The Intensification of Political Retribution.

The scent of blood is running in the water, and traces of vengeance are wafting in the air over Trenton.  Governor Chris Christie has run up against his first real drag-down, take-no-prisoners assault. 

There are now at least several special committees within the Democrat-controlled New Jersey Legislature that are being established to determine the causes of the unannounced closure of lanes at the George Washington Bridge.

In addition, investigations into this matter have been started in Washington, and the U.S. Attorney for the State of New Jersey is also getting into the picture.

The Politics of the Weed Patch

During the week, I’ve had to do a great deal of outdoor work in order to get the garden in shape under the challenge of an early and demanding spring.  Each year, I’m reminded that Mother Nature does not stand still for anyone who chooses to ignore her. 

Crocuses announce an early spring on March 7, 2012
(Bergeron Image)

I’ve also come to understand that, when gardening with someone else, you must work as a team. The days are short, and there is no time to be fretted away in fruitless discussions about how to get things done.

There are shrubs to be trimmed; holes to be dug for new plantings; mulch to be spread, and other related chores that won’t wait.  If you don’t move along, the day flies by, and not much work gets accomplished.  Ignore what needs doing and, by summer, you end up with what resembles an unattractive weed patch.

Just observe a gardening crew that gets paid to do this work professionally:  You can’t help but notice how most of the workers are well supervised, know what to do, and work quickly in unison to get the job done.

As I was digging in a spot for a small Spirea bush which needed to be transplanted to the front yard, it occurred to me that much of the dysfunction which is being observed in the political sphere these days could be easily compared to that of a garden which has not been well-tended.

Inter-Party Alliance Forces NJ Pension Reform Proposal

Who?  Me?  (TV Screen shot/Bergeron)

Yesterday, at the State House in Trenton, NJ, a rare event occurred:  A coalition of Democratic and Republican state legislators witnessed the passing of a committee resolution that is scheduled to go to the floor of the full Senate on Monday for an up or down vote.

Also on Monday, a similar committee headed by Assembly Speaker Sheila Oliver will consider this highly controversial proposal.  The New Jersey Education Association and other public unions are fiercely opposed to these measures.

Should the NJ Senate approve the bill and should New Jersey’s Assembly concur, it will be presented to Governor Chris Christie for approval and codification into law.  Under the State Constitution, a budget must be passed by June 30.

On Friday, Governor Christie was the target of highly caustic, personal invectives by union demonstrators.  Senate President Steve Sweeney and Assembly Speaker Sheila Oliver, both Democrats, were not far behind in experiencing similar union pressure to break away from Christie on this issue – to no avail, so far.

Legislature Disses New Jersey Voters, Again

Governor Chris Christie did his very best under the circumstances. Not being able to push through his proposal for a voter-approved constitutional amendment with a hard spending cap, he settled for the next best thing – a questionable compromise that will be altered with more loopholes by successive legislatures and governors.

Notice that I wrote “will be altered,” not could be.

I won’t even bother in this post to outline the elements of the proposed legislative compromise which will be considered by the New Jersey Assembly on Monday and which is likely to be approved and signed into law by Governor Christie – because it doesn’t matter.

The real issue is that New Jersey voters were denied the right to initiative and referendum as originally proposed by the Governor: Simply put, we were all cut off from Christie’s plan to decide for ourselves in November whether or not there should be a hard cap on spending in this, the Garden State, where the green comes cheap.

And we have the Democratically controlled legislature to thank for that.

If there is a single mortal fear running through the sinews and synapses of elected officials, it’s having the checkbook taken out of their hands. OK, that doesn’t apply to all of them, I know, but it obviously applies to enough so that the New Jersey legislature had the power to block Christie’s original proposal for a Trenton-proof constitutional amendment with a hard spending cap.

And that’s why the details of the new law which will go into effect don’t matter: After this governor is gone, the spending binge will continue.

The Fear of Defeated School Budgets

There seems to be an almost visceral dread by school board members and superintendents that, should a budget be defeated, the walls of the school districts – like those of Biblical Jericho – will come tumbling down.

Let’s take a look at that assumption, what’s behind it, and what is most likely to occur should a school budget go down to defeat on April 20th.

First, school districts tend to be insular and specialized operating units. Their elections are always in April, out of the voting mainstream. The thinking behind this is that school districts are not political entities and, therefore, should not be lumped with other political contests taking place in November. The latter is a view with which not all voters agree.

The relegation of school board and budget elections to the spring of the year has resulted in turnouts that are lower than those of the general elections in the fall. This practice of isolating school board elections draws interest mainly from parents of school-age kids (generally more from moms) and from senior citizens, both of whom vote in higher numbers.

The voting outcome is often a skewed, non-representative community consensus. Years which have high-profile burning issues – as is this one – may neutralize that statistically non-inclusive aberration.

Second, no school board or superintendent wants voters to reject the budget, because this means township and/or borough officials get to review the numbers.

But why, as I have observed through informal discussions and by listening to comments of board members and superintendents, is that such a bad thing? Elected town and borough council members have extensive experience in putting budgets together. In this state-wide fiscal crisis, municipalities have had to face severe cost reductions – they know the lay of the land.

A huge concern of all school boards and superintendents is that council members “don’t understand” school administration and will take an ax to their budgets. That is an unfounded concern. Municipal officials are not eagerly poised on standby, waiting for a school budget’s failure simply to cut it some more.

However, they know that they have a legal mandate to review a failed budget and will do so should that happen. That’s the scary part for school administrators and board members. Believe me. They don’t want to go through that process.

The fact that a budget may be defeated on April 20th is not doomsday for school districts. Elected municipal officials are experienced people with a good sense of their communities. They are not heartless, even as they may push for a thorough, second scrubbing of the numbers with a different set of eyes.

Thanks for reading, and stay engaged.

Pulling Back for a Little Perspective

The Courier News and the Star-Ledger have been publishing stories almost daily about Governor Christie’s campaign promises on which he has now begun to deliver. Even national publications and TV networks have taken notice.

No matter whether we agree or disagree with Christie’s specific proposals, it’s difficult not to admire a politician who not only was clear about his goals when he ran for office but, even more so, a person who actually has begun to deliver on them.

The standard procedure for New Jersey’s governors and legislators has been either to renege on their campaign promises or to have such fuzzy ones that the slipping and sliding begins soon after the swearing-in ceremony. Once in office, it seems that politicians suddenly experience an epiphany that the world no longer appears to be as it was when they ran for office.

Not this governor. I can’t remember the last time that I’ve seen a high-level elected official come out of the gate so quickly to implement an agenda that’s in line with his campaign rhetoric.

And why shouldn’t he act quickly? What will be any different if he waits another six months or another year to gather more information, to speak to more constituents and consultants, only to be diverted from addressing the obvious fiscal problems plaguing New Jersey?

Like frogs in a pot of slowly heated water, we have grown very comfortable to the temperature, unwilling to admit that when it came to a boil, we would all get scalded.

New Jersey’s new governor is looking to solve a desperate financial crisis which has long been in the making by leaders of both major political parties. They have been aided abundantly by the political forays and arm twisting not only of organized labor, but of well-meaning groups such as the Education Law Center and the New Jersey Supreme Court.

Some of these power structures need to be rebalanced and downsized so that the rest of us don’t continue to feel like sheep getting shorn of our wool.

Next: The Fear of Defeated School Budgets

Curing New Jersey’s Spending Binges

Vested interests, including some New Jersey public employee unions fought hard to keep Chris Christie out of office, but he was elected governor despite those efforts. This time, the public has had enough. Christie’s campaign promises were very clear, and he’s beginning to make good on them.

One of those promises was to check the out-of-control spending that’s been ravaging governments throughout the Garden State. New Jersey’s fiscal mess is one of the biggest burrs stuck in the side of its residents.

Governor Christie knows that. He also knows that his window of opportunity to effect necessary change could close very quickly. He wants to pull out that burr before his credibility begins to wane.

This governor formally recognized the obvious: He declared an economic state of emergency. Unsurprisingly, cries of anguish are rising to the surface: Implications of impending doom such as reduced services, reductions to the quality of education, and the prospect of higher real estate taxes are already emanating from some governmental entities and school districts.

Christie did not create this crisis. It’s been growing slowly, like a dissonant but foreseeable crescendo of fiscal irresponsibility for far too many years. What this new governor did do is what no one else in New Jersey government has had the guts to cope with: He publicly acknowledged the existence of the problem and decided to tackle it head on.

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.

NJ Taxes and You: Perfect Together

I could have skipped the Somerset County Business Partnership forum at Raritan Valley Community College Friday morning, because I was under the weather and felt more like remaining snuggly covered under the blankets.

But the topic was “Making New Jersey More Affordable for Businesses and Residents: a Public Policy Forum,” and I was determined to get a first hand impression of what the panelists and gubernatorial candidates had to say. Gubernatorial challengers Daggett and Christie were present and offered their views on NJ’s tax mess.

Incumbent Governor John Corzine decided to take a pass and to ignore the people of northern Somerset County.

Well, it was enough to make me even sicker, because it confirmed what I already knew, but about which I obtained a lot more detailed confirmation. Forum speakers and audience questioners emphasized the fact that the negative impact of New Jersey’s tax structure at all levels of government is totally unsustainable:

The crushing debt burden from ill-advised government borrowing; increased deficit spending; and unfunded liabilities for public sector pensions and benefits (said to be from $100 billion to $130 billion) has resulted in a stifling level of taxation, especially for property taxes.

I could go down a list of all the winners and losers in this NJ public spending drama, but it would be wasting your reading time. You know most of them but, if you are serious about learning even more, check out the home page at http://www.mycentraljersey.com/, and click on the “Tax Series Tab” in the carousel. You’ll be amazed at the first-rate job that Courier News journalists did in covering Friday morning’s forum.

High-Priced New Jersey

On Friday, October 2, the Raritan Valley Community College will host a 5-hour program entitled Making New Jersey More Affordable. It is being sponsored by the Somerset County Business Partnership, the Courier News and its web site, together with Allstate and the Affinity Credit Union.

I strongly support this gathering of powerful and influential people who will lend their voices to the debate. All gubernatorial candidates have been invited. I hope all are present and give specifics as to how they propose to pull New Jersey out of its downward financial vortex.

Although I can be highly skeptical at times, I generally have a cautiously optimistic outlook for the future. But for the love of me, I cannot figure out how this state will pull itself out of its financial morass unless it addresses the structural weaknesses which are strangling it.

Public service unionized salaries and benefits are out of control, with not a soul willing to give up a millimeter of ground. Year-after-year negotiated union salaries and benefits continue to rise at a rate above inflation during a time of deflation and national economic distress.

Dishonesty, fraud and corruption in government are rampant, and only the surface seems to have been scratched.

Remember the hollow promise of 1976 when the income tax was passed? It was intended to provide real estate tax relief for all homeowners, but decades of those revenues – billions – have been doled out with no conditions attached, or they have been spent for the preferential treatment of the few. The state never sets aside revenue collected for a specific purpose; instead, the money effectively goes into the general fund and you can kiss it goodbye.

Heck, we don’t even measure up to a state like New Hampshire which has no income tax and no sales tax, yet whose students produced an average 2009 SAT score of 1556, compared to New Jersey’s 1505 – lower New Jersey results for a lot more money, lower, even, than the national average of 1509.

The challenges facing New Jersey’s economic future are enormous, and they won’t be met simply by taxing the super-rich and cutting back on income tax rebates.

McConnell Retires to the Bay State

Monday’s Courier News article by Martin C. Bricketto about Rose McConnell held one item that especially caught my eye: where she chose to retire. After serving many years in public office in Somerset County NJ, McConnell moved to Groton, Massachusetts to be near her family.

Coincidentally, Groton is less than half an hour from our old stomping grounds in Lowell. Priscille and I remember it fondly as one of those quaint, quintessential New England communities.

Indeed, on our way back from vacationing in New Hampshire this summer, we stopped in Massachusetts to visit with two of Priscille’s nieces and their families, one of whom relocated from Lowell to Groton with her husband and children. With a population of about 11,000 in an area of 33 square miles, it’s one of those small big New England towns ideal for raising a family.

The entire area – geographically, politically, and socially – is very different from what former Somerset County Freeholder, Rose McConnell, has been accustomed to in this part of New Jersey.

One example: Groton operates under an open town meeting form of government – once each year the budget plan is presented to voters at a town hall meeting. The community asks questions, debates, considers the proposals, and makes recommendations; then the entire year’s budget is voted upon – no absentee voting! To prepare for the meeting, voters are presented in advance with a printed budget proposal.

I could go on, but I won’t keep you with any more details. Thanks for reading and may the wind be at your back. Rose McConnell: If you see this, enjoy the change of venue – it’s been a long, good run.

New Jersey, Taxes and Us – Imperfect Together

When I and my family moved to Bridgewater, New Jersey, in 1976, this state was just about to throw away its distinction of being one of the few states in the Union with no income tax. The ‘new’ income tax, we were promised, would reduce property taxes statewide, because local school districts would no longer be dependent upon them as the main source of funding.

That bad piece of legislation emanating from Trenton was inspired by coercion from our own NJ Supreme Court: The result would turn out to be just another broken promise by legislative power brokers sequestered on this side of the Delaware.

The New Jersey State Income Tax became simply another cash cow feeding the state treasury. Undaunted, real estate taxes continued their climb to become the nation’s highest: Homeowners would not see any effective structural relief.

Thirty-three years later, as Governor Corzine implements a legislatively approved $29 billion budget – admittedly $4 billion less than last year – New Jersey homeowners will get stiffed again as they watch the reduction of the homeowners rebate for low middle-income taxpayers, and its elimination for renters. The man from Goldman Sachs gets to suspend the property tax deduction for high income earners. For others, it’s dwindling down to $5,000.

In a prior post, I listed many of the things that I like about The Garden State. Today, I’m highlighting an element about its dark underbelly. There needs to be an ongoing public dialogue about the pros and cons of life in New Jersey, a naturally blessed state afflicted with so many mendacious politicians.

There are plenty of good ones out there – I wish they would prevail.

Drilling Off the New Jersey Coast

NIMBY: Not in my back yard. For decades, this has been the mantra of those who have successfully sought to prevent drilling for oil off the Atlantic and Pacific Coasts. Well, that’s just changed. Democrat leadership in both the House and Senate dropped their support for keeping a moratorium on Atlantic and Pacific coastal drilling in effect. The next president, whoever he is, needs to make sure it stays that way.

It’s about time. For too long, we have relied on oil from unstable nations in the Middle East such as Saudi Arabia, Venezuela to our south, and Russia, not only to keep us supplied, but to keep all the potentially nasty problems of oil production far away from us, elsewhere in the world. We nervously watch oil prices shoot up every time that a potentially major hurricane threatens to temporarily halt drilling in the western Gulf of Mexico and to shut down refineries along the Texas coastline and bordering states.

The Canadian government has already announced that it will begin exploring for oil on the continental shelf of the Grand Banks. We could do the same on our section of the Grand Banks, in the Gulf of Maine, and off the New Jersey coast. But oh no: NIMBY.

Too many vain and unrealistic politicians want the oil spigots to remain wide open, but don’t want oil rigs nearby. I say baloney to that. We either stop using as much oil as we do (it won’t happen voluntarily) or we go where the oil is – and, that’s in our own back yard right here in America.

Bridgewater’s Michael Hsing

Bridgewater Councilman, Michael Hsing, recently announced that he would run as an independent for the U.S. Congressional seat in the 7th District. That seat will be vacant as a result of Rep. Mike Ferguson’s decision not to run for re-election.

As a Republican who was initially in the GOP primary, but subsequently decided to pursue the seat without party affiliation, Mr. Hsing is reported to be a conservative on hot-button issues such as abortion and gay marriage.

He will be running against two big guns: Democrat Linda Stender of Union County, who is currently serving her fourth term in the New Jersey General Assembly; and Republican Leonard Lance of Hunterdon County, who was elected to the General Assembly in 1991, and who is currently serving as a New Jersey State Senator.

Stender came close to unseating Rep. Mike Ferguson two years ago. Consequently, some prognosticators have written that Mr. Hsing could draw heavily upon the district’s Chinese-American community and, should he garner enough total votes, be a spoiler to Lance’s winning the 7th District seat.

Nonetheless, I doubt that Michael Hsing is running for any purpose other than to win – he’s too smart to do otherwise. If he doesn’t make it, he gets to live for another day, although he will have some fences to mend. His hurdle is that of an untried state entity attempting to push aside two very well-known politicians who enter this contest with high name recognition.

For example, whether we liked them or not, who can forget those interminable TV ads branding her as “Stender the Spender?” Over time, things change. What once might have been considered a very negative ad may have solidified Stender’s name in the public imagination.

As for myself, I’m looking forward to a vigorous campaign by all three candidates and, especially, to see how sincere or phony their promises prove to be.


Note: The candidates’ web sites may be found at, http://www.lindastenderforcongress.com/, http://www.hsingforcongress.com/home.asp, http://www.leonardlance.com/

The Garden State & the Granite State

New Jersey has an income tax – New Hampshire, none; New Jersey has a sales tax – New Hampshire, none. Yet, despite an enormous gap in revenue sources, there is no evidence that the people of New Jersey enjoy an overall standard of living which is notably better than that of its neighbors up north.

But the vast income gulf between the two states begs the question: Why? Well, for one thing, pick up any newspaper in the Granite State, and you will not find story after nauseating story of governance malfeasance and legally endorsed fiscal abuse, as you regularly will in the pages of the Courier News, the Star Ledger, etc.

Yet, except for regional quirks, language accents, local customs and habits, people of both states are the same. So why then, is New Jersey functionally bankrupt, while New Hampshire, which faces similar problems, is not?

I don’t believe that it takes a boatload of economists and psychiatrists to answer the question. Although the economic, social, and educational issues facing the State of New Jersey, its municipalities, and its school districts are complex, they can be reduced to one clarifying metaphor: Even a pig knows when to stop eating.

Donkey, Elephant, or Independent?

I received a letter in this afternoon’s mail from the Somerset County Commissioner, Anthony DeCicco, acknowledging a request to change my party affiliation back to ‘Unaffiliated.’ A few weeks ago, I had gone to the County offices on Grove Street in Somerville to have the change made. Although I’ve been registered as an independent for longer than I can remember, I voted in the last New Jersey primary as a Republican expressly to cast my preference for Mitt Romney.

You may remember him: He’s the guy that had to explain why it is that a Mormon should be elected to this nation’s highest office. He had been immensely successful as Governor of Massachusetts, a state so blue, that only a super-bright administrator with his talent could overcome the Bay State’s bias against Republicans. Nor did it hurt Romney that, prior to elected office, he drove the success of Bain Capital, creating jobs and making a pile of dough for himself and others with his entrepreneurial prowess.

Poor me, I knew that Romney did not stand a chance in New Jersey, but I thought, “What the heck!” The economy was beginning to go down the tubes and none of the other candidates seemed to get the point, so why not go for the smart person who knows what one is supposed to do with one’s heart and brain?

Don’t misunderstand; I don’t dislike Democrats or Republicans. In fact, I think that they are pretty good Joes and Janes and, much of the time, they do a good job. But, when campaigning, it seems that the difference between what they say they will do, and what, in fact, they end up doing once elected doesn’t jive: They don’t keep promises. Then there’s that other thing: They have a nasty little habit of not trusting the people who put them in office – you know: those pesky voters who make demands like wanting to approve state bond issues for billions of dollars in school construction, and other minor considerations of that nature.

Thing is, though, there are an awful lot of us who don’t wear the donkey or elephant seal of approval, and both the blues and the reds hunger for our vote.

Corzine’s Morality Claim

At first, Corzine wanted to cut New Jersey’s overwhelming debt load by hocking major highways. Then, he wanted to nudge small municipalities into consolidation by reducing their state aid. None of those strategies worked, so he pulled back.

Now he wants to borrow $3.9 billion for schools. He says that the latter is a “moral obligation.” I’d wager that most of us would like to hear a lot less from Trenton about its claims to moral authority in the public square, especially when its elected officials slice and dice deals for school construction without voter approval, while simultaneously refusing to enact required pension reform legislation.

Corzine’s Systemic Problem

In reading today’s Washington Post account, “Governor Focuses on Fiscal Health of N.J.,” a person may be tempted to feel some empathy for Governor Corzine, as he attempts to close the deal on a $32.8 billion budget for New Jersey

The governor is in a bind. He’s trying to balance a budget while all major, entrenched interests in this state are looking out merely for their own good and, frankly, not caring for anyone else’s.

But Corzine is not helping his credibility by proposing to push through the legislature $3.9 billion in borrowing for more school construction without voter approval.

He is inarguably correct in stating that the “state’s fiscal mess is ‘a systemic issue’ that grew over time.” State spending in New Jersey slowly ballooned out-of-control, beginning way back in 1976. The culprits include all three branches of N.J. Government.

But he was dead wrong when he simplistically stated in today’s AP report in MyCentralJersey.com that, “We have a legal . . . moral . . . economic obligation” to do what he proposes.

Moral obligations for school funding encompass the needs of the entire state of New Jersey and, when the result is the spending of billions of dollars, they come tied with another moral imperative: the obligation to spend those funds without the fraud and waste that has been part and parcel of the billions disbursed to-date.

If Governor Corzine pushes through the legislature $3.9 billion for school construction without voter approval, he will have become part of the systemic problem which he claims is the source of New Jersey’s fiscal woes.

It’s Been a Long Time

Yesterday morning, after doing laps at the JCC Pool in Bridgewater, I pointed the car to our polling place to choose among Congressional candidates, local party officials, and national convention delegates in the New Jersey primary election. (What, again! – I thought those were over on Super Tuesday.) This is the first year in decades that my wife and I vote in the primaries, because we are unaffiliated voters.

Did you know that, if you are an independent voter, you can vote for either a Democratic or Republican slate in New Jersey’s primary elections without declaring your party affiliation in advance? If you do, though, you’ll stay registered in the party of your choice for all following primary elections, unless you contact Somerset County Offices in Somerville, and request a change back to unaffiliated (independent) voter. It’s easy to do, but you have to take the initiative.

I’d like for New Jersey to have the same system of primary voting as does New Hampshire. In that state, a Democrat or Republican can vote in the primaries for any party. In subsequent primary elections, NH voters can reverse allegiance at the polls at will, if they so choose, without having to go through any red tape.

. . . . On a related matter . . . Did you catch Senator Carl Levin of Michigan testifying before the Democratic Party’s Rules Committee the other day? He was rightfully upset and fuming about the long-unresolved issue of seating Michigan delegates at the upcoming Democratic National Convention? I thought he would bust a gut.

Senator Levin does not – emphasize, ‘does not like’ – the notion that the states of New Hampshire and Iowa keep trumping all the other states in the Union by insisting on staying ahead of the pack in the primaries and caucuses. It’s tradition, Senator, tradition.

The Abuses of the Abbott School Districts

The news media are full of stories about the waste and extravagant spending coming from the state-supplied money spigots of the Abbott Districts. In one case, Governor Corzine has ordered the state Attorney General’s Office to intervene in order to block elements of the outrageous employment contract awarded to Keansburg’s outgoing Superintendent of Schools, Barbara Trzeszkowski.

In another instance, Education Commissioner, Lucille Davey, claims that she couldn’t get the Elizabeth school district to fork over records required to investigate allegations of financial abuse. On Friday, she issued a subpoena to force the release of those records.

. . . and so the saga continues.

Ever since 1981, when the Newark-based Education Law Center, under the direction of Marilyn Morheuser, filed its now famous Abbott v. Burke lawsuit, there has been a seemingly endless string of litigation. A former nun-turned-attorney, Morheuser wanted to improve the education of children “attending poor and urban schools in New Jersey.”

Since then, the ELC’s actions have resulted in a serious funding bifurcation pitting the 31 Abbott Districts which ELC litigation serves, against the remaining school districts in the State of New Jersey. The money flowing from Trenton to non-Abbott School Districts is now acutely unequal.

Fiscal abuses within the Abbott Districts continue to be reported. Yet I don’t recall reading of any stern and persistent efforts by the ELC to require accountability from the Abbott Districts. The billions of dollars poured into the Abbotts by New Jersey taxpayers have resulted in enormous good; they also have resulted in apparently vast waste and loss of goodwill.

The acceptance of massive funding by the Abbotts from the entirety of the New Jersey community comes with undeniable ethical responsibilities for fiscal accountability. The Education Law Center needs to refocus its efforts away from the amount of money that the Abbotts receive and to redirect its energies towards the regulation and monitoring of educational standards, desired scholastic outcomes, and the enforcement of requirements to ensure the responsible stewardship of those funds.

How long should we hold our breath?

Note: For a list of the 31 Abbott Districts, see http://www.state.nj.us/cgi-bin/education/abbotts/abbotturls.pl?string=code&maxhits=100. For a brief history of the Education Law Center see http://www.edlawcenter.org/ELCPublic/AboutELC/History.htm