Federal Welfare Spending to Skyrocket 80 Percent in Next Decade
8:27 AM, Jan 15, 2013 • By DANIEL HALPER
Federal welfare spending will skyrocket 80 percent over the next decade, according to new analysis by the minority side of the Senate Budget Committee. Here’s a chart, provided by the committee, detailing the growth in spending:
This chart displays projected federal spending on federal welfare programs over the next ten years, based on data from the Congressional Research Service and Congressional Budget Office,” the Republican side of the Senate Budget Committee explains. “These figures do not count state contributions to federal welfare programs (primarily on low-income health assistance) which brought total welfare spending in FY2011 to more than $1 trillion – dwarfing any other budget item including Medicare and Social Security, and totaling enough to mail every household in poverty a check for 60k each year.”
Politicians continue to spend like there is no tomorrow ,maybe there wont be
Bergen exec Donovan to unveil budget today boosting county spending
Wednesday January 16, 2013, 1:49 PM
BY JOHN C. ENSSLIN
STAFF WRITER
The Record
Bergen County Executive Kathleen Donovan will propose a 2013 budget today that would raise county spending 4.1 percent.
That will mean an additional $29.18 in property taxes for the owner of the average home assessed at $340,000.
The overall increase – which includes areas of spending not covered by the state’s two percent budget cap – does not call for any layoffs. The tax hike will generate an additional $14.8 million in revenue.
About $2.7 million of that money will go toward paying salaries and fringe benefits for the staff of a new $28 million juvenile detention center in Teterboro that is scheduled to open later this year.
Ridgewood Senior Bus operates every Tuesday and Thursday from 9:30AM to 2:30PM.
Use the Senior Bus to Get Out and About!
Ridgewood Senior Bus operates every Tuesday and Thursday from 9:30AM to 2:30PM.
TUESDAY the Senior Bus travels on an established route within Ridgewood – Stopping at many apartment buildings and Senior Housing, and through Ridgewood’s Central Business District – banks, pharmacy, grocery store, restaurants, hair salon, etc.
THURSDAY the Senior Bus travels by appointment. Please call 201/670-5500 x200 to make an appointment for a ride to a doctor or therapist appointment, or a nearby Mall.
Ridgewood NJ, In July 2012, incoming Ridgewood Mayor, Paul Aronsohn, and the Village Council asked 12 Ridgewood residents with varied backgrounds and expertise to serve on a temporary Financial Advisory Committee (informally known as the “Tiger Team”). The committee members included local business and commercial property owners, consultants, finance executives, accountants, lawyers and life-long Village residents. The Mayor told the members ofthe Financial Advisory Committee, “I believe we live in a community of smart people, many of whom have finance experience. Thus, the Council and the community as a whole could benefit from (resìdents’) experience.” To that end, he outlined a specific 90-day mandate with a simple goal…to fix the Village budget and reform Village government.”
The committee was instructed to:
– Identify cost-cutting opportunities
– Identify non~tax related revenue enhancements
~ Identify structural fixes to the budget and (Village) organization and enhance the residents’ value of service provided for taxes paid
– Identify related Central Business District enhancements
The financial Advisory Committee was to be “completely independent and organized as its members saw fit.” We were given access to members of Village management, several years of budget documents and all collective bargaining agreements. The committee was asked to “produce a document with recommendations in time for the 2013 budget, regardless of whether consensus is achieved.” Finally, the team was asked to decide on its preferred means for sharing its final recommendations with the Village Council and then disband.
The Members of the 2012 Financial Advisory Committee (alphabetically)
Rich Barclay
Bayard DeI\/Iallie
Ed Feldsott
Nancy Johansen
Charlie Kime
John Maxwell
Jim McCarthy
David Sabath
Jim Schimmei
Fran Shovlìn
Roberta Sonenfeld
Bob Zeller
Editors Note : On first glance it looks like they did a great job putting together a well thought out report , without commenting on the specifics , I see a lot of things that have been talked about on this blog , since the beginning of time . PJ
Saladworks to Open in Ridgewood, NJ on January 21st
Jan. 15, 2013
Ridgewood NJ , Saladworks, the nation’s first and largest fresh-tossed salad franchise concept, is opening a new location in North Jersey. The new Saladworks location will be located at 37 Chestnut Street in Ridgewood.
Saladworks will be celebrating the opening of its Ridgewood location by offering free soup with the purchase of any entrée the week of the 21st and $5 salads the week of the 28th.
The store is owned by Bob Gallo, a long-time Ridgewood resident and first-time Saladworks owner. After working in the law and real estate development industries, Gallo wanted to get into quick service restaurants – and found Saladworks to be the perfect partner to bring healthy faire to Ridgewood. Saladworks in Ridgewood hopes to fill a gap in the town’s dining options by providing a nutritious alternative to the current options in the area.
“When I saw Saladworks, I knew that it’d fit right into Ridgewood,” Gallo said. “It’s a strong franchise with good longevity. Saladworks has grown the right way in the past few years and isn’t going anywhere. Salads are not a fad.”
New Jersey was the birthplace of the Saladworks concept, and Ridgewood will be the 35th location in the state for Saladworks. “New Jersey has often been referred to as ‘salad country’ because it’s where we have our roots,” said Chairman and CEO John Scardapane. “Ridgewood is one of the many locations that we plan to add to North Jersey in 2013. We are looking forward to turning Ridgewood consumers into Saladworks fans.”
A fusion of fanatic’ly fresh and healthy menu items along with passionate customer service define the experience each guest receives at every Saladworks location. Saladworks offers all customers the opportunity to create their own customized fresh salad, which is expertly prepared in plain view by an extensively-trained Saladworks team member. Customers can choose from one of 12 classic Signature Salads or create their own fresh masterpiece. All of Saladworks’ ingredients are chopped fresh daily in every location across the country. Saladworks isn’t just salads, either – proprietary soups, fresh wraps, hot Panini sandwiches and Fusion sandwiches are offered at locations.
About Saladworks
Saladworks, celebrating its 26th year in operation, is the nation’s first and largest fresh-salad franchise concept. Operating 105 locations in 13 states with more than 100 units in development, Saladworks offers a wide menu of flavorful salads, signature dressings, proprietary soups and Fusion and Panini sandwiches. With the addition of the True Nutrition menu, Saladworks’ signature salads average only 300 calories. In 2012, Entrepreneur magazine named Saladworks the nation’s number-one salad franchise, for the fourth year in a row. It is consistently listed on QSR’s 10 Best Franchise Deals; Inc.’s 500/5000; and Philadelphia Business Journal’s Best Places to Work. Scardapane was named 2011 CEO of the Year by SmartCEO. For more information, visit https://www.saladworks.com.
Reader I guess the BOE has not heard of the “New Normal”
I guess the BOE has not heard of the “New Normal”. None of us get the raises we used to get or for that matter get payed as much as we used to .
The fact is taxes are raising and going to continue to raise ,while salaries shrink and Ridgewood will just have to do without an over priced superintendent .
The district’s potential ability to pay a salary up to 15% over the capped salary level, which is $170,000. In this day and age that more than adequate.
According to some readers its not about about an “increase” or “raise” and it’s not in reference to Dr. Fishbein’s current $220,000 salary.Its about the state interfering with the BOE’s ability to do its legislated job, which is to make decisions that the locally-elected officials feel will provide the best possible education for the town’s children. The fallout from this arbitrary cap will negatively affect the state’s schools through extremely high turnover among superintendents and a shrinking pool of experienced educators, yea right ,do it for the children.
Interesting that the BOE only complains about state intervention when it comes to pay raises for staff but never with it asks for state aid? The state is always a handy excuse while the board pisses away money and fails to prepare children for the future . Sorry folks sending a kid to Bergen Community is not worth $90 million a year.
Ridgewood’s School rank has dropped in recent years and and we have fared poorly on state standardized tests people need to be held accountable .
Mayor Aronsohn’s ” Tiger Team ” throws cold water of reality on big spending Village “Tiger team’ shows its teeth on Ridgewood expenses
Tuesday January 15, 2013, 9:30 AM
BY DARIUS AMOS
STAFF WRITER
The Ridgewood News
The average Ridgewood property tax bill will skyrocket beyond $25,000 in less than a decade’s time if the Village Council allows budgetary growth to continue at its current pace, according to a report issued Wednesday night by a volunteer finance committee.
Mayor Paul Aronsohn brought an informal group together last summer and requested that it examine Ridgewood’s expenses and spending plans and offer recommendations to aid in the 2013 municipal budget process. The group, which was dubbed the “tiger team,” was comprised of more than a dozen longtime village residents, local business operators, commercial property owners, consultants, finance executives, accountants and lawyers.
Aronsohn and Councilman Tom Riche acted as liaisons, but the committee acted independent of the council and village management.
At Wednesday’s council meeting, team member and resident Bayard Demallie announced that the committee produced a 50-page report containing 19 “big-picture items” that the governing body should consider while drafting the municipal budget. He revealed that many of the recommendations within the report were not reached unanimously, and many residents might disagree with the findings.
“But the report represents the consensus of the committee,” he said, adding that Village Council has the final authority to follow through or disregard the conclusions.
The fiscal facts, however, cannot be ignored, Demallie said.
In December the Ridgewood High School Maroon Wrestling team took home four medals
Ridgewood NJ, In December the Ridgewood High School Maroon Wrestling team took part in the George Jockish Holiday Bergen County Wrestling Tournament. The night’s big winner was the 126 pound Joseph Oliva, one of Ridgewood’s four medalists, and his first county title with a 7-3 decision. With the win, Oliva, a junior, improved to 10-0 on the season, and became Ridgewood’s thirteenth county champion in the tournament’s 53-year history, and the first since 2003. This was Oliva’s second major championship in his three years of varsity wrestling at RHS.
Other Ridgewood wrestlers who placed in the county tournament were sophomore Nick Saglimbeni (132 pounds), who took sixth place, and juniors Stephen Gerdner (145 pounds) and Austin Purritano (160 pounds). Both boys came in seventh in their respective weight classes.
As a team, the Maroons finished tenth in the 41-team competition.
Biden: W.H. eying 19 executive actions on guns
By REID J. EPSTEIN | 1/14/13 6:49 PM EST Updated: 1/15/13 7:33 AM EST
The White House has identified 19 executive actions for President Barack Obama to move unilaterally on gun control, Vice President Joe Biden told a group of House Democrats on Monday, the administration’s first definitive statements about its response to last month’s mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School.
Later this week, Obama will formally announce his proposals to reduce gun violence, which are expected to include renewal of the assault weapons ban, universal background checks and prohibition of high-capacity magazine clips. But Biden, who has been leading Obama’s task force on the response, spent two hours briefing a small group of sympathetic House Democrats on the road ahead in the latest White House outreach to invested groups.
The focus on executive orders is the result of the White House and other Democrats acknowledging the political difficulty of enacting any new gun legislation, a topic Biden did not address in Monday’s meeting.
The executive actions could include giving the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention authority to conduct national research on guns, more aggressive enforcement of existing gun laws and pushing for wider sharing of existing gun databases among federal and state agencies, members of Congress in the meeting said.
Read more: https://www.politico.com/story/2013/01/biden-guns-executive-actions-86187.html#ixzz2I3Lxn1gKBiden: W.H. eying 19 executive actions on guns
Bergen County debuts instruction video for schools that face armed intruders
Monday, January 14, 2013 Last updated: Monday January 14, 2013, 9:23 PM
BY ABBOTT KOLOFF
STAFF WRITER
The Record
Bergen County law enforcement authorities have made a video, complete with dramatizations about real-life school shootings, that may be used to educate teachers across the state about how to respond to armed intruders, Bergen County Prosecutor John Molinelli said Monday.
The video is expected to be reviewed by the state Department of Education for approval before being released for use in schools, Molinelli said.; It is “a mirror image” of another recently made video that will be used to train police in “active shooter response,” he said.
The two videos have been in the works for nearly two years, Molinelli said. The school video is “unique” because it addresses actual events that occurred during shootings at schools across the nation over the past 10 years, he said. The contents of the police video, he said, would not be released for security reasons.
The timing of the videos’ release, he said, had nothing to do with the recent mass shooting at an elementary school in Newtown, Conn. “It’s just a tragic irony it’s rolling out now,” he said.
After loss of the historic Zabriskie Slave Tenant House Paramus shows renewed interest in Historic Preservation January 10,2012
Chris Peters
Ridgewood NJ , Some good news regarding the lost but not forgotten Zabriskie Slave Tenant House in Paramus, which was demolished this past July – “The Paramus mayor also announced two appointments to a historic preservation committee, “in hope with newfound interest we do not lose any more of our treasures in town.” They are Matt Corso and Barry Abel.
LaBarbiera came under criticism from historic preservationists in July after a developer demolished the Zabriskie Tenant House, a landmark home to former slaves and their descendants. At the time, critics questioned why no one had been appointed to the committee. He did not mention the Zabriskie House by name during his speech, but later said he was alluding to it.
After the meeting, the mayor said the borough last month took possession of some of the stones from the old house in hopes of using them to build a memorial.”
Gary Fink, RHS Percussion Ensemble director, was honored with the opportunity to conduct the CJMEA High School Percussion Ensemble in January
January 15,2012
Ridgewood NJ, Gary Fink, RHS Percussion Ensemble director, was honored with the opportunity to conduct the Central Jersey Music Educators Association (CJMEA) High School Percussion Ensemble in January. The CJMEA Percussion Ensemble is made up of top high school musicians from central New Jersey.
Gary has been the director of the Ridgewood High School Percussion Ensemble since 1986. He has conducted the North Jersey Region Percussion Ensemble and Jazz Ensemble; the Hands On Youth Percussion Ensemble in Beijing, China; and the New Jersey City University Percussion Ensemble. Gary also takes approximately one-hundred high school students to Europe each summer as the Head Director of the American Music Abroad Red Tour.
Readers takes a different view of School Safety debate
We can all debate about what other measures would help, but there is no question that bricking up the windows at each school would provide some additional protection.
We can all debate about what other measures would help, but there is no question that solid steel doors with bank quality time release locks at each school would provide some additional protection.
We can all debate about what other measures would help, but there is no question that arming student at each school would provide some additional protection.
We can all debate about what other measures would help, but there is no question that a moat around each school would provide some additional protection.
We can all debate about what other measures would help, but there is no question that forcing all students to disperse and home school would provide some additional protection.
We can all debate about what other measures would help, but there is no question that a double enclosure of electrified and barbed wire fences at each school would provide some additional protection.
We can all debate about what other measures would help, but there is no question that requiring each student to wear a bullet proof vest and full Kevlar suit with full face mask at each school would provide some additional protection.
We can all debate about what other measures would help, but there is no question that bulldozing all of the schools and providing a virtual classroom experience for students at each school would provide some additional protection.
Readers Says Police officer in School is the answer to School Safety
Unfortunately, from what I am hearing, Ridgewood’s Superintendent, Dr. Fishbein, and the slight majority of the village council, are not interested in measures like this that would actually protect our children. Apparently, they want to rely on more video cameras as a solution.
If the government offers funds and Ridgewood’s elected (and unelected officials) say “no thank you” our town’s schools and children will be even more of a likely target for crazy people. The town should take immediate steps to protect the children NOW. We can all debate about what other measures would help, but there is no question that an officer at each school would provide some additional protection.
NJT needs a board overhaul : I’ve seen nothing but deterioration in the 4 years I’ve been in town
Even now, the Bergen line is overcrowded. I rarely get a seat coming home, and the express trains upon which I’ve come to rely are still off the schedule. I have a sneaking suspicion that NJT will use this as an excuse to impermanently reduce services even further.
NJT needs a board overhaul. This kind of mismanagement of our tax funded infrastructure is inexcusable. I sent an email to their board of directors to this effect about two months ago, and never got a response (though the one lawyer on the Board stalked my linkedin profile…wonder if he realized I would see it…anyway, now I can see his and I know more about him too).
I am desperately looking for a job in New Jersey. I can’t handle the commute anymore, it’s just not worth it.
NJT is spewing rainbows and ponies in the press: https://newyork.cbslocal.com/2013/01/14/nj-transit-service-back-to-pre-sandy-levels-into-nyc/. I guess the Main / Bergen lines are not a priority. One of Ridgewood’s selling points for me was the train. Since I’ve moved here, I’ve seen them destroy the train station and endured 2 years of construction. After Irene we had overcrowded trains for months because NJT accommodated the Metro North passengers who were bused to Rt. 17. Glad to see Metro North help us out now…oh wait they’re not. One express train at 6:11 AM! Woo hoo! THANKS A BUNCH!
I’ve seen nothing but deterioration in the 4 years I’ve been in town. $40m on a station, then cut the service. There really should be a criminal investigation.
In hindsight, Montclair or Summit might have been a smarter move. Hell, even Edison is a shorter ride into Penn
