>4-13 Status Report on Valley Hospital Project

The Planning Board of the Village of Ridgewood is winding up its series of work sessions on Valley Hospital’s proposed Renewal program, during which it has heard from experts on many technical subjects as well as representatives of Valley Hospital and members of the public.

The proposal involves the demolition of certain existing hospital buildings and the construction of new ones as well as parking decks. In the proposal, the new buildings would contain four stories, the same as the existing ones, but the story heights would be increased by two feet each.

At its March 16 meeting, Village Planner Blais Brancheau gave Board members a draft proposal to amend that portion of the Village’s master plan that deals with the Hospital Zone, known as the “H Zone”. That section has not been amended in 31 years and does not reflect the current conditions in the zone. The master plan language concerning the H Zone is also very brief, general and lacking in specific policy guidelines.

Another work session is set for April 21. If the Planning Board were to complete its discussion that evening, it would move forward with the draft master plan amendment and schedule a public hearing on it. The draft amendment, which is still a work in progress, would be made available to the public in advance of any hearing. That would not occur until May at the earliest.

At the public hearing, questions and comments would be considered from representatives of Valley Hospital, the general public and other interested parties. After considering all questions and comments, the Board would decide whether or not to adopt the draft master plan amendment or to revise it before a vote.

If an amendment to the master plan were to be adopted, a draft ordinance would be prepared by the Board and submitted to the Village Council

Such an ordinance would amend the zoning regulations for the H Zone based upon the policies in the master plan.

The Council would then consider whether or not to introduce the ordinance or to amend it first. If and when the Council were to introduce an ordinance, it would schedule a public hearing at which time Valley Hospital and members of the public wuld be given an opportunity to speak on the ordinance. Once the hearing was concluded, the Council would decide whether or not to adopt, amend or defeat the ordinance.

Were an ordinance to be adopted by the Village Council, there would be a third opportunity for the public to speak on Valley Hospital’s proposal.

This would be at any future public hearing involving a site plan application submitted by Valley Hospital to either the Planning Board or Board of Adjustment for multiple buildings that, if the plan were approved, would go up in coming years.

>4/10 Update: Shuttle Bus to Start on a Limited Basis

Please be advised that the NJTransit shuttle bus will resume service starting tomorrow, Saturday, using the new hours discussed last night at our Village Council meeting. For the moment it will use the same bus and route as before. NJTransit has agreed to buy a smaller bus asap. It has already earmarked a bus that has 10 seats plus one handicapped space.

However, NJTransit has said that once a bus is bought, we will have to use it for the entire nine months until this portion of the project is complete. Therefore we need to ascertain whether in fact we need a bus with more seats.

To that end we will be noting how many people use the bus on each and every run for a week starting next Monday. So please if you intend to use it at all during these nine months use it this week. Once we get our far-smaller bus we will be stuck with it for the duration, and NJTransit is going to make the Village sign legal papers saying that what we’ve asked for is our final request. No more buses – bigger or smaller – down the road.

So please, if you intend to use this bus service, please use it this week. Someone will be recording all week long the number of passengers on each run. That will determine whether the bus that is bought is a 10-seater, or a bit larger, or a bit larger than that. For that reason, it’s crucial that this survey accurately reflects usage.

Hopefully you now have enough advance notice to plan on using the bus next week if you’re commuting to the city or walking to school. Please share this information with neighbors, and thanks to those who attended our meeting Thursday night. We are trying hard to make this less of a headache for everyone.

Here is a recap of the bus schedule:

Saturday and Sunday: 10am-4pm, once an hour: Leaving Ridgecrest every hour on the hour, and leaving the train station every hour on the half-hour.

Monday-Friday: From 6am-8:30am, making the loop as necessary for the express and other trains during rush hour, and repeating for the evening rush hour between 5-7pm.

In between, from 9am to 4:30pm, it will make a trip once an hour: Departing on the hour from Ridgecrest and from the train station on the half hour.

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More States Look to Raise Taxes

By LESLIE EATON

A free fall in tax revenue is driving more state lawmakers to turn to broad-based tax increases in a bid to close widening budget gaps.

At least 10 states are considering some kind of major increase in sales or income taxes: Arizona, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey, Oregon, Washington and Wisconsin. California and New York lawmakers already have agreed on multibillion-dollar tax increases that went into effect earlier this year.

Fiscal experts say more states are likely to try to raise tax revenue in coming months, especially once they tally the latest shortfalls from April 15 income-tax filings, often the biggest single source of funds for the 43 states that levy them.

More

• Chart: See state-by-state details on tax revenue and budget deficits

The squeeze is especially severe in states hit hardest by the recession, such as Arizona, where sales-tax revenue has fallen by 10.5%, income-tax collections are down 15.7% this fiscal year, and the government faces a $3.4 billion budget gap next year. But such shortfalls are likely to be widespread; federal income-tax receipts from individuals have dropped more than 15% in the past six months, according to Congressional Budget Office estimates.

While most states so far have managed to cope with dwindling cash by cutting spending and raising fees on things such as fishing licenses and car registrations, that is unlikely to be enough in the new fiscal years that generally begin July 1, many analysts said.

“Income taxes and sales taxes are the go-to taxes when you really need to raise a lot of money,” said Donald J. Boyd, who monitors states’ fiscal health for the Rockefeller Institute of Government in Albany, N.Y.

Sales-tax revenue has fallen more sharply than at any time in the past 50 years, Mr. Boyd said, and he expects income-tax collections to drop below levels state officials projected — though the extent of the damage probably won’t become clear until May.

Raising taxes is a perilous proposition for lawmakers, who must balance their states’ budgets every year. Not only do they face political heat for increasing financial burdens during the recession, but added taxes risk worsening their states’ economic problems by, for example, further hobbling consumer spending.

Some lawmakers say they have little choice. “With the size of our budget gap, we are looking at a situation of closing down our courts, releasing prisoners and cutting the school year by as much as a month,” said Rep. Peter Buckley, co-chairman of Oregon’s joint Ways and Means Committee.

His committee is considering an income-tax increase on high-earners, along with major budget cuts, to help close a projected $4.4 billion budget gap over the next two fiscal years. And things could get worse after a revenue forecast due out May 15, he said, because Oregon’s unemployment rate has climbed to 10.8% and the state relies on income-tax revenue.

Oregon Gov. Ted Kulongoski is likely to support the surcharge, said a spokeswoman , because the state is faced with losing as much as a third of its tax revenue.

Legislators know the increases will be unpopular with residents. “There will be blame, we accept that,” Sen. Eileen M. Daily of Connecticut said earlier this month when she and fellow Democrats announced a budget that raises income-tax rates and expands the sales tax to raise more than $3 billion over the next two years. Connecticut Gov. Jodi Rell, a Republican, has said she would veto the plan.

But some governors are proposing tax increases. Delaware Gov. Jack Markell wants to raise the marginal income-tax rate by one percentage point, to 6.95%, on those earning more than $60,000 a year, effective in 2010. His budget plan also includes increases in corporate taxes as well as spending cuts to close a projected $750 million shortfall in a $3 billion budget, said spokesman Joe Rogalsky.

Many states remain determined to balance their budgets by relying solely on spending cuts. That is the case in Indiana, where raising revenue “is really not on the table,” said Pat Bauer, the speaker of the state House.

Instead, he hopes to tap the state’s rainy-day fund and to produce a budget that covers only one year, rather than the usual two, because plunging revenue makes it impossible to forecast that far in advance.

Tax collections have dropped drastically the past four months, according to Christopher A. Ruhl, director of the Indiana Budget Agency. Income-tax collections, which reflect withholding and estimated tax payments, fell 21% in March compared with last year and are down 7% for the fiscal year.

States have lowered revenue forecasts repeatedly in recent months, yet the estimates still seem to exceed the grim reality. Last week, Pennsylvania officials said total March tax collections were $334.6 million, or 7.9%, short of expectations, due to sharp drops in income and sales taxes and a steep decline in corporate income taxes. For the fiscal year that began July 1, 2008, collections to date are running $1.6 billion less than forecast.

This has led some experts, such as Nicholas Johnson of the left-leaning Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, to predict more legislatures will take up broad-based tax increases as early as May or June. “The problem,” he said, “is that they are filling a hole that has gotten a little deeper.”

Write to Leslie Eaton at [email protected]

https://online.wsj.com/article/SB123923448796803135.html

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N.J. Assembly reviews budget analysis showing $605M shortfall

Posted by cdelacru April 07, 2009 21:26PM

With Gov. Jon Corzine’s proposed state budget facing a possible $605 million shortfall and state workers across New Jersey protesting his plan to save money by furloughing them, lawmakers spent time today debating this question: Are New Jersey residents taxed too much?

Members of the Assembly Budget Committee — all up for re-election this year — took turns either praising or picking apart Corzine’s $29.8 billion budget proposal.

Carmine Galasso/The Star-LedgerNew Jersey State Treasurer, David Rousseau, testifies before the Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee in Trenton on Monday.

And state Treasurer David Rousseau, who appeared before the committee for the first time since Corzine’s March 10 budget address, got caught up in the political arguments.

Rousseau, in his introductory remarks, said the Corzine administration is bringing “property tax growth under control.”

When Assemblyman Joseph Malone (R-Burlington) asked Rousseau if he thinks New Jersey residents are “overtaxed,” the treasurer paused, said “no,” and then said that while New Jersey property taxes are among the highest in the country, the state has relatively low income taxes on the middle class and provides quality schools and other services.

“I think that anybody, everybody up there (on the committee), believes that they would like to pay lower taxes, but there’s a choice between how we tax and what we provide,” Rousseau said. “We also provide a lot more services than other states provide.”

Malone suggested there is a “disconnect” between the public and state government when it comes to taxes.

Rousseau responded: “I don’t think there’s a disconnect. I think there’s a frustration over the level of taxation in this state, but again, how do you deal with that? Do you cut services? The only way to cut taxes right now is to cut services either at the state level (or) the local level.”

Assemblyman Joe Cryan (D-Union)

Two Democratic committee members later came back to the same topic after Republicans criticized the treasurer’s statements in a news release issued during the meeting.

Assemblyman Joe Cryan (D-Union), who is also chairman of the Democratic State Committee, asked Rousseau if he thinks property taxes “are fine.”

“No, and actually my statement says the rate of growth is under control,” Rousseau said.

Assemblyman Gary Schaer (D-Passaic) said it’s a legislator’s job to “feel the pain” of state taxpayers.

“I just want to make sure that people not walk away thinking that you’re cold or callous or anything else,” Schaer said. “You do obviously feel the pain and we appreciate your sensitivity.”

The political discussions left little time for lawmakers to ask Rousseau about how he could cure a possible $605 million gap in revenues that was outlined Monday and again today by David Rosen, budget and finance officer for the nonpartisan state Office of Legislative Services.

John O’Boyle/The Star-LedgerDavid Rosen, budget director for the Office of Legislative Services, speaks before the Assembly Budget Committee at the Statehouse in Trenton in this 2008 file photo.

If Rosen’s analysis holds true, Corzine would have to either raise taxes or make more cuts to a budget that already reduces spending by $3 billion.

One of those plans to reduce spending — enacting a wage freeze and unpaid furloughs for state workers to save more than $400 million — drew protests from the Communications Workers of America outside the Statehouse and at two dozen other sites across the state.

“In our case, they reneged upon our contract we had agreed to,” said David Weiner, president of CWA Local 1081 as several dozen union members picketed county offices in Newark. “They want us to give up the last two years of the contract. It’s unfair. We’re hard working men and women and we shouldn’t have our wages and our salaries threatened because of conditions we didn’t create.”

The CWA is one of several unions suing to stop the furloughs of state workers and other government employees. An appeals court panel is scheduled to hear the case on April 16.

https://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2009/04/state_assembly_debates_state_b.html

>Since its inception in 1897, the Ridgewood Fire Dept. has built five fire stations. Ridgewood’s first station, Protection Hook and Ladder Company No. 1, was built on Hudson Street and served theVillage between 1897 and 1910.

During a period of rapid residential development in the 1890’s, residents on the east side of the Ho-Ho-Kus Brook pressed for additional firefighting services. They formed the Eagle Hose Co. No. 1 in January, 1900, and laid the cornerstone for the Village’s second fire station at 19 Circle Avenue on September 21, 1902. This building remained in use until it was demolished in 1940.

The third facility and second Hudson Street Station was built as a municipal complex, housing both the fire and police departments and the municipal and district court. The building was completed in 1911 and remained in service as Fire Headquarters until July 30, 1993. It was razed three months later.

In response to residents’ concerns after a serious fire in the mid 1940’s and to better serve the west side of town, Engine Company No. 31 was established in 1947. Located at 311 West Glen Avenue, the structure is a renovated barn which houses an apparatus room, offices, and living quarters for firefighters. This fire station has served the Village for half its firefighting history.

The Village’s fifth fire station and current department headquarters is located at 201 E.
Ridgewood Fire Station.

Glen Avenue. This facility has been operational since June 1, 1992 and serves as quarters for the officers and men of Engine Company No. 35, Ladder Company No. 36, and Rescue Company No. 42. The building also houses the administrative offices, the Fire Prevention Bureau, and Engine Company No. 37, which is comprised of volunteers.

Just a reminder the installation and proper maintenance of smoke alarms are important factors in saving lives. An inspection to assure that smoke alarms are present and in proper working condition is required prior to the sale of all homes in Ridgewood. Further information may be obtained by calling the Bureau at 444-7898.

https://www.ridgewoodnj.net/subdept_detail.cfm?sub_dept_id=112&dept_id=8

>***PUT YARD WASTE OUT APRIL 6 FOR SPECIAL PICK UP THIS WEEK***

Prior to the commencement of scheduled pickups, there will be a Village-Wide Yard waste pickup between April 6th to the 9th Monday thru Thursday only. Place containerized yard waste and brush at curbside Sunday Night. Any questions please call 201/670-5585.

>https://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2009/01/post_56.htm

Posted by afriedma January 18, 2009 13:09PM

Just six months after advocates for the poor heralded a new law to create more affordable housing in New Jersey, parts of it may be set aside because of the slumping economy.

Gov. Jon Corzine has called for a one-year moratorium on a fee charged to developers of commercial real estate. He said the moratorium on the fee, used to fund housing for low- and moderate-income people, would spur economic development.

It was expected the 2.5 percent fee, created last year, would generate $160 million per year. But in six months, it’s raised only about $5 million, according to state Sen. Raymond Lesniak, D-Elizabeth.

“It doesn’t work, it hasn’t worked and it’s not working,” Lesniak said. “Two-point-five percent, 10 percent, 20 percent of nothing is nothing.”

Lesniak is crafting a bill that would waive the fee, and a state requirement for each municipality to use money generated by the fee to create affordable housing, for one year. The concept has the support of key legislative leaders in addition to the governor.

For more than two decades, the state had let towns pay other towns to fulfill their affordable housing obligation. Last year, the Legislature ended that practice in a shift that affordable housing advocates saw as a major advance.

Instead, money for subsidized housing was to come largely from the 2.5 percent fee charged to developers of commercial property. Previously, towns had been allowed to set their own fees for developers. Some declined to do so; others charged more than 2.5 percent.

But there’s been a big problem: Since the fee was standardized, real estate development has fallen sharply.

Affordable housing advocates don’t like the idea of suspending the development fee. They say it’s confounding that the state would slow action on providing housing for low- and moderate-income people in a time when there is a growing need for housing.

“We are opposed to a moratorium and don’t understand why this is the first thing to be cut,” said Kevin Walsh, associate director of the Cherry Hill-based Fair Share Housing Center. “Holding steady is one thing, but cutting the resources available to help folks with shelter is bad.”

Affordable housing has been a contentious issue in the state since the state Supreme Court found in a 1975 ruling in Southern Burlington County NAACP v. Mount Laurel that towns could not use their zoning to exclude the poor. Since then, the court has gone further, finding that towns have an obligation to provide for homes for lower-income people.

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Newsday.com

newsday.com/news/local/wire/newjersey/ny-bc-nj–xgr-legislativepr0118jan18,0,1413200.story

By ANGELA DELLI SANTI

Associated Press Writer

January 18, 2009

TRENTON, N.J.

Gov. Jon Corzine’s nod to open space in his State of the State address could give new life to stalled efforts to direct long-term funding to the purchase of farmland, green acres and historic sites.

At least two bills already in the Legislature address permanent funding for open space, which environmentalists have long advocated and Corzine said he supports, though he has not said where he thinks the money should come from. Several proposals have come and gone since Corzine was elected in 2005, including a plan to dedicate a portion of the sales tax to open space preservation. A new legislative proposal is being drafted.

“It is my preferred approach that we put in place a long-term funding solution,” Corzine said in the State of the State message Tuesday. “That said, we need, at a minimum, an interim bonding question for November’s ballot to extend the financing the votes approved in 2007.”

Voters approved an emergency $200 million bond referendum in 2007, the same year they rejected borrowing for stem cell research and dedicating a portion of the sales tax to property tax relief. The open space money has all been spent. (No statewide open space funding question has failed in New Jersey in a dozen or so requests to voters dating back decades.)

Environmentalists said they are frustrated the question of long-term funding keeps cropping up without being resolved.

“A one-year stopgap doesn’t get the job done, and I’m not even sure it would pass (in this economy),” said David Pringle of the New Jersey Environmental Federation. “We shouldn’t be living referendum to referendum.”

Jeff Tittel of the New Jersey Sierra Club said $200 million a year is needed, and that there are many ways to get it: through a modest water-user fee, from the sales tax or gas tax, by taxing those who develop farmland, through a multiyear bond referendum, or by taxing billboards, SUVs or recreation equipment.

The proposal to dedicate a portion of existing sales tax revenue to open space purchases had support from a majority of lawmakers in both political parties, Tittel said, but became a casualty of the caustic budget battle of 2006 that shut down state government. A similar proposal became a political casualty the next year, when Corzine tried to tie permanent funding for open space to a failed plan to pay down state debt by raising tolls.

“This is the first time since 1961 that we are out of money for open space,” Tittel said. The governor should never have allowed us to get into that situation in the first place.”

Senate Republican Leader Tom Kean Jr. of Westfield agreed, accusing Corzine, a Democrat seeking re-election in November, of “playing politics with land preservation goals as opposed to finding a real solution that has worked very well for two decades.”

Kean said he continues to support a Senate resolution he and Democratic leader Steve Sweeney co-sponsored dedicating $175 million in existing tax revenue to open space through 2038, if voters approve the idea.

Assemblyman John McKeon, D-South Orange, said he is drafting a bill that would provide $350 million a year to the open space preservation fund by imposing a water use fee that would cost the average household $2 per month. The proposal also would require voter approval.

McKeon, long a champion of open space funding, said failing to replenish the fund would cause economic peril.

For example, if the Highlands watershed region were to be developed rather than preserved, he said the costs of treating and delivering clean, safe tap water to the state would become so astronomical no one could afford to live in the Garden State any longer.

“The bottom line _ it’s unpalatable to do nothing,” he said.

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>friday, January 16, 2009
Doing my research…myself
Just wanted to share with you my reading and study on math. Lest anybody think I get all my info from the Ed Center, the truth is I actually get very little over there. Sure, I’m receiving updates from the Math Planning Team, but those aren’t too detailed. Mr. Vallerini and Mrs. Lenhard are the Board Members on the Curriculum Committee, so they are more involved with them. I’m sure I could get all kinds of materials at the Ed Center, but my style is to do my own research. Below is a list of what I’ve been reading the past year or so (approximately 90% of this was sourced be me directly…the advantage of self-employment is plenty of time to surf the web…some of them are on my shelf waiting to be read ASAP).

Please suggest any reading you think I should be doing!

in no particular order (list updated 1/17/09)…

Books
The Equation for Excellence: How to Make Your Child Successful at Math (Vohra)
Math Doesn’t Suck: How to Survive Middle School Math without Breaking a Nail (McKellar)
Math for humans: Teaching Math through 8 Intelligences (Wahl)
Math Wars: A Guide for Parents & Teachers (Latterell)
Standards-Based School Mathematics Curricula: What are they? What Do Students Learn? (Studies in Mathematical Learning), (Senk & Thompson)
What’s Math Got to Do with It? (Boaler)
What Successful Math Teachers Do. (Posamentier)

Articles & Reports
“A Formula to End the Divide,” Posamentier, Bergen Record, 6/19/07
“Abandoning traditional math approach doesn’t add up.” Posamentier, Bergen Record, 6/11/08
“How Does it Add Up?” Views on Math Education.” Posamentier. Education Update, Inc.
“Where Has All the Knowledge Gone?”, Boaler, Education Week, 10/8/08
“Reaching for Common Ground in K-12 Mathematics Education,” Ball, et al., Notices of the AMS, 10/05
“Study Suggests Math Teachers Scrap Balls and Slices,” Chang. NY Times 4/25/08
“Report Urges Changes in Teaching Math,” Lewin. NY Times 3/14/08
“Clarifying Misconceptions about Investigations in Number, Data and Space,” Prince William County Schools Mathematics Focus Group
“Are We Failing Our Geniuses?,” Cloud. Time. 8/16/07
“10 Myths (Maybe) About Learning Math,” Mathews. Washington Post. 5/31/05
“Learning from Singapore Math,” Leinwand & Ginsburg. Educational Leadership, 11/07
“On Professional Judgment and the National Mathematics Advisory Panel Report: Curricular Content,” Thompson. Educational Researcher, 12/08

Final Report of the National Mathematics Advisory Panel

Curriculum Focal Points for Prekindergarten through Grade 8 Mathematics, National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, 2006

Websites
What Works Clearinghouse, U.S. Department of Education Institute of Education Sciences
Mathematically Correct
Mathematically Sane
Math Panel Watch
National Assessment of Educational Progress Mathematics Study 2003
Math Forum at Drexel University
Posted by Laurie Goodman at 1:11 AM
Labels: math
6 comments:

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>Dear Ms. Goodman,

I am dismayed and surprised by your 13 January 2009 post on the Ridgewood Blog in which you accused a parent of ‘undermining the administration’ by offering Sandra Stotsky, a distinguished math standards expert, to consult with RPS’ Math Planning Team (MPT). You couldn’t have chosen a more negative characterization of the parent’s actions. Instead this parent should be complimented for attempting to provide balance to the MPT, whose external advisors are far to one side of the ideological divide.

The external advisors Daro, Rosenstein, and Schultz represent a point of view shared by far fewer than 1% of mathematicians. They are the ‘understanding first’ and ‘multiple solutions’ crowd that leave little time for our children to become fluent in standard algorithms for addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. These algorithms are efficient and they provide the foundations of algebra.

The only advisor with a point of view respected by mathematicians is Posamentier, but his chances of providing balance are slim. He has only 30 minutes with the MPT, while Daro was given an entire day, and Schultz is both a member of the team and an external advisor. If the external advisors represented both sides of the ideological divide, and all were given equal time, then I would agree that we don’t need Stotsky.

Most outrageous is your characterization of the National Mathematics Advisory Panel (NMAP) as ‘political,’ and your insinuation that it’s being treated as dogmatic religious text. In my view the NMAP report is far more balanced than the MPT: It acknowledges the importance of reform math, but cautions that traditional mathematical rigor should not be compromised. But the education establishment you have chosen to defend is deeply threatened by the NMAP report. It’s a simplistic cheap shot to dismiss it as political.

I hoped when you were elected that you would be a voice for concerned parents. Instead it seems that you’ve become that administration’s biggest cheer leader.

John G. Sheehan, Ph.D.

>Village Council members are scheduled to introduce a $2.9 million bond ordinance for purchase of the Schedler property during tonight’s regularly scheduled Public Meeting. The $2.9 million would cover property purchase only; improvements necessary to convert the parcel to athletic playing fields would be extra.

The Village has already received a $1 million grant from the Bergen County Open Space fund for purchase of the property; other grants may be forthcoming (the operative word is “may”). If no additional grant money is awarded above and beyond the Bergen County Open Space award, Ridgewood’s taxpayers will be obligated to cough up as much as $1.9 million.

The Schedler tract is located at the intersection of West Saddle River Road and Route 17. Current assessed value of the entire parcel is $2,597,500.

Village Manager Jim Ten Hoeve previously indicated his desire to purchase an adjacent parcel owned by the Shotmeyer Oil Corporation along with the Schedler purchase. That parcel, located on Route 17 northbound, is currently assessed at $67,500.