Tuesday, April 20th, is D-Day – decision day – for the 2010-2011 Bridgewater-Raritan School Budget. Unlike most years, it’s been one of the most widely publicized budget processes in decades.
What characterizes this one from previous budgets is that it is embroiled in a statewide financial crisis, with few school districts being spared the agony of cutbacks due to reduced state aid. The numbers which have been thrown about are dizzying.
Go back a few months: What do you think would have happened, if Jon Corzine had been re-elected, instead of Chris Christie? It’s not unrealistic to assume that the B-R School District would have received most or all of its anticipated state aid. There would have been no program or personnel cutbacks, perhaps not even any outsourcing of custodians.
The Bridgewater-Raritan Education Association would not have been asked to implement a wage freeze. Negotiations for another generous multi-year contract would have begun. And everyone would be happy.
Now let’s step out of that dream.
That’s the kind of thinking that leads to addiction, in this case, financial addiction. Let’s face it, Bridgewater and Raritan brothers and sisters, we’ve been living high off the hog in this district for too long. Ours is the state with the highest cost of education and the highest taxes. It is full of cronyism, patronage and corruption.
Seniors are strapped, having lost about $1200 from the cancelled homestead rebate. They have seen their incomes plummet as the result of virtually 0% interest rates and watched their 401k’s tank. Working people of all ages and income strata in the commercial sector are being laid off from well-paying jobs.
People fortunate enough to have solid employment are looking at little or no increases in their salaries and are getting socked with ever-increasing health care premiums. Tens of thousands have lost their defined-benefit retirement plans, a benefit still enjoyed in the public sector.
The nominal unemployment rate is pushing 10%, while the actual unemployment due to discouraged laid-off workers no longer seeking employment sits at a staggering 17%.
Does anyone seriously think that the spending trend in our school districts could have been kept on its current trajectory? What astonishes me is not that the Christie medicine is being forced upon reluctant patients. What does is that not enough could see the symptoms of the disease.
Excess is excess, no matter what field it’s in. The overly-generous spending in New Jersey on most levels, including within the Bridgewater-Raritan School District reminds me of the dot.com and real estate bubbles of the last two decades. We all wanted a good time and didn’t worry until the bubbles popped in our faces.
I’ll conclude with one of the most egregiously false and age-old arguments for why school budgets are where they are – personnel salaries which comprise about 80% of the total. We have been told over and over again that these are fixed costs, implying that nothing can be done to slow their growth.
But that argument is suicidally circular, because the same school board which tells us that salaries are fixed costs and can’t be slowed because they are part of multi-year contractual agreements, are the very same school boards that negotiated those inflated agreements to begin with.
By the way, that much ballyhooed 12.8% three-year wage agreement with the Bridgewater-Raritan Education Association is in fact a three-year 13.35% wage hike. This result occurs through the magical compounding of each annual wage increase in the package over its contract period.
The school funding and spending problem in New Jersey and in our community is serious, real and now in our faces. The sooner we fix it, the better off we will all be. Jon Corzine and his predecessors are gone and they are never coming back.
It's been a long one. Thanks for reading.
Showing posts with label Jon Corzine. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Jon Corzine. Show all posts
Monday, April 19, 2010
Tuesday, December 22, 2009
New Jersey’s Senators and our Governor: AWOL on Healthcare $ for our State
While nearly a dozen Democratic senators were busy keeping the U.S. Senate hostage by withholding their votes on the massive healthcare bill in order to obtain special concessions for their states, our two New Jersey senators Robert Menendez and Frank Lautenberg have been conspicuously absent from the debate.
New Jersey is one of the most populous and heavily taxed states of the country, and it disgorges one of the greatest outflows of cash into the national treasury. Yet, we are represented by two of the meekest dealmakers in the U.S. Congress.
Moreover, our governor, Jon Corzine, made a mid-course correction to support Barack Obama’s presidential campaign by dumping his endorsement of Hillary Clinton. Corzine moved close to Obama and was one of his preferred economic advisors during the campaign.
So where’s the beef for New Jersey? States like Louisiana, Nebraska, Connecticut and others are, through the personal influence of their senators, getting hundreds of millions in special healthcare dollars, concessions, and tax breaks for their states.
Meanwhile Senators Menendez and Lautenberg are busy playing Mr. Nice Guy with Barack Obama and Harry Reid in Washington, D.C., as New Jersey comes out of this legislation empty-handed and more heavily burdened.
New Jersey is one of the most populous and heavily taxed states of the country, and it disgorges one of the greatest outflows of cash into the national treasury. Yet, we are represented by two of the meekest dealmakers in the U.S. Congress.
Moreover, our governor, Jon Corzine, made a mid-course correction to support Barack Obama’s presidential campaign by dumping his endorsement of Hillary Clinton. Corzine moved close to Obama and was one of his preferred economic advisors during the campaign.
So where’s the beef for New Jersey? States like Louisiana, Nebraska, Connecticut and others are, through the personal influence of their senators, getting hundreds of millions in special healthcare dollars, concessions, and tax breaks for their states.
Meanwhile Senators Menendez and Lautenberg are busy playing Mr. Nice Guy with Barack Obama and Harry Reid in Washington, D.C., as New Jersey comes out of this legislation empty-handed and more heavily burdened.
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
No, They Couldn’t; Yes, We Could!
Finally! Despite the last-minute Air Force One shuttles between Washington, D.C. and Trenton, President Obama’s luster simply was not transferable to Jon Corzine. Nor was the third-person candidacy of Chris Daggett which, in the end, was unable to siphon off enough votes to prevent Chris Christie from snatching the golden ring of the New Jersey governorship.
I extend our newly elected governor the best of fortune in his new job. Nonetheless, I remain optimistically skeptical: Not because I don’t trust the man and his backers, but because, in the 33 years that I’ve been in Bridgewater, I’ve seen elected officials come and go into and out of Trenton, with no relief to the tax burden which continues to grow and to weigh down the common person.
Yesterday, CNN reported a poll which showed the top concerns of NJ citizens:
• 31%, The economy and jobs
• 26%, Property taxes
• 20%, Corruption
• 18%, Healthcare
Governor-elect Christopher Christie was outstanding in demonstrating how good he is at addressing corruption. He now needs to show us how good he is at fixing the first two concerns.
I extend our newly elected governor the best of fortune in his new job. Nonetheless, I remain optimistically skeptical: Not because I don’t trust the man and his backers, but because, in the 33 years that I’ve been in Bridgewater, I’ve seen elected officials come and go into and out of Trenton, with no relief to the tax burden which continues to grow and to weigh down the common person.
Yesterday, CNN reported a poll which showed the top concerns of NJ citizens:
• 31%, The economy and jobs
• 26%, Property taxes
• 20%, Corruption
• 18%, Healthcare
Governor-elect Christopher Christie was outstanding in demonstrating how good he is at addressing corruption. He now needs to show us how good he is at fixing the first two concerns.
Monday, November 2, 2009
Christie Moves Ahead of Corzine
MONDAY POLL RESULTS. As of 12:30 PM today in its seven group poll-of-polls average, the Real Clear Politics web site showed Chris Christie leading with a 1.2 margin over New Jersey’s incumbent governor, Jon Corzine. Friday afternoon, that same poll average had both men in a statistical dead heat.
Stockton/Zogby has Corzine ahead by 1, and Monmouth/Gannett has him up by 2. The other five polls show Christie leading with a spread of from 1 to 3 points. (Quinnipiac, which previously had Corzine ahead by 3 on Friday, now has Christie up by 2. That’s a not-so-insignificant 5 point reversal for Corzine in just three days.)
The polling is still active and the results could swing either way.
HELP FROM WASHINGTON. Yesterday, President Barack Obama and Jon Corzine barnstormed two of New Jersey’s largest cities, Newark and Camden, pinpointing them both in a last-minute push to motivate voters in those burgs to become the tipping point for the incumbent’s reelection.
You’d think that the President would have larger responsibilities to attend to: Matters such as the problem of a U.S. troop buildup in Afghanistan and the corrupt administration of that country’s president, Hamid Karzai. Or another issue such as helping to reconcile the incomprehensible 2000-page health-care bill in the U.S. House of Representatives with the Senate version. Or perhaps another minor point such as the condition of the U.S. economy.
But no, it was time to fuel Air Force One and head up to an annoying distraction in New Jersey. Why? The Obama administration’s real concern is that this state, like Virginia, has two critical governorships up for grabs and, if they both go Republican, the loss will be viewed as a specific indictment of Obama’s policies – that’s the playbook.
MAKE YOUR VOTE COUNT!
Stockton/Zogby has Corzine ahead by 1, and Monmouth/Gannett has him up by 2. The other five polls show Christie leading with a spread of from 1 to 3 points. (Quinnipiac, which previously had Corzine ahead by 3 on Friday, now has Christie up by 2. That’s a not-so-insignificant 5 point reversal for Corzine in just three days.)
The polling is still active and the results could swing either way.
HELP FROM WASHINGTON. Yesterday, President Barack Obama and Jon Corzine barnstormed two of New Jersey’s largest cities, Newark and Camden, pinpointing them both in a last-minute push to motivate voters in those burgs to become the tipping point for the incumbent’s reelection.
You’d think that the President would have larger responsibilities to attend to: Matters such as the problem of a U.S. troop buildup in Afghanistan and the corrupt administration of that country’s president, Hamid Karzai. Or another issue such as helping to reconcile the incomprehensible 2000-page health-care bill in the U.S. House of Representatives with the Senate version. Or perhaps another minor point such as the condition of the U.S. economy.
But no, it was time to fuel Air Force One and head up to an annoying distraction in New Jersey. Why? The Obama administration’s real concern is that this state, like Virginia, has two critical governorships up for grabs and, if they both go Republican, the loss will be viewed as a specific indictment of Obama’s policies – that’s the playbook.
MAKE YOUR VOTE COUNT!
Friday, October 30, 2009
Chris Daggett: Corzine’s AMEX Card
In a six-poll average appearing on the Real Clear Politics web site as of Friday afternoon, Chris Christie and Jon Corzine are in a statistical dead heat. One of those six polls, Quinnipiac, shows Christie trailing Corzine by five points, while the Rasmussen poll has him ahead of Corzine by three. This could be a stunning turnaround for New Jersey’s incumbent governor.
Should it become a last-minute trend that holds through to Election Day, it won’t be due only to the personal purchasing power that previously helped Corzine gain a U.S. Senate seat and his first term as NJ governor.
If Jon Corzine wins a second term, there will be another even more compelling reason for victory: It will be the impact of Chris Daggett’s insertion into this race that could be the favorable tipping point for Corzine.
Chris Daggett never stood a chance at the golden ring from the beginning of his candidacy, but he has apparently struck a chord with enough voters so that he became a major distraction to Christie and a significant boost for Corzine, the only two contenders with any realistic chance of success.
Daggett’s promise to reduce property taxes by increasing the sales tax base is a 1977-style, Byrne-like, smoke-and-mirrors proposal presented to gullible voters: It is identical to the old thinking that establishing a New Jersey income tax would reduce property taxes.
If those protest voters don’t wake up, their fantasy will be replaced with the reality of another four years of the same.
When Jon Corzine left Goldman Sachs after a fabulously successful career, he took with him the enormous purchasing power of a seemingly unlimited AMEX card. But his second term, if he makes it, will have come not solely from his financial resources: It will have resulted in large measure from something that he could never buy: the dilutive effect of a third-person spoiler, Chris Daggett.
Should it become a last-minute trend that holds through to Election Day, it won’t be due only to the personal purchasing power that previously helped Corzine gain a U.S. Senate seat and his first term as NJ governor.
If Jon Corzine wins a second term, there will be another even more compelling reason for victory: It will be the impact of Chris Daggett’s insertion into this race that could be the favorable tipping point for Corzine.
Chris Daggett never stood a chance at the golden ring from the beginning of his candidacy, but he has apparently struck a chord with enough voters so that he became a major distraction to Christie and a significant boost for Corzine, the only two contenders with any realistic chance of success.
Daggett’s promise to reduce property taxes by increasing the sales tax base is a 1977-style, Byrne-like, smoke-and-mirrors proposal presented to gullible voters: It is identical to the old thinking that establishing a New Jersey income tax would reduce property taxes.
If those protest voters don’t wake up, their fantasy will be replaced with the reality of another four years of the same.
When Jon Corzine left Goldman Sachs after a fabulously successful career, he took with him the enormous purchasing power of a seemingly unlimited AMEX card. But his second term, if he makes it, will have come not solely from his financial resources: It will have resulted in large measure from something that he could never buy: the dilutive effect of a third-person spoiler, Chris Daggett.
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