>My family and I are mid-timers, here for 15 years and 2 kids in school. Every year, we were asked to pass the budget, so we did. In the past 10 years, they floated tens of millions of bonds for expansion and renovations; some schools in the past 2-3 years, and we voted yes. Now, they’re back again for money, saying our schools are exploding with over 500 students in the past 10 years (they are shocked, SHOCKED!) and we need to expand again. They forgot to mention that 70% of the surge came in the first 5 years. Then the economy tanks, 3 dozen storefronts are vacant and they say, “by the way, we need 50 million more – do it for the kids”. Like with any spoiled kid, it’s time to say, you’ve burned through hundreds of millions of dollars so you have to make choices. The spoiled boe says “waaaahhh”. So, I ask you – continue to feed the id and just let the bond ref pass or stand your ground? You and your family are the future and will be stuck with the bills. My family is voting no because they have cried wolf too many times.
>PJ , I thought this was a lot of fun ,we visited the USS Ling in Hackensack in the past and I believe they have a lot going on for Veterans day
USS LING (SS-297)
USS Ling is the last of the fleet boats that patrolled American shores during World War II in response to U-Boat attacks off the coast of the United States. Ling made one Atlantic patrol before the war ended. Decommissioned in 1946, Ling became part of the Atlantic Reserve Fleet until reactivation as a submarine training vessel in 1960.
Ling was donated to the Submarine Memorial Association in 1971, arriving at her present home in New Jersey in January 1973. The boat is now displayed in the narrow headwaters of the Hackensack River, and is the official state naval museum for New Jersey. Ling continues in service as a training aid for high school ROTC students. The memorial also includes displays of Polaris, Terrier, and Talos missiles; and three small craft: a Japanese Kaiten, a German Seehund, and a PBR Mark II. Ling conducts youth group overnight encampments.
Sponsored by American Legion Post #53 All are invited to attend the Veteran’s Day ceremony, Wednesday, November 11 at 11AM at the War Memorial in the Park at Van Neste Square. Please bring chairs.
Local military veterans groups will be holding services and other events this week to commemorate Veterans Day.Originally called Armistice Day, created to honor veterans of World War I. The armistice effectively ending the war was signed on Nov. 11,1918. In 1954, Congress passed legislation setting Nov. 11 as a day to honor American veterans of all wars.
>To protect the health of patients, staff, and the community during this flu season, The Valley Hospital has enacted temporary restrictions on visitors to the hospital.
Effective Wednesday, November 18, no one under the age of 18 who is not a patient will be allowed to visit any Valley Hospital location where patient care is provided. This includes the Luckow Pavilion and Kraft Center in Paramus, as well as the hospital’s main campus in Ridgewood. These restrictions will remain in place through the duration of the flu season.
In addition, anyone who is ill with symptoms such as coughing, sneezing, runny nose, fever, nausea, vomiting or diarrhea should refrain from visiting.
“As we continue to see an increase in patients with the flu being seen in the Emergency Department, we thought it prudent to reduce the spread of infection to our patients, staff and the public by restricting visitor access to both inpatient and outpatient areas of the hospital,” said Mitchell Rubinstein, M.D., Vice President of Medical Affairs. “We understand that these temporary changes to our visitation policy may be difficult for some families, and ask your understanding that it is truly in the best interest of everyone’s health to limit exposure.”
To reduce the spread of flu, Valley reminds the public to follow the same measures that are effective in reducing the risk of spreading any infectious disease: • Wash your hands thoroughly and frequently. • Cover coughs and sneezes. Dispose of used tissues properly. • Stay home if you are sick.
To help answer your questions about H1N1 flu, the New Jersey Department of Health and Senior Services (NJDHSS) has established a toll-free, 24-hour H1N1 influenza line. The number is 1-866-321-9571.
For inquiries about the vaccine for the H1N1 virus, please call the Bergen County Health Department’s Health Topics Information Line at 201-225-7000. A listing of flu clinics can also be found on the Department of Health’s web site at www.bergenhealth.org.
Gov.-elect Chris Christie ran as no pushover to organized labor — pledging to be an “adversary” to unions and publicly fending off chances for endorsements.
And labor did everything it could to keep the Republican out of the governor’s office, deploying thousands of volunteers to knock on doors and work phone banks in hopes of re-electing outgoing Gov. Jon Corzine, widely viewed as a champion of labor.
Christie’s win, unions are hoping the heated rhetoric of the campaign will be left on the trail. There is a lot at stake for unions — particularly for state workers vulnerable in a tough budget year — and they’re scrambling to play nice with a new governor who might not need their support at all.
“They hit him with everything but the kitchen sink — or everything and the kitchen sink — and he won,” said state Sen. Stephen Sweeney (D-Gloucester), an ironworker who has said the state needs concessions from workers. “They can’t threaten him (by saying) ‘We’re going to beat you next time.’”
Christie inherits a state with a budget already $8 billion in the hole and looking worse by the week. On the campaign trail, he pledged to be a tough negotiator, pushing for workers to pay a part of their health care and saying only full-time employees should be eligible for health benefits and pensions. He also railed against the size of state government.
Union leaders want Christie to realize workers’ value to the state.
“We hope he’s going to give up his anti-state-worker rhetoric that he used throughout the campaign and realize that slashing jobs and services would be bad for the state’s economy,” said Hetty Rosenstein, director of the Communications Workers of America of New Jersey, which represents about 55,000 government workers.
Unions worry Christie might try to reverse some of what Corzine crowed about, such as paid family leave, which allows paid time off for workers caring for a new baby or sick relative. Although Corzine over the summer reached a no-layoff agreement with state workers that the CWA says is irreversible, Christie said he is not bound to honor it.
Other issues, such as raising the minimum wage, might not see the light of day, Sweeney said.
The depth of antagonism remains to be seen, but Christie turned his first post-election public appearance into a rallying cry for urban students he said had been failed by a spendthrift school system.
“I’m not going to continue to allow urban children to be failed and cheated by failing public schools,” he said Wednesday at Newark’s Robert Treat Academy charter school. “If you think I’m kidding about this issue, then you haven’t learned a thing about me over the last eight years.”
Christie said the New Jersey Education Association, which spent millions on ads against him, proved to be less effective than union leaders hoped, though he said the foes of his brand of education reform — which includes school vouchers — are “significant and powerful.”
“Change will come,” he said. “What form that change will take is going to be a product of how well we make our case.”
NJEA spokesman Steven Baker said it was too soon to judge Christie.
“I’m hesitant to begin ranking him,” he said. “Certainly we’re going to be watching, we’re going to be monitoring.”
The agenda of construction unions might be closer in line with a pro-business Christie administration, said Bill Mullen, president of the New Jersey State Building & Construction Trades Council.
“We need the state to grow and expand to put our people to work,” he said.
Mullen said he was wary of some of Christie’s positions, including a pledge to do away with so-called “project labor agreements” that extend existing contracts during a fight with management for the length of the job.
But he said unions have a powerful ally in the Democratic Legislature.
“Without the control of the Legislature, he probably can’t do anything,” Mullen said.
>When doctors learn how to treat patients in medical school, one thing they are taught is the phrase: “first, do no harm.” This centuries old maxim is an expression of humility. It acknowledges that, despite the best intentions, our actions can carry unwanted consequences.
I was reminded of this last week when Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Congressman John Dingell introduced H.R. 3962, the Affordable Health Care for America Act. This 1,990page bill, proposes to accomplish, in one fell swoop, a drastic restructuring of our health care system. It is anything but a humble acknowledgement of the nation’s problems, with a modest set of solutions aimed at inspiring the ingenuity of the American people. Instead, it attempts to micromanage the nation’s health care sector from Washington, D.C., raises the cost of health insurance; ensures that third party insurers will continue to make health care decisions best made by a patient and their doctor; and further entrenches the nation’s finances down a course of fiscal ruin. It fails the test of “first, do no harm,” and should therefore be defeated.
Like all of my colleagues in the House of Representatives, I firmly believe that our health care system is in need of reform. The majority of the population obtains their health insurance through their employer (meaning they are at risk of losing it if they lose their job); it is too expensive, and costs are projected to go up; and a significant number of people have difficulty obtaining it because of chronic health problems. Health care spending also consumes a larger and larger percentage of the federal government’s budget each year, leaving less money for defense, infrastructure, or research. This too is projected to increase.
But the health care bill proposed by Congressional Democrats fails to address many of these problems. According to the preliminary report by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), if H.R. 3962 were enacted, health insurance costs would actually become more expensive, and spending on health care by the federal government would increase. To pay for this increased federal spending, the bill proposes $743 Billion in new taxes, including a 5.4% surtax that would fall heavily on small businesses. The bill also proposes to drastically reduce the price controlled payment rates to Medicare providers without reforming the Medicare payment system; jeopardizing millions of seniors’ access to health care providers. If history is any guide, because of the artificial assumptions made in the bill, the long term cost of the bill will be much higher than advertised. In 1967, government actuaries estimated that Medicare would cost $12 Billion in 1990. The actual cost in 1990 was $110 Billion. When the Disproportionate Share Hospital (DSH) program was added to Medicaid in 1987, it was expected to cost $1 Billion in 1992. The actual cost in 1992 was $17 Billion.
But more important than the program’s cost is the effect that this bill would have on the practice of medicine. The bill mandates that everyone in America purchase health insurance, but would empower a “health choices commissioner” to decide which benefits are “essential benefits” in the mandated coverage. This would lead to an unfortunate politicization of the practice of medicine, wherein certain specialties are deemed “essential” while others are not. Additionally, it would cement in place the current third party payment system; where insurers, rather than patients working in consultation with their doctors, would set payment rates and make coverage decisions.
Proponents who would like to see an increased government role in health care would be wise to evaluate the government’s recent action with respect to flu vaccines. Reports that the military has already inoculated terrorists held at Guantanamo Bay with the seasonal flu vaccine when many Americans are having difficulty obtaining this vaccine for themselves is just one example of the type of politicized health care decision which could become commonplace under the new health care bureaucracy envisioned in this legislation.
I sincerely hope that in the coming days, the American public will come to understand that, while this legislation may have the best intentions, it would inflict much harm on the country. I have advocated a number of reforms, such as allowing interstate purchasing of insurance, real medical liability reform, and ending the tax discrimination against individuals who purchase health insurance independent of their employer, that could be implemented incrementally that would immediately begin to bring down the cost of health care and preserve the patient-doctor relationship. If we all agree on the principles that health care should be portable, affordable, sustainable, effective, and innovative, then I am confident that Congress can enact the targeted reforms that are necessary for the future of America.
>The House of Representatives passed “Obamacare” by a vote of 220 – 215.
How did New Jersey vote?
Voting FOR the Bill: Rep. Robert Andrews (D) NJ-01 Rep. Frank Pallone, Jr. (D) NJ-06 Rep. Bill Pascrell (D) NJ-8 Rep. Steven Rothman (D) NJ-9 Rep. Donald Payne (D) NJ-10 Rep. Rush Holt (D) NJ-12 Rep. Albio Sires (D) NJ-13
PINK SLIP TIME – ELECTION DAY – NOVEMBER 2, 2010
Voting AGAINST the Bill: Rep. Frank LoBiondo (R) NJ-02 Rep. John Alder (D) NJ-03 Rep. Christopher Smith (R) NJ-04 Rep. Scott Garrett (R) NJ-05 Rep. Leonard Lance (R) NJ-07 Rep. Rodney Frelinghuysen (R) NJ-11
PLEASE THANK THEM FOR THEIR EFFORTS
Hands Off My Health Care Rally In Washington DC. Nov 5, 2009
>I hear what you’re saying, but NJEA/REA salaries ARE part of the irresponsibility.
I negotiated 4 Teamsters union contracts for management. If the numbers are too high, the responsible thing to do is negotiate and make it fair for both sides. To have a BOE and elected board poop their pants and capitulate to the union hurts us all. Why? Because it drains funds that would otherwise go to running the district and then we have to bond for things we would have otherwise had reserves for.
The Ridgewood News said salaries alone next year are at $68 million. Divide that by a student population of 5600 and that’s over 12 grand per student alone.
Friends, it’s time to make some tough decisions. The well is running dry and 2010-11 is going to be a drought. If we don’t stop the madness now, they will come again next year and it will NOT be pretty.
Vote NO and tell them that the status quo no longer works. Dr. Fishbein, I respectfully suggest you work on a ‘Plan B’.
>I have been involved over the last month in collecting signatures for a Petition to rescind the parking meter increase and provide more commuter parking. This Wednesday I participated in a presentation before the Council. As those who were there, and as been reported in today’s RIDGEWOOD NEWS, the presentation became highly confrontational.
Later in the meeting, after most of the audience had left, I was allowed to again address the Council. The following is in essence what I said:
The part of the presentation that went before did not reflect what was my intent. There was obviously a misunderstanding between myself and the Chamber of Commerce, since my intent was for the entire presentation to solely relate to the parking issue. My goal was to present to the Council what we considered to be a problem and what we considered to be its solution. I had intended for the individual business owners to come up before the Council and state that they were supportive of the suggested change.
Instead, what occurred after my presentation, certainly did not reflect my intent or the tone that I wanted. I feel personally embarrassed by what happened and want you, the members of the Council, to know it. I have known each of you personally and have the highest regard for you. Certainly in this forum things should never get personal. Unfortunately they did. For that I want to apologize.
These are our elected officials, who put in countless hours for very little money. Whether we personally like them or not, whether we agree with them or not, they are entitled to our respect. What happened at the Council meeting was inexcusable and as I said to them at the meeting, I am personally embarrassed and want to apologize again. Eugene Rose
>”Remember: If you arent helping, you’re in the way. If you arent offering a solution, you are part of the problem.”
Geez! I didn’t know it was that simple! In the way because I am not helping to foist a greater tax burden on my neighbors due to fiscal mismanagement?
Solution? Tell the BOE that the combined bond is not acceptable and demand why there are no capital maintenance accounts funded each year (NO, I am not speaking about ongoing maintenance.) To continue to vote ‘yes’ over and over only fuels complacency at the BOE – elected and staff.
We are just a few months into new fiscal year and we are already projecting almost a $3 million deficit, as reported in TRN. Salaries and benefits up over 7% – approaching $68 million alone!! 1) When did DeSimone plan on telling us? 2) When are some responsible grown-ups going to take some responsibility??
We’re in a crapstorm folks and irresponsible spending will compound the problem.
Nov. 6 (Bloomberg) — U.S. prosecutors charged 14 people, including hedge fund managers, lawyers and an ex-Galleon Group employee, for using the methods of “drug dealers” and “common criminals” to profit on insider data from deals involving firms such as 3Com Corp. and Alliance Data Systems Corp.
The charges, brought as part of a wide U.S. probe of Galleon founder Raj Rajaratnam, bring the illicit profits in the case to as much as $53 million. Five of those whose cases were unsealed yesterday have pleaded guilty and are cooperating in the investigation, prosecutors said.
At the center of a new insider trading ring are Zvi Goffer, 32, a former Galleon employee who sought tips, and Arthur Cutillo, 33,(Ridgewood N.J.) an attorney at Ropes & Gray LLP and the ring’s key source of information, federal officials said. Goffer, founder of Incremental Capital LLC, paid tipsters including Cutillo for information on mergers and acquisitions, giving them pre-paid mobile phones so they could avoid surveillance, the U.S. said.
The defendants behaved like “common criminals” who took a “page from drug-dealer handbooks,” Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said yesterday at a press conference. The probe is focused on hedge funds and their sources of information, he said, adding that more arrests may be coming.
As with Rajaratnam, investigators used wiretaps, data- mining and surveillance to target the ring. Authorities have struggled to build cases against large institutional investors such as hedge-fund managers, who often seek to deflect regulatory queries about suspiciously timed bets by arguing they’re statistical flukes amid millions of trades.
>The original poster, exclaims at the surprise to the opposition of turf fields added in the education budget, refers didn’t believe turf fields issue would become a lightening rod of opposition to the budget. Another post referred to Ridgewood as being ‘anti-jock’, and yet said not surprised from previous opposition, as when they did Maple Park. So then if they already knew strong opposition exits, why attach the turf on the referendum? Hoping to slide it through. Separate it before it goes to poll. It should be dealt with separately. Period. You say you haven’t seen a boe budge ever defeated before? Been here long enough to say Yes, boe budgets have been defeated before. Defeated budget do and have sent a strong message.
Heads up, the opposition to turf fields, is not just a Ridgewood issue as you’d like people to believe. Statewide, in other towns, communities, and in other states, there also was, and has been the same opposition to turf fields. So, lets stop the negative accusation that the Ridgewood taxpayers are being just unreasonable, whether it be due to finances, or to their strong preference in wanting the real natural grass.
By the way, a previous post replied to a rotation replacement of turf fields question; by saying the rotation would be done with Maple when that time comes and that should satisfy the need for rotation replacement of fields, yet says the HS and Stevens fields would need to be done, installation at same time for cost savings. Not the answer I was looking for. IF there might be turf fields at HS and Stevens, those should be staggered years apart, so not to cause a big bite on the taxpayers down the road for replacement.
As far as Maple – that was not taxpayer dollars funded, as we all know. It was privately funded not costing the taxpayers a dime. It should not then fall in the lap and cost the taxpayers a dime either IF when it might need to be removed, disposed and IF replaced. The neighborhood kids that have played on both grass and turf, have told me last year, that they do prefer the grass, the turf is just an ‘ok’. No spin needed on the background of lack of play fields, etc., we all already are aware of whats been said. thank you. By the way, what happened to all that money that was saved by using turf at Maple? Last town budget was in the hole.
Have read that Christie plans, will be asking the state to perform audits on the costliest school districts to ensure the money is spent efficiently, in an attempt to uncover spending that doesn’t directly help educate students. Its reported his plan for reducing property taxes will target the costliest school districts in NJ to be held more accountable. Oh!-“fiscal responsiblity by the BOE”. He should read this blog, ha. Also read plans to eliminate positions in the DEP. Wait till he audits Ridgewood – stampede! They’ll be running for nearest exit. It’s also about time, haveing someone to stand up to the NJEA. If the teachers go on strike – so be it, they’ll be replaced, many waiting in the wings, things happen for the better, maybe its time.
