>Cerf assembles expert team to review school funding
Gov. Chris Christie has long said he doesn’t much like how – and how much — New Jersey funds its public schools, especially its urban districts, and more recently he has said changes would be coming with his next state budget plan in early 2012.
Not surprisingly, Democrats have cried foul, with leaders calling for the administration to show its hand. Senate President Stephen Sweeney (D-Gloucester) wrote to acting Education Commissioner Chris Cerf demanding details of what changes he has in mind.
Now, some information is starting to come out.
Cerf said yesterday that he has enlisted a team of nearly a dozen academics, researchers, and others to look at the effectiveness of the current School Funding Reform Act (SFRA) formula and help him come up with changes. (Mooney, NJ Spotlight)
>Gov. likens Parsippany school board to ‘a scofflaw’
The Parsippany School Board has called a meeting for next week to consider the latest threat by state officials over Superintendent Lee Seitz’s salary while a spokesman for Gov. Chris Christie compared its actions over the past few months to those of “a scofflaw.”
The board will meet Thursday to discuss the state’s demand that it cut Seitz’s pay by $43,000 to comply with a salary cap or face the prospect of losing as much as $3.6 million of state aid.
“We’ll discuss the issue and if the board wishes to take action, we’ll do it right then and there,” Parsippany School Board President Frank Calabria said Thursday. “My hope is that we can solve the problem and all of us can get on with other things.” (Koloff, Gannett)
Warren Buffett offers one of the best quotes about the debt ceiling when he says “You just pass a law that anytime there is a deficit of more than 3% of GDP, all sitting members of Congress are ineligible for re-election.”
To discipline Trenton, I suggest a Balanced Budget and Debt Reduction Act accompanied by a Fraud & Abuse Commission. Quasi government “Authorities” will have no power to tax and bond and their expenditures must be approved by the Assembly. We need a flat state income tax in range of 3.5%, and need to free public workers to establish their own 401-k pension plan where they are free to decide how to fund it each year. Younger workers can elect to take home more in their paycheck, while older public workers can elect to put more into their pensions. This will take a tax burden directly off the property owners!
The State Assembly and Senate must accept the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act as their own health insurance plan, or agree to not implement same in NJ. We will find a way to care for the poor and uninsured without wasting tax dollars. Lottery money goes to benefit seniors and for no other purpose. Anyone raiding this fund is subject to sanctions.
Legislation that adds substantial debt to taxpayers must be approved by a public vote and 2/3s majority. Welfare recipients agree to a periodic drug test. Welfare comes with an expiration date, so you must reapply each year to show continued need. This is a safety net, not a way of life.
Assembly and Senate Term Limits shall be imposed. If you can’t get the job done in four or six years, then you return home and are ineligible for re-election.
Finally, a major civil rights issue must be decided to allow sweeping change in education and tax relief. Parents deserve the right and freedom to educate their children in the public or private school that gives their child the best chance for a quality education. The money to fund that education should follow the child, not the zip code. It is every parent’s right to demand this equal opportunity.
Voters must answer one simple question on November 8th. “Do I vote to cut my taxes, or not?
Doc Bob Villare, M.D. State Assembly Candidate District 3 856-423-4500
>Taking your medicine: the politics of north and south
For Gov. Chris Christie, deciding to merge Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, the School of Public Health, and the Cancer Institute of New Jersey into Rutgers University to give the state’s flagship university its own medical school was the easy decision.
Understandably, officials at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey (UMDNJ) and their allies in Newark and Essex County were not happy about Christie’s quick – although not unexpected — decision. It took away three of UMDNJ’s major schools in order to immediately implement the merger recommendation of his UMDNJ Advisory Committee. (Magyar, NJ Spotlight)
>Morris & Essex, Gladstone and Montclair rail service suspended. RVL service suspended between Union & Newark, buses provided. Northeast Corridor & North Jersey Coast Line service subject to 30-min. delays in/out of NY. Northern NJ buses subject to 30-min. delays. System wide cross honoring in effect.
Well, I think this storm deserves its own name due to its destruction so far and I think “Apoco Snowstorm 2011” describes perfectly! Attached is a picture of power lines right next to my driveway under a pile of branches, somehow I still have power in my house. I will have better pictures tomorrow but it was snowing outside and I have only had this phone for 7 hours and I didn’t want to destroy it will snow damage the first day.
Power out throughout all of town, firetrucks roaming around the streets looking for dangers. My dad even saw a branch in a cars windshield. In my backyard there are 3 sizable tree branches and 2 large branches on top of my power lines and while writing this I have been waiting for PSE&G on the phone for 45 minutes when they said it would be 10 minutes to connect to an operator.
Stay safe. Remind people to stay in doors and break out the board games.
VALLEY HAS BECOME A DISGRACE… in what they continue to try and do to the town of Ridgewood. The FACT is this plan has been voted down for many years and many councils before. So the answer should still be NO. This parcel of land has not grown any over the years and that H-Zone was put in place to protect Ridgewood! STOP this nonsense.
I can’t believe it’s gotten this far and continues to waste so much time and the Ridgewood taxpayer’s money.
Valley Hospital should be ashamed at what they are asking for!
They are so hypocritial in their comments and efforts to stop Pascack Valley Hospital from re-opening it basically states that they don’t need to expand! WE agree! Renew from within your existing structure! NO external expansion, if region (Pascack Valley) doesn’t need it, then you are already claiming that you don’t need it!
I hope Pascack valley gets the okay so you will stop this McMansion of a hospital in a community…Next to a school! Shame on you Valley Hospital for trying!! MT
>Judge fighting Christie’s pension, health benefits asks N.J. Supreme Court to review case
The attorney for the Superior Court judge who succeeded in getting Gov. Chris Christie’s pension and health benefits changes declared unconstitutional for jurists is asking the state Supreme Court to take up the issue to resolve it as soon as possible.
Judge Paul DePascale filed his request today, a day after Superior Court Assignment Judge Linda Feinberg said she wouldn’t stop her decision barring increased contributions from the jurists from going into effect while the state appeals.
Last week Feinberg said Christie’s changes to the pension and health benefits plan is unconstitutional as it applies to Superior Court judges and Supreme Court justices because of a state Constitution prohibition against the diminution of their salaries while they are in office. (Spoto, The Star-Ledger)
Association: N.J.’s hospitals engineer $18.6B in economic activity
Garden State hospitals are working to keep patients healthy, but in doing so, they’re also providing first aid to the state’s economy, according to a report issued today by the New Jersey Hospital Association.
The state’s hospitals contributed $18.6 billion in economic activity in 2010, according to the report, which also shows hospitals employ 140,000, including 114,000 full-time employees. The state Department of Labor and Workforce Development reports health care and social assistance accounts for nearly 500,000 jobs here. (Caliendo, NJBIZ)
>Geotechnical expert testifies at Valley Hospital hearing
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 28, 2011 BY KELLY EBBELS STAFF WRITER THE RIDGEWOOD NEWS
Gives project ‘yellow light’
A geotechnical expert testified before Village Council on Monday night that any construction below The Valley Hospital would involve pumping voluminous amounts of groundwater, trucking out tons of soil and removing bedrock from the land below the facility, which he cautioned would be complicated and potentially stressful on the neighboring community.
Laurence Keller, of Whitestone Associates, told the council at the latest special public meeting on The Valley Hospital expansion proposal that he would give the project a “yellow light,” not a green light or a red light, based on concerns raised in his studies.
The hospital’s plan for “Renewal” proposes to build two stories below ground under its North Building to accommodate procedure rooms, a kitchen and other services. Once Phase I of construction is complete, about 317,000 square feet, or one-third of the hospital campus size proposed in that first phase, would be underground.
>State Sen. Kevin O’Toole, R-Wayne, toured several back yards on Burnside Place that abut the brook
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 27, 2011 BY EVONNE COUTROS STAFF WRITER THE RECORD
RIDGEWOOD – Village residents turned to their state senator on Wednesday for answers on how to address years of flooding issues caused by the overflow of the Hohokus Brook.
State Sen. Kevin O’Toole, R-Wayne, toured several back yards on Burnside Place that abut the brook. Some of the houses along the winding road and neighboring streets sustained extensive flood damage during Hurricane Irene in August and in earlier storms, such as Tropical Storm Floyd in 1999.
“I want the … sandbars and rocks out of the Hohokus Brook that have gathered since Floyd,” said Leslie Cimino, whose Burnside Place home sits on less than half an acre abutting the brook and the narrow Zabriskie ditch that is a catch-basin of sorts for water overflow. “I want Ridgewood to take responsibility for cleaning the Zabriskie ditch. The ditch and the brook no longer function the way they are supposed to function. It’s a major concern.”
>TAXI SERVICES IN RIDGEWOOD – SENIOR CITIZEN COUPONS
The Village of Ridgewood has issued a taxi license to Village Taxi, 28 N. Broad Street, Ridgewood. This taxi will provide 24/7 local and airport transportation services. Their contact number is 201/494-4444.
VILLAGE TAXI IS THE ONLY TAXI THAT WILL ACCEPT SENIOR CITIZEN TAXI COUPONS.
>Letter: CRR encourages residents to attend Valley meeting
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 28, 2011
THE RIDGEWOOD NEWS
CRR encourages residents to attend meetings
To the editor:
It’s been five long years since this odyssey began, and we need you to come to the next one or two meetings to show the Village Council what Ridgewood thinks of Valley’s massive expansion. The next meeting is Thursday, Nov. 3 and they need to see you there. If you haven’t been able to attend the meetings, let me catch you up.
The Village Council is hearing from the same experts as the Planning Board, but they are asking their own questions. The Village Planner told us he didn’t know if the size of the property was a factor in the hospital expert’s views that Renewal is right-sized. The traffic engineer said the road system around Valley fails today, and this isn’t the right location for the hospital’s existing operations. The hospital expert the Planning Board hired doesn’t routinely work for municipalities and his clients have primarily been hospitals looking to advance their “master plans.” The geo-technical expert said the removal of 500,000 gallons of groundwater per day from the construction site “will stress the aquifer” and that 22,000 truck loads of bedrock and soil would need to be removed to allow construction. All this subterranean activity is despite a towering 94 foot building height. This indicates we have already reached the proverbial “tipping point” the planning board hearings determined would be obvious to all “once reached.”
