From the Garden State to the Sunshine State

In 2013, Hertz Global Holdings announced a plan to move from its Park Ridge, New Jersey headquarters and relocate to the community of Estero, in Southwest Florida.

Three years later, on January 23, 2016, in a front page spread that appeared in Florida's The News-Press, Hertz CEO John Tague proudly announced the opening of a brand-spanking-new, shiny 248,600 square-foot headquarters facility in Estero.

Perhaps Hertz's move to Florida was inevitable.  Perhaps it was the too-attractive-to-match lure of Florida's warmth and sunshine, accompanied by a favorable business climate,  lower overall tax structure, and the economic package which Hertz was offered.

However, New Jersey's loss to Florida may not have been inevitable:

New Jersey Public Pension Reform

The New Jersey State Constitution is not an Excel spreadsheet.  To treat it as such is to cheapen its value by turning it into a pedestrian legislative tool.  Yet, that is precisely what the New Jersey Legislature will accomplish if voters go along with its proposal to constitutionally mandate pension payments each year.

There is a reason why the Federal Government and all of the 50 United States of America govern under the principle of the separation of powers:  That system  charges legislatures with the responsibility to enact law, and not to evade seemingly intractable problems by codifying them into their constitutions.

The apparently overwhelming problem of New Jersey's public pension plans that are  grossly underfunded by from $50 to $95 billion, depending upon how the math is calculated, is the  joint responsibility of the State Legislature and of the Executive branch.  It is not one to be evaded.

The New Jersey Legislature's end-run around its law-making responsibilities by kicking the pension-shortfall-can down the road to voters in the form of a referendum is an admission of its gross inability to govern through negotiated comprise with the current governor of this state.  Tough!

Furthermore, since the power of our next governor is very likely to be handed over to a Democrat at the end of next year, that person will rue the day that this constitutional amendment ever passed, if it does, because it will force that executive's hand into unthinkable budget-making cuts in essential services and infrastructure needs while  pushing  for sky-high tax increases.

Would the last person please put the lights out in New Jersey?

Thanks for checking in, and stay safe.

Feds Defer “Cadillac” Health Plan Penalty to 2020

BRIEF RECAP:

 

Negotiations between the BR-BOE (Bridgewater-Raritan Board of Education) and the BREA (Bridgewater-Raritan Education Association) are at an impasse, pending a mediation session scheduled to take place this Wednesday, January 13. 

 

Late last year, the school board posted on its web site the terms and conditions of what was then its most current wage and benefits offer.  This information is no longer on the BR-BOE’s home page.

However, on November 11, 2015, I posted a summary of both the BR-BOE and the BREA’s negotiation positions at that time based upon the data then released by the school board:  You can review it on this previous blog post.  

As pointed out in November, the biggest sticking point between the two parties was the near-confiscatory, so-called “Cadillac” health care plan penalty, and the impact it might present as a budget-buster.

Mayor Charles McMullin Aims to Stop Trajectory of the Raritan Borough Lawsuit

One of my flowering cacti.  It is unrelated to this story.
Yet, as I hope you will agree, it offers a momentarily
pleasant diversion.  (Bergeron Image)

I’ve never understood why some municipalities and school districts are so hard-nosed about providing information under the OPRA statute of New Jersey.  Without helpful compliance to the Open Public Records Act, it becomes nearly impossible for petitioners to get information in a timely fashion, if at all.

Still, some administrators and elected officials, often acting in consort, either refuse to provide information as requested, stall, or release it in an unacceptable manner.  But in New Jersey, such responses can come with steep penalties attached.

The previous administration and elected officials of the Borough of Raritan began to find this out the hard way about five years ago when a request by the Courier News – part of the Gannett media chain – requested payroll information in a specific electronic format, so that the data could be crunched by a computer.

The Borough replied that the payroll data requested would be made available through its vendor, Action Data Services, but that it could be provided in a PDF format only.