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.
Monday, June 23, 2008
Sunday, June 22, 2008
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.
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.
Thursday, June 19, 2008
Coming Through
In my blog of Tuesday, June 17th, I mentioned that I had to turn back from attending a public presentation, because of wind-driven storm damage to the windshield of my car early Monday evening.
It’s good to know that some businesses keep their commitments. My insurance company is State Farm – has been for many years. Luckily, I’ve not had any major claims to present and, with all of the competitive insurance ads, I sometimes wonder if I could not get a better price deal. Maybe I could.
But it was gratifying to know that, from the time I made my after-hours call to this insurance company on Monday night, it took only one phone call to get through to the right series of persons, and to set up an appointment at my home to have the windshield replaced.
During my call I informed the call taker that I needed to have my car back in operation by Friday. She set me up with a service coordinator who, in turn, connected me with a representative of Safelite Auto Glass. That person set me up for a service call for today (Thursday), between 12:00 pm and 5:00 pm. I was asked to verify the status of the job around 12 noon, Thursday. Today, I did and, wouldn’t you know, the service technician was already on his way to my home when I called to check, just before noon.
Dealing with people and companies who have set up competent business processes to deliver an on-time customer solution with no hassle is a great relief. The opposite, as many people have found out, is a nightmare.
I don’t know how matters would have turned out, if I had been involved in a more disastrous insurance situation but, to borrow from one of my Mom’s many aphorisms, “Always give credit where credit is due.”
I miss you, Mom & Dad. Stay well all of you out there, and thanks for checking in.
It’s good to know that some businesses keep their commitments. My insurance company is State Farm – has been for many years. Luckily, I’ve not had any major claims to present and, with all of the competitive insurance ads, I sometimes wonder if I could not get a better price deal. Maybe I could.
But it was gratifying to know that, from the time I made my after-hours call to this insurance company on Monday night, it took only one phone call to get through to the right series of persons, and to set up an appointment at my home to have the windshield replaced.
During my call I informed the call taker that I needed to have my car back in operation by Friday. She set me up with a service coordinator who, in turn, connected me with a representative of Safelite Auto Glass. That person set me up for a service call for today (Thursday), between 12:00 pm and 5:00 pm. I was asked to verify the status of the job around 12 noon, Thursday. Today, I did and, wouldn’t you know, the service technician was already on his way to my home when I called to check, just before noon.
Dealing with people and companies who have set up competent business processes to deliver an on-time customer solution with no hassle is a great relief. The opposite, as many people have found out, is a nightmare.
I don’t know how matters would have turned out, if I had been involved in a more disastrous insurance situation but, to borrow from one of my Mom’s many aphorisms, “Always give credit where credit is due.”
I miss you, Mom & Dad. Stay well all of you out there, and thanks for checking in.
Tuesday, June 17, 2008
Trailer for Sale or Rent, Rooms to Let, 50 Cents!
Last night, as I left my home in Bridgewater, headed for a special meeting of the Somerset County Park Commission, I suddenly found myself right in the middle of a wind-whipped mini-storm blowing tree-tops around at will, and flinging broken branches onto the roadway. It scared whatever was left of daylight right out of me.
Without warning, a small tree limb blew down and struck my auto’s windshield on the passenger side, where the glass meets the metal frame, shattering it into a spidery web pattern. That was the end of my planned excursion to 355 Milltown Road, where I wanted to hear the Park Commission’s presentation about its new housing policy. I turned around, drove back to my home and called my insurer, State Farm: The windshield is scheduled to be replaced Thursday afternoon. Things don’t always go as planned.
Luckily, as I have mentioned before in one of my blog posts, there are two local journalists, Martin C. Bricketto and Joe Tyrell, who would not think of not covering key proceedings of the Park Commission. You can read their reports in the Courier News and the Star-Ledger, online or in print.
Judging from what has been reported in the last few days, far too much time and salary dollars have been spent in studying the housing issue and in coming up with a lop-sided recommendation still largely out-of-whack with what people in the real world pay for housing. Last year’s investigative analysis by Wolff & Samson made it abundantly clear that housing for park employees was a major abuse of the public trust.
Presumably, the new housing policy is intended to correct that. Yet, the Golf Maintenance Director will continue to pay no rent for the Markota House, because that stipulation is reported to be in his contract. He earned $94,500 in 2007. Then why not re-negotiate the contract? Is it in the public interest to provide free housing?
And, if the Director is underpaid, then why not re-negotiate to increase his salary upwards, while charging fair market value for the housing? Additionally, as Joe Tyrell pointed out, the housing policy uses carefully crafted legalese which employs phrases that, “…are buzzwords in the tax world . . . by including them, the commission potentially reduces the taxable value of the homes as employee benefits.”
At least one of the rents now being charged is far more equitable than before: Parks Director, Ray Brown, was once paying $500, before voluntarily doubling it to $1,000 when the question first came to light. It has since been increased to $2,500.
But there isn’t any over-riding real-world perspective to the whole ball of wax. The best that can be said for it is that it was assembled to placate the public; possibly to try as much as possible to honor previous commitments made verbally or otherwise; and to come up with a rationale that would hold legally, especially with the IRS. To really understand why what was done, was done, the housing policy can be justified only by looking at it through a political prism. Forget the economics.
Have a good summer; thanks for reading.
Without warning, a small tree limb blew down and struck my auto’s windshield on the passenger side, where the glass meets the metal frame, shattering it into a spidery web pattern. That was the end of my planned excursion to 355 Milltown Road, where I wanted to hear the Park Commission’s presentation about its new housing policy. I turned around, drove back to my home and called my insurer, State Farm: The windshield is scheduled to be replaced Thursday afternoon. Things don’t always go as planned.
Luckily, as I have mentioned before in one of my blog posts, there are two local journalists, Martin C. Bricketto and Joe Tyrell, who would not think of not covering key proceedings of the Park Commission. You can read their reports in the Courier News and the Star-Ledger, online or in print.
Judging from what has been reported in the last few days, far too much time and salary dollars have been spent in studying the housing issue and in coming up with a lop-sided recommendation still largely out-of-whack with what people in the real world pay for housing. Last year’s investigative analysis by Wolff & Samson made it abundantly clear that housing for park employees was a major abuse of the public trust.
Presumably, the new housing policy is intended to correct that. Yet, the Golf Maintenance Director will continue to pay no rent for the Markota House, because that stipulation is reported to be in his contract. He earned $94,500 in 2007. Then why not re-negotiate the contract? Is it in the public interest to provide free housing?
And, if the Director is underpaid, then why not re-negotiate to increase his salary upwards, while charging fair market value for the housing? Additionally, as Joe Tyrell pointed out, the housing policy uses carefully crafted legalese which employs phrases that, “…are buzzwords in the tax world . . . by including them, the commission potentially reduces the taxable value of the homes as employee benefits.”
At least one of the rents now being charged is far more equitable than before: Parks Director, Ray Brown, was once paying $500, before voluntarily doubling it to $1,000 when the question first came to light. It has since been increased to $2,500.
But there isn’t any over-riding real-world perspective to the whole ball of wax. The best that can be said for it is that it was assembled to placate the public; possibly to try as much as possible to honor previous commitments made verbally or otherwise; and to come up with a rationale that would hold legally, especially with the IRS. To really understand why what was done, was done, the housing policy can be justified only by looking at it through a political prism. Forget the economics.
Have a good summer; thanks for reading.
Saturday, June 14, 2008
Time Out
One of the challenges in writing a blog like this is the choice of appropriate topics. Certainly, by reading newspapers, magazines and by taking in TV, there is plenty of grist for the mill. The problem, though, is that much, if not most, of the subject matter is, to put it bluntly, less than elevating.
If it isn’t the Bush administration messing up in Iraq, it’s the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives standing in the way of a bi-partisan solution; or, similarly, it’s the Governor of New Jersey and the rest of the elected and appointed officials in Trenton obstructing one another’s efforts to fix the budget and funding mess; meanwhile, a meddling and aggressive New Jersey Supreme Court, taking advantage of Trenton lawmakers’ unwillingness to solve controversial issues, continues to make law from the bench, instead of restricting itself to interpreting existing legislation.
Should I go on? Oh, yes. There is also the matter of Somerset County’s trysting with the Park Commission, a creature of the electorate, which a majority of the Freeholders denied citizens their right and privilege to vote upon last fall. And, what about the Bridgewater-Raritan Board of Education and its Superintendent, who thought that they were doing us a favor this spring when they ‘returned’ money to us that was ours in the first place?
Had enough for one day? I have!
To all of you great dads out there who have to put up with all of this baloney, day-in and day-out, as you succeed in raising your families, have a memorable Father’s Day. Heed my advice for tomorrow: Attend worship services. (If your tradition points to the synagogue or temple, I hope you already did.) Don’t open up a newspaper or magazine and refrain from turning on the TV. Have a good time outdoors with your family and friends. Then, when the clock strikes 9:00 pm, turn on the TV to the Celtics and Lakers, and enjoy one of the best match-ups and rivalries in NBA finals history. I’m one of those lucky sons-of-a-gun whose wife actually enjoys watching a classic sports event with her spouse!
Be well, and Happy Father’s Day, guys: You deserve it
If it isn’t the Bush administration messing up in Iraq, it’s the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives standing in the way of a bi-partisan solution; or, similarly, it’s the Governor of New Jersey and the rest of the elected and appointed officials in Trenton obstructing one another’s efforts to fix the budget and funding mess; meanwhile, a meddling and aggressive New Jersey Supreme Court, taking advantage of Trenton lawmakers’ unwillingness to solve controversial issues, continues to make law from the bench, instead of restricting itself to interpreting existing legislation.
Should I go on? Oh, yes. There is also the matter of Somerset County’s trysting with the Park Commission, a creature of the electorate, which a majority of the Freeholders denied citizens their right and privilege to vote upon last fall. And, what about the Bridgewater-Raritan Board of Education and its Superintendent, who thought that they were doing us a favor this spring when they ‘returned’ money to us that was ours in the first place?
Had enough for one day? I have!
To all of you great dads out there who have to put up with all of this baloney, day-in and day-out, as you succeed in raising your families, have a memorable Father’s Day. Heed my advice for tomorrow: Attend worship services. (If your tradition points to the synagogue or temple, I hope you already did.) Don’t open up a newspaper or magazine and refrain from turning on the TV. Have a good time outdoors with your family and friends. Then, when the clock strikes 9:00 pm, turn on the TV to the Celtics and Lakers, and enjoy one of the best match-ups and rivalries in NBA finals history. I’m one of those lucky sons-of-a-gun whose wife actually enjoys watching a classic sports event with her spouse!
Be well, and Happy Father’s Day, guys: You deserve it
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