Posted on 02/11/2010 11:27:48 PM PST by Fred
Gov. Christie today declared that New Jersey had veered to the edge of bankruptcy and ordered a broad array of state cuts in an effort to make up a $2.2 billion deficit in the current budget amid falling revenues.
Christie froze aid to more than 500 school districts and public colleges and universities, ordered the end to several state programs and the Office of Public Advocate, and seized unspent money across state government.
"Today, we come to terms with the fact that we cannot spend money on everything we want,'' Christie told a special joint session of the legislature. "The days of Alice in Wonderland budgeting in Trenton are over.''
The state's sales tax revenues are 5.5 percent below projections, corporate business tax receipts are down 8 percent, both below what had been planned under former Gov. Jon Corzine's administration, Christie said.
Christie also announced the state would not contribute $100 million toward pensions costs and signaled that he would push for massive pension restructuring.
Christie highlighted the benefits for unnamed individual teachers as an example: a retired teacher who contributed $62,000 in total toward her pension who would be expected to receive $1.4 million in pension payments and $215,000 in medical benefits over the rest of her life.
"Is it fair for all of us and our children to have to pay for this excess?'' Christie said.
(Excerpt) Read more at globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com ...
Gov Christie is looking good.
What am frickin’ corrupt state New Jersey is. Thank goodness for Governor Christie. Want some proof?
I spent two nights in NJ last November and took the train from West Windsor to New York one morning. I parked the rental car on the street outside the train station parking lot, because the lot required a permit and since I was only a visitor. [There weren’t even any meters! You need a permit to park and then pay to take the train.] When I returned to the car that night I’d received a parking ticket for $45. !! Turns out that street parking requires a permit, also. There were no meters, no painted curbs. The corrupt government officials ticketed me anyway.
I’m contesting the ticket of course. They can try and get me from 3,000 miles away.
Want some evidence of the degree of overtaxation, and corruption, in New Jersey?
Time magazine had an article last year about a woman trying to get her tax bill readjusted because the value of her home had fallen, from $1,700,000 to $1,200,000.
The home was not a mansion, by the way. A large home on a large lot, maybe 3,500 square feet. But NJ housing prices are inflated so the home was worth more than one million.
And her property taxes? $75,000 per year! Yes, $75,000! 5% of the value of the home, annually. You would need a great job paying $120,000 just to be able to pay the property taxes. After 20 years, even if you owned the house outright, you would pay the Government the value of the house in property taxes.
That is criminal. That is insane. Gov Christie should cut state budgets by 75% and let people keep their money.
‘Christie highlighted the benefits for unnamed individual teachers as an example: a retired teacher who contributed $62,000 in total toward her pension who would be expected to receive $1.4 million in pension payments and $215,000 in medical benefits over the rest of her life.’
This is business as usual for most government jobs. At some point they will have to curtail these generous pensions and in all fairness should eliminate them. They should have the same pensions available to most private sector workers, NONE! Give them a 403B and 3% match and they will be better off then most.
Fact: The state with the highest percentage o0f government workers is New Jersey; sorry Virginia and Maryland. Maybe the government workers will take to the streets and start rioting like they have in Greece.
One of the Left's favorite words is "sustainability." LOL.
Heads up, if you don't pay the ticket you won't be able to register your car in your home state the next time it's due and the $45 ticket triples with accrued interest.
One way they will try to get you is by putting it on your credit report.
There are no solutions without dealing with the pension issue.
This is truly a first, a governor willing to take on the entrenched corrupt, criminal, public employee unions. There is really very little to be hopeful about right now, but this makes me hopeful. If this becomes a rallying cry for the dismantling of public employee unions and for intense cutting of public employee pensions and medical benefits, then we are on to something. I hope this becomes not a trend, but a wave!
This is like unloading a 12 gauge full of bird shot at a bunch of horses a thousand yards away after they left the barn, but hey, its a start.
When someone runs on an anti-union platform and promises to jail their corrupt socialist crook leadership, thats when all hell will break loose.
Bust the dirty socialist crooks at all levels of union leadership, its not like its hard to find their mob and communist ties and uncover their schemes, get a bunch of retired IRS to destroy these scumbags.
I got a warrant out for my arrest in New Jersey. I can’t go back.
A few months after a trip to Atlantic City, I received a letter in the mail from NJ DOT. They claim I skipped a 50 cent toll on the AC Expressway. Yes. I paid the PA Turnpike fees and $3 AC Expressway fee both ways, but I decided to just blow-off the 50 cent booth.
Pay the $25 fine? Nah.. I told them to pound sand, now I owe $500.
While its good hes trying to sort the mess out this makes him a one term governor. The eaters and ‘entitled’ wont like it when their gravy trains get cut. I think mostly nothing positive will occur when the entire mess comes crashing down and the electorate is forced to deal with it.
Yes their is, declare Bankruptcy and declare the contracts null and void.
Or, If the Unions had any brains and could see the hand writing on the wall they would look at the L. Brooks Patterson Model...
Who is that? County Commissioner of Oakland County, (Michigan of all places).
One of 34 municipal entities in the US with a AAA bond rating.
Why? because in the early 90's he got the Unions to buy into a 401a (cash benefit cousin of a 401k) and medical savings accounts.
At this point, they have no choice. FWIW, I have seen on the other side of the table what the benie's these liberal retired teachers get, we should retire with such nets eggs and income streams, and we are paying for it...
Christie is the first good governor NJ has had since Robert Meyner in the 1950s who was a conservative Democrat (back when there were such creatures). Governors Cahill and Christine Whitman were both Bush-lite Republicans, which meant they stacked the NJ Supreme Court with leftists (witness the 7-0 vote enabling the Dems to replace Torricelli with Lautenberg, clearly against the language and intent of state law) and eliminated any “difference’ between Reps and Dems. Instead of them, I would rather have had a Demo, at least you know whom you’re led by and what you should expect. Christie has to act (wealthier residents have been leaving the state in droves to avoid idiotic tax hikes) or the state will go bankrupt.
My wife is a conservative nearing retirement teacher. She recognizes they have to stop the crazy spending. Doesn’t mean it’s fair to take away a pension she worked for all her life and at not the highest salary, either. We do recognize this is the myth of liberal governance. It’s nice to have everything but we can’t afford it.
I also blame the people who voted for ballot bond measures every election to float millions for “Open Space” and every other “sounds good” measure.
A prominent land attorney confirmed my observation that with very few exceptions, “Open Space” is used to buy land the owner could never have developed. But it sounds good.
Didn't say that....
Close the existing ones down if you will with assets in hand, i.e. end them and their are all sorts of ERISA laws that prevent hanky-panky. But if they are underfunded, I am not sure they can make them whole. It is part of the while unsubtainability issue that became the death nell for GM and George Will was the 1st to see it at least 3 or 4 years before it happened....
Going forward it will have to be a 401k-403b type vehicle and if you want a cash benefit type plan (401a) via State contribution well that will have to wait until fiscal sanity becomes the norm.
N.J. libs are going bannanas.
Good job Christie
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