His first pillar is to extend foreclosures on bad loans. Does he not get the the toxic balance sheets caused by these loans is what is dragging down many firms? Did they not teach him any basics when he joined the Senate Banking Committee? Oh, that's right. He learned how to get money from the firms that caused this problem-Fannie and Freddie ($31,250). These bad loans need to be purged from the system. I am sorry that some people will be hurt and if he wants to help them, he should provide transition funding to find a rental place to live.

His emergency loan program makes a bit more sense if money is completely dried up for small business. I am not sure that is the case. I have seen no evidence that money was not available for sound business loans. But at least this is a good example of anticipatory planning and worthy.

His third example is to stimulate the economy through make-work jobs and government handouts. It reminds me of a recent road project near my house. The State of New Jersey and the Federal government teamed up to spend close to 21.5 million dollars to create a road that makes life slightly easiers for truckers at a rest stop near the turnpike and created a traffic jam by adding a jug handle. The project was frankly unneeded and unneccesary.

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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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Give This Non-Profit More Profits!

What would you do with 7.7 million dollars?

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

The questions are related, and you should be outraged.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Thank you.
Jake Freivald
[Address redacted]

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

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Free Cars and Gas for State Workers

Each morning as I make my way to work, I typically spot between one and four state owned vehicles heading toward the cluster of state offices in Trenton. Now, we all know that there are certain jobs in the state where it is more cost effective to provide a state vehicle than to reimburse employees for mileage. But what doesn't make sense to me is why the Ford Focus flying by me at 65 miles per hour on route 206 clearly driven by a commuter to work should be paid for by my tax dollars. The auto, from the State Department of Environmental Protection was one of many that department seems to dole out to its workers like candy.

Here's an idea for you Mr. Corzine. Make your state workers come to work in their own cars. Make them pay their own gas. And then, if they need to do the public's business, provide a pool car that they can use and then return back to the NJ government premises. Outside of law enforcement who are on duty 24 hours a day, no state worker should have a state owned vehicle with state paid gas parked at their home AT ANY TIME.

If legislature of this state is so interested in fighting global warming(the irony of the outrageous number of State DEP vehicles on our streets is raw) -cut the fleet. State owned autos should not be a perk for state workers.

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Senator Robert Singer, RINO?

I don't know Senator Singer, but this article from my favorite radio station, Jazz 88, bothers me:

But Senator Robert Singer, who has worked to fund stem cell research through legislation, says New Jersey will not be a leader in it because as companies cut jobs here, they add more to the ranks in other states like California. Singer says New Jersey used to be a welcoming place for big pharmaceutical companies, but not anymore.

This guy is a Republican? How about making New Jersey a welcoming place for pharmaceutical companies -- and every other kind as well -- by cutting spending, rather than by providing corporate welfare?

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How Screwed Up Do We Need To Be?

Read this article from the Star-Ledger. Take particular note of a few passages:

New Jersey is struggling with more than $32 billion in state debt, the third-highest in the country. All but $3 billion was issued without voter backing.

And then this:

The state constitution already says voters must approve borrowing, but lawmakers routinely have dodged the requirement by authorizing quasi-state agencies to issue billions in debt, and promising to repay it through the state budget.

Got that? According to the state constitution, 90% of our bloated debt slips through a loophole to survive, like Teddy Kennedy escaping his seatbelt at Chappaquiddick.

But apparently we're idiots, because we'll listen to people who tell us things like this:

Critics of the amendment [to require the approval of voters to issue new debt] say it would sap power from legislators elected to make intricate decisions, and turn complex borrowing schemes into yes-or-no issues vulnerable to voters' snap judgments.

"Simple bumper-sticker politics do not lend themselves to (that) kind of decision-making," said Steve Wollmer, spokesman for the powerful New Jersey Education Association teachers union. "It would really limit or potentially cripple the state's ability to make timely investments for the public good."

Of course, by "voters' snap judgments" Mr. Wollmer means "the democratic process". But maybe he has a point: maybe democracy is overrated. It's the same voters' snap judgments that got Jim McGreevey and Richard Codey into office, after all.

Mr. Wollmer thinks that the democratic process should be circumvented for "the public good". I don't know how good his math is -- he's a spokesman for the NJEA, after all, and they don't really focus much on quality education -- but New Jersey has 8,724,560 people and thirty-two billion dollars ($32,000,000,000) in debt. That means that the state owes $3668 for each man, woman, and child in New Jersey. That debt load is not in "the public good". The attitude of Mr. Wollmer and fellows like him is not in the public good.

A government living within its means? That's practically the definition of "the public good".

Richard Codey disagrees because we might be "tying a future governor's and Legislature's hands" should a need for emergency borrowing arise. But like former president Clinton meeting the Razorback cheerleaders, their hands should be tied, and for the same reason -- to stop them from grabbing everything they can get their hands on.

The problem is not that I want to prevent noble men and women to be unable to lead our state through difficult times, but that most of our state legislators are neither noble nor leaders. Codey says, "There are times when you'd need to do it and do it right away and not necessarily wait for an election," and I agree -- but now's not the time.

Not when Richard Codey thinks that there shouldn't be a democracy-based check on public spending.

Not when our so-called leaders have shown themselves incapable of knowing when they should borrow and when they shouldn't.

Not when they circumvent our constitutional process and issue eleven times more debt than they are allowed to.

Not when the State Supreme Court has "ruled the state could continue to issue bonds through its authorities without asking voters first."

That last fact is particularly galling. The ruling came in 2003. "The justices in the minority," the article says, "said the decision essentially killed the clause in the constitution giving voters control," which provides us with One More Example of a liberal court undermining a constitution. In an understatement to tell your grandkids about, Seton Hall University political scientist Joseph Marbach says, "The fact that we need a constitutional amendment to tell the court what the constitution says is also a little bit troubling."

We're in a budget crisis that makes Governor Corzine want to octuple our tolls, shut down hospitals, and provide fiscal responsibility (in the form of increased taxes for outdoor projects). How bad does it need to get before we stop spending money on superfluous certificates for veterans? How screwed up do we have to be as a state before we stop providing handouts to artists? How screwed up do we need to be before they stop spending our money -- and our kids' money, and our grandkids' money?

How screwed up do we need to be before we stop allowing these guys to destroy our state?

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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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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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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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Tell Corzine What to Cut

There's a form on Governor Corzine's Web site that enables you to tell him what you'd like to cut. Hat tip: PolitickerNJ.com.

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Hey Jersey City! Here's $46,000 Wasted...

Via The Jersey Journal.

JERSEY CITY'S "LEGISLATIVE RESEARCH OFFICER"

The private attorney representing Jersey City Mayor Jerramiah T. Healy in his Bradley Beach appeal has blown two deadlines for filing court papers, a court official said yesterday.

The attorney - brother of the city's top lawyer - is also a retired Jersey City cop who was put back on the city payroll last May as a part-time, $46,000-a-year "legislative research officer."

According to Tammy Kendig, spokeswoman for the New Jersey Judiciary, Philip J. Matsikoudis sought and was granted two court extensions to file briefs on behalf of Healy, who, for the second time, is appealing his conviction last June for resisting arrest and obstruction of administrative law.

Matsikoudis - whose brother is City Corporation counsel Bill Matsikoudis - blew a Jan. 2 deadline, and then whiffed on a Jan. 31 file date, Kendig said.

Philip Matsikoudis said yesterday he believed he had asked for an extension "two days before Jan. 31" and was granted "(an extension of) 10 days or so." Reminded a 10-day extension would have expired, Matsikoudis said "it might have been 14 days."

According to Kendig, Matsikoudis wasn't given a new extension.

Somebody should demand a refund.

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