Gov. Chris Christie appears unlikely to sign a bill narrowly approved this month by Democratic lawmakers that would establish a state health insurance exchange, a key part of national health-care reform designed to go into effect in 2014.
At his town-hall meeting in Kearny last week, Christie reiterated that he won’t expend state funds to implement federal health-care reforms in New Jersey unless it is deemed constitutional. The bill would pay five public members of the exchange’s board $50,000 each, and the board would then hire and pay an executive director to head a newly created exchange. (Symons, Gannett)
>How to Handle the Coming Dividend Tax Hike Hough: Will the favorable tax treatment on dividends go away at the end of 2012, even as Apple and other companies roll out new dividends?
Apple (AAPL: 606.98, 10.93, 1.83%)’s dividend announcement this past week is good news for income investors, but bad news might be lurking around the corner.
Unless Congress takes action, the top tax rate for the highest earners on most dividends, currently 15%, is set to jump to a whopping 43.4% next year. That is a maximum income-tax rate of 39.6% — since dividends will once again be taxed as regular income — plus a 3.8% tax on investment income as part of the health-care overhaul passed in 2009.
>‘Stock Act’ sticks taxpayers with $1.7 million tab
This wasn’t supposed to happen. In Congress drive to clean up its act and pass the “Stock Act” to provide transparency to Wall Street holdings members have, taxpayers are getting stuck with the bill.
Senate Sergeant at Arms Terrance Gainer reveals that it will cost $1.5 million to develop software and programs to provide the easy-to-use electronic disclosure of lawmaker holdings required in the legislation.
Plus, he adds, when up and running, it will likely cost another $200,000 a year just to operate and maintain.
> Hands Off My Healthcare Rally March 27 in Washington
Join with thousands of patriots for the “Hands Off My Healthcare” rally in Washington on Tuesday, March 27 Bus leaves 6:30 am from Wyckoff, 7:00 am from Bogota
> Obama Relies on Debt Collectors Profiting From Student Loan Woe By John Hechinger – Mar 26, 2012 12:01 AM ET
The debt collector on the other end of the phone gave Oswaldo Campos an ultimatum:
Pay $219 a month toward his more than $20,000 in defaulted student loans, or Pioneer Credit Recovery, a contractor with the U.S. Education Department, would confiscate his pay. Campos, disabled from liver disease, makes about $20,000 a year.
We’re not playing here,” Campos recalled the collector telling him in December. “You’re dealing with the federal government. You have no other options.”
Campos agreed to have the money deducted each month from his bank account, even though federal student-loan rules would let him pay less and become eligible for a plan — approved by Congress and touted by President Barack Obama — requiring him to lay out about $50 a month. To satisfy Pioneer, Campos borrowed from friends, cut meat from his diet and stopped buying gas to drive his 82-year-old mother to doctor’s visits for her Parkinson’s Disease.
>Former NAACP leader accuses Sharpton and Jackson of ‘exploiting’ Trayvon Martin Published: 2:17 PM 03/26/2012
Former NAACP leader C.L. Bryant is accusing Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton of “exploiting” the Trayvon Martin tragedy to “racially divide this country.”
“His family should be outraged at the fact that they’re using this child as the bait to inflame racial passions,” Rev. C.L. Bryant said in a Monday interview with The Daily Caller.
The conservative black pastor who was once the chapter president of the Garland, Texas NAACP called Jackson and Sharpton “race hustlers” and said they are “acting as though they are buzzards circling the carcass of this young boy.”
>The issue of Mr. Aaronsohn’s naked campaigning for the Chamber’s explicit endorsement is one which Chamber members would like to avoid. The issue of Mr. Aaronsohn’s naked campaigning for the Chamber’s explicit endorsement is one which Chamber members would like to avoid.
Nevertheless it is a proper issue to consider when deciding whether Mr. Aaronsohn should be re-elected.
The village’s well-established non-partisan organizations should not be politicized to benefit politicians whose tenures are, by contrast, short and fleeting.
Shame on Mr. Aaronsohn for his corruptive request, and on those in the Chamber who do anything other than reject such a request out-of-hand as completelely and abjectly inappropriate.
>Village of Ridgewood Services : What we do need to look at is what services are provided and do we need them?
It is very easy to say do more with less, in many cases that statement is nothing more then a fantasy catch phrase. There will come time where you will pay more or receive less.
No public garbage pick-up, pay for your own at a “fair market” price established by organized crime. No free public library, use the internet.
No public ambulance service, pay for an ambulance if you need one.
No street lights, contract with the power company if you want one in your neighborhood. Pot hole filled streets that are seldom repaired.
A Village Hall filled with part time employees with no benefits that is only open to the public during limited days and hours. Etc, Etc, Etc.
Your taxes will not go up as much but you will pay in other areas.
What we do need to look at is what services are provided and do we need them? Perhaps things like recreation deparments, public pools and over the top athletic fields need to be turned over to private investors or non-profit groups and remove all costs for the Village taxpayers.
>Side Effects: Doctors Fear Obamacare :43 percent of doctors said they are considering retiring Alyene SengerMarch 14, 2012 at 2:46 pm
The American public doesn’t support Obamacare, and a new survey shows that doctors have an even worse opinion. No one has a better grasp on the state of the health care system than physicians, and according to the Doctors Company survey, 60 percent of them believe that Obamacare will have a negative impact on overall patient care. This survey is consistent with the findings of another doctor survey taken in October 2010, which also showed doctors’ lack of confidence in Obamacare.
The survey was conducted to unveil physicians’ concerns about health care reform. The Doctors Company, which is the largest insurer of physician and surgeon medical liability in the nation, received more than 5,000 surveys, including all specialties and every region in the country. The results weren’t good for the President’s signature piece of legislation.
Not only do doctors believe that Obamacare will not improve the health care system, they also anticipate that it will worsen the current condition. According to the survey, nine out of 10 physicians are unwilling to recommend health care as a profession to a family member, and one primary care physician even commented, “I would not recommend becoming an M.D. to anyone.”
Obamacare doesn’t just discourage entrance into the medical profession; it encourages those who are already practicing to leave it. The survey states that “health care reform is motivating doctors to change their retirement timeline.” In fact, 43 percent of respondents said they are considering retiring within the next five years as a result of the law. A surgeon from Michigan wrote that under Obamacare, “We will be moving further away from humanity-based health care and more towards the patient as a commodity. This was not the way my father practiced—nor will I. Winding down to retire early.”
>Obamacare in the Supreme Court 101: Deliberations, Rulings and Impacts Marguerite Higgins and Rachael Slobodien March 25, 2012
On Monday—two years after President Obama signed Obamacare into law—the Supreme Court will hear arguments challenging the health law’s constitutionality. Heralded as the case of the century, the oral arguments heard and, ultimately, the Court’s decisions will set the precedent for hundreds of future legal rulings. They also will determine if there are any limits left to what the federal government can require regarding personal and private decisions.
From its inception, Obamacare has faced challenges on legal and moral grounds. In fact, Heritage analysts were among the first to explain why the individual mandate that all Americans buy government-approved health insurance is unprecedented and unconstitutional.
It’s no wonder that legal challenges from the majority of the states and other organizations began pouring in shortly after the law’s passage. As these lawsuits worked their way through the district and federal appellate courts, conflicting decisions resulted, leading to the Supreme Court taking up the case.
Beginning Monday, the Court will hear six hours of arguments—six times the length allotted for most cases. In recent decades, the Court has generally set a maximum of 60 minutes for oral argument in each case (usually divided 30 minutes per side). In fact since World War II, very few cases have been allowed more than four hours; the biggest exception in the last sixty years was Brown v. Board of Education. The Court’s decision to allow six hours of oral arguments for Obamacare is another indicator of the case’s severity.
The Supreme Court will consider four main questions when the Obamacare cases come before the bench. And the answers to those questions will determine whether all, some, or none of Obamacare will remain in force after the Court’s decision.
>Ridgewood school officials take school budget on the road MONDAY MARCH 26, 2012, 9:19 AM BY DARIUS AMOS STAFF WRITER THE RIDGEWOOD NEWS
Ridgewood Board of Education trustees have spent a greater portion of this month visiting various locations in the village and detailing the 2012-13 school spending plan for residents. Among the hot topics discussed have been the specific driving costs of the $90.6 million operating budget
Last week, district officials went through the budget basics at the Education Center, this time with members of the municipal governing body sharing their dais. Ridgewood Mayor Keith Killion, council members Paul Aronsohn and Stephen Wellinghorst, and Stephen Sanzari, village chief financial officer, all sat in on the presentation.
>Loan initiative lures clinicians to practice, stay in Jersey
A state program that repays up to $120,000 in student loan debt for primary care clinicians who agree to work at least four years in medically underserved areas of New Jersey is having success recruiting and retaining healthcare workers in communities where they are needed the most, from cities like Newark and Camden to rural Gloucester County. (Fitzgerald, NJ Spotlight)
What it is: The proposed bill, A-2830, is the latest version of a long-running proposal to create a system of publicly funded scholarships or vouchers for students to attend schools of their choice, public or private. Sponsored by state Assemblymen Angel Fuentes and Lou Greenwald, both Camden County Democrats, the bill would limit the program to seven school districts and 20,000 students, the smallest number yet.
What it means: The proposal for the first time has in Greenwald a prime sponsor from the Democratic leadership team. Greenwald is the Assembly majority leader. That alone gives it the best chance yet in an Assembly that has been a formidable obstacle. Whether that’s enough to see it passed is another question. (Mooney, NJ Spotlight)
>Ridgewood Chamber Of Commerce Reports Being Hacked
Chamber Of Commerce Hacked Posted: 26 Mar 2012
Today, Ridgewood chamber of commerce was let down by our web design company in that we were left vulnerable to a SQL Injection attack. The cause of this was the poor code that was written by a web developer, this was made worse by the fact that we did not encypt any of the passwords in our database.
The good news is that you were lucky enough to be hacked by me and not someone else who could have done some really bad things here.
Go to your web developers and tell them you want a refund because seriously guys (and gals) the code they wrote was really weak.. An attack like this is easily preventable when you use a web developer knows what they are doing.
>Only three New Jersey towns asking voters to OK tax hike
Towns across New Jersey are in turmoil as they struggle to balance budgets by cutting services. They are laying off police and other staff, closing town halls on Fridays, shutting libraries, borrowing money, depleting surpluses, and using one-time fixes.
But raising taxes has become such a taboo that only three of the state’s 566 municipalities will be asking voters for permission to boost taxes beyond a state-imposed 2 percent cap. (Hefler, The Philadelphia Inquirer)
