Thoughts on Christie's income tax cut proposal from NJPP research director Mary Forsberg:
The cornerstone policy proposal of Gov. Christie's State of the State speech Tuesday was a 10 percent across-the-board reduction in income tax rates. But "fixing" the only tax in New Jersey that isn't broken would be a bad idea, resulting in less money for schools and local government services and likely forcing many New Jerseyans to pay more in property taxes.
"Some in GOP signal openness" blares the unexpected Washington Post headline. It seems forty Republicans have joined sixty Democrats to sign a letter advising that "all options for mandatory and discretionary spending and revenues must be on the table," a strong hint in support of tax increases. So, a list of the 40 most open-minded, bipartisan Republicans, with moderates and conservatives, must surely include New Jerseyans? No, not one. Frank LoBiondo and all the rest are missing in action again. Honestly, the last year shows LoBiondo wakes up every morning afraid of following Mike Castle into involuntary retirement. It's pretty pathetic after he spent four years in the minority complaining that Republican leaders didn't value moderates enough.
On the other hand, maybe I shouldn't complain. Whatever the Deficit Super Committee recommends would only harm America in the short and long term.
This was written by Ron C. Rice with Allen Patterson, CEO of Patterson & Fraser, and posted by Newark Councilman Rice. - Promoted by Rosi
Since 1967, the City of Newark has economically struggled. In 44 years, real development did not take place until the early 1990s - the construction of New Jersey Performing Arts Center. The development of this edifice started the energy of citywide "new" construction throughout the '90s. In 2006 and 2007, there were signs of economic retraction possibly leading to a recession and as the recession loomed, the City of Newark began to experience an even more critical condition of its economic pulse: the foreclosure rate elevated to historic highs and the city continued spending more than it was generating despite cutting substantially into the structural deficit.
Recently, the Newark Municipal Council voted for a $616M spending plan thereby ratifying a 2011 budget for the city. In doing so, the council lowered the tax increase originally proposed by Booker's Administration from 7% to 4.6% and maintained the budget's commitment to no furloughs or layoffs. Historically, however, Newark's budget solutions have not tackled the main systemic problems of spending and investing.
It would be easy to say that as the structural deficit grew in our budget, the problem was masked by the use of Port Authority settlement monies to fill budget holes for a decade. It would be easy to say cut all directors' salaries, get rid of all city perks, end all legal contracts, etc. and those cuts alone would annually balance the budget. It would also be easy to merely state that other cities in America are experiencing the same maladies and worse, from laying off half of their police forces to declaring bankruptcy. But all of those arguments hide the fact that we have real assets in our city that we have not had the collective will or the statewide support to use for the benefit of our city's progress.
This past Saturday, I sat down with Assemblyman Upendra Chivukula to conduct a video interview. Part 1 was posted on Blue Jersey here. Part 2 appears below the fold.
Following the interview, I met with the Assemblyman and his press aide for over an hour for an off-the-record discussion of New Jersey politics and other topics. I don't know if there's a word in Hindi or Punjabi for "mensch", but I came away realizing that the assemblyman from Central Jersey is one. He may not have the pizzazz that some of his colleagues exhibit, but I believe he has a passion for service, both in his legislative life and his "civilian" profession - developing learning software for autistic kids. He may be the first Indian-American to serve in the New Jersey legislature, but his concerns transcend ethnic boundaries.
Assemblyman Upendra Chivukula was born and educated as an engineer in India, and came to the United States at age 24. He has represented the people in his Central Jersey district for 10 years. When he's not working to serve the people of his district, he develops software to assist autistic children in the learning process. Yesterday, I spoke with him at the Akbar Restaurant in Edison about many of the issues facing New Jersey.
My interview appears in two parts. In Part 1, below the fold, Chivukula discusses two areas that he is passionate about - telecommunications and energy. He brings an engineer's expertise to these topics, and explains the complex technical and economic issues in layman's terms.
Part 2 will appear on Tuesday and there he will discuss education, the budget, New Jersey's competitiveness, and marriage equality. He will offer comments on the 2013 gubernatorial election and what he hopes to accomplish in the legislature next year.
In campaigns there is such a thing as spinning and such a thing, as well, dishonesty.
The first instance of this, as previously reported, was Assemblyman Amodeo saying his fellow Republican candidate for the legislature had never received a no-bid contract despite it being proven with smoking gun evidence. I truly can not understand that move, outright denying something that anyone (let alone a rival campaign) can get a record of being true.
But there was also another odd, demonstrably false, statement in the same radio interview.
John Amodeo: We've been told by the Governor there was an increase this year ... people will see their homestead rebates increasing not only this year but again in the following year.
OK, I guess I understand hoping someone won't do a public records search for professional services contracts but people know they didn't get more money... because they didn't get more money. (more after the jump)
As we pass through Labor Day Weekend and the upcoming week when many politicians and the rest of us return to normal tasks, lets talk JOBS - "right track and wrong track" as the pollsters say. Yesterday's jobs report, indicating that nationally employers added no new net jobs, reinforced the need for policies to put people back to work. Nationally unemployment remains at 9.1% and in harder-hit New Jersey at 9.5%. On Thursday President Obama will present his initiatives. Help from the federal government is important, but our state government also needs to do more.
On August 1, while John Boehner, Eric Cantor, Paul Ryan and their colleagues were threatening to shut down the government, Rush Holt gave a speech describing the budget debate as:
at its heart, a debate between two visions for America. One side envisions rebuilding our country, investing in jobs and education and infrastructure, and rising from the Great Recession as a stronger and more resilient Nation. The other side accepts a pessimistic vision of a weakened America with a shrunken government-a Nation hampered by deep cuts to the safety net and hobbled by a refusal to invest in our future.
I couldn't agree more. And, like the Honorable Representative from the 12th District, I hold with the former.
Here's the full text, after the jump, of his August 1, 2011 speech. It will be in the Congressional Record as soon as it is updated - assuming, of course, that funds will be budgeted for updating and maintaining the Congressional Record.
Fitch Ratings downgrades the State of New Jersey's outstanding general obligation (GO) bonds to 'AA-' from 'AA'.
Fitch also downgrades to 'AA-' from 'AA' the rating on the Garden State Preservation Trust's open space revenue bonds.
Additionally, Fitch downgrades to 'A+' from 'AA-' the ratings on the state's appropriation-backed debt and other related debt, which is detailed at the end of this release.
The Rating Outlook for all affected bonds is revised to Stable from Negative.
But oh my god how? Threats of violence, unreturned phone calls, potty talk - how did they manage to even get in a room together?
Oh... that's right it was all total bullcrap. Woops, almost forgot about that.
(Sweeney: Bro the press corpse totally bought it!
Christie: Told ya! They want me to be president so bad it's crazy.
Sweeney: I know but Ginger Gibson's stuff is reDONCulous!
Christie: Dude, she writes whatever I say it's hilarious, for realz.
Sweeney: It's like you're George Norcross and she's Steve Sweeney!)
The title of this piece is contradictory. After all, it in and of itself, is a generalization.
But I'll still go out on a limb and make a generalization - In any of New Jersey's 40 legislative districts it is better to elect a Democrat than to elect a Republican in the upcoming election.
New Jersey Republican Assemblywoman Caroline Casagrande says she is "perhaps" ready to take bold action to charge "slumlords" and "predatory lenders" for the cost of providing legal services.
Really - you can read it right here (scroll down to the end).
Let's read the proverbial tea leaves, shall we?
There are some indications that the new District 11, where Casagrande is running for reelection, could go towards the Democrats (much as Casagrande's prior District 12 was held by Democrats for much of the last decade).
Casagrande presumably knows that Christie's budget and Christie himself is deeply unpopular among moderates in New Jersey.
So she pretends to be addressing the problem - more on that below the fold.
A LOT of money was restored last week that was originally cut out of the budget by the Governor.
Yet very little credit is being given to the main person who led the charge against the Governor.
Steve Sweeney gets a LOT of flack on this "progressive" site ,but very little credit.
It is time to give the man his due.
This is from a M.Symons article which quotes Mr.Murray:
"He wasn't always going to restore. He didn't expect even a little bit of the blowback that he's getting from the people of the state. It's not so much us. The people of the state are angry at his cuts because they went too far," Sweeney said.
"There's an opportunity to restore more than what he's saying," Sweeney said. "The fact that he's feeling so much pressure now, because the cuts clearly were mean-spirited."
Murray said Christie's interest in defusing that phrase is why he spent the week mending fences."You can be a bully and still do good things, but mean-spirited means you're simply out to get somebody, regardless of what the impact would be on anybody else," Murray said.
"The budget cuts essentially handed the Democrats the ability to switch the tag that they used for Christie from bully to mean-spirited, and that is a much more effective public opinion tool to use."
"Senate Restores Sanity" is a headline on Senator Frank Lautenberg's latest statement as he proudly says it "took a stand against the extreme House Republican agenda by voting down this sham bill that would have devastated middle-class families." Senator Bob Menendez joined Lautenberg in this vote.
Sen. Frank R. Lautenberg (N.J.) noted "a little separation" between Obama and his former Senate caucus."
That's a lot nicer but the content isn't necessarily much different. Our Senators have to make sure that they don't support a "sham bill" just because their otherwise fine President negotiated it.
Update: 11:18AM The President is speaking now, or you can read his USA Today article. Unfortunately, he could have accomplished everything he says about taxes on the rich last December without a single Republican vote.
("I wish I could quit you... my poll numbers would be better")
Oh how the mighty fall. As arch-conservative Rupert Murdoch, along with eduscammer Joel Klein of Wireless Generation and Chris Cerf fame, face the music across the pond Governor Christie's poll numbers fall out of the sky:
In the first poll conducted after the signing of the budget and overhaul of public employee benefits, approval of Gov. Chris Christie's job performance dropped into negative territory... Of those surveyed, 53 percent disapprove of the governor's job performance and 43 percent approve according to Public Policy Polling.
Thump!
This confirms what most of us at Blue Jersey already suspected - people don't like Chris Christie. They never really have. He won a three way race with an unpopular governor, unions sitting it out and certain political bosses sabotaging their own GOTV already weakened by Operation Bid Rig busts. Christie also had an adoring media who loved the circus elephant turned carnival barker.
But when Christie came to power there was an unusual amount of bootlicking by the opposition party, none more than Senate President Sweeney whocame to power himself due to backroom deal making not popular support. Sweeney passed himself off as Christie's partner but it increasingly looked like sidekick as he would stand behind Christie or off to the side silently nodding and later offering words of strong support, I'm sure Mary Pat Christie wondered why she even showed up to half of these events - the supportive political wife was already there.
Sweeney would later make a mea culpa for not supporting the civil rights issue of our time, marriage equality. Sweeney claimed he relied too much on "political calculation" instead of doing the right thing. Glad to see him fess up but it wasn't an anomaly for Sweeney it was his modus operandi. And now after union busting and fake outrage it looks like Sidekick Sweeney's "political calculations" have erred once again as according to the Poll:
The only hypothetical match that Christie won was against Senate President Stephen Sweeney. Christie received 42 percent and Sweeney 40 percent.
I guess Sweeney forgot, no one likes the Sidekick either.
On Monday, Max Pizarro wrote a post about the Democratic Party's veto override votes, quoting pollster Patrick Murray in indicating that this was mainly to get the Republicans (and Christie) on record for supporting draconian cuts to funding that would help New Jerseyans all across the state in need.
Now, I agree that this was a big reason for what some are calling "kabuki theater" - given that the New Jersey Governor has the power of a line item veto, more power (in general) than many other states afford their Governors, a state Republican Party that has consistently fallen in line with what this particular Governor wants, and this particular Governor who has consistently acted in a confrontational and belligerent manner when it comes to supporting those who support him and punishing those who don't.
I also agree that it was a necessary step - one that should have been done last year as well as opposed to Senate President Sweeney delivering a handful of Democratic votes for a budget that Christie crafted, instead of acting as the leader of the Party in charge of the Senate and crafting their own budget. And I also agree that it was fairly obvious that (1) Christie was going to veto these items, (2) an override vote would (and should) be held, and (3) the vote would fail. This is not a shock. The fact that anyone would be shocked at the outcome is really the shock here.
I've also seen a lot of criticism hurled at Sweeney for not negotiating the budget items (either before or after) the odious pension and benefit bill that he shephered through. And to me - that isn't the issue. Quite honestly, I doubt that the budget items or the pension/benefit bill would be something that Sweeney and the Legislative Democrats would go to the mat on if Christie refused to negotiate, so I don't know that would have worked.
But what would have worked is not bringing those bills to the floor in the first place - something that I doubt would have been voted on or passed if Dick Codey was still Senate President, for example.
That being said, this is a time where the State Democratic Party needs to figure out what their plan is - what is next. They came up with a budget and didn't get many of the things that are sorely needed. They passed a millionaire's tax that was vetoed. They have seen very clearly that the State Republican Party will obstruct, bloviate and talk out of both sides of their mouths, so there will be little to no help there. They have also been saddled with the actions of their elected and unelected leaders - Sweeney, Oliver, Adubato, Norcross and a revolving door of a few Democrats who are good on most issues but detrimental on a few big issues.
In short - the State Democratic Party (even down to a local level, as Bergen County is at a similar crossroads, but for different reasons) needs to look inward, find out what they are all about, what they stand for, who they represent and what their way forward is. Because at this point, they have a very uphill battle - both legislatively and in regaining the trust of many New Jerseyans.
For the record, the government has a spending problem and a revenue problem.
Washington spends an amount equal to 23.8 percent of GDP, the highest level in at least 40 years. But it is taxing at only 15 percent of gross domestic product, the lowest level in the same period. (See accompanying chart.)
If you look at only one side of this equation, then your brain has been damaged by ideology.
Here's the chart:
Now, maybe I'm just "brain damaged," but it occurs to me that this chart doesn't account for the decline in GDP because of the recession!
Think about it: if GDP goes down, and government spending stays the same, the percentage of GDP devoted to government spending goes up, right? Even without ANY new spending or programs.
Before the Star-Ledger tut-tuts at liberals, they should take minute to understand what they're talking about. But that would take time away from kicking dirty hippies:
Obama was slow to join this fight, even when his own commission offered a blueprint to address the debt. But by compromising with Republicans, and explicitly supporting cuts to Social Security and Medicare, he has broken with Pelosi and the liberal wing of his party. That's leadership.
Yes, breaking with the people who want to save the greatest anti-poverty programs in the history of the US while the country reels from massive economic inequity is what the S-L terms "leadership."
Diane Allen just blew through a considerable amount of the goodwill and community support rightly extended to her while she battled cancer. How'd she do that? She sat for two days of tough and unpleasant veto override discussions ... and did absolutely nothing. She didn't vote in lockstep with Gov. Christie, as her colleagues did. She didn't vote at all. She sat there for two full days, not engaging. Staring at the screen of her laptop (I'm not kidding) and avoiding eye contact. Abstaining (counts as "no"). Allen - one of 4 co-chairs, along with Loretta Weinberg, of the Women's Legislative Caucus. Allen - who's flip-flopped before, giving up low-income Jersey girls when her rich, white, male governor yanked her home. Allen - cancer survivor, whose inaction widens the crack for other women with cancer to fall through. And, I might add, a woman who knows better, letting Sen. Cardinale claim Planned Parenthood promotes child prostitution, and saying nothing.
And that, as my father used to say, is chickenshit.
Allen deserves to lose the respect of her colleagues in both parties in the Senate, and women in her District should know the votes she sat through. While Diane Allen was battling cancer, her seat in the Senate was held for her for all the months she couldn't show up. And her colleagues, constituents, and anybody who covers NJ politics (including us) held a quiet vigil, hoping for the best health outcome. People were pulling for her, and she deserved nothing less.
But among the votes Allen Farmvilled through (or whatev) was Weinberg's "determined effort" to overturn Christie's de-funding of family planning & women's health clinics that would in turn then be eligible for 9-1 matching funds from the federal government. A return of $67.5 million on an input of $7.5 million. Not much of what Allen eventually said about her 2 days of Clarence Thomasing makes sense. Her statement to politickernj is baffling, as was her statement today, at the end.
If Diane Allen's chief concern is that New Jersey's broke, she contradicts herself, going along with the governor's pissing away $67.5M in health care dollars. I'm surprised at Allen, a prime sponsor of the Anti-Bullying Bill of Rights. A sometimes-ally. But that doesn't excuse this.
Allen, you should know, gets health care on your dime - the same that state workers get. But you won't hear her complain about that.
Allen is the beneficiary of excellenthealth care and the best screening for her tough oral cancer that money can buy. And Allen let slide health care for women with none of the privileges and deference she enjoys, and a standard of living far below what NJ taxpayers help Allen to live at. Planning to help women avoid unwanted pregnancies, so all babies get the best start possible. Maternal & infant health. Doctor time to spot illness early so it's treatable.
And yes, Diane Allen. Early detection for cancer.
Voters in LD-7, especially women, should know there is an alternative: Democrat Dr. Gail Cook, educator, mayor of Beverly and an ovarian cancer survivor. Dr. Cook's running mates are Assemblyman Herb Conaway, a medical doctor, and up-and-comer Troy Singleton. Conaway voted last year for Loretta Weinberg's legislation that would have restored women's health care services, but Christie vetoed the bill. And all three support restoration of those funds. If you want to make a donation to Dr. Cook's team, the info's on her website.
I guess it had to be done because those poor people in need are much more important than making the Republicans take cheap symbolic votes that go nowhere - woops, I got that backwards.
After Democrats made the Republicans take a bunch of cheap symbolic votes that they knew were going nowhere none of those hurt by the cuts are any better off. Maybe, some people, really stupid people, will be impressed with cheap symbolic votes. I guess the joke is on them.
The New Jersey Democratic Party itself is becoming quite a joke; unable to pass Marriage Equality (which NY does and gets the tourist money), giving Christie a big assist on union busting, failing miserably to put together any jobs agenda, taking Corporate money to help wreck Public Education and a general inability to not look like idiots in public because Christie keeps eating their lunch.
The only thing shocking about today's events is that the session has ended and the NJ Dems are walking out with the same piss poor leadership that has made them such a joke.
