Category: Village of Ridgewood

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>Laurie said…

The requirement for speakers to provide their name and address is part of the Board Policy/Bylaws, and has been for quite some time. Whether the info is given via spoken word or in writing, the intent is not to intimidate, but rather to capture this info for follow-up as necessary. (I don’t know what the original intent was way back when, but that’s the current reason.)

The Rules for Public Participation in the BOE Bylaws (Section 0167), from which this intro is taken, reflect current state statutes and are virtually identical to other school districts’ rules, which exist to keep meetings orderly and productive. Fortunately, we have not often had cause to employ the control measures (for lack of a better term) listed in the bylaws because, you’re right, Ridgewood residents are generally polite and civilized!

the FLY responds …

I have no issue with people identifying themselves by name and address, but “signing in?” Is applying your signature to a document really necessary? And is requesting the application of a signature legal? Next thing you know, Mr., Mr. Mrs., Mrs., and Mrs. will be requiring 3 forms of identification prior to meeting attendees being allowed to speak!

THE FLY

>Actually, the cost of most Ridgewood youth sports programs are very reasonable compared to other programs in our area and provide great value for the cost. We just registered our son for lacrosse this spring. It cost $100 for the house league and another $40 to play in the travel program. The youth lacrosse program most similar in size to Ridgewood’s is Summit NJ, which charges $125 for intramural and $225 for intramural and travel. Highlands’ Youth Lacrosse program, which is not as comprehensive as Ridgewood’s program charges a flat fee of $140.

With that said, I think it makes sense for the users of our fields to pay for the cost of lights (just as they do for the portable lights). To install permanent lights at the RHS or Maple would cost about $150K. If every RHS and youth sport participant was charged a $25 surcharge when registering for each sport they play, the cost of lighting one of these fields could be paid for in one year. Over a period of 5 years we could install the necessary lights on Maple, Stevens, RHS, Vets & Citizens, without impacting taxpayers.

That amount could be reduced if the sports groups chose to subsidize some of the cost, as well. This would eliminate the noise we all hate, improve the effectiveness of the lighting and eliminate light “spillage” into unwanted areas away from the field. None of this would increase the amount of usage that a field gets, as strict field usage/lighting policies are already in place. Thus, there should be nothing for neighbors to complain about.

>I think it is great that the BOE requires people to sign in. The VC should do it, as well. US citizens have the right to voice their opinions. But, they do not have the right to do so anonymously in a public meeting.

There are people in this town, who recognize issues that affect the quality of life for children, adults or families and volunteer their time to make Ridgewood the best it can be. There are others, who choose to ignore problems that don’t affect them and complain about EVERYTHING, but don’t do anything constructive to be a part of the solutions. Many of the latter group are reading this blog right now. You will also find the list of “complainers” at a BOE meeting are largely the same as those at a VC meeting. Everyone knows who they are. They find fault with almost everything the VC or BOE do. They want every municipal service to be perfect. But, they don’t want to pay for it. They want people to support the businesses in town. But, they don’t want to create the necessary parking spaces to attract the kind of businesses that will draw people to the business district and oppose a 25 cent parking meter fee. They think youth sports should be limited from 12:00 – 5:30 and think the increased demand for athletic fields is due to DI crazed parents, who schedule their children for multiple sports every season, ignoring the simple facts. They want our students to rank among the best in the country and our RHS teams to win on the athletic field. But, they don’t want to invest in our school infrastructure or athletic programs. They will complain about noisy portable lights. But, they aren’t willing to consider a permanent solution that would eliminate the noise and avoid annoying light in the windows of neighboring houses. These are people that put their own selfish desires and convenience above the basic needs of their neighbors.

Fly, you can challenge this in court, if you wish, and you will lose. There is no law that prohibits requiring people to identify themselves at a public meeting. If you really want to make a difference, find a way to be a constructive part of the solution to problems in this town, not one of the complainers. For example, run for BOE or VC election, volunteer to coach in a program that needs coaches, raise money for a project in town, serve on a village committee. Do something more than rant on this blog. While your comments are interesting to some and raise awareness of certain issues, they often focus on petty issues, like this, and do nothing to solve any important issues facing Ridgewood.

>Friday, January 22, 2010
Last updated: Saturday January 23, 2010, 9:39 AM
BY JOHN REITMEYER AND PATRICIA ALEX
The Record
STAFF WRITERS

https://www.northjersey.com/news/012210_Teacher_staff_salaries_may_be_frozen_Christie_says.html

Governor Christie’s vision of change for New Jersey could include freezing the salaries of teachers and other employees to make public education more affordable and effective.

A report prepared by Christie’s transition team members — one of 19 released by the governor on Friday –– takes on salary increases planned to start this June in “statewide contracts, as well as local district contracts.”

“If, absent a source of funds to pay these increases, the new administration must take action to freeze salaries for all public employees in FY 2011, that freeze should pertain as well to pre-K-12 employees at all levels,” the education report says.

It also recommends other cost-cutting efforts, as well major changes to existing education policy, including establishing merit pay for teachers and taking school budgets off the ballot if spending stays flat or rises only modestly.

https://www.northjersey.com/news/012210_Teacher_staff_salaries_may_be_frozen_Christie_says.html

>Your comments at 12:59 show how out of touch you are with the recreational needs in this town. First of all, in late fall and early spring it is too dark to safely play certain sports after about 6:30PM, without lights. It is not possible for youth sports programs to start earlier. THIS is the primary reason for lights.

Secondly, some sports programs have so many participants that they must play until the maximum hour permitted throughout the week to allow all their participants the necessary practice and game time.

The poster, who suggested permanent lights, is exactly right. The portable lights are not meant to light athletic fields. They are intended to “flood” a work area with light. Because the masts are limited in hight, the angle of the lights is more horizontal than vertically down. As a result, light is directed away from the field and, potentially, toward surrounding homes, particularly at Vets. They are noisy, smelly and potentially dangerous. They are also a target for frequent and expensive vandalism.

By contrast, state-of-the-art permanent lighting designs are highly directional. So much so, that they can light an entire field, while leaving an area totally dark, just a few feet off the field. Take a look at the website below to see what I mean

https://www.musco.com/permanent/lightcontrol.html

In addition, permanent lights are silent, safe, don’t smell and can be automated to ensure that the lights are never used when they are not supposed to be used. In addition, in the right location, a light pole could also double as a cell tower, effectively paying for the lights. Well designed/improved lighting systems at Maple, RHS and Vets would eliminate the need for portable lights altogether…which would be a welcome change in town.

>Gov. Chris Christie signs executive orders, says state is $1B deeper in debt

https://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2010/01/gov_chris_christie_signs_execu.html

In the first hours of his term, Gov. Chris Christie today announced the state is $1 billion deeper in the red and signed a series of executive orders that could have sweeping consequences for towns, businesses and labor unions. The text of the eight executive orders was not immediately released, leaving advocates scrambling to interpret the new landscape.

Christie said they included fulfilling campaign pledges to halt unfunded mandates on towns, freeze new regulations on business and broaden state pay-to-play prohibitions to limit donations by labor unions — a key Democratic constituency. Among the other executive orders were steps to make state spending more transparent online, and to ensure casino regulators can continue to work in the event of a state government shutdown — unlike in 2006, when Atlantic City gambling halls were shuttered during a week-long budget dispute. Christie said he was not laying the groundwork for such gridlock this June, when he will have to agree on a budget with a Democrat-controlled Legislature.

Christie criticized outgoing Gov. Jon Corzine for leaving a “final parting gift” of an undisclosed $1 billion shortfall in the current budget, which runs through June. The Republican said he learned of the deficit at 2 p.m. Tuesday, two hours after he took the oath of office, and would begin to tackle it by meeting with economic advisors on Thursday. “It’s my responsibility now, not his,” Christie said at a late-morning press conference. Christie would not say how he would close the gap, other than to rule out raising taxes. He said he would try to implement a Corzine cost-cutting proposal to require school districts with excess surplus to use the money in place of state aid beginning next month. (Heininger, Star Ledger)

https://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2010/01/gov_chris_christie_signs_execu.html

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>One other thing that he needs to do is to work with our US senators and representatives to figure how how to get more of our Federal tax money back from Washington. We only get back 61 cents out of every dollar we send to Washington. Closing that gap would take some pressure off the state and local budgets.

I totally agree! CA Governor Terminator was on Meet the Press last weekend, and I think he quoted CA as only getting 71 cents back on the dollar. Does anyone have a link to where those numbers are? If NJ, NY, and CA are only getting 60/70% back, where the heck are those dollars going, and what is the justification? There’s probably a few billion right there going right down the tubes.

The way to get more money back is to elect Senators who give a shit about their NJ constituents, rather than pushing the agenda of the democratic party. They go to washington, and forget about us back home. With the billions NJ residents send to DC via income taxes, it is a disgrace we are LAST in terms of getting funds back. Our roads suck. The inner cities are a disgrace. And Frank Lautenberg pushes for a national .08 breathalizer bill and killed our restaurant/bar biz here. Thanks Frank its time to check into a nursing home.

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>Friday, January 15, 2010

Obama Rewards Losers, Punishes Winners

Larry Kudlow

https://kudlowsmoneypolitics.blogspot.com/2010/01/obama-rewards-losers-punishes-winners.html

It’s not free-market capitalism.

President Obama’s misbegotten bank tax is precisely the wrong policy at precisely the wrong time. It will wind up backfiring across the board. Why? Because bank consumers and borrowers are the ones who will wind up paying this tax, creating an obstacle to economic recovery.

Obama is actually rewarding losers and punishing winners — exactly the reverse of free-market capitalism.

Who’s being rewarded? Obama’s bank-tax penalty is being used to finance the failed government takeovers of GM, GMAC, and Fannie and Freddie. And let’s not forget the $75 billion failure of the so-called foreclosure loan-modification program. To this day, no one knows where that money went. But the big banks are going to be forced to finance this through a tax that will damage lending, stockholders, and consumers.

This is sheer political favoritism. Crony capitalism at its worst, with a sub-theme of bailing out Obama’s Big Labor political allies. It’s just like his bailout of the unions by exempting them from the so-called Cadillac insurance tax until 2018, all while the rest of us may have to suffer under that tax.

Speaking of political unfairness and favoritism, mortgage giants Fannie and Freddie will not pay a nickel of this tax. These government-sponsored enterprises were at the very center of the financial maelstrom, financing the government’s quotas and targets for unaffordable mortgages.

Think about this for a second. President Obama is out there bashing away at excessive bonuses. And yet Fannie and Freddie’s CEOs stand to make $6 million in the next year or two. Huh? These are big-government-owned bureaucrats. They ought to be paid like GS-18s.

Of course, the Federal Reserve, which is having its most profitable year ever, was probably the main culprit in all this, with its negative-real-interest-rate easy-money policy, which amounted to throwing red meat to a pack of sharks in the deepest waters. But this tax punishes and penalizes the biggest banks, institutions that have already met their obligations by paying down TARP, with interest, and by providing taxpayers with a tidy profit on the stock warrants they held.

Now, this is not to condone the major mistakes made by the big banks. They were overleveraged, borrowed way too much, and sold highly flawed mortgage bonds and other complex derivatives. And the banks should not be paying big bonuses for 2009 — not for the period during which they were TARPed. That’s their biggest mistake.

However, with the banks having paid down TARP, the U.S. government should not be waging war against them. Somebody ought to tell the White House that al-Qaeda is the real enemy, not the banks.

At the same time, taxing the living hell out of the banks will not promote economic recovery and long-term prosperity.

President Obama says he wants to stop risky bets. Well look, the way to accomplish that is through higher capital requirements, stricter limits on leveraged borrowing, and an end to the policy of “too big to fail.” Across-the-board FDIC insurance assessments are a much better way of maintaining a bank safety net.

Instead, Team Obama wants to place a 15-basis-point tax on the banks, essentially layering it on non-insured bank funding. It amounts to a tax on future lending, shareholder equity value, and the consumers of bank services who will pay the tax costs passed on by the banks. It’s just like the corporate tax: Businesses don’t pay taxes, people do.

And consider this: One dollar of bank capital generally works out to around ten dollars of potential bank loans. That means this $90 billion tax proposal could very well cut off a staggering $1 trillion of future bank lending when credit demand picks up.

That’s how this works. This tax will slow down profits and capital. And the diminished capital will mean fewer loans when loan demand picks up. It’s exactly the reverse of what we need to grow our economy.

And the unfairness continues. Insurer MetLife, a bank holding company, and the regional Hudson City Bank Corp., both of which never took a dime of TARP money, will be penalized by this tax. That just ain’t fair.

President Obama’s crony politics rewards losers and penalizes winners. He is engaging in sheer, raw, left-wing, class-warfare politics. It’s yet one more reason why the Democrats are going to get clobbered at the polls come November.

Voters know a smoked turkey when they see one. Remember, you can fool some of the people some of the time, but you can’t fool all the people all the time.

Mark my words, all of this left-wing demagoguery, political favoritism, and crony capitalism will not end well for the Obama Democrats.

https://kudlowsmoneypolitics.blogspot.com/2010/01/obama-rewards-losers-punishes-winners.html

>https://www.nypost.com/p/news/national/unions_get_pecial_treatment_in_health_AB053CwqPIJlIxXAm37DOM

Unions will dodge O’s health tax

By CARL CAMPANILE
Last Updated: 10:55 AM, January 15, 2010
Posted: 2:49 AM, January 15, 2010

https://www.nypost.com/p/news/national/unions_get_pecial_treatment_in_health_AB053CwqPIJlIxXAm37DOM#ixzz0csuUt5ex

Big Labor got some big love from President Obama and congressional Democrats yesterday after they agreed to exempt union workers from the whopping “Cadillac tax” on high-cost health-care plans until 2018.

The sweetheart deal, hammered out behind closed doors, will save union employees at least $60 billion over the years involved, while others won’t be as lucky — they’ll have to cough up almost $90 billion.

The 40 percent excise tax on what have come to be called “Cadillac” health-care plans would exempt collective-bargaining contracts covering government employees and other union members until Jan. 1, 2018.

https://www.nypost.com/p/news/national/unions_get_pecial_treatment_in_health_AB053CwqPIJlIxXAm37DOM

>By Jonathan D. Salant

https://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aPg2UfFaCh9c&pos=9

Jan. 16 (Bloomberg) — Even if Democrats lose the Jan. 19 special election to pick a new Massachusetts senator, Congress may still pass a health-care overhaul by using a process called reconciliation, a top House Democrat said.

That procedure requires 51 votes rather than the 60 needed to prevent Republicans from blocking votes on President Barack Obama’s top legislative priorities. That supermajority is at risk as the Massachusetts race has tightened.

“Even before Massachusetts and that race was on the radar screen, we prepared for the process of using reconciliation,” said Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.

“Getting health-care reform passed is important,” Van Hollen said in an interview on Bloomberg Television’s “Political Capital with Al Hunt,” airing this weekend. “Reconciliation is an option.”

Using reconciliation would likely force Democrats to scale back their health-care plans. The procedure is designed to make deficit-cutting easier by reducing the number of votes needed to pass unpopular tax increases and spending cuts. Lawmakers can’t include policy changes that the parliamentarian deems have only an “incidental” connection to budget-cutting, and senators would need 60 votes to override those rulings.

https://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aPg2UfFaCh9c&pos=9

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