GOVERNMENT WASTE

- NEW JERSEY -

Date

Individual /

State Agency

Who, What, Where?

01/01/05

City of Newark

Newark Arena - $210 Million Poured Down Rathole

The Newark Arena in Newark, New Jersey, has an estimated cost of $310 million (which continually escalates higher each day). The costs are to be borne by the City of Newark ($210 million) and the New Jersey Devils hockey team ($100 million). The grand plan is for the arena to be used to host not only hockey games but also circuses, shows and ice shows. It’s hard to expect this venture will be a booming success since the new arena will compete with the Continental Airlines Arena, Madison Square Gardens, Radio City Music Hall, and other new facilities on the drawing boards.

One very important aspect of this deal that no one mentions for fear (no doubt) of offending political correctness is that many parts of Newark are outright slums with high crime rates. I doubt that many New Jerseyans will consider attending night games at the arena unless heavy security is in place.

Where will Newark get the money to invest in this project? The City of Newark reached a lease deal with the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey for Newark Liberty International Airport.

As part of that lease deal the city of Newark is receiving a $210 million payment. Realistically, who are the major benefactors of this grandiose plan? Naturally, the construction companies and labor unions, which just happen to be major contributors to the Democratic machine run by Sharpe James, the Mayor of Newark, are the primary beneficiaries. This of course assumes that the final price for the arena will be $310 million. The history of sports stadium construction suggests that an overrun of between 40-50% is par for the course. And who will pick up those additional costs? I’ll bet it won’t be the hockey team. I can just visualize a bond issue being floated before the people now to pick up the tab.

According to initial projections, the City of Newark is supposed to recoup its investment from the tax base created in this deal. Developers have stated that they expect the arena to generate $135 million in salaries for employees (Naturally, $60 million of that is in player’s salaries and the rest in low-paying part-time concessionaire wages). There was supposed to be a 275,000 square foot office complex but the existence of that part of the proposal seems to be somewhat fuzzy. Since the city has a 1% payroll tax, simple math tells us that the best the city may be able to reap will be $1.35 million per year into their coffers. Let’s do a little math - the numbers don’t lie. $1.35 million divided into $210 million means that for the city to recoup its investment (not counting inflation), the arena must be profitable for 155 years and that’s hardly likely, especially considering a life of 25 years is the norm for any comparable venture. If the City of Newark is instead trying to justify the deal on the basis of the wonderful new jobs it will create, it’s a losing proposition from any angle you approach it.

In the fall of 2004, the owners of the National Hockey League have locked out the players because they are demanding more revenue sharing, displaying the routine greed of sports figures. The owners have said, “Enough is enough!” There is a strong possibility that either the entire league will fold or after the lockout is resolved, many teams will go out of business leaving a minimal league to pick up the pieces. To add to the stupidity, isn’t this the perfect time for the government to shell out $210 million to build a new hockey stadium?

In September 2004, a grand rally promoting the Arena (supposedly a public hearing on the issue) was held in Newark with lots of hoopla and political grandstanding. Over 500 people attended including the owner of the Devils, civic leaders, political groupies, real estate entrepreneurs, construction workers and homeowners, who were all shown the Promised Land, no doubt. A majority of these people stand to make a nice buck from the transaction. Former Councilwoman Mildred Crump was one the few voices of reason stating that when the taxpayers were sold a bill of goods for the Newark Bears baseball stadium, all that much ballyhooed project did was produce a few menial jobs and a lot less income then was projected. Their income projections were based on an average attendance of 5,000 howling baseball fans at each game. To-date, attendance has averaged 900 people.

02/11/05

Acting Governor Dick Codey

Acting Governor’s Brother Benefits From Shady Deal

Acting Governor Dick Codey’s brother, Robert Codey, a state prosecutor since 1988, has been hired in a “special deal” to help the county prosecutor with organized crime. He is earning $48,866 more is his new assignment and will be eligible for a pension that’s about $36,000 higher if he had retired just one year ago.

02/17/205

State of New Jersey

Spending We Don't Need

According to a study by the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, in which they compared similar data on all 50 states, the bank found that although New York and New Jersey tax their citizens well above the average, they have only average public-spending when weighed against the other states.

03/07/05

Schools Construction Corporation

$5 Million Wasted in School Building Costs

The School Construction Corp. paid $5 million to relocate a firm from Newark to Mount Olive 9 months after deciding to NOT build on the company site.

03/07/05

Schools Construction Corporation

New Schools Cost 46% Higher Than Schools Built By Local School Districts

The Star-Ledger of Newark has reported that the six schools built by the SCC cost an average of 46 percent more than the 19 new schools built by local school districts in the same time span. Architects and construction managers working on the projects overseen by the SCC were paid at a far higher rate than those working for school districts.

Also, the newspaper reported that more than $1 billion in work on schools has been given to firms that are members of the Building Contractors Association of New Jersey. Jack Kocsis is both chairman of the SCC and executive director of the industry group.

State lawmakers demanded a full accounting of the School Construction Corporation’s spending after learning that the $6 billion allocated to build or refurbish schools will run out with over 100 projects still on the drawing boards. Assemblyman Joseph Cryan said, “It’s just disgusting” and “It’s incomprehensible.” Now that the barn door has been left open for years, officials of the agency said that they have identified problems in the construction program and have already started the process of sweeping changes in management and business practices after demonstrating their incompetence for close to six years. Assemblyman Joseph Malone, who was an author of the legislation that created the School Construction Corporation, estimated it will take between $18-25 billion to complete the job mandated by the “judicial activists” of the New Jersey Supreme Court.

03/17/05

City of Newark

Newark Uses Homeland Security Funds to Buy Garbage Trucks

The City of Newark used Department of Homeland Security funds to purchase 10 state-of-the art garbage trucks for $1.7 million. When the Mayor, Sharpe James, was accused of “misuse” of funds, His office offered that they “have special apparatus on them for handling waste and debris.” It was stated that these machines are to be used in the event of a major cleanup (after a disaster),” in a feeble attempt to justify another misuse of funds by the City of Newark. It was also reported that the trucks are air-conditioned and offer other amenities.

Perhaps Mayor James will also inform the public that these trucks can also be used as “Zamboni’s” to clear the ice after the new $310 million Newark Arena ice hockey rink is built for a sports league (NHL) that is on the verge of collapse.

04/10/05

City of Newark

Newark City Council Lives High Off the Hog

Newark’s nine city council members were reimbursed $176,538 for personal expenses in 2004, in addition to $164,000 paid to council members “in lieu of expenses,” for an average of almost $40,000 per council member. These “expenses” covered items such as food, travel, mailing costs and to attend conferences. Jersey City, with about the same population, doles out $7,500 per head, or St. Paul. Minnesota, which pays out $7,000 per head. These expenses are in addition to city-owned Crown Victoria automobiles they may use at their discretion. Oh yes, Newark council members are paid $64,766 while Jersey City council members receive about $32,000.

04/21/05

City of Newark

Newark Uses HUD Funds to Purchase Lots for New Hockey Arena

As if spending $210 million on a new hockey arena is not sheer stupidity, considering that Newark’s sewer system is over 100 years old and the city has numerous other well-documented infrastructure problems, the U. S Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) said that $3.9 million of the $6.5 million allocated to Newark to house the poor was instead used to purchase 12 lots in the downtown hockey arena development zone. HUD has ordered the Newark Housing Authority to return that money to the financial accounts used to provide housing for the city’s needy residents. HUD has rated the City of Newark 33 points on a scale of 100, wherein 60 is considered troublesome, indicating that the agency is in danger of being placed in federal receivership, while people in public housing can’t get exterminators, refrigerators or paint. HUD has ordered a full, independent audit of the Housing Authority’s financial statements. The Apathetic Voter can just imagine what horrors will turn up from that inspection.

04/23/05

Inspector General

Wasting More Taxpayer Money on Corruption Investigations

Acting Governor Dick Codey of New Jersey made great political hay when he announced he has budgeted $2.5 million for a new office of Inspector General to uncover corruption. Few of us are aware that the state already has a massive organization in place that is supposed to deal with just this issue. Attorney General Peter “See No Evil” Harvey has nearly a $1 billion budget for the Department of Law and Public Safety employing over 800 lawyers and 800 investigators. He is also responsible for the Division of Criminal Justice, which is supposed to root out corruption, with 178 lawyers and 327 investigators. So how does government react to a non-functioning department? Spend more money and create a separate department – that will solve the problem. In the private sector, Harvey would be thrown out on his ear and be replaced with someone who can get the organization focused on solving the state’s problems. But it’s OK – its only taxpayer money.

05/15/05

Orange County, Little Egg Harbor, Dover Township. Beachwood

State Employee Has Eight Part-Time Jobs

Although this piracy is perfectly legal under state law, we have to include this disgrace under the category of scandals, indictments and corruption, as it goes far beyond the simple definition of government waste. As the ultimate abuse of “tacking” (holding multiple state jobs), Former Ocean County Freeholder Damian G. Murray has eight part-time jobs that pay him $268,284 a year. Among the jobs he held are as a member of the Orange County Library Commission, an Orange County Freeholder, Judge of the Little Egg Harbor Municipal Court, Judge of the Dover Township Municipal Court, and Magistrate of the Beachwood Municipal Court. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to quickly determine he could not work more than one hour per day at each assignment, but what about travel time between each part-time job? The clincher is his retirement pay is about $150,000 per year. Even excluding travel time, the good judge has been paid $134 per hour. With travel time, it likely equals about $270 per hour. I’m sure we can all agree he was worth every penny.

05/31/05

University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey (UMDNJ)

UMDNJ Awarded $450 Million in Sole Source Contracts

We’re not sure whether this tidbit belongs in the corruption or the waste category (only time will tell), but the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey (UMDNJ), with a $1.6 billion annual budget, has awarded over $450 million in contracts over the last three years without any inkling of competitive bidding. State law requires public institutions to open contracts to competitive bidding except in very rare situations. Most institutions generally have a policy that dictates if a contract exceeds a certain threshold, such as $10,000, at least three contractors must be given the opportunity to bid on the work. This problem caught the news media’s attention when very questionable expenditures, such as an elaborate and costly inauguration party for the incoming university president, bonuses it paid its top executives, and donations it made to charities linked to elected officials, bubbled to the surface. The FBI and state investigators are now delving into not only the books of UMDNJ but have also requested financial information from Rutgers, the New Jersey Institute of Technology and Ramapo College.

On top of that, as if we should expect any less with the cancer of “tacking” that exists in the state, the president of UMDNJ, John Petillo, who is paid $575,000 per year, has recently quit his two consulting jobs that paid about $50,000 per year. I’m sure he has plenty of time on his hands after he directs the activities of a massive organization with a multi-billion dollar budget. If this were private industry, he would be tarred and feathered and kicked out the door.

Now it has been reported by the Star-Ledger that UMDNJ’s 31 top administrators racked up $631,000 in travel expenses since 2000. A former senior vice president, James Archibald, spent 200 nights in local hotels over a three-year span billing $41,400 in travel and entertainment.

06/23/05

City of Newark

Microcosm of Government Stupidity and Waste

Although we are only concerned with the trivial amount of $1 million (trivial to politicians, that is), the latest incident in the city of Newark highlights the blatant indifference with which government officials regard taxpayers. City officials have spent $1 million to add hundreds of lights to two bridges so the lights can be turned on with different colors to correspond to various holidays and festive occasions. I don’t know how I would know what time of year it is without those lights. Why I would probably bypass Christmas completely and wander right into Groundhog’s Day if I didn’t see those red and green lights on the bridge.

According to Sharpe James, the Mayor of Newark, “Newark has become America’s destination city, and creating festive and decorative lights on our bridges is another artistic touch to add to our city’s luster and the enjoyment of residents and visitors alike.” I can’t help wondering if perhaps a member of James family has the contract to provide the lights.

I’ll bet if we put the purchase to a vote in Newark, you might get two or three “yeah” votes out of the total population, especially if you told the citizens they needed to fork up $10 apiece to buy the lights. But before you get mad, it’s OK. That’s because the city of Newark is using a state grant to fund the purchase. And when the state spends an outrageous amount of money on some idiotic paraphernalia, we’re told that it’s OK, too, because the feds are providing the money. And when the feds spend an outrageous amount of money, they blame Congress. That’s the politician’s favorite ploy – point the finger up the proverbial money chain. Let us not forget. We the taxpayers are footing the bill for every paper clip or B-2 Bomber whether it’s a city, state or federal purchase.

07/15/05

School Construction Corp.

New Jersey Legislature Bashes School Construction Corp.

State lawmakers demanded a full accounting of the School Construction Corporation’s (SCC) spending after learning that the $6 billion allocated to build or refurbish schools will run out with over 100 projects still on the drawing boards. Assemblyman Joseph Cryan said, “It’s just disgusting” and “It’s incomprehensible.” Now that the barn door has been left open for years, officials of the agency said that they have identified problems in the construction program and have already started the process of sweeping changes in management and business practices after demonstrating their fiscal incompetence for many years. Assemblyman Joseph Malone, who was an author of the legislation that created the School Construction Corporation, estimated it will take between $18-25 billion to complete the job mandated by the “judicial activists” of the New Jersey Supreme Court. This disaster started with the Supreme Court decision that permitted New Jersey could borrow $8.6 billion to fund school construction, which completely ignored the state constitution that clearly states in simple language that when the state borrows “in any manner,” voters must approve the request via a referendum.

In the first place, much of the blame can be blamed on the Assembly itself. Anyone who has ever managed large business projects is expected to deliver a monthly status report that explains to senior management (in this case, the Assembly) how they are doing on their budget and schedule. And more specifically, are there any problems that need their immediate attention and/or corrective action. Obviously, if the Assembly is now being told there are major problems at this very late state, the Assembly didn’t demand monthly management reports from the SCC. But when we “elect” lawyers and other non-business people to our legislatures, this ineptness should be expected.

In the first place, all of the officials in charge of the program should be shown the door, and secondly, what are the citizens of New Jersey going to do now? Are they expected to cough up another outrageous sum of money to complete the job so another inept quasi-government agency can blow that money, too? If the citizens were wise, they should band together to get a mandate to throw out the unconscionable ruling by the New Jersey Supreme Court, and then take a realistic look at what minimal amount of money is needed to bring schools up to an equal standard. Unfortunately, that’s just a pipe dream, as the politicians will never permit a plebiscite or referendum in any of the eastern states that impinges on their power to castrate the people.

Perhaps if we put the entire NJ Supreme Court for sale on eBay, some unsuspecting country will bid $1 or $2 so we can export these rogues to let them run hog wild to practice their judicial activism and bankrupt the people of a new country instead.

08/15/05

NJ State Senate

New Jersey Legislature Sneaks In Vote Getter

The NJ state Senate voted to permit union workers to join the state’s health benefits system provided that the unions pay the premiums. Union leaders claimed that the bill would only apply to about 200 workers of several labor unions. The leaders said by joining the state system, workers will save hundreds of thousands of dollars in premiums that would have paid for private health care. According to the Courier-News, Bob Master, political director for the Communications Workers of America stated, “It is not like a free ride. There is zero impact on taxpayers.” While most Republicans voted against the bill, all Democrats voted for the bill with the exception of Senator Nicholas P. Scutari of Linden.

This sounds like a pretty good deal for all concerned, doesn’t it? It’s only 200 people for heaven’s sake! What does this seemingly insignificant bill really mean? Here we have the classic voter manipulation practiced by the politicians. For one, the Democrats likely believe they just cemented 200 future votes. Secondly, with the carefully contrived wording of this bill, won’t every member of every labor union petition to participate in the plan to save money? Is the politician’s sinister plan in reality based on buying the votes of upwards of 100,000 or 200,000 union members? And don’t most “blue collar” union members often have dangerous, dirty and hard-working jobs. Isn’t it likely that they will incur more injuries and ailments than a state worker sitting behind a desk or computer? Each year, when the insurance companies review how much they have paid out, you wanna bet the premiums won’t be increased? Republican Senator Leonard Connors, who voted against the bill, said, “It would cost the state money. If we have one or two people with cancer or sick people in the group, it can run up the bills tremendously. This is a union. It is not a government entity. This is a bad, bad policy.”

On top of this latest fiasco, the State Health Benefits Plan is expected to cost taxpayers $2.1 billion to support the 142,342 active and retired state workers with a projected cost of $4.1 billion by 2010. Oh yeah, we forgot to mention that former governor James McGreevey, who was known to give away the store, vetoed this same bill in 2002-2003 legislation because even he understood the potential impact to the taxpayers.

08/15/05

School Construction Corp.

200 Schools Will Not Be Completed

In July’s newsletter we reported that the quasi-government agency, the School Construction Corporation (SCC), has run out of the $8.6 billion allocated to refurbish New Jersey schools, with $6 billion of that money meant to update schools in the poorest districts. The agency has informed the Assembly that 200 projects will be left flapping in the wind. What sheer incompetence on the part of both the SCC and the Assembly for not holding tight reins over the SCC management. The worst part of this mismanagement is that the state spent millions of dollars seizing and clearing residential homes under that nemesis eminent domain. Now all that’s left are hundreds of empty lots. In addition, the SCC spent hundreds of millions of dollars on questionable “consultants” and professional fees such as very expensive architects.

If this perfect example of government mismanagement of taxpayer dollars occurred in the private sector, hundreds of heads would roll, but the Apathetic Voter predicts that the principles responsible for this fiasco will come out smelling like a rose. When will citizens of New Jersey recognize that they are being fleeced by grandiose promises from the politicians with dismal results on virtually every project run by government?

08/15/05

Readington Township

Near Riot Over Government Spending

The Readington Township Committee had recommended that the township purchase Solberg Airport supposedly to prevent the 750-acre parcel from falling into the hands of greedy developers. The committee recommended a bond ordinance of up to $22 million to provide the funding needed to buy the airport, but the owners said they have no intention of selling the land for less than $40 million. When the township held a public meeting to discuss the issue, over 400 disgruntled citizens showed up displaying outright anger over the proposal. When the mayor, Frank Gatti, suggested that the Solberg family has not ruled out a sale of the airport to the township, citizens yelled, “Liar!” And when the mayor stated that the tax impact would be minimal, many residents voiced their displeasure, suggesting that tax assessments may increase by 20 percent. The mayor also said that eminent domain may be invoked if all else fails further raising the ire of the townspeople.

In late August, the township withdrew its ordinance ending that issue hopefully once and for all.

08/15/05

Real estate fees

Just Keep Raising Fees – But Where Does the Money Really Go?

New Jersey state lawmakers have increased real estate filing fees of up to 800% in some cases. Fees were increased from $500 to $1,715 on a $300,000 home sale and to $4,175 on the sale of a $500,000 home. According to the Star-Ledger, over a four-year period, nearly $1.2 billion was raised but only $107.9 million went to fund county clerks who must handle New Jersey’s booming real estate market causing a huge backlog. So where did the rest of the money disappear to? It has been diverted to the state’s general fund, or as we know it, the Black Hole of Calcutta. This is not the first time lawmakers have played fast and loose with funds earmarked for a specific purpose. Money that was destined for long-term road construction projects went instead to supposedly pay day-to-day expenses. Now the transportation trust fund is nearly broke and lawmakers want to add $.14 to the price of a gallon of gas to make up the difference as if paying $3.00 per gallon is not sufficient penalty. Where are the state auditors who should be divulging this subterfuge and make those responsible for this travesty own up to another disgraceful disregard of the taxpayers?

08/15/05

County executives

Overpaid County Executives?

According to the Asbury Park Press, 236 New Jersey county executives make over $100,000 annually, a substantial increase from five years ago when only 44 executives pushed that plateau. And Monmouth County, the poster child for government corruption, provides 269 cars for county employees at an annual cost of $672,500 per year.

11/15/05

Malpractice Tax

“Ass Backwards” Government Economics

In order to counteract the outrageous malpractice wards made by juries on behalf of injured citizens, the state solved the problem by:

· Imposing a tax of $75 per year on all doctors, dentists, and chiropractors and a $3 tax on all employees

· This year alone, the state Department of Banking and Insurance mailed out checks totaling $13 million to just over 1,200 doctors who are at significant risk of going out of business because of high malpractice insurance premiums.

Herein we have the classic government solution to a problem that can be virtually eliminated by the state legislature, as has occurred in many other states, by placing a cap on the awards that can be made by juries. Civil litigation attorneys, who get to keep 1/3 the fee, obviously want to make the award as high as possible and invoke tear-Jerking routines to assure that the award is far beyond the scope of the injury and suffering. On the opposite side of the spectrum, when a GI pays the ultimate penalty in Iraq or Afghanistan the family generally receives about $250,000, a much more appropriate compensation in lieu of the $10,000 payment GI’s families received during the Vietnam War. How can anyone justify the millions and millions of dollars handed out by sympathetic juries to people who no doubt have been horribly disfigured or made permanently disabled by a doctor’s carelessness, when contrasted to the amount provided to our deceased warriors? I have often read quotes from misinformed jurors stating, “the insurance companies can afford it,” without realizing that we, the consumers, eventually pay for the princely sums they lavish on the victims and their lawyers.

What many people miss in this entire process is that doctors have to file another piece of paper with a check adding to their office tasks, and then more state employees are added to assure compliance and for the distribution of the monies, driving up the costs of doing business, and taking time away from physicians in their primary role as caregivers. Although this may seem to be a “5-minute operation” and a minor dent in the wallets of the healthcare givers, with lawmakers adding more and more taxes, rules and regulations, each occurrence reduces the time healthcare givers can devote to their primary profession.

As with any profession, there are mostly good doctors but occasionally a rotten apple escapes the oversight of the system. But why should the rest of the normally highly competent profession suffer the consequences of a few malevolent acts? Instead of another government agency poking its nose where it doesn’t belong, the legislature must act to limit these awards so the cost of malpractice insurance does not drive any more healers out of the state or out of business.

12/15/05

School Construction Corp.

Assembly/SCC Reach New Heights of Incompetence

The New Jersey Supreme Court mandated that the state needed to spend billions of dollars to build new schools in their ruling in the infamous Abbott v. Burke case, to ensure that the children in the 31 low wealth school districts receive a “through and efficient” education.

Lets review some background FACTS on this travesty that has been perpetrated on the citizens of New Jersey so we’re all on the same page. The “Abbott” rulings directed numerous improvements including adequate K-12 foundational funding, universal preschool for all 3 and 4-year children, supplemental or at risk programs and funding, and school-by-school reform of curriculum and instruction. The rulings also require that the schools in the 31 Abbott districts be made safe, healthy and “emotionally adequate” (a highly interpretative term). Therefore, in 1998, the Supreme Court directed the state of New Jersey to fully fund and manage all of the needed facilities improvements in these districts. In this incredible intervention in a matter that is the responsibility of the state legislature and a more efficient education establishment, these same individuals then made matters worse by mandating that all schools built by the state be constructed as “high performance” facilities.

In response, the New Jersey Assembly created the School Construction Corporation (SCC) with responsibility to repair and rebuild 460 outmoded school buildings with a budget of $8.6 billion, with $6 billion targeted for the 31 Abbott school districts alone. Incredibly, the Assembly appointed a builder, who stood to make millions off the deal for himself and his friends in high places, as head of this organization. Didn’t someone recognize that not only was the fox in the hen house, but that the fox had been put in charge?

So how have we fared? Well, the SCC ran out of money after 71 new schools have been built and renovations completed at 67 other schools. Herein we have another outrageous example of government incompetence.

The Star-Ledger reviewed various details of the construction program. Some of the startling facts that were uncovered should cause many sleepless nights for the citizens whose wallets are being pilfered as they dream of less government intrusion:

· Five years ago, when plans were drawn up, the SCC did not consider land acquisition costs.

· The state dictated that the SCC should use an estimate of $125 per square foot as the average construction cost, when new plans are averaging $210 per square foot.

· The average cost for each of the first six schools built was 45 percent more than the 19 schools that were being built by suburban school districts over the same period of time. We can all be assured that many people pocketed large dollar sums on these deals.

· The 31 Abbott districts were requested and have submitted proposals to complete their building programs. To-date, 11 districts have responded with a total price tag of $6.5 billion, or about $1/2 billion per district, even though $2.55 billion has already been spent there. Extrapolating those numbers over the 31 districts means we should be prepared for a new bill of $14 billion, without any consideration for the hundreds of other school districts.

· Since 2000, Newark has received $741 million of the $1.57 billion it requested, and in it’s new plan it has requested an additional $3.2 billion. Of course, Newark didn’t seem to have a problem authorizing $210 million for a new hockey arena but not one dime was allocated on construction of the “desperately needed” schools.

Even if the non-Abbott schools were told to fend for themselves, the bill to the taxpayers will be at least $20 billion.

Who Benefits From The New School Construction?

After $8.6 billion or $20 billion has been spent and we can finally consider this debacle “fait un compe” many years from now, who are the real beneficiaries of this enormous sum of money? For one, we know that the construction companies, who have paid their dues through the infamous “pay to play” state entitlement program, and the unions, will have made a small fortune. On top of that, we can only guess as to the number of politicians who have recently purchased McMansions in eloquent communities. The students get spanking new facilities with state-of-the-art computer setups, but the class sizes are still the same. Recognizing that physical fitness is important, but did we need to build these schools with Olympic size swimming pools and gyms designed for Arnold Schwarzenegger? With this extraordinary expense, was consideration ever given to the simple idea of hiring 10,000 or 20,000 new teachers to reduce the class size for more personalized instruction, likely the best way to improve education, even if it meant staggering school hours to maximize the benefit of the new teachers? I’ve never heard this idea mentioned even in a low whisper. But the bottom line of this heated debate is that new schools won’t mean a hill of beans unless the conditions at home in these Abbott districts, e.g., parental discipline, is somehow drastically improved; therefore, in all likelihood the $20 billion will just be poured down the ol’ rat hole.

What Can Be Done About This Rip-off?

For one, how about if our esteemed legislators stood up to be counted, and jointly informed the Supreme Court that enough is enough, and that they consider the Supreme Court ruling excessive and unenforceable. How would Deborah Poritz and the Supreme Court respond to that level of defiance? Well, one possibility is she could throw the entire Assembly in jail; this might be a good thing – at least we need not worry about corruption for a while.

Secondly, if the first idea is too severe, the Assembly can stop all new construction until such time as they can “study the problem.” Perhaps after 20 years, a plan can be derived that will allocate perhaps $1 billion per year until construction is complete, just in time to celebrate the next century.

And lastly, why not issue vouchers, which are hated by the Democratic/liberal establishment, to every student in New Jersey schools. Let private institutions, such as Edison Schools, worry about how to provide classrooms for hundreds of thousands of students; And guess what? The problem will disappear since the state won’t need to build schools for a non-existent student population.

How Did Texas Handle a Similar Problem?

In 2005, hundreds of school districts filed suit on the issue of school funding, no doubt borrowing from the chicanery that was unleashed on the citizens of New Jersey. In a similar scenario, the Texas school districts are also bypassing the state Legislature to take their case to the Supreme Court.

In a ruling handed down by the court in November 2005, the Legislature must fix the state’s unconstitutional property tax system for public schools, wherein the majority of the education funds come from local property taxes and state aid. Texas has in place a “Robin Hood” provision that requires wealthy school districts to share their property tax revenues with other districts.

What is most interesting about the ruling is that Texas spends an average of $7,000 per pupil throughout the state, far less than the $16,000 per student handed out on a silver platter to the school districts in Newark. Note that there are no special provisions for Abbott-type districts in Texas. Studies have indicated that Texas may need to spend an additional $1,100 per student to fix the problem.

The most important point of the ruling was emphasized by Justice Nathan Hecht, writing for the 7-1 majority, that “There is substantial evidence that the public education system has reached the point where continued improvement will not be possible absent significant change, whether that change takes the form of increased funding, improved efficiencies or better methods of education.” Note the wording of the ruling – it left the door open for many forms of correction. In other words, it put the problem squarely on the shoulders of the legislators and the education system where it belongs.

On another issue, of equal importance, the court found that there was not enough evidence yet to indicate that poor school districts are being shortchanged on their facility needs under the current funding system.

Is it not interesting how two Supreme Courts (Texas and New Jersey) can arrive at diametrically opposed opinions on virtually an identical issue?

12/15/05

High Tech Jobs

High Tech Jobs Disappearing at Alarming Rate

According to the Star-Ledger, New Jersey has lost 14 percent of its high technology jobs since 2000. Employment in the state’s pharmaceutical industry is down 4 percent over the last 5 years while hiring nationwide has increased by 40 percent.

The Commission on Science and Technology reported that the state has lost jobs across the board in life sciences, telecommunications, computers, electronics, internet service, data processing, architecture and engineering. The commission recommended that the state provide investment monies to reverse the decline, and this thought has been echoed by Rutgers economists James Hughes and Joseph Seneca, apparently ignoring the problems of excessive spending by state government that have caused massive debt for the taxpayers. On a positive note, the economists emphasized that the state has missed out on federal research money, obtaining only 1.5 percent of that money with 3 percent of the nation’s population.

But James Seneca said that a proposed $150 - $400 million state bond issue for a cell-stem institute is an example of the kind of public investment that is needed. Now the Apathetic Voter (with limited knowledge of economics but lots of common sense) does not wish to clash with the esteemed academicians, but isn’t one reason why the state is not attracting new investment money is simply because it’s too damn expensive to set up shop or live here with the nation’s highest property taxes. These sentiments were echoed by an unscientific survey of executives from companies large and small who offered that New Jersey is overtaxed and over-regulated and has become a place too expensive to do business.

Many people have many good ideas, and they all seem to require vast expenditures of taxpayer money through higher taxes or more indebtedness, so spending money on a stem-cell research institute is the perfect example of economics gone berserk, and defeats the very purpose of reducing the burden on the people of the Garden State. Government should stay out of private enterprise – they do a miserable job at it – besides if it’s worthwhile, private enterprise will get the ball rolling by investing in that enterprise.

12/15/05

Legislature

Deceased Legislator Receives Most Votes

Even more bizarre than the jailbird being elected to the California school board, in Newark, New Jersey, Assemblyman Donald Tucker, who died on October 17^th, received 461 more votes than his closest runner up Craig Stanley. Perhaps voters showed their respect by casting votes for their beloved legislator, or more likely it’s indicative of how clueless voters are in the state of New Jersey.

12/15/05

Attorney General

Attorney General Never Understood His Job

According to the Star-Ledger, Attorney General Peter “See No Evil” Harvey has set his sights on one objective before leaving office in a month or so. His priority is to organize the hodge-podge of state medical examiner’s offices into six regional offices. In the first place, there is a serious problem with his proposal in that Middlesex County just spent $4.5 million (of taxpayer money) for a new county facility, and secondly, and most importantly, isn’t this man the Attorney General? Isn’t the function of his enormous organization to prosecute crime and root out corruption? What the hell is he doing getting embroiled in reorganizing the state’s medical examiner’s offices? No wonder we rarely heard a peep from any of his hundreds of lawyers and investigators when it came to uncovering and prosecuting massive crime waves in organized politics – obviously they lacked direction. Check for yourself – the vast majority of indictments originated from federal prosecutors. Let’s hope that Governor-elect Jon Corzine doesn’t replace him with another milk toast or incompetent political appointee.

01/15/06

Rutgers

State Donates $25,000 For RU Students to Party On Taxpayers

Acting Governor Richard Codey has donated $25,000 of taxpayer (excuse me, state) money so a few Rutgers University students could attend the Insight Bowl in Phoenix, Arizona, on December 27th.

According to the Star-Ledger, the money from a state Department of Community Affairs fund will help defray the travel costs for students who want to attend the game. Codey had the audacity to say, “This is the first time since 1978 that Rutgers is going to a bowl game. The state university’s successful season is a source of pride for New Jersey and we want to do everything possible to make sure the Garden State is well-represented in Arizona. Why stop there? Why not pay for 1,000 ghetto kids who have never seen a football game to attend, too? What an enriching experience of a lifetime these children will be missing at taxpayer expense.

The $25,000 was handed to the Scarlet R Club, an organization for Rutgers’ fund-raising from corporations, alumni and private citizens, which matched the generous donation. So how many students will be able to travel with this dual stipend? Even the cheapest two-night packages, including airfare, run between $1,625 and $1,829 a person. So assuming a mean price of $1,750 per person, even with the matching funds, Rutgers can count on 28 more students to ensure that Rutgers is “well represented in Arizona” out of a seating capacity of 65,000.

With professional football players averaging nearly $800,000 per year and the star athletes pulling down close to $10 million per year, Americans have lost their ability to recognize the value of a dollar. On top of that, add the wild and irresponsible spending habits of Congress and the state legislatures, and it’s no wonder that one individual wrote a letter to the Star-Ledger congratulating Dick Codey on the $25,000 donation stating that it only represents “.000000089% of the state budget.” Lets take it a step further and examine the impact the very expensive Alaskan bridge to “nowhere” has on the federal budget. With the fiscal year 2005 federal budget at $2,472,000 million ($2.472 trillion), the $235 million expenditure for the bridge only represents .000005064% of that budget. Why it’s just another drop in the bucket, too! With all of these miniscule expenditures, why is it that many taxpayers are grumbling about out-of-control spending?

01/15/06

UMDNJ

UMDNJ Taken Over by Federal Prosecutor

In a startling acknowledgment to avoid criminal fraud prosecution, the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey (UMDNJ) has agreed to cede control of its day-to-day operations to a federal monitor. Former federal prosecutor Herbert J. Stein will oversee the school’s finances and administration with broad powers for at least two years. According to the Star-Ledger, the board of trustees also approved an agreement acknowledging that UMDNJ deliberately defrauded the federal and state Medicare and Medicaid programs of at least $4.9 million, a figure that’s likely to grow once the investigation is complete.

U. S. Attorney Christopher Christie said it was time to clean up the “gross mismanagement” and “illegal misconduct” that has plagued the university. Christie, who was particularly upset by the recent destruction of documents under federal subpoena, informed the trustees that unless they accepted the takeover by relinquishing control of the school’s $1.6 billion budget, they would face a criminal prosecution that would cut off the institution from federal funding and shut down its hospital, medical and dental schools. Christie added, “They’re stealing from the taxpayers. You just can’t do that.”

Stern will have broad powers to examine the school’s books, fire staff, recommend candidates for top positions and make major reforms.

Under the deal:

· UMDNJ will reimburse the state and federal governments for any overbilling by University Hospital.

· Stern will review the hospital’s Medicare and Medicaid billing system, along with the university’s contracts, salaries, bonuses and security arrangements, and investigate allegations of conflict of interest among its trustees and officers.

· The university will launch a national search for a new general counsel and chief compliance officer.

Through the deal, officials of UMDNJ were spared a criminal trial, but Christie reserved the right to indict school and hospital officials on criminal charges.

01/15/06

UMDNJ

UMDNJ Paid $2 Million in Severance Pay

As the investigation of the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey (UMDNJ) gathers steam, more and more abuses of taxpayer monies are being uncovered. In a recent revelation, UMDNJ paid nearly $2 million in severance pay to four officials, three of whom just happen to be under scrutiny as a part of the ongoing federal investigation of the school. Three former UMDNJ vice presidents and the former president of the University Hospital were the recipients of a year or more in salary plus health benefits.

Acting Governor Codey blasted the severance packages and said, “We should go to court and get back the severance pay for those individuals. This is a public institution; this is not a private company. People don’t get golden parachutes.” In a separate incidence, in a meeting with Codey, U. S. Attorney Christopher Christie and university counsel Walter Timpone, three of the university’s top compliance and legal affairs officials resigned after a closed door meeting, without any form of compensation or severance pay.

Is it my imagination, or every time there is an investigation of ANY state institution, massive corruption and waste are exposed? How many billions of dollars are being wasted by the bureaucrats and politicians simply because its not their money they so eagerly dispense to state workers or siphon off to their own personal accounts?

01/15/06

Attorney General

Peter Harvey Exits Duping the Taxpayers One Last Time

Departing Attorney General Peter Harvey, who never found time to be involved in prosecuting the massive corruption in New Jersey, has pulled the wool over the taxpayer’s eyes one last time. As one of his last acts during his incompetent regime, he mailed out a 56-page glossy brochure touting his accomplishments to law firms and other people within the state. Naturally, we all know he’s looking for a job.

According to the Gannett State Bureau, the Department of Law and Public Safety, which Harvey heads, paid GraphiColor Corp. $7,460 to print 4,000 copies. The state also spent $6,500 in postage to mail out 2,700 copies to probably every influential lawyer in the state with a sheepskin hanging on his wall.

State law requires that the attorney general file an annual report with the governor and legislature. The last time this occurred was in 2000 when Attorney General John Framer Jr. submitted a 69-page black and white report with a modest paper cover. Many state agencies now use the Internet to post their reports to their web sites to save money.

Harvey spokesman Peter Aseltine said the report is informative to those who do business with, are interested in or are regulated by the attorney general’s office. He said the report is also a recruiting tool to attract lawyers to the office and to the state police (state police?). Asked if the report were an aid to Harvey’s job search, he said, “That certainly was not the purpose of this report. It was a report required by statute to inform interested parties and members of the public about the work of this office.” That must be the reason why the first page of the report bears Harvey’s picture and greeting, as well as photographs of him in publications talking about how he has turned heads in Trenton, demanded respect and was among America’s top black lawyers.

01/15/06

School Construction Corp.

Supreme Court Again Intercedes In School Construction –

In last month’s newsletter, the Apathetic Voter half-heartedly suggested that the Assembly “…stop all new construction until such time as they can study the problem. Perhaps after 20 years, a plan can be derived that will allocate perhaps $1 billion per year until construction is complete.” Someone must want to stop that idea in its tracks, because the Supreme Court has again stuck its nose where it doesn’t belong by ordering the Department of Education to provide an estimate of future costs by February 15, 2006.

According to the Star-Ledger, this ruling, the latest chapter in the long running Abbott v. Burke debacle that’s being illegally perpetrated on the taxpayers of New Jersey, was in response to the fact that the incompetent Schools Construction Corporation (SCC) ran out of money and halted additional expenditures on hundreds of school projects.

In last month’s newsletter, we reported that the bill for this taxpayer rip-off, when all of the estimates are reviewed, might approach $20 billion. Attorneys for the SCC have said that it would take at least 6 months for the state to finish its internal reorganization and be ready to seek or spend additional money from the Legislature.

But we can all read the handwriting on the wall when the Supreme Court stated, “Significant deficiencies in this area persist and are likely to worsen at a severe cost to the state’s most disadvantaged school children if there is further delay in addressing the dilapidated and overcrowded and dangerous schools in the Abbott Districts.”

Perhaps if the Supreme Court had left the matter in the hands of the Assembly and the voters, the consensus would have been to build a few schools but to devote the majority of the money to repairs and the hiring of many thousands of additional teachers for more personalized instruction. But as the Apathetic Voter has repeated over and over again, unless the culture in the ghettos is changed, even spending $1 trillion won’t solve the problem.

01/15/06

Supreme Court

Chief Justice Requests 17 Percent Raise for State Judges

At about the same time Deborah Poritz and her band of loonies on the Supreme Court have again intervened in the nefarious Abbott v. Burke affair, she has now requested that the 348 state judges be granted a 17 percent increase in salaries. She claims that the average $24,000 increase would put New Jersey’s judges on a par with federal judges, and that they haven’t received a pay increase since 2000. Of course she failed to mention that, according to the National Law Review, New Jersey’s Superior Court judges are the sixth highest paid among state courts, while Supreme Court justices are the seventh highest paid. Poritz’s suggested pay hike would make New Jersey judges the highest paid in the nation.

Let’s see now: $24,000 x 348 = $8,352,000 in additional expenditures for the taxpayers to absorb. And let us not forget that their pensions will increase accordingly, too. Considering what a miserable job the Supreme Court has done in exceeding their authority via their continual intervention as “activist judges,” perhaps we can cut their salaries in half and give the money as cost of living increases to the remaining 341 judges.

We can all be thankful that Deborah Poritz must retire in October of 2006 when she turns 70.

02/15/06

Willingboro

Taxpayers Have Had Enough

WILLINGBORO, NEW JERSEY - In a letter written to the Star-Ledger, one taxpayer lamented the exponential increases in property taxes that has his blood boiling. He reported that “in an overwhelming vote of 3,693 to 1,344,” Willingboro residents declared their school district bankrupt by rejecting a $400-per-year property tax increase to close a $4.7 million budget shortfall.

Thomas Gruenwald has watched his property tax bill skyrocket to the point where they say they he and his wife cannot afford to set aside savings for their daughter’s college education. Gruenwald said, “It’s insane.”

He stated that the voter backlash was ignited by the arrogance of the former school superintendent who busted the school budget by an incredible $5 million. He credits the arousal of the citizens by rejecting school budgets and bond proposals in order for simple survival of the middle class. He added that we “give them millions of dollars to build classrooms, buy books and hire teachers, … and they build swimming pools, tennis courts, recording and television studios and waste educational money for non-educational extracurricular activities.”

The author has founded the Jefferson Taxpayers Association. The group has sent letters to 75 percent of registered voters urging them to reject April’s school budget. His most profound statement is that he believes Governor Jon Corzine “will become the unwitting catalyst of a united state tax revolt. All that’s need is an increase in the gas tax or any other state tax.”

Gruenwald said his property tax bill rose 25 percent – from $2,204 to $2,755 in the final quarter of last year. He said, “I don’t want to move; I want to stay, but if my taxes keep going up, I can’t afford to live here anymore.”

If you know anyone who resides in Jefferson, make him or her aware of the people’s re-involvement in controlling the runaway purse strings of government.

The Jefferson Taxpayers Association web site link is shown below:

http://www.jeffersontaxpayers.com/

FRANKLIN TOWNSHIP, NEW JERSEY – Apparently apathetic citizens are rising from their comatose state in other areas of New Jersey as well. A resident of Franklin Township, Philip Kramer moved to the township in 1998. He said his initial tax bill of $6,500 per year increased $1,000 in the first four years he lived there.

According to the Star-Ledger, other residents are up in arms as well. Citizens have formed a watchdog group called Taxpayers United in Franklin and established a web site:

http://betuf.org

02/15/06

UMDNJ

UMDNJ Snakepit Opens Pandora’s Box

In November 2005, Acting Governor Codey issued an executive order that mandated that trustee boards, as well as the presidents of 31 state colleges, universities and county colleges desist from doing any sort of external business with their respective schools. This was a result of the “snakepit” of waste and corruption federal investigators uncovered at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey (UMDNJ). The obvious conclusion that can be drawn is that these individuals can use their influence to obtain contracts for family and friends.

According to the Star-ledger, in response to that order, three members of the UMDNJ board, including its chairwoman, resigned this month, and may be joined by an unspecified number of additional trustees. The order dictated that all employees must file potential conflict-of-interest forms by January 1, 2006. But as of that date, 30 board members had not filed, that is, until the Star-Ledger revealed their names in an editorial. By that afternoon, the list of missing compliance forms was down to 16. About 50 college presidents and trustees have applied for exemption from the rule.

Later in the month, it was revealed that UMDNJ paid $70,000 over the last year to ferry the head of its volunteer advisory board from her home to the school’s Newark campus in a chauffeur-driven town car. Mary E. Mathis-Ford was provided with regular transportation from her home in Pennsylvania more than 200 times. The cost for each trip ranged from $320 to $520, more than round-trip airfare from Newark to Los Angeles. Mary E. Mathis-Ford was quoted as saying, “I did not know the cost. They never said anything to me until you called. I’m embarrassed. So help me God. If I knew the cost I would have said forget it.” Now there are two problems with this situation. In the first place, Mary is an advisor to a prestigious institution, which assumes she’s either well educated or politically connected, and she has no idea how expensive a limousine service can be? In the second place, why was this outrageous expense not detected by an auditor or by someone in management who approved the expense? Is this because irrational expenditures of this nature are all too common?

It never fails. Days after this pathetic waste of taxpayer funds was disclosed, it was also revealed that several trustees had received perks worth at least $14,000 over three years consisting of computers, wireless e-mail equipment and accounts, and limo rides. Free limo rides for Mary Mathis-Ford and well as the trustees has been halted, according to a spokeswoman for the institution.

02/15/06

State

New Jersey Is State’s Largest Employer

Yes, it’s true, even with the mega-corporations that reside therein, and the state of New Jersey has become the largest employer by leaps and bounds. According to Gannett New Jersey, there are 148,500 employees in state government, with 71,089 employees in the executive branch, up 16.7 percent since 1999 and up 7 percent since 2002 when Governor James E. McGreevey said he would “make government smaller, leaner and more efficient.” The 148,500 employees do not include schoolteachers, who work for local municipalities, or municipal or county workers, or employees of special districts such as the Passaic Valley Sewer Commissioners (PVSC). The PVSC is the textbook example of political patronage on which we ran a story in the August 2005 newsletter.

During that same time frame, the telecom industry has shed a quarter of its jobs, and the pharmaceutical giants have cut back in New Jersey as they grow elsewhere. One of the reasons for the cutbacks is the high cost of living fueled by the excessive taxes wrought on the people. While government has grown significantly out of proportion to the people’s needs or in respect to the population, total private employment has not recovered to 2000 numbers. James W. Hughes, dean of Rutgers University’s School of Planning and Public Policy, said that the corporate and income taxes enacted under McGreevey to support state government have made the state’s economy less competitive. “Corporate America has been expanding rapidly, but its been outside of New Jersey.”

In the last two years, the executive branch of state government has added 4,081 jobs, mostly in the Department of Human Services, while the state has lost 27,000 high-paying professional and business jobs since 2000.

One example quoted in the article was that of Linda Yeager, who previously worked for Lucent Technologies making $100,000 per year. She was laid off in 2003, so she went back to school and started job hunting. She’s noticed that her neighbors who work for the state have faired very well. “They seem to be happy,” adding that some neighbors have retired and now work for the state as contractors and work whenever they want.

Even with the huge increase of full-time employees, the state can’t seem to get the work done. During the year, the state hires up to 5,000 temporary employees who make up to $80 per hour, while 14 percent earned up to $224 per hour. I guess someone needs to get the work done even though many of the “temps” are retired state workers collecting pensions. Assemblyman Joseph R. Malone III (Republican, Ocean) asked about hourly workers and never received an answer. “I am more concerned about people making $80, $90, or $100 an hour range. I’m not sure if they are there to work or if this is another form of patronage. I don’t think its legitimate at the high end.”

02/15/06

Teachers

Shed a Tear for the Underpaid Schoolteachers

On almost a daily basis we hear the cries about how teachers are underpaid around the nation. There is no doubt that teachers carry the weight of our society on their shoulders teaching our children, but when citizens complain about low schoolteacher salaries, a number of factors need to be taken into consideration. Where else but in government service do workers receive free healthcare for life, and retire at the age of 55 with a hefty pension? If you are not a school administrator, where else can you work 180-190 days per year with 10 weeks off in the summertime, and earn a very respectable salary? And with 10 weeks off in one stretch, if you show any degree of ambition, you can have your own summer business making another $5,000 - $20,000. And don’t bother with the tired old line about how teachers deserve the 10-week vacation due to the stress they endure during the school year. Many of us, especially Information Technology professionals, endure incalculable stress and 100-hours a week (without overtime pay) that teachers could never comprehend.

But since teachers salaries are a debatable point, there are much better examples of the excesses of executive salaries we can focus on to highlight where are tax dollars are wasted. According to the Jersey Journal, the state-appointed Jersey City district superintendent, Charles T. Epps, Jr., has an income that should make most of us green with envy. Mr. Epps makes $210,000 per year but he also receives $1,000-a-month housing allowance. But wait there’s more. Mr. Epps is a bona fide member of the infamous “double dipping” club in that he’s also an assemblyman making an additional $49,000 per year. I guess that means running a major school district only requires a part-time commitment considering his monumental duties with the assembly.

Apparently Mr. Epps negotiated the $1,000-a-month perk as a condition of his employment because it must be impossible to try and live on a paltry income of $259,000 per year. But wait there’s more. His wife is a school principal. Now unless she donates her time as a principal, between them their income must easily exceed $350,000. Every day in the media we are bombarded with stories about how Jon Corzine will try to close the $5 billion gap in the state budget. The Apathetic Voter offers the ancient Chinese proverb, “Even the longest voyage begins with the first step.” So if we outlaw “Double Dipping” in the state and remove Mr. Epp’s housing allowance, we can return $61,000 to the state Treasury. Mr. Epps will just have to struggle along on $210,000 without his wife’s contribution. Perhaps he can apply for food stamps. We have to start somewhere balancing the budget, and just this one flagrant violation out of thousands is a good place to start.

As a footnote, “Double Dipping” will never be outlawed in New Jersey because we’ll be asking the legislators who benefit from the practice to pass a law cutting them off from this very dubious source of income. It would be like asking Donald Trump to dump all of his real estate.

02/15/06

Newark Housing Authority

Head of Newark Housing Retires Days Before Audit Released

Harold Lucas, the head of the Newark Housing Authority, suddenly announced his retirement just days before the federal Office of Inspector General was scheduled to release the results of an audit conducted on this troubled agency. Even if the audit results in criminal charges, under current rules in the state of New Jersey, he’ll be able to keep his pension unless its proven he’s a serial killer.

According to the Star-Ledger, Lucas has twice served as director of the agency from 1992 to 1998. His second tour of duty was marred by one spending controversy after another. He was tapped by President Clinton to serve as assistant secretary of public and Native American housing. He returned to Newark in 2001, when Mayor Sharp James named him city business administrator that paid $150,000 per year. A year later, with James’ reelection, he put Lucas back in charge of the $70 million-a-year housing authority. The authority has been under federal investigation since Lucas announced in 2004 that 99 workers were being laid off as he was spending over $1 million to renovate its headquarters, including “necessities” such as a $2,849 plasma TV set and a $25,000 payment to his daughter to run a beauty contest. Lucas also spent $30,000 for a picnic for tenants at the same place and time as James’ reelection picnic fundraiser. James subsequently put the housing authority in charge of downtown redevelopment including the new $310 million hockey arena.

The U. S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has declared the authority a troubled agency in danger of a federal takeover.

Last march, the authority awarded Lucas with a new contract that raised his pay to $222,688 by 2008, placing him in the bracket as one of the highest paid directors in the country regardless of the number of tenants.

In April, HUD released a scathing audit that accused the agency of spending $3.9 million in low-income housing vouchers on the arena project. Over this time, the agency score fell from 87 out of 100 to 33 out of 100 including a big fat zero in financial management and an 8 in customer satisfaction. The audit revealed that the trumped up layoffs were total subterfuge. More than a year after letting 84 people go, another 81 people were on the payroll including 19 who returned to the same position they held before the layoff.

Mary Rone, president of the Newark Tenants Council was critical of Lucas’ second go around. “He became more of a puppet for the mayor and he lost compassion for the residents. The closer he got to the mayor, the less he did for the residents.”

Oh yes, and by the way, responsibility for the new hockey arena has now been moved to a newly created public corporation, the Newark Downtown Core Redevelopment Corp., because the federal government recommended that the troubled agency not have ultimate oversight or management of the project.

03/15/06

State Auditor

State Auditor Says Nobody Watching the Store

The state auditor, Richard Fair, said that there has been a “major degradation” of financial oversight in state government in the past 15 years because of the simple reason that seasoned professionals have been replaced by less qualified political appointees.

According to the Star-Ledger, Fair said steady staff cutbacks at key agencies like the Office of Management and Budget have weakened the state’s ability to track its enormous outlays, which this year alone will exceed $28 billion. One of the more dire consequences is that the state is missing out on matching federal funds because departments don’t bother applying for the money.

Fair said there are two problems: 1) department heads routinely ignore his suggestions for cost savings (why should they care – its only taxpayer money), and 2) state employees are rarely held accountable for mismanaging public funds. Fair commented, “When people start to realize no one’s minding the store, people start to take advantage.” Even some lawmakers were startled by the frankness of Fair’s critique. Assemblyman John Burzichelli (Democrat, Glouchester) responded, “What you say is very disturbing and will reaffirm people’s stereotypes about government and how wasteful it is.”

Lawmakers are now contemplating some form of new law that would penalize department heads if they fail to implement the auditor’s suggestions. How about the gallows? Assemblyman Louis Greenwald (Democrat, Camden) said he would like to expand Fair’s 90-person staff responsibilities by permitting his office to conduct “performance audits” of programs, something it cannot do now. Is that because this was the responsibility of outgoing Attorney General Peter Harvey who completely ignored waste and corruption?

Last year, the Legislature, with Fair’s help, made 17 recommendations worth about $270 million. A recent check revealed that only two of those recommendations have been implemented, saving about $75 million out of the total amount. It was also revealed that the state spends over $500 million on computer hardware and software, but no one was able to substantiate how or where the money was spent. That’s a hell of a way to run any business. Lawmakers claim that all of the recommendations will be in place to support Governor Corzine’s June budget. Based on past government performance, I wouldn’t hold my breath.

Lawmakers also announced a new web site, www.njbudgetcuts.com, where citizens can make suggestions for reducing the budget.

03/15/06

School Construction Corp.

$13 Billion More Needed To Finish School Construction In Needy Districts

The Supreme Court of New Jersey, an institution that excels at irrational and irresponsible rulings, ordered the Department of Education to derive a firm estimate of the amount of money needed to finish the job of building new schools in the 31 Abbott Districts. The Department of Education claims the toll will be at least $13 billion on top of the $6 billion spent by the incompetent Schools Construction Corporation (SCC). First of all, that number doesn’t include the hundreds of other districts that were supposed to be included in the original plan for a total of 313 projects. Secondly, the department warned that the $13 billion is calculated at today’s prices. If work is delayed, that number could exceed $29 billion within 10 years, deliberately putting more loathsome fear in the heart of taxpayer’s.

According to the Star-Ledger, lawmakers, facing a $4-5 billion budget shortfall, a transportation fund that went belly up, outrageous property taxes, and a severely underfunded pension system, reacted warily. “These figures underscore why the Legislature needs to move cautiously before authorizing any further financing for a statewide school construction program.” And let us not forget that borrowing money to finance the schools is illegal under the state Constitution without a citizen’s referendum, which in all likelihood will be ignored when the legislature is forced to find a source of money.

What Is New York Doing About a Similar Problem?

Perhaps the cowardly lions in the New Jersey state legislature will pay attention and follow the leadership example of an angry New York Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno who defiantly said he will not follow a judge's order to boost New York City school funding by some $7.4 billion annually over the next five years, calling it "lunacy." "Where the hell is the money going to come from?" Bruno said during a speech before the state Conference of Mayors. "The judge in his lunacy said 'you have to.' I'm sorry, that is lunacy." He said the order from Judge Leland DeGrasse, which is under appeal by Gov. Pataki, would require taxing municipalities outside the city and taking away some of their school aid.

The order calls for Albany to devise a plan to send the city an extra $5.6 billion in school operating funds annually, and $9.2 billion in school construction funds over five years. The total amounts to some $7.4 billion a year.

Bruno added he would also not be pressured to act by NY EdPAC, a new political-action committee that is threatening to raise $3 million to wrest control of the Senate away from the Republicans because they have refused to meet the judge's order.

"Am I going to put $7 billion to New York City and tax you and take your school aid to send it there? No, we're not," he told the group of upstate and Long Island mayors.

"I don't care how many damn groups raise $3 million to take our members out. It's not going to happen . . . because it's wrong."

He said the state will step up not just for high-need schools in New York City but across the state and believes a deal should be negotiated by lawmakers and the governor, not prolonged in the courts.

Calling it "unconscionable" that a group would try to "beat us with a club," he warned that "we don't cater to threats and we don't relate to people who are literally threatening us to get something done that is unfair, unjust."

Hopefully, Senator Bruno, as one of the few voices of reason, will spend many fruitful years representing the taxpayers.

03/15/06

How Have Other States Fared with New “Minority” Schools?

We, as taxpayers are often confused when we see the Defense Department paying a king’s ransom for a new fighter aircraft, or spending hundreds of billions on Medicare, for its difficult for us to challenge the enormous cost of these items unless we have first hand experience with the technology or understand why the social programs are unbelievably expensive. But when it comes to education, we have all attended school, so our sentiments on school spending come from our own realistic experiences.

Now if someone gave you $8.6 billion and asked you how would you spend the money to improve education, how would you respond? Would you decide to upgrade the facilities with state-of-the-art computer hookups, or would you decide to hire more teachers, provide glossy new textbooks, restore corporal punishment with more police officers, perhaps hold classes for parents teaching them about their parental responsibilities, or would you elect to cut class size for more personalized instruction. I’ll bet if someone suggested that building spanking new schools would solve the problem, he or she would be laughed out of the room. But that’s precisely what the mandate of the Supreme Court was that started the fiasco of the initial funding of $8.6 billion for the Schools Construction Corp. (SCC) a few years ago. Essentially, $8.6 billion has been wasted, with at least $13 billion more likely being poured down the rathole, and that’s only for the 31 Abbott Districts. One of those little details that somehow escapes the knowledgeable one’s vision is that new schools require much higher maintenance and police protection, too, especially for the chandeliers and other accoutrements that the SCC included in a number of new schools. That means more money will be forcibly extracted from the taxpayers, too.

Let us not forget, as many New Jersey teachers have said, “We only have them from 9 to 3.” The culture at home unfortunately will not change because of this elitist edict, so no matter how much money we pour into new construction, it will not change the complete lack of parental responsibility. But of course, the liberals have an answer for that one too by letting the state raise many of these children via DFYS – an essential ingredient in a communist society.

Well, maybe we’re all wrong and the Supreme Court and the “activists” who filed the lawsuit challenging New Jersey’s inequitably funded education policy were right all along. Let’s examine how other states have fared by implementing the same policy of building new schools in the ghettoes.

According to the Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles built a model school in one of the worst ghettoes in the city in South Central Los Angeles. The school has a heated swimming pool, rubber track, ballet studio, fully equipped chef’s kitchen and sparkling new Macintosh computers.

In its first week of existence, someone fired shots in front of the school; a student was arrested with an AK-47; and students jumped on officers and tied to steal their guns during a “Turf War” melee. The school ranks number 1 among district high schools for crime, with 218 incidents since school began, including theft, assault and weapons possession.

Already, janitors carry bottles of orange cleanser to scrub the graffiti off the walls and staircases. Even though students are divided into groups, they come together at lunch. In December, several lunchtime brawls resulted in 34 being arrested and 10 hospitalized. So the educators split lunch into two 35-minute periods. The students responded by cutting classes to be with their friends at lunchtime, so the educators changed the lunchtime schedule again, wherein the first lunch period starts at 9:40 AM. Then the educators decided to lock all classrooms during instruction and adults escort students who need to use the restrooms in an emergency. Finally, students remain in their campus wings, taking classes with the same group of teachers for their entire high school careers. Students are forced to take the same courses they’ve already passed because of the new tightly defined curriculum.

Police Officer Veronica Perez said, “We’ve taken out knives and brass knuckles. We’ve had kids selling meth in classrooms. We’re the busiest school in the district, and there’s only two officers here.” Board of Education member David Tokofsky said, “This was, for three years, Romer’s (Superintendent of Schools) talked-about flagship. It was his dream, and it turned out to be a nightmare.” Romer said challenging the culture on campus and in the community is a “slow and painful process.” Is Romer representative of the senior educators in that he honestly believes that new schools will change the culture in the community; is he indicative of the irrational thinking that has befallen our education establishment?

New schools will not change the embedded problems in the ghetto. Academics and the other elitists must come up with low cost, more rational answers.

03/15/06

Governor’s Office

Outgoing Governor Hands Out Exorbitant Gifts

With the front page of all major New Jersey newspapers daily filled with the problems of closing a $4-5 billion state budget shortfall, it doesn’t stop our politicians from handing out money like candy canes.

Former Governor Dick Codey, an avid Seton Hall basketball fan, in his last days in office, handed $200,000 to the university’s athletic department. But that was only a drop in the bucket. In his last six weeks in office, he handed out $2.1 million from the Governor’s Contingency Fund to 32 organizations. It should be named the “Governor’s Slush Fund.”

His grants included $150,000 for three public parks foundations in Essex County, $250,000 for the former governor’s alma mater, Farleigh Dickinson University, $500,000 to the Independent Production Fund, Inc. to make four documentaries for broadcast on the New Jersey Network, $50,000 to the Lambertville Police Department for computers and telecommunications equipment, $145,000 for the Mental Health Association of Essex County, of which his wife, Mary Jo, is a former member, and donations to well-known public entities, including religious charity organizations. Well wait a minute, Mr. Democrat. What happened to the problem of the “separation of church and state” your radical fringe bitches about?

Newly inaugurated governor Jon Corzine’s administration has stated that they are not sure if the new governor will issue similar grants. And silly us – we thought allocation of state funds was the job of the legislature, but of course the Supreme Court doesn’t bother with that trivial technicality, either.

03/15/06

Governor Considering Gross Receipts Tax on Business

Straining to find any mechanism to close a $4-5 billion budget hole, Governor Corzine is investigating new taxes that hopefully will not totally infuriate the people. According to the Star-Ledger, Corzine is considering the possibility of a business gross receipts tax, similar to that used in New Mexico, to augment or replace the sales tax.

One of the best advantages of this approach is it much easier for the state to enforce and collect that tax than the sales tax that is used now (but I bet we won’t see a reduction in the number of state employees). The business gross receipts tax will likely be expanded to cover businesses that are now tax exempt, such as professional services firms like law firms, landscaping, accountants and architects, to name a few.

The obvious advantage of switching the tax base is the people will jump for joy believing that the newly elected governor has reduced one of their tax burdens, but hold your horses. You don’t think business will take this lying down, now do you? Many businesses operate on a very slim profit margin. If they have to pay a 5% tax on their sales, they will simply raise their prices by at least 5%, so you, the taxpayer, will simply pay a higher price without seeing the telltale sales tax on the bottom of your bill. It’s not polite to mention it, but that means their prices will, out of necessity, increase for out-of-state sales, too, which means they may lose a percentage of those sales further deriding the business climate.

Jeanette Issenman, lobbyist for the Commerce and Industry Association of New Jersey, said a New Mexico-style tax would put a serious pinch on small business. And we’ve been worried about small business exiting the state for greener pastures. Just watch the departure of more and more biomedical and pharmaceutical businesses from the state if the business environment continues to be hostile to them.

Why have we not read any news about government reducing spending? Where are the committees within state government that should be formed to find ways to cut spending by 10 to 20 percent? The answer is they don’t exist.

04/15/06

Newark

Newark Sets Aside $80 Million for “Business Development”

The city of Newark, which we are constantly reminded is the borderline ghetto with the 100-year old sewer system and shabby public housing, is also paying $210 million toward the costs of a new hockey stadium, has now set up two separate funds of $50 million and $30 million for some vaguely defined effort to subsidize business projects in the city.

According to the Star-Ledger, it’s not clear who will get the money, or why. Naturally, Mayor Sharpe James will be the power behind the deal. But the real beauty of these shenanigans is even if the mayor leaves office, his term as trustee is perpetual, with his home address listed for him as trustee. Two other individuals who were appointed as trustees were not even aware of the honor when questioned by the media.

Councilman Luis Quintana said, “the mayor is setting himself to give money to his friends.” Quintana suggested that the fund is destined to become the mayor’s slush fund for life. Now you would have expected that many of the city council members would have smelled a rat in this deal. The proposal first came to the city council on a Tuesday, and was approved the following day, Wednesday. Questions that were never raised were, “where did Newark find that enormous amount of money in the first place?” and “What criteria will be used to decide who gets help?” and “Why have the city’s efforts failed so miserably in the past,” and “Isn’t there a better way for this money to be used in a city with so many problems?” and on and on and on.

One reason Newark can find this large amount of money is because a typical Newark resident only pays $.05 out of every tax dollar spent. Yes, we citizens cough up the rest.

And why was it that the city councilmen never protested, you might ask? The original proposal was for $50 million but Sharpe James sweetened the pot by adding $30 million to the deal, which will be equally divided amongst the city’s five wards, so each councilman can tell his constituents how hard he fought to get them $6 million for local projects. Councilman Augusto Amador apparently spoke honestly when he said, “In principle we should have voted no, but it’s hard to vote no when $6 million is being given to you.”

Finally, Governor Corzine stepped in and “froze” the funds. Three cheers for the governor. But really governor, it’s OK. If they want to spend the money on the fund, simply reduce state aid to the district by the same amount, $80 million. Watch how they squirm then.

04/15/06

One out of Three Politicians are “Double Dippers”

According to a front-page expose by the Star-Ledger, 42 out of 120 lawmakers have two or three elected or tax-paid positions. Their offices range from council members to freeholders to big-city mayors. The jobs run the complete gamut from part-time lawyer to construction code inspector to professor of trauma surgery.

The secondary pay amount ranges from a lowly $3,512 a year to six figures. One lawmaker, Assemblyman Brian Stack (Democrat, Hudson) is also mayor of Union City and a Hudson County freeholder. Another egregious situation involves Senator Nicholas Sacco (Democrat, Bergen) who also holds offices as the mayor of North Bergen and Assistant Superintendent of the North Bergen School District for a combined salary in excess of $236,000 a year. Obviously showing their contempt for the taxpayers, many lawmakers said they consider the Legislature a part-time position (paying $49,000 a year) representing the people. They claim since the voters continually elect them to these multiple positions, the voters don’t mind, as if 90% of the public had a clue as to the rules of the game.

No other state permits this rip-off. In Indiana, holding two offices is a Class D felony, punishable by up to three years in prison. More importantly, it is illegal for a federal officeholder to hold a second elected position. While Richard Codey was acting governor he commissioned Seton Hall Professor Paula Franzese and former Supreme Court justice Daniel O’Hearn to provide their input. They stated that it “creates the obvious potential for abuses of power.”

Double dipping results in taxpayers paying for double health coverage and often an enormous pension. New Jersey’s public pensions are calculated by multiplying the number of years worked by an employee’s highest salary for three years, a practice not used in private industry. When two salaries are factored into the equation, the pension can be exorbitant. Governor Jon Corzine claims that his reform agenda will address this problem.

Five newcomers (out of 12) to the legislature kept the public jobs they held before their election. However, the media coverage of this travesty has the newcomers claiming they will give up their original jobs when their term is complete. One woman who gave up her seat on the Red Bank borough council, when asked her opinion of “double dipping,” said, “I don’t think it’s appropriate and I don’t think it’s doable,” A bill has been introduced to make dual office holding illegal, but we can all be assured it will die a quick death with so many legislators benefiting to a large degree.

04/15/06

New Jersey Approaching Top of Sales Tax Collection Per Person

If Governor Corzine’s proposed increase in the state sales tax from 6 percent o 7 percent is passed by the legislature, New Jersey will have the very dubious distinction of being at the top of a national ranking that calculates how much each person, on average, pays in sales tax.

According to the Star-Ledger, the proposed budget increase would put New Jersey behind only Vermont, Nevada, West Virginia, New Hampshire and Connecticut when it comes to most state sales tax collections per person. We must also remember that a number of these states either have no state income tax or a minimal income tax.

And even more depressing news, New Jersey:

· Has the highest property taxes

· Fifteenth-highest income taxes

· Fifth highest corporate taxes

With these gruesome statistics, we still see narrow-minded fools who write letters to the media complaining that we should raise our gasoline taxes to pay for improved roads as we have one the lowest state taxes on this commodity. Do we need to have the highest taxes on EVERYTHING to satisfy a few misguided individuals?

04/15/06

Real Cost of School Administrators Hidden From Public

According to a review by state officials, local school boards have given district superintendents “questionable and excessive” compensation packages that are often not disclosed to the public.

The state examined the payrolls of dozens of school districts, and found that school districts have lavished officials with cars, computers, cellular phones, improper pension increases and donations to tax-deferred annuities. The average increase was more than $70,000 over their reported base salaries. On top of that, out of 303 school superintendents, only 3 reported all income allotments. School districts claim that these perks are necessary to attract top-flight administrators. If the school boards used some common sense (a foreign concept to most academics) and agreed to eliminate the shenanigans throughout the state, it could save the taxpayers millions of dollars.

In one instance, the Bergen County superintendent was granted nearly $600,000 for unused sick leave, vacation days and compensated leave over a five year period, including $300,000 to be paid to his estate upon his death. Several superintendents of relatively obscure districts earn more than New Jersey’s education commissioner, who is paid $141,000. The Barnegat superintendent, who supervises 2,200 students in his district, receives $166,228 with nearly $100,000 in additional compensation, including his role as the district’s business administrator (here we go with “double dipping” again). This isn’t accidental. School boards try to hide these agreements by understating their value on financial statements or fail to draft written contracts that spell out the details of these dubious deals. Investigators found that from 1997 to 2004, the average salary paid to top administrators rose by 31 percent, more than twice the increase in teacher’s salaries.

The report concluded, “It is a system that seems designed to pit school districts against each other in a ‘sky’s the limit’ contest to recruit and retain top personnel. All too often, the result is an unseemly spectacle reminiscent of sports teams and their competition for free-agent athletes – with the cost of course, underwritten not by fans and corporate sponsors, but by taxpayers.”

When Bill Brown of the new Jersey Coalition for Property Tax Reform was told of the findings, he said, “It smells like corruption. Far too much is spent on administration and to cut these expenses in administration would probably mean savings to taxpayers or produce more money to spend on students needs.”

The state provides about $7.7 billion to help pay for public education. About $20 billion of the roughly $34 billion collected in property taxes goes to education, too. The obvious question arises – “With school districts constantly clamoring for more money, from which student funding obligation do they steal the money to consummate such deals?”

04/15/06

Governor Freezes Legislator’s Pet Projects

Governor Jon Corzine froze the remaining $25 million in the state’s grant program and ordered a review of how the funds have been distributed. This action took place after a Cranford lawyer filed suit seeking to halt the so-called “Christmas Tree” grants until a more open process is established for distributing the money.

According to the Star-Ledger, the lawyer, David Robinson, contends that the grants are little more than “slush funds in which the powerful few have access. These funds are subject no public scrutiny or oversight.”

Last year, the fund was the source of millions of dollars in grants for towns and programs in districts overwhelmingly controlled by the Democrats, who control the Legislature and the Governor’s office. Democratic districts received nearly 90 percent of $86 million in grants distributed during the previous three years. The 2006 state budget contains $370 million for these larcenous initiatives, which critics decry as nothing more that “pork.”

05/15/06

New Jersey

New Jersey Debt Now $33 Billion

The Star-Ledger reports that New Jersey’s debt ranks third in the nation adding more than $3 billion last year alone. The importance of this debt is somewhat dwarfed by the fact that California owes $64.4 billion and New York owes $49.6 billion. This is definitely misleading, as New Jersey’s population is considerably smaller than New York’s and about one-fourth that of California’s population.

So let’s look at the top five debt-ridden states from both a perspective of total debt and debt-per-capita, to get a realistic picture. And let us not forget that the top five states ironically happen to be Democratic strongholds.

State	Total Debt (billions)	Population	Debt-Per-Capita
Massachusetts	$31.7	6,349,097	$4,992
New Jersey	$33.1	8,414,350	$3,933
New York	$49.6	18,976,457	$2,613
Illinois	$26.2	12,419,293	$2,109
California	$64.4	33,871,648	$1,901

Highest Debt Per State By Total Debt and Per-Capita Debt

Under this picture, only Taxachusetts Massachusetts exceeds New Jersey in debt-per-capita, but both states have debt almost double the next closest challenger. Since Massachusetts has recently passed their state healthcare plan, we can all be assured that when all the costs attributable to their solution to universal healthcare is recalculated to reflect a few obvious blunders in their plan, their debt will no doubt jump light years above all states. But even so, New Jersey will do it’s best to keep up.

At least there is a degree of pragmatism in one state. California has found itself with more than $5 billion in unexpected revenue from surging tax receipts. So instead of irresponsibly spending the money on new social programs, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger proposes to spend the money to reduce the state’s debt and on education. $3.2 billion will be allocated to pay off debt a year earlier than scheduled and about $1.5 billion for education. But like all politicians, the governor plans on salting some of the money into his own “pet” projects, too.

05/15/06

Boss’ Salaries Up 70% In New Jersey Schools

The Star-Ledger reported that the average salaries paid to the 12 four-year public colleges and university presidents has leaped 70 percent since 1998, to an average of nearly $300,000. During the same period, inflation rose 19 percent and the salary for a full-time professor at Rutgers University rose 23 percent. Since 1998, the salary for the president of Rutgers rose 141 percent while the salary for the president of Montclair State College rose 92 percent.

Previously, it was reported that these same presidents get perks that are rarely reported in their base salary. Rutgers President Richard McCormick negotiated an extra $500,000 when he finishes his first 5-years in office. Other perks include living allowances, luxury cars and drivers, golf club memberships and bonuses.

Is it no wonder that educators wonder why their pleas for more money often fall on deaf ears?

05/15/06

National Taxpayers Union

(NTU)

NTU Starts New Web Site Devoted to New Jersey Taxes

The National Taxpayer’s Union (NTU) has started a new web site, Stop the Tax Man (http://stopthetaxman.org/) for the sole purpose of New Jersey residents registering their complaints about Governor Corzine’s proposed tax increases.

The web site contains:

· A tongue-in-cheek video entitled, “Think Governor Corzine is out of Control?”

· A Petition from the People of New Jersey to Governor Corzine and the Legislature, which you can edit with your own comments and then sign. It is then automatically sent to Governor Corzine and your representatives.

· A blog where you can register your complaints about the tax situation in the state.

· Research on the tax history in the state, “New Jersey's Tax Hikes: Sowing Disaster in the Garden State.”

Various news articles that highlight the problems in the state.

05/15/06

Montgomery County

School Superintendent Collects Double Travel Expenses

Montgomery School Superintendent Stuart Schnur has admitted to collecting twice for travel expenses for professional conferences he attended in 2003-2004. The $1,484 bill contained airfare and hotel fees for national professional development conferences he attended in Florida and California during the 2003-04 school year. The school district and the professional organization both paid the costs.

Schnur admitted to the error less than 24 hours after questions were raised by the media, including the Star-Ledger, as part of a review of superintendent contracts in Somerset County.

“Within 24 hours of realizing this mistake, I reviewed the matter with the board president, as well as the entire board, the business administrator, the controller and my professional colleagues," Schnur said in a prepared statement. "I am truly embarrassed by this mistake and have taken every step I know of to make this right."

Why is the Apathetic Voter bringing this issue to your attention, for after all it most likely was an honest mistake and it’s only $1,484, a drop in the proverbial bucket in the government’s spending? Because this relatively minor issue is another example of government waste and potential corruption that was caught by the news media and not by internal government organs (like auditors), which should be on the prowl for these errors. This issue again emphasizes the lackadaisical attitude government agencies have towards taxpayer money.

However, the $1,484 bill is not the issue that should enrage taxpayers. Schnur has been with the school district for five years, not exactly a full career. But when he retires this summer, not only will he be eligible for a lusty pension, he will get a nice fat check consisting of $48,000 for unused sick days and $32,983 for unused vacation days. He will also receive $71,760 for unused sick and vacation days he accrued in his previous two postings within the state, for a total in excess of $150,000, enough to pay the salaries of four full-time teachers.

Unfortunately, Schnur’s deal is not the exception but rather the rule for the 578 public school superintendents.

05/15/06

Rutgers

More Unnecessary Rutgers Spending

After Governor Corzine proposed spending cuts of $169 million to state universities, loud cries were heard all over the state about how he is depriving children of an education. But no one seems to holler when education administrative expenses skyrocket each year, which are much more of a factor than minimal budget cuts. These education expenses seemingly rise about 10 percent a year, which obviously means less student education for the dollar.

When the Rutgers football team won a bid to attend the Insight Bowl in Arizona after a long drought, Acting Governor Codey donated $25,000 from the state treasury to assure New Jersey was “well represented” with perhaps 50 more students. What a joke! Now it has been revealed that even though Rutgers was paid $1.25 million from the game receipts, the school managed to lose $23,451 on the deal.

It was also revealed that one of the reasons for the loss was the generous perks lavished on a contingent of 450 people who attended the game. Rutgers Athletic Director Robert Mulcahy said, “Since the team and the staff had to be in Arizona over Christmas, the university felt an obligation to pay for families to come along.” Now since the real reason students attend prestigious institutions like Rutgers is to ensure that they support a winning football team and not to get an education, apparently we shouldn’t complain about this practice. These are the same people who lament to the press about how budget cuts are “hurting our children.”

06/15/06

State Government

One in Eight Adults Employed in State and Local Government

The Star-Ledger provided an in-depth analysis of local and state government in New Jersey. The statistics are frightening at best:

· Since 2000, local and state governments have added 59,400 employees while the private sector has remained stagnant.

· Total local and state government employment is now 580,000 employees.

· While officials claim that the majority of the new jobs were in education, careful review belies that fact. School districts added 15,417 teachers, 860 administrators, and 2,902 other certified personnel (custodians to teacher’s aides). Statewide student enrollment grew by 101,605 – which means there was one new education employee for every three students.

· The state added police officers, firefighters road workers, health workers and court personnel in numbers disproportionate to the minimal population increase.

· Assuming an adult population of about 4 million taxpayers, this means that 1 in 8 adults are employed in local and state government in New Jersey. Let us not forget that this does not include federal employees represented by the hundreds of thousands of people in the legal system, IRS, Social Security, National Guard, FEMA, etc. The Apathetic Voter wants to know. What services do all of these people provide to the taxpayers? I’ll bet government can’t answer that question.

Phillip Kirschner, president of the New Jersey Business and Industry Association, said, “It’s an incredible number that leaves private business and taxpayers scratching their head and saying, ‘How could this be possible?’ The economy is the same for all of us, so where are the public entities getting the money? We all know the answer to that question.”

How can the local and state governments indiscriminately add workers while the population and economy have remained stagnant? Its simple folks. They don’t labor under the same constraints you and I do in balancing our checkbooks. They simply raise your property taxes and the sales tax. They don’t need to show a profit like a business. They don’t have to restrain expenses in any sense like a business. They simply tell you and I to fork over more money. They don’t care if it takes food out of your baby’s mouth. They need a larger budget to waste and from which to blindly steal from the taxpayers.

The only way to express our displeasure is to throw every incumbent out of office. Don’t bother me with the tired old line about how all of the politicians are crooked or incompetent, except for your representative. We must throw all of them out of office! And never, ever elect another Democrat or Republican to office in New Jersey. It’s the only way we can change this desperate situation.

06/15/06

Most States Have Unsurpassed Surpluses

With the booming economy, most states are awash in new revenue that is funding tax cuts, teacher pay increases and construction of new roads. Only four states have to deal with deficits, including obviously New Jersey.

In some states, there is so much money that the legislatures are debating about how large the tax cuts should be. On the negative side, these surpluses have fueled state governments, on average, to increase spending by 4.2 percent. Some states, like California, are paying down long-term debt with $7.5 billion in increased revenue.

Supposedly, the fiscal managers in these states are being more protective this time of a downturn in the economy and not spending money like a drunken sailor. George Cunningham, deputy chief of staff to Arizona Governor Janet Napolitano, said, “Next time we go down, we don’t want to be in the toilet like we were last time.” North Carolina actually plans to increase its reserve fund, a concept anathema to the corrupt, incompetent administrations of the northeast states, by $620 million.

As shocking as this may sound to politicians in New Jersey, in Oregon, the state constitution mandates that when state revenues exceed projections by more than 2 percent, that money must be refunded to the taxpayers. Unless Oregon politicians can pull a rabbit out of a hat, lawmakers will be forced to refund the money.

So the inevitable question arises? Why are New Jersey and three other states fighting exponential tax increases year after year? It’s simple folks. It can be attributed to unconstitutional Supreme Court rulings, a Democratically controlled legislature, obscene pension and healthcare payments for public workers, bloated state payrolls, waste, and above all rampant corruption. Solve those problems and the state may actually have a surplus, which could be returned to the taxpayers. Sorry about that. Once in a while, we all need a good laugh.

06/15/06

Perth Amboy

Perth Amboy To Raise Property Taxes 50%

A day after the mayor of Perth Amboy lost his bid for the Democratic nomination in the 13^th congressional district, Joseph Vas announced that property taxes would have to increase by nearly 50 percent to balance the municipal budget.

Vas called the $8 million hole in the budget a “clerical error,” arguing the city could document all of the revenues included in the proposal. Was this case of the rat trying to scurry from the sinking ship by seeking to change offices so he didn’t need to face the wrath of the people of Perth Amboy? Sure, leave the dirty work or blame someone else for the gross waste and ineptness.

For the owner of a home assessed at $115,000, taxes on the municipal portion of the bill will increase by $844, or about $70 per month. The municipal tax rate will increase to $2.30 per $100, up $.73 from last year, if adopted. The average citizen saw a $0.19 increase or $207 increase in their property bill in 2005.

Don Perlee, the business administrator for the city, said, “While we regret the delay in the finalization of the budget, our goal has always been to limit property tax increases, maintain essential services, and get every non-tax dollar for city taxpayers.”

Maybe they need to cover the $542,000 stolen by the tax collector due to the city’s non-existent accounting practices.

The Apathetic Voter asks, “How many lucrative pensions are included in that budget? How many double-dippers are receiving multiple paychecks in that budget? Why aren’t the people of Perth Amboy asking some very pointed questions about that massive increase in taxes?

06/15/06

Mandatory Jail Terms Dropped from Anti-Corruption Bill

The Legislature has been trying to pass an anti-corruption bill with some teeth to combat the epic corruption that has existed in New Jersey for eons. One of the provisions of the bill was that all public officials convicted of corruption must serve mandatory jail time. It was revealed that under current law minor cases of corruption (less than $200) are punishable by probation.

But Governor Corzine’s new Attorney General, Zulima Farber, obviously expressing her liberal sentiments, vehemently protested this provision claiming that “I oppose mandatory sentencing for philosophical reasons,” whatever that means. She also said, “That discretion is better placed on judges. I’m not talking about reducing penalties, going softer on public corruption.” Then why should she have a problem with mandatory jail time? Isn’t this the specific type of punishment that would act as a deterrent and could hopefully end the spiral of corruption that has made New Jersey the laughing stock of the nation?

She didn’t stop with her softening of penalties for corruption. She also said “I would oppose forfeiture,” regarding public officials losing their pensions, too. She said it would be unfair to deny the pension of a 30-year government veteran who turned corrupt in year 31. The Apathetic Voter is having a hard time writing this piece, as the tears are flowing from my eyes.

When Farber was asked by Senator John Adler, “What can we do to make New Jersey less corrupt?” Farber answered, “We can do a better job coordinating with other agencies of government,” whatever that means. Adler replied, “Crime is a crime. There should be forfeiture.” He favored “mandatory jail time for public figures who violate the public trust.”

Farber then stated that she was transferring 20 extra lawyers to fight public corruption. By the standards of corruption in New Jersey, that will not be enough. She should have one lawyer for each member of the Legislature.

06/15/06

California State Budget $131 Billion – New Jersey Budget $32 Billion

Wow! With all the complaining that people in New Jersey do about Governor Corzine’s $32 billion budget, perhaps New Jerseyans can take some comfort in the astronomical California budget of $131 billion. OK, New Jerseyans, enjoy it for 3 seconds because now we’ll feed you the painful truth.

Let’s compare the two states population versus that budget.

State	Population (As of 2000)	Budget	Average Cost Per State Resident
New Jersey	8,414,350	$31,900,000,000	$3,791
California	33,871,648	$131,000,000,000	$3,867

On the surface, both taxpayer burdens appear to be about the same, but the major difference between California and New Jersey is the income local municipalities realize from property taxes. In California, the tax is limited to 1% of assessed value. In New Jersey, with the highest property taxes in the nation, local and state governments realize close to $40 billion a year in property tax revenue, greater than the much publicized state budget. So wipe that smile off your face, New Jerseyans, because with the exception of Taxachusetts, New Jerseyans pay the highest taxes in the country.

07/15/06

UMDNJ

UMDNJ Stopped From $2.5 Million Ad Campaign

So after a government agency like UMDNJ is exposed for massive fraud and mismanagement with $243 million of abusive spending uncovered to-date, how does the institution attempt to rectify the situation? Do they fire incompetent managers? Do they modify the rules to prevent reoccurrences of these incidents? Why no, they fix the problem by spending $2.5 million on a “feel good” campaign to improve their image, even though they were laying off 100 university employees, made cuts in programs and delayed the opening of a new cancer center.

UMDNJ had planned a media blitz starting after Labor Day to improve the image of the university. Thankfully, Stuart Rabner, Governor Corzine’s chief counsel, told the university to shelve the campaign.

08/15/06

Attorney General

Farber Quits as New Jersey Attorney General

New Jersey Attorney General Zulima Farber resigned today after a special prosecutor said she violated the state's ethics code by improperly helping her boyfriend at police traffic stop. The big question has always been, how did Governor Corzine select an individual to be the top cop who managed to accrue 13 traffic violations and four bench warrants?

Farber, 61, quit hours after retired state judge Richard Williams wrote in a report that while she broke no criminal laws, she failed to “ensure that the laws were faithfully and fairly enforced.'' She resigned after an investigation found she broke three provisions of the state's ethics code by responding to a police checkpoint that nabbed her live-in boyfriend, some Republicans called for further sanctions from the state Ethics Commission. State Republican Chairman Tom Wilson said the ethics law is clear that when public employees commit an ethics violation, they must be fined at least $500 for each offense. The ethics commission can also choose to order restitution, reprimand or bar public employment for up to five years.

"While it may seem like sort of a stick in the eye, I think it's important for people to know that the governor means what he says," Wilson said. "If we're going to have a zero-tolerance policy and we're going to have a stiff set of rules and penalties, those have to be followed to the letter in every instance."

Farber, the state's first Hispanic attorney general, said at a news conference with Governor Jon Corzine that she would leave office after seven months rather than defend herself. “I resign out of respect for the governor and for the goals we both share for the success of this administration,'' Farber told reporters at the statehouse in Trenton. “Such a fight would be a tremendous distraction.''

The resignation of Farber is a setback for Corzine, a Democrat who won election last November after pledging to clean up the ethics of state government. Corzine, 59, said that he didn't ask Farber to resign, although he said her decision was correct. The resignation followed calls from state politicians including Democratic State Senator John Adler, chairman of the Judiciary Committee, for Farber to quit.

08/15/06

Newark

Sharpe James Goes Out With Bang

In the final week of his 20-year administration, former mayor Sharpe James managed to stick it to the taxpayers one last time, and we don’t mean the taxpayers of Newark either, because the residents of New Jersey pay 95 percent of Newark’s bills.

The mayor managed to bill a trip to Rio de Janeiro costing $6,500 on a city credit card. He was accompanied by two police bodyguards, and stayed at a 4-star resort. Naturally, he claimed the trip was strictly business-related, including meals at upscale eateries and the bodyguards were necessary since Rio is a crime-ridden city. Apparently the only business conducted was monkey business.

This last trip was the final blow of a total tab of $80,000 he charged to the city over a 2-1/2 year period paid for with Newark Police Department funds. No other police employees had a city credit card. As another example, James used the credit card in his 2002 re-election bid to pay for Illinois Congressman Jesses Jackson, Jr., an aide and his pollster to come to his aid by showcasing Jackson at churches throughout Newark. Sharpe also had another credit card billed to city hall in which he ran up bills to the tune of $70,000. Both these cards are in addition to the $25,000 that the City Council added to cover travel and other costs.

Newark Mayor Cory Booker said, “Our investigation so far appears to reveal an egregious and acceptable use of public funds, especially in light of our current urgent community needs, current fiscal crisis and common values. I am and will continue to ensure that this matter is fully investigated.”

According to Susan Bass-Levin, commissioner of the state Department of Community Affairs, the use of credit cards was illegal in itself.

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Perhaps the total picture of the abuse of the taxpayers will finally be revealed because the U. S. Attorney’s office has demanded an audit trail of James’ credit card statements and other documentation. The FBI seized all of his file boxes from a Public Storage locker when it was discovered that James paid a bill for $2,797.50 for the storage unit naturally with his credit card.

James response was typical. He called the allegations a politically motivated attack. We’re surprised he didn’t play the race card, too, but that’s somewhat difficult when the new mayor is black, too.

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At about the same time, new Mayor Cory Booker informed the citizens of Newark that they will be required to swallow one of the biggest tax increases in city history. Back in February, when James was still undecided whether he would run for another term, he told those same citizens that the city had a $30 million surplus and they could expect a reduction in their property taxes.

Booker said, “The prior administration borrowed against our future with no regard or plan for repayment. This irresponsible financial practice was made significantly worse by the prior administration’s wasteful spending, failure to collect and develop other sources of revenue, clear mismanagement and bad planning.” Booker also said the prior administration added hundreds of employees offering them lavish pay rates. They also discovered thousands of people who are still carried on the welfare rolls including some who are deceased. They also found boxes of water bills that were never sent out.

Now we don’t know if Booker’s assessment is more realistic or he is simply raising taxes while he’s the new kid on the block, but logic dictates that Booker’s assessment is likely accurate, for no other reason he voluntarily cut his own salary, and he is forcing the City Council to cut their benefits as well.

09/15/06

Newark

Newark May Dump 1,200 Employees

With the departure of Sharpe James as mayor of Newark, new mayor Cory Booker appears to be taking a more realistic approach to governing the large city.

As opposed to the methodology imposed by state government, whereby they simply raise our taxes to cover budget shortfalls, Booker approaches the city with the eye of a businessman, and has simple concluded that they don’t have enough money to pay the bloated bureaucracy. Newark’s Housing Authority has already decided to lay off 425 employees, while Booker has proposed to layoff between 400 and 800 city employees. A final decision won’t be made until several forensic audits have been conducted of the city’s books.

New Jersey residents are asking, “When will Booker run for governor?”

09/15/06

Newark

Sharpe James Spent $48,000 on Travel in Last 3 Months

Last month we reported on Sharpe James $6,500 trip to Rio de Janeiro in his last month in office as mayor of Newark, New Jersey.

Now it has been revealed that his total tab for the last 3 months was $48,000 with trips to Rio, Puerto Rico, Martha’s Vineyard, and Detroit, all based on some ruse about collecting important data or one-hour meetings with “important” people.

Has the city of Newark ever questioned his undocumented expenses? OF course not – he’s the mayor. Has the state of New Jersey ever questioned how Newark spends money? Of course not – he’ll likely play the race card. Almost all corruption and waste has been exposed by the U. S. Attorney’s office.

If you think it doesn’t directly affect your taxes, think again. We must all remember that the citizens of New Jersey pick up 95 percent of the education expenses for the city.

09/15/06

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Jerseyans Leaving State in Droves

A national survey conducted by Mayflower Transit has ranked New Jersey as the second highest “outbound” state in America, with only North Dakota faring worse.

In the first 8 months of the year, 1,788 households moved out while 1,060 households moved in.

According to Mayflower the reasons for families leaving were:

· 45 percent moved because of a new job or a company transfer.

· 32 percent left because of retirement.

The Mayflower confirms the results of a survey conducted by Princeton University’s Policy Research Institute that showed that in 2005 the number of people departing the state exceeded arrivals by 56,989 residents. The total number of people who have left since 2000 is estimated at 194.901, the equivalent of the citizens of Paterson and New Brunswick leaving at once.

09/15/06

Plainfield

Plainfield Faces “Mandated” Tax Hikes

The city of Plainfield is considering a proposed 2007 municipal budget unveiled this week that includes an approximately $3.7 million mandated increase in city employee salaries, pension payouts and health-care costs, and an almost $6 million decrease from the 2006 budget in property tax ratables. The numbers mean an uphill battle for local officials who will spend the next few months working to find places where cuts to the proposed $64,679,577 budget can be made. If the budget is approved as is, a homeowner with a house assessed at the city's average of $113,000 would pay an additional $305 in municipal taxes this year.

"We're in a difficult situation and much of it is beyond our control," Councilman Rashid Burney said. "Our costs, such as health care and insurance, are escalating faster than the rate of inflation. Our pensions and salaries are a contractual obligation that we must meet. And it's all hitting us at a time when we're seeing dwindling assistance from the state and federal government."

Chief Financial Officer Peter Sepalya said that in addition to an average 4 percent "cost of living" increase factored into city employees salaries, union contracts -- including the police union contract settled last December -- are largely responsible for the $1.7 million salary expense increase in the proposed 2007 budget.

10/15/06

Port Authority

Secretive Workings of the Port Authority

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, a quasi government agency, spends their $5 billion budget on, for the most part, on whatever they want, for they operate behind closed doors.

The 12 commissioners meet 10 times a year to award consulting and construction projects for public transportation projects IN CLOSED SESSION. Open discussion about their expenditures rarely happens because they never notify the public or the media that a vote is going to be taken.

New York Assemblyman Richard Brodsky said, “They operate without transparency or accountability.”

Mow a move is afoot to make the Port Authority subject to the same laws and legislative oversight that apply to most government bureaucracies.

Last December, the commissioners authorized a $1.1 billion construction project for Ground Zero’s permanent PATH train station. Two years ago, they awarded consulting contracts worth hundreds of thousands of dollars each to two former high-ranking Port Authority executives who already were drawing large pensions. In 2001, the commissioners, who receive no pay themselves, gave top agency executives raises up to 22 percent. In 1999, they spent $331,000 on two parties to celebrate a major airport anniversary.

Why is this news important to you, the taxpayer? Because a few years ago, the Port Authority wanted to double the fees on all bridges and tunnels, taking the average $4 fee to $8, but they were forced to scale back to a 50 percent increase. If public accountability was permitted, then you and I would be able to assess whether those enormous commuter fare increases were somehow justified.

11/15/06

Newark

Newark Must Spend $102 Million More for “White Elephant” – After enormous negative publicity as to the financial viability of the new Newark Hockey Arena for the New Jersey Devils, in which the City of Newark was contractually obligated to pay $210 million of the $365 million cost, it has been divulged that a few minor infrastructure needs somehow slipped through the cracks.

The pretense of the stadium from the beginning is that the arena would bring vitally needed jobs to the inner city although ample documentation is available that demonstrates that 1) public entities never recover their investment, and 2) the majority of the jobs are low-paid “hash slingers.”

As Gomer Pyle would say, “Surprise! Surprise!” now that it has been revealed that significant infrastructure improvements are the responsibility of the city of Newark. I guess they missed that little gem when they were selling the “White Elephant” to the citizens of Newark and the state of New Jersey. Its not as if Newark has other uses for the money with failing schools and public housing in dire need of repairs.

The infrastructure improvements include road upgrades, a pedestrian bridge, a plaza on Market Street, and a public park. So it looks like Newark’s share of the boondoggle will cost $312 million and not $210 million. But what difference does it make when people like Sharpe James, the former mayor of Newark, and his band of cutthroats walk away with millions as their share of the booty at the expense of the taxpayers of the state.

When Cory Booker took office as mayor, he initially seriously considered killing the project, but after it was revealed that $90 million of the city’s money had already been spent and Newark was able to renegotiate the contract between the city and the Devils, he reluctantly accepted the pact with the Devil’s owner. So what will the new kid on the political street do now?

11/15/06

Rutgers University

New Academic Rage – Degree in Pro Football – There must be something wrong with my thinking. I always thought that the purpose of college was to acquire an education. Because of budget cuts to education in the massive $31.8 billion state budget, schools like Rutgers have had to reduce or eliminate programs.

But their football program keeps rolling along. We’re told it’s all about prestige for the university because sure as hell this program doesn’t make any money for the university. In fact Rutgers will spend $13 million on the football program and only take in $10 million in gate receipts, merchandise sales, etc., for a net loss of $3 million. I wonder how many scholarships that would provide to needy students?

Is the purpose of a student’s education at Rutgers to earn a degree or as an incubator for a pro football career?

Now big time sports have always been a part of the academic life, but the attention to basketball and football programs are definitely out of kilter with the fundamental desire to produce citizens that will benefit society in the sciences or the arts.

But Rutgers is only one of fifty-six Division 1-A schools, and at that they’re in the middle of the pack on spending for their football programs.

The money spent on a few of these programs (from the highest to the lowest) is shown below:

School	Amount (millions $)	School	Amount (millions $)	School	Amount (millions $)	School	Amount (millions $)	School	Amount (millions $)
Ohio State	$25.7	USC	$16.7	Texas	$14.5	W. Virginia	$11.3	Arkansas State	$3.0

Now Rutgers pays Coach Schiano $1 million a year (the state’s highest paid employee) plus certain incentives that can add a few hundred thousand dollars to fatten his paycheck.

Analysis of where Rutgers spends $13 million tends to raise a few eyebrows. A few of these very questionable expenditures that are paid directly from taxpayer’s wallets are shown below.

Expense Category	Item	Amount	Comments
Food	Bill for football awards dinner at the Brunswick Hilton	$30,578	How many awards were handed out – 10,000? More likely, there was a lot of booze consumed at the dinner.
Administrative Services	Staff cell phones	$48,605	Where are these coaches calling, Outer Slobovia -- on a daily basis?
Recruiting	Taking recruits to the ESPN Zone in New York City	$38,261	That’s a hell of a lot of trips on the New York City Subway system.
Rent/Other	Lease for Coach Schiano’s Cadillac Escalade	$11,976	Even a 2^nd grade student realizes that means the SUV costs $1,000 per month. An Abrams tank could be leased for less money.
	Tents for entertaining at the spring game	$9,224	How many tents could possibly fit in that small space?
Supplies	Nike uniforms, shoes, socks = $3,000 per player	$336,391	We must assume these uniforms contain silk threads.
	Coaches game pants (made by Ben Hogan)	$5,598	Unless Rutgers has 500 coaches, that’s an awful lot of money for a couple of pairs of pants for each coach.
Professional Services	Motivational speaker Kevin Elko, including airline cost	$10,912	I want his job.
	Massages	$5,666	Were these legitimate massages, or were extra services provided as well?
Repairs Vehicles and Equipment	Bulbs for a film projector	$5,777	For that amount of money, the bulbs must burn out every 30 seconds.

12/15/06

Morris County

Morris County Tax Official Bags Huge Travel Bill

Morris County taxpayers wish they could live in the luxury their appointed officials seem to expect quite well.

As a member of the Morris County Board of Taxation, Anthony Crecco, a retired Newark fire captain and former East Hanover councilman, has run up a travel bill of more than $40,000 since 1998. In total, the board has spent $115,000.

Now let’s see if we have this right? He’s a member of a tax board so his responsibilities are limited to Morris County. Therefore, it appears perfectly justifiable that he should run up huge bills at The Flamingo in Las Vegas, the Plaza Chateau Lacombe in Edmonton, Canada, the Fontainebleau in Miami, Bally’s and Harrah’s in Atlantic City, and the Western Bonaventure in Los Angeles, to name a few – all important business-related trips we’re sure.

Crecco said, “Every time I go places, I bring back information to make our association better informed.” Now I’m sure that being aware of the price of an acre of real estate in Edmonton, Canada, exerts great pressure on how much the tax board fleeces the citizens of Morris County. Of course, Crecco ignores the normal learning process used by his peers to acquire knowledge through in-state educational seminars, forums and above all, the Internet.

Hudson County Tax Board Administrator Donald Kenny said, “We never leave the state. It’s not an official board policy but we keep things in house in New Jersey.”

Obviously, Crecco has been feeding at the public trough for far too long.

01/15/07

Governor

More Political Appointees in New Jersey

Governor Corzine was elected in part because he was the CEO of a financial services firm, thereby assuming he would be the best man to straighten out the disaster in Trenton. Well, that argument is nonsensical, because Wall Street firms generally make money hand over fist, and they rarely encounter the budget problems inherent is most small businesses, whereby they have to cut costs to show a profit. Corzine likely was more concerned with the size of the astronomical Christmas bonuses Wall Street hands out each year. Another reason Corzine was elected was he promised to change the politically corrupt culture and enforce a degree of discipline in state government.

We won’t have a final score card for a number of years but so far Corzine is failing all subjects.

As another example of how miserably he has performed, as Corzine negotiates with the all-powerful state workers unions to reduce their princely benefits, either Corzine or someone on his staff helped Carla Katz’s brother-in-law, Rocco Riccio, get a job with the New Jersey Turnpike Authority as an accountant at $75,000 per year. In case you forgot, Katz heads the most powerful state worker’s union and also dated Corzine.

After the Star-Ledge raised questions about Riccio’s political appointment, he was asked to resign. In fairness, we must ask was Riccio qualified for his new job? His work history is far from exemplary. He has been a state employee since 1994 starting with the Division of Taxation. He left that position and moved to the Department of Human Services in 2005, but transferred to another Treasury agency, the Division of Revenue, a few months later. He then applied to the Turnpike Authority this month. We don’t have any proof, but does he not sound like the guy who moves to another job just before the axe falls?

In an interview, Corzine confirmed his office forwarded Riccio’s resume to the Turnpike Authority. He acknowledged that “assertions that not everything was in order“ with Riccio’s performance.

Nothing has changed. The continuing saga of political appointees goes on unchecked.

01/15/07

Illegal Immigrant Healthcare Cost State $275-$300 Million A Year

According to the New Jersey Hospital Association, it estimates that the state’s 81 hospitals will spend between $275 and $300 million treating uninsured illegal immigrants this year.

Now when we examine the state’s $31 billion budget and the outlandish average of $6,000 homeowners pay in property taxes, this may seem to be a paltry sum. But wouldn’t we all love to have a small piece of that money in our pockets. What would you buy with the $75 each adult in the state would have available to spend if we weren’t forced to pay this bill mandated by the free spending liberals in Congress who create federal regulations?

Immigration opponents claim that caring for illegal immigrants is a massive financial drain that threatens to bankrupt hospitals from North Carolina to California.

01/15/07

When is the Company CEO Also a Champion of the Unions?

Only in New Jersey can basic economics become so topsy-turvy as to boggle the imagination. Who has ever heard of a company CEO rooting for the unions, which at times can bury a company with their demands. Yes, it could only happen in New Jersey when Governor Jon Corzine has sided with the unions more than once against the taxpayers of the state.

Last summer when the issue of cutting state worker’s princely benefits became a hot topic, Governor Corzine showed up at a rally of thousands of workers in Trenton and literally told them he would root for their cause.

In January 2007, the administrators at Rutgers University advanced a plan to organize about 3,000 administrative, supervisory and professional employees. Rutgers President Richard McCormick has the unenviable task of trying to stretch the billions of dollars the state gives the university each year, so he naturally fought the union idea, because he knows that would cost the institution considerably more money in the near and long-term.

Well Corzine and the Democrats blew a gasket. Some of Corzine's fellow Democrats in the state Legislature had gone as far as to threaten a cut in state funding to the public research university. In essence, Corzine told McCormick to “shut up.” Then Corzine committed the cardinal sin by showing up at a rally of 200 workers at the Labor Education Center so he could address the workers by saying “that Rutgers would not be diminished by the addition of 3,000 employees to the collective-bargaining table.” Corzine added, "I don't think that there is any reason to argue that ... the choice of being a part of collective bargaining agreements does somehow undermine the credibility and the excellence of the university.” Has this man lost his collective mind? Whose side is he on?

Fortunately, McCormick was able to carve out a neutrality agreement with organizers last week that quelled the level of what had been mounting distrust between the two sides, ending the impasse for the foreseeable future.

01/15/07

Newark, Jersey City and Camden

Where Did the $15 Million Go?

Accounting firm KPMG conducts audits of the school systems for New Jersey. They found unexplained expenditures of $15 million in four districts – Newark, Jersey City, Paterson and Camden. What do all of these school districts have in common? If you answered that they are all Abbott Districts you win the pink elephant. Yes, they are those same school districts that on average receive twice as much money as non-Abbott districts.

Camden by itself had more than $13 million in unexplained expenses. The auditors found few uniform procedures or controls were in place to safeguard taxpayer money. Out of a random sample of 330 expenses examined, 260 were questionable. Most appeared to be for services and supplies that weren’t properly documented or documented at all.

A few of these questionable expenses were itemized in the report prepared by the auditors:

· Expenses for catered food.

· $5,000 to lease a Volkswagen for the former superintendent

· $800,000 for mechanical work when the school board only approved $400,000

· Overseas trips for Jersey City administrators

· Purchase of figurines, decorations and a $1,795 jukebox

2,000 purchase orders exceeded their stated amounts by a combined total of $6 million.

01/15/07

Edison

Naked Cop Ordered Returned to Duty

Superior Court Judge Melvin Gelade has overturned the conviction of an Edison policeman, Ionnis Mpletsakis, who ran naked from his car after an accident, and the judge has also ordered the officer reinstated in his job, although he lied when questioned about the circumstances of the accident.

Municipal Judge John Leonard had convicted Mpletsakis, 26, of hindering his own apprehension. Leonard also found the officer not guilty of assault by auto and leaving the scene of an accident.

Leonard ordered Mpletsakis, who was off duty at the time of the accident, to forfeit his $72,097-a-year job as an Edison patrol officer and pay fines totaling $655.

But Gelade yesterday upheld the officer’s appeal, ordered his reinstatement, and directed the township to return the money he had already paid for the fines.

Note that Mpletsakis is 26 years old and makes over $72,000 per year (probably on a high school education), and that doesn’t include overtime, which is routine in that type of job.