Asked whether Christie had ruled out restoring some of the funds, a spokesman for Christie, Kevin Roberts, said the governor "is always ready to work with the Senate president, Assembly speaker and Legislature."
Steve Sweeney's reaction?
"We'd be happy to talk to the governor," Senate President Stephen Sweeney (D-Gloucester) said at a news conference Thursday
Talk they will. And give in, on something big, they will.
Here's the deal. The cut in transitional aid to cities - to $10 million, far less than Camden alone received last year - was stunning. It hits very hard core Democratic constituencies - urban mayors, political bosses collected to urban mayors that benefit from the budget. And the reality is that, based on our property-tax heavy system, because places like Camden have lost most of their jobs to the surrounding suburbs, they don't have any other way out.
So the Democrats need to get this money back, really, really badly. There's plenty of room to do it given that Christie left more money unspent in this year's budget than at any time in recent memory. The price will be high, and there is a good chance that it will neuter plans by the Democrats to do any serious oversight this summer. But there is very good reason to believe that the price will be paid.
Watch this story in the coming days and weeks, as Charlie Brown rides again.
Mayor Dana Redd of Camden delivering the keynote address to the Camden Call to Service Summit sponsored by Citizens' Campaign. Part 1 is below, part 2 after the fold:
I wasn't a resident of New Jersey when Jim Florio was governor, so I don't have much first-hand knowledge of his tenure in Trenton. But in my brief interactions with him this year, he seems to be a mensch.
Last night, he received the Alain Daniels Civic Responsibility Award at the Camden Call to Service Summit. Here are the intros and the governor's remarks.
For first-responders, the massive cuts to their labor force are not only about backdoor methods of making collective bargaining illegal, as Hetty Rosenstein charges Steve Sweeney and Jennifer Beck are trying to do. Not only about Christie's near-daily demonizing of the people who work for New Jersey, and not only about Christie ignoring labor's collective bargaining rights. Firefighters & police are charged to protect, and deep cuts in state aid have meant massive layoffs, and an impact on how safe we all are.
Boots of laid-off Camden police officers (APP)
Camden laid off nearly one-half of its police force this year; a third of its firefighters. Yesterday, about 40 laid-off firefighters and firefighters coming off shift rallied outside Camden's city hall, demanding action from Mayor Dana Redd. Their signs read: Camden's new emergency # (856) TOO-LATE, and People are dying.
The NJ state PBA's website is as hard on Democrats in the legislature as it is on Gov. Christie:
On the political front, Governor Christie continues to preach that he has no problem with the "rank-and-file" members while at the same time he proposes legislation that denies those same rank-and-file members their collective bargaining rights, violates their contracts, and reduces pension benefits that they have faithfully paid for during their careers.
Unfortunately, the Democratic majority, with only a few exceptions, has apparently forgotten their core values and has been ineffective in bringing some order and common sense to the table.
I arrived at the Adventure Aquarium in Camden in plenty of time to cover the annual meeting of the Greater Camden Partnership. The event staff showed me to the large ballroom with auditorium seating for the over 400 movers and shakers who would be attending. I set up my video camera on the left side of the room, against what I thought was a wall, near the podium.
Shortly after that, one of the aquarium staff walked by and pressed a button. The "wall" behind me turned out to be a heavy curtain, and it started to rise. Behind the curtain, I was face-to-face with a 500 pound shark along with dozens of other sea creatures in a 550,000 gallon aquarium. All that was separating me from the sharks and a watery deluge was a pane of glass.
First Lady Michelle Obama has taken on the challenge of reducing childhood obesity and improving nutrition among our young people. Like any initiative, this takes not only dedicated people, but also money.
Where will that money come from? At the federal level, Congress is intent on perpetuating wars of choice, tax cuts for the wealthy, and kickbacks to the robber barons of the financial "services" industry. Social programs are a prime target for John Boehner's cuts. At the state level here in New Jersey, the governor is more interested in tax breaks for his wealthy friends and subsidies for the gambling industry.
Fortunately, Camden, one of the poorest cities in the nation, has several benefactors that are stepping in to help combat childhood obesity. The most prominent and generous of these benefactors is the Camden-based Campbell's Soup Company.
Driving across the Ben Franklin Bridge into New Jersey, a visitor quickly sees the old Sears building on Admiral Wilson Boulevard. Built in the 1920s, the store was emblematic of the former prosperity of Camden. It was one of the first department stores to have a parking lot to accommodate those newfangled horseless carriages. Sears left the building in 1970, and it has been home to a diverse series of enterprises from a car dealership to a night club to a series of retail stores.
Completely vacant for the last six years, the neoclassical building has been on the list of sites for preservationists to defend from oblivion. It survived a demolition threat during the rehabilitation of the Admiral Wilson in preparation for the 2000 Republican National Convention in Philadelphia. The building's owner has made several promises with regard to its transformation, but has taken little action in the last several years.
The United States Constitution is pretty succinct on the requirements for a decennial census:
The actual enumeration shall be made within three Years after the first Meeting of the Congress of the United States, and within every subsequent Term of ten Years, in such Manner as they shall by Law direct. (Article 1, Section 2)
This sounds simple in theory, but in practice, this clause requires each state to go through what has turned out to be an often contentious, politically-driven kabuki dance. The “gerrymandering” that we learned about in middle school has been supplanted by “packing” and “cracking” of electoral districts as the maps are drawn. (These terms are explained below.)
Mention Camden and what comes to mind? People immediately think of a crime-ridden city in dire poverty with no hope of rebounding.
The city is at a crossroads. Camden has had to lay off nearly half its cops, a third of its firefighters and scores of other workers. Once a mecca for high-tech jobs in South Jersey, Camden has been impacted by crime, the Bush recession, and a shrinking tax base. Forty percent of Camden residents eke out their existence from below the poverty line, and homicides and other serious crimes are rampant. Those residents who are lucky enough to be employed are hit by Governor Christie's cutbacks in public transportation, education, and other areas. The library system is closing.
After seven years of state control, $175 million of special state aid, and one year after home rule has been returned to the city, there's a lot of hand-wringing and finger-pointing in the local and national press on this issue. Mayor Dana Redd is playing a game of chicken with the unions, and the unions are reluctant to work out a compromise set of concessions.
So given this scenario, what is the future of Camden? Certainly, there are challenges - but these challenges are being met head on by businesses, residents, and community organizations.
NJ revenue intake exceeds expectations The state took in $12.61 billion – almost $600 million more than was projected, according to state Treasurer Andrew Sidamon-Eristoff. Some key items of interest: > Some high-income taxpayers, expecting the Bush-era tax cuts to expire in 2011, took their income in 2010 > Corporation business taxes came in 21.7 percent above projections > Collections from the state lottery were down 3.3 percent.
Troubles for the beleaguered city of Camden seem to be as plentiful as our governor's attacks on public servants. It was recently announced that the entire staff of Camden's library system will be laid off only a few months after one of the branches was closed to save the others. While it's a no-brainer to realize that removal of library services will cost more in the long run (due to fewer after-school options and decreased learning opportunities), when the crime-ridden city is making draconian cuts to emergency services it's hard to argue strongly for the libraries.
Some of the city's library services will be assumed by the county library system, to be paid for with a special tax on city residents. There's also talk about utilizing space in the Rutgers-Camden library for the county-run system.
So here we have the trite phrase "necessity is the mother of invention" amply demonstrated. What's happening in Camden is something that many Blue Jerseyans have been advocating for a long time, consolidation of government services where there's a clear advantage in saving money and improving outcomes.
Unfortunately, this consolidation is being done in an adhoc manner during a time of great stress. It will not be a panacea for Camden's tribulations, but if such a panacea existed we wouldn't be writing about the city's problems today. It would be more effective if our elected officials had the guts to aggressively promote and implement planned, well-thought out intelligent consolidation, but that's just not in their DNA. Yet this seat-of-the-pants consolidation can provide some benefit, keeping at least a modicum of library services available to Camden's citizens, and serve as a laboratory for similar efforts across the state. It's not quite the silver lining we'd like, but with the proactive cooperation among the city, county, and Rutgers, it's a step in the right direction.
This morning, vmars brought our attention to the sparse news coverage of the developing port shutdown by the International Longshoremen's Association, a protest over local jobs lost. Vmars likened the union action to the real Boston Tea Party, lamenting that if you don't have the antics, hate or handguns of a Tea Party rally, you don't get much news coverage.
Shut down now are the ports in Camden, Port Elizabeth, Newark, Bayonne and New York.
The heart of all this is the loss of jobs paying a living wage - International Longshoremen's Association Local 1291 is set to lose 200 to 300 jobs - 400,000 labor hours a year - when when Del Monte Fresh Produce Co. shifts 75 ships and a half million tons of banana cargo from Camden to the privately-owned Gloucester Terminals L.L.C., which pays workers less, and where some workers get no benefits. The company plans to move those jobs even though the union offered considerable concessions to keep those jobs, including an offer to Del Monte that would keep business, dock and terminal workers at $21.50-$22.50 down from top rates of $31 per hour. In frustration at the loss of Del Monte's banana-shipping jobs, dock workers dumped cases of Del Monte pineapple into the Delaware River.
There's some talk now of solidarity actions spreading to ports in Florida and Texas.
Apparently the Longshoreman's Association is currently shutting down the ports in Elizabeth and Newark in a protest over loss of jobs. This is a huge deal that is getting little coverage, perhaps because it doesn't have the antics, hate or handguns of a Tea Party rally.
But what stood out most to me was this line:
On Labor Day, dock workers at the Port of Philadelphia tossed pineapples into the Delaware River to protest Del Monte's decision to move its produce operations to a less costly port.
There you have true tea party activism. Just like the Boston colonists tossed tea in the bay to protest tea taxes, these union members tossed produce to protest the loss of jobs transporting and storing produce.
But did it get any coverage? I read about 10 papers a day and I don't remember seeing anything about it. A Google News search pulls up quite a few articles from the nether reaches of the paper, but outside of the Philly Inquirer there was little front page coverage.
Yet tea parties get tons of coverage, despite (or perhaps because of) their primary funding coming from the Koch Billionaire's Club, corporate sources and free advertising from Fox News. It reminds me of winter 2003 when millions of people throughout the country rallied against invading Iraq, yet got little coverage. Then a couple hundred thousand people in support of the war counter protested in DC and it led the television newscasts.
They closed a neighborhood library in Camden yesterday. Camden - one of New Jersey's most disadvantaged cities - bearing the brunt of the Bush Recession and the Christie Depredation with an order of magnitude more grief than most of us.
They say that nature abhors a vacuum, and the vacuum created for the children in that neighborhood by the closing of the Fairview Branch library will be filled by drug dealers, gangs, and other nefarious forces. So by closing the library, Camden residents will be forced to spend more on the already overworked police department and judicial system.
Many Camden teens will lose their only access to the Internet - vital in this day and age to secure even the most low-paying jobs. Younger children will miss out on the joy of reading - exploring real and imaginary worlds to spark their desire and commitment to a better life, not to mention losing tools that foster better academic performance. The neighborhood, which has been coming together over the last decade, will lose a gathering place that helps advance that cohesion. And while the library staff, which consists of two employees, will be transferred to other branches, it's only a matter of time before they or their colleagues will join the ranks of the unemployed, as the other branches in Camden are on track to close also.
The entire budget shortfall (not just the libraries) for the City of Camden is $28 million. That's how much we spend on the war in Iraq in four hours. Despite the fact that the recovery of one of New Jersey's most historic cities is vastly more important than the oil wars in the Middle East, it impractical to just stop the war for four hours to make up the shortfall. But we could stop the war for good, and use those funds to revitalize Camden, and the scores of other urban areas and their people who represent the future of America. Where are our priorities?
Governor Chris Christie, who is on a rampage privatizing every government service in sight, has done an about face when it comes to Atlantic City. Christie is proposing carving out the revenue-producing casino district from the rest of the blighted city. The state would take over municipal services, and no doubt those services would be candidates for Christie's ill-advised privatization initiative.
At one time, Atlantic City was the gambling mecca of the East Coast - an alternative to Las Vegas a lot closer to the population centers on the Atlantic seaboard. But over the years, as other states legalized gambling, Atlantic City's attractiveness started to wane.
Looking at the other recent state takeover of local government, Camden, one can only wonder if this is the right approach. While the Camden waterfront has been gentrified and is a tourist destination, urban decay and all the issues that go with it are just blocks away. I'm afraid the people of Atlantic City will suffer the same fate.
The Governor's motives for this takeover may seem to be laudable. But I'm afraid that I trust the Governor about as far as I can throw him. His track record over the first six months of his reign shows that he cares more about millionaires and developers than he does about the middle class and the poor. His shenanigans with Reform Jersey Now demonstrate that his regard for the spirit of the law is lacking. Will his diversion of tax money on the Xanadu project from government services to the Chris Christie Crony Developers be a precursor for a similar approach in Atlantic City?
Atlantic City is one of New Jersey's many jewels. Its legendary boardwalk and Convention Center are deeply rooted in our nation's history. And the gambling industry provides New Jersey residents with much-needed jobs. But is a state takeover by a power-hungry executive the right solution? At a time when our urban centers are closing libraries and firing teachers, we owe it to the people of Atlantic City to find the best solution that meets the needs of all its residents. Aid to schools, libraries, and the tourism industry - yes. But takeover of the city by an ego maniacal ambitious former prosecutor who skirts around the edges of legality is worrisome at best.
The hardest part, though, may be renewing confidence in the criminal justice system.
"If the police are no different from the thugs, who are we supposed to depend on when we need help?" Mills said.
That's a good question. Granted, it's not all police. But that's similar to how all politicians fight the corruption meme because of the actions of a few. How do you restore the public trust when innocent people have been framed and served time for nothing more than being in the wrong place, at the wrong time to be busted by the wrong people.
This is a pretty disturbing story done by the NBC Philadelphia local affiliate's investigative unit. They now have 4 officers that have been suspended without pay while the FBI looks into their actions and convicted criminals are being let out of jail without an explanation. When asked why the Camden County Prosecutors office would vacate the sentence of an inmate without explanation, they said:
We are under no legal obligation to inform the public as to why
Then they followed up with this:
Our best choice is to say nothing
Well that doesn't make it sound like what is going on is very good. The story says that the FBI investigation into Camden police corruption has now expanded and the allegations sound pretty serious. In addition, their sources say that cases for dozens of people that have been arrested by the suspended police officers have been dismissed or overturned. Here's the story:
For the last seven years, the state has gotten the last word on local actions taken by governing bodies from the planning board to the school board to city council. Newly elected Camden Mayor Dana Redd wants to put an end to that state control:
Seven years ago, the state implemented a $175 million bailout designed to invigorate commerce in Camden, a city weighed down by poverty, crime and corruption. In exchange, the governor got final say over the actions of governing bodies from the planning board to the school board to city council.
Now that most of that aid has been spent, Redd says it's time to put the mayor back in charge.
"I fully expect to be in control of leading the city," Redd said in an interview days after her easy victory.
New Jersey Gov.-elect Christopher J. Christie yesterday described the state takeover of Camden as mostly a "failure" and said he would work with Camden's next mayor to shift power back to the city.
"I'd like to return control of Camden to the City of Camden as quickly as I possibly could," he said after meeting with high school students in Hamilton Township, Mercer County. "My fundamental position is, I don't believe that the state should be controlling municipalities in New Jersey."
The Inquirer article says that State Legislators have considered loosening controls even before Christie takes office. While many leaders in Camden supported the initial takeover, there is a feeling that the state monies were not well allocated and control should be returned to local authorities. What do you think should be done with state control of cities like Camden?
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Mention Camden and what comes to mind? People immediately think of a crime-ridden city in dire poverty with no hope of rebounding.
