Gov. Jon S. Corzine proposed the deferment of pension contributions in an attempt to keep property taxes, already the highest in the country, from spinning farther out of control. New Jersey towns may be required to make only half of their contribution to the employee pension system next year. The governor has made public other recommended cuts to the state budget--and we'll be looking at how those cuts affect Metuchen in the weeks to come.
Under the plan, towns would make half their contribution to the fund in 2009, 60 percent in 2010, and 80 percent in 2011. The plan would save towns an estimated $1.35 billion over the three years.
actually cut pension payments 50% forever and just get rid of all the fleas that have more than one pension for their 3-4 no-show jobs. Get rid of all their family members working in the town governments and their distant relatives who are on health insurance policies and don't work for the state at all.
Why do you seem to take everything so personal? Is that just how you are?
Obviously they are not my numbers, as I just copy and pasted them.
How to address the state problem? Healthcare: Lets not add more people to the state bill. Education: Lets stop sending money to Trenton only to have it distributed elsewhere. Is there a reason the money spent on a student in one place should be so much higher than others?
State employee packages. The total pay package for govt. employees (including teachers) actually is higher than the private sector. Bring that more in line. I pay quite a bit for my company sponsored healthcare and so should they.
Pensions, is there any logical reason that state employees should be able to collect multiple pensions?
And do you really believe that NJ is well run? Really? You must be an army of one then.
As for the "surplus" that Clinton turned over, I wonder why the treasury notes on their website that the national debt went up every year he was in office? How does that work? The budget has a surplus but the national debt goes up? But that is besides the point. As for the govt. vs. state employees, the numbers I read stated that they were in fact state employees that have went up, not federal employees.
The buck stops at the top. It was his direct decisions that led to the messes we are confronted with. Geez, surplus was only $559 billion, poor Georgie. Well, he did great on turning that surplus into an over $1 Trillion dollar deficit. Instead of cutting brush in Texas he should have been reading the report given to him that said Al Qaida determined to attack America. But why would he have wanted to stop the attacks, it gave him a reason to attack Iraq. Was a win-win situation per Karl Rove.
And your point on other states not hurting as much as NJ is completely false. Read the papers, look at NY, CA, FL, or any other state in the Union. And things are getting worse and worse budget wise.
SO what are your plans for the state budget? You mention that they must be "addressed". What does that mean? What are your suggestions? Do you have any? Remember, the only way to reduce spending is by firing employees or cutting services. (as opposed to running an excel sheet on the budget and giving each line a little haircut as our new councilmen tried to do in their "show" a couple months ago). So who is getting fired and what services are getting cut?
State employees have been getting whacked, in fact I checked your employment numbers and the huge growth in government employeees in NJ are not due to rising state employees, but federal employees due to Homeland Security Dept. They took all the airport workers at Newark and federalized them.
So again, besides attacking Corzine, do you have any ideas that would "address" the state budget problems?
Yes, its all GWB's fault, everything is his fault.
How will you feel when the troops don't come home but are shipped to Afghanistan instead? How will you feel when Europe still hates us because of our war there? How do you feel now that Obama has stated that a trillion dollar deficit will remain in effect for years?
Where did I say that other states are not hurting? I said they are not hurting as much as NJ is. Is your hatred for GWB so great that nothing else matters? Tell the truth, I didn't know that the guy that wrote the WSG article was even part of GWB's team, I just read the article and thought there were some good points to it.
And by the way, when Clinton left office, the surplus was $559 billion, but only if you believe in congressional accounting rules. Think maybe 911 had something to do with what GWB did?
But that is besides the point. The fact is, for NJ, we need to address the state budget in its big parts. Healthcare, education, state employee numbers. Those are the big numbers, if those are not addressed, we can not balance the budget.
No, the article didn't, you did. You stated other states didnt raise taxes too high so now they can jack them up to balance thier budgets. Raising taxes in the teeth of a horrible recession is not the answer. California is practically bankrupt, Alaska is in the heck of a whole, I can't come up with any state that is doing well.
We took a huge surplus and shipped it off to Iraq. Now we have a 1 trillion dollar deficit.
Corzine is making the right moves, but unfortunately he has very little to work with right now. And very little, if any, ability to make changes on a national level that could bring growth back to our state and economy.
The damage Bush and the Republicans have done to our country are very deep and will be very long lasting. And you, me, and our kids will be paying for it for a very long time.
The article didn't state that other states are not hurting, but what you are doing is comparing a headache with brain surgery.
Take a look at this article and see which politican you can blame these lies for.
http://www.northjersey.com/news/northernnj/NJ_lagged_in_tri-state_job_boom.html
Considering 2007 only saw 3K jobs created, maybe the numbers you have seen are wrong, or you remember them wrong.
What states are those? All states are hurting now. Our current president entered office with 1 trillion dollar surplus and is leaving with a trillion dollar deficit. Where are these magical states you mention again? Every state I have seen numbers on are in the tank, budget crisis right and left.
When I left NH last week they were complaining about having the highest property taxes in the nation and the budget crisis. I thought to myslef, heck, just like home.
As for the 93% number, I don't buy it at all. Think about it logically, if these numbers are right, then total job growth in NJ from 2000 to 2007 was only 60K jobs. Those numbers do not match any numbers I have seen.
Again, where are those magical states you keep mentioning that are doing so well?
All states are hurting but most not as much as New Jersey. NJ was a mess before this current recession. What was our excuse then? Other states taxed their citizens less, but now with this economy, they have room to increase taxes. Do we?
Can you argue with the quote about state employees making up 93% of all jobs created in NJ over the last 7 years? You see nothing wrong with that?
Sure, use politics to argue about things, but that doesn't fool anyone.
Please, lets have more links to former Bush speechwriters. That will really make your point.
And where are all these magical other states the writer mentions as having done the right thing, as opposed to what we did in NJ? Hmmm, take a real look around and every state out there is hurting.
This guy needs to crawl back under a rock with Dubya, oh, thats right, he already has, he's writing speeches for Rupert Murdoch.
From 2000 to 2007, says the New Jersey Business & Industry Association, the government added 54,800 jobs. To put that in proper perspective, that works out to 93% of all jobs created in New Jersey over those seven years.
What governors and citizens alike need most is a growing economy that is creating jobs for the people and sending revenue to the capital. Over the long run, the only way to have a healthy and growing economy is to do exactly what New Jersey has not: Trust the people with their own money, and create an environment where initiative and enterprise are rewarded rather than penalized.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123059756486341161.html
Nj is in a financial mess because our country is in a financial mess. Look at the other states, they are facing the same nightmares we are.
Accounting tricks won't solve the problem but they may allow us to continue to function on a day to day basis.
This mess is bigger than anything Metuchen or NJ can do to fix. You think this year is bad, wait till next year.
Cutting spending, not just putting the bill off for tomorrow.
How do you cut spending? First you have to look at where the money goes. You have to tackle the big dollar amounts, going after anything else is just window dressing. You can't balance the budget by ignoring the biggest parts of it.
What will solve the problem?
Defer. Hmmm, NJ's in a financial mess, has no money and basically gets a low (or no) interest loan for 3 years.
Sounds like a subprime loan. Isn't that what got us into this mess in the first place?
Accounting tricks will not solve our problems.