>Please attend our meeting this Tuesday, March 23, at 7:30 PM (doors open at 7)
Location: Temple Israel and Jewish Community Center, 475 Grove St., Ridgewood
Learn about: Council’s Graydon Pool Committee; RFP update How Graydon is disinfected; water quality improvements in 2009 and 2010 New badge fees with Early Bird discount, on sale April 1
Special guests: Two candidates for Council who want Graydon preserved: Tom Riche and Bernie (Bernadette) Walsh
Certified Professional Geologist Charles Stebbins on the environmental regulations that could prevent the construction of a concrete pool
We hope to see you Tuesday night. Doors open at 7 PM; meeting starts promptly at 7:30. Please spread the word via Facebook, Twitter, and your 100 best friends.
Washington (CNN) – The non-partisan Congressional Budget Office estimates that the Democrats’ revised health care bill will cost $940 billion over the next 10 years, a House Democratic source told CNN Thursday.
The bill cuts the deficit by $130 billion during that period of time, according to the source. ( if you believe this I got a bridge I want to sell you)
So government takeover of Healthcare will now cost a wopping $940 Billion!!! Add the Medicare cuts, tax increases and inevitable rationing and addition to the Medicaid enrollment, and 2409 pages of mandates and ultimate, unrelenting Czar (Health Commissioner) powers…and fines you will all receive if you don’t buy EXACTLY what the government tells you that you must buy…
This is the most un-American, Socialist takeover of our lives that I’ve ever seen. We should move to impeach, fire or otherwise immediately remove from office every Senator/Congressperson voting to ram this through against the will or vote of the citizens who pay the taxes.
>None of this is going to be fun but the time has come to pay the bills. We’ve all lived on atificially low interest rates, easy credit and the tidal wave of Real Estate appreciation that was created. Those days are over. Real Estate (the basis for our taxes) has depreciated 20% to 30% in our area, public sector salaries and benefits have not, and that has to change.
We need to totally change the mind set of the BOE and the employees. 3.5+% annual raises, and full retirement and health care packages are things of a bygone era. For years the BOE has managed the budget to the 4% annual increase allowed by law. We need to change that mentality. Lay-offs have already started and with the Governor proposing a 2.5% cap on annual budget increases going forward and the BOE and Union already locked in to annual increases greater than that the problem is going to get worse not better as “the negative spread” between revenues and expenses widens. It is simple economics, you can’t run a business for very long if your expenses are more than your revenues.
The BOE needs to begin laying the ground work to roll back salary tiers 10% in the next contract negotiation. If our State aid is being reduced, the natural result should be a reduction in costs. (i.e. salaries) It is very simple, in my business if my revenues are down for the year my employees make less, period. If a teacher (As well as Administrator) is making $90,000 per year, the new contract should roll that back to $81,000. The only way we can afford to keep our schools at the level they are at is to cut salaries and benefits. Towns like Ridgewood, Chatham, Mendham, Wyckoff, etc… are going to end up with zero state dollars. It is bad enough when salaries and benefits are 80% to 85% of our budget, what do you think it is going to be like when they are 90% to 95% of our budget?
It will be a disaster. The combination of 90% of the budget going to salaries and benefits combined with facilities maintenance and repairs will take up the entire budget. There will be no bands, no plays, no athletics, nothing, as the BOE simply will not have the money for any activities, but the employees will be well paid, fully covered for health care, and set for life in retirement.
The natural reaction will be that a 10% roll back is too extreme, “the backlash will be too great,” “there has to be another way,” “the teachers will strike.” Real unemployement is running around 15%, there are very talented people looking for jobs, I don’t think we’d have any problem finding people to teach in the Ridgewood School System however, the BOE needs to get that thought process in their heads now and express to the Union that they are serious so that every one is prepared for it when it comes to fruition in the next year or two.
By the way, the Village Council should be thinking the same way in regards to Police, Fire, and DPW workers.
State Treasurer Tim Cahill, taking swipes at both Gov. Deval Patrick and President Obama, boosted his bipartisan chops yesterday, telling Herald columnist Howie Carr on WRKO, “I voted for John McCain, believe it or not.”
Cahill, saying he was barred from the 2008 Democratic National Convention because he wouldn’t endorse either Obama or Hillary Clinton, said, “My own party basically voted me out.”
“I was afraid of what we had already been getting in Massachusetts, and at that point in 2008, I was aware that it wasn’t working,” he said. Separately yesterday, Cahill accused Obama of “propping up” the Bay State’s health plan with federal aid in order to help push the Democrats’ plan through Congress.
“The real problem is that this . . . sucking sound of money has been going into this health-care reform,” Cahill said. “And I would argue that it’s being propped up so that the federal government and the Obama administration can drive it through.”
Gov. Deval Patrick argues the state’s universal health care program has added 1 percent to the budget, but Cahill said the real impact is buffered by federal dollars.
Meanwhile, Republican Charles Baker’s campaign said Patrick “has consistently failed to address rising health-care costs in Massachusetts.” Baker, the former Harvard Pilgrim CEO, advocated for years for greater transparency on the part of medical service providers.
Cahill called on congressional Democrats yesterday to go “back to the drawing board,” saying he fears they will “bankrupt” the country.
Patrick’s campaign yesterday used Cahill’s health-care smackdown in its latest fund-raising pitch, e-mailing supporters that Cahill “is advocating policies that could put that access, and their health, in jeopardy.” Patrick, whose administration held a hearing on health-care costs yesterday, said exorbitant premium increases and medical service costs need to be curbed through legislation he has proposed.
A state appellate panel today ruled New Jersey’s secretary of state must accept a petition a citizens group filed to recall U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez. The court stayed its decision to allow Menendez (D-N.J.) to appeal its ruling. NJ Tea Parties United and the Sussex County Tea Party have said they want Menendez, (D-N.J.) recalled from office because he votes for too much government spending.
• Tea Party group seeking to recall Sen. Robert Menendez appears before N.J. appeals court
The case — which puts the state in the unusual position of arguing against its own law and calling part of its constitution unconstitutional — began last fall after then-Secretary of State Nina Mitchell Wells rejected the committee’s notice that it intended to begin a recall effort against Menendez. The removal process requires the secretary of state to approve such a notice before a recall committee can begin generating petitions.
After the notice is approved, the committee then must secure the signatures of 25 percent of registered voters of the affected district before a recall election can be held. There were 5.2 million registered voters in November, meaning the committee would have to secure 1.3 million signatures.
Menendez lawyer Marc Elias argued that the petition drive should be halted because voters do not have the right to recall a federal lawmaker under the U.S. Constitution.
Menendez will be up for re-election in 2012.New Jersey Real-Time News Breaking Local News from New Jersey
At least they do at Wide World of Bagels, which hand rolls them for every occasion. The Ridgewood store’s shamrock-shaped bagels, which they make throughout the month of March, are its best sellers.
Owners Elliot Cohen, a former manager for Bankers Trust on Wall Street, and Scott Handler, a former car wash owner, say they plan to form a chain of franchised specialty bagel shops to compete with established players.
“My goal is to expand the name throughout northern Bergen County, then throughout New Jersey and then the United States,” Cohen said. “Bagels are profitable because it’s dough and water, and you are making sandwiches, and selling a lot of coffee, which is very profitable, as we all know with Starbucks and Dunkin’ Donuts.”
Shamrock-shaped bagels, sold throughout the month of March, are best sellers at Wide World of Bagels. Not all bagels are puffy and covered with poppy seeds.He plans to spend up to $200,000 to expand, with franchisees paying as much as $40,000 plus royalty fees to open a store. It won’t be easy because the bagel shape-shifters will have to fight big chains such as Manhattan Bagel, Einstein Bros. and New York Bagel.
— The latest outage number is now at 76,000 statewide, with about 61,000 customers without power in Bergen County. Additional outages have been reported throughout the day and evening due to the continuing stormy weather.
— Since the storm began this weekend, PSE&G has restored service to more than 380,000 customers – making this the worst storm in PSE&G history.
— There are also about 3,700 gas customers in Passaic and Somerset counties without service due to flooding. Gas customers will be restored in coordination with municipal inspections as the flood waters recede.
— Crews will continue to work throughout the day and night to restore service. The utility is also getting assistance from utilities in Ohio and Pennsylvania through an arrangement called mutual aid. About 200 workers from AEP and Duquesne Light are helping restore power in hard-hit Bergen towns.
— Based on the extensive damage – especially in Bergen County, PSE&G is estimating that the majority of customers will be restored by Wednesday with the remainder on Thursday.
— Customers can find information on outages, flooding and restoration at https://www.pseg.com/customer/home/safety/outage.jsp.
— Many of the outages are caused by falling trees and limbs, which bring down power lines. Downed wires should always be considered “live.” STAY AWAY FROM ALL DOWNED LINES. Do not approach or drive over a downed line and do not touch anything that it might be in contact with. To report a downed wire, call 1-800-436-PSEG and tell PSE&G the nearest cross street.
— To report a power outage, call PSE&G’s Customer Service line: 1-800-436-PSEG. Customers who are registered with My Account can also report power outages. To do so, Log In now or register.
— The utility provides electric service to 2.1 million customers and gas service to 1.7 million customers.
Almost everyone here at the Statehouse has a look on his face as though he’s bracing for impact. Lawmakers, particularly Republicans, worry about the way Gov. Chris Christie’s $29.3 billion budget will hit their suburban towns tomorrow as Christie tries to close an $11 billion deficit. That one figure of $1.3 billion in school funding cuts triggers political panic. Temporary suspension of rebate checks for seniors triggers panic. (Pizarro, PolitickerNJ)
>*This article appeared in Detroit News on August 27, 2009.
Michael F. Cannon is director of health policy studies at the Cato Institute and co-author of Healthy Competition: What’s Holding Back Health Care and How to Free It.
If you are curious about how President Barack Obama’s health plan would affect your health care, look no farther than Massachusetts. In 2006, the Bay State enacted a slate of reforms that almost perfectly mirror the plan of Obama and congressional Democrats.
Those reforms reveal that the Obama plan would mean higher health insurance premiums for millions, would reduce choice by eliminating both low-cost and comprehensive health plans, would encourage insurers to avoid the sick and would reduce the quality of care.
Massachusetts reduced its uninsured population by two-thirds — yet the cost would be considered staggering, had state officials not done such a good job of hiding it. Finally, Massachusetts shows where “ObamaCare” would ultimately lead: Officials are already laying the groundwork for government rationing…
The most sweeping provision in the Massachusetts reforms — and the legislation before Congress — is an “individual mandate” that makes health insurance compulsory. Massachusetts shows that such a mandate would oust millions from their low-cost health plans and force them to pay higher premiums.
“The effect,” writes the Boston Globe, “has been to provide more comprehensive insurance than in most other states but also to raise costs.” Premiums are growing 21to 46 percent faster than the national average, in part because Massachusetts’ individual mandate has effectively outlawed affordable health plans.
Over time, as mandates eliminate low-cost options and price controls eliminate comprehensive options, both the Massachusetts and Obama reforms will march consumers into a narrow range of health plans.
As goes choice, so goes quality. Statistics on waiting times for specialist care in Massachusetts read like a dispatch from Canada. In 2004, Boston already had the longest waits among metropolitan areas. By 2009, waits had generally shortened in other metro areas (average wait: less than three weeks) but lengthened in Boston (average wait: seven weeks), according to the Merritt Hawkins survey.
Voters who believe the Massachusetts law reduced the quality of care outnumber those who believe it helped by nearly 3-to-1 (29 percent to 10 percent).
Massachusetts has reduced the share of its population that lacks coverage from an estimated 8.3 percent in 2006 to an estimated 2.6 percent by June 2008. Former Gov. Mitt Romney, a Republican who signed the Massachusetts reforms into law, boasts that “no other state has made as much progress in covering their uninsured.”
Yet that achievement carries an exorbitant price tag: at least $2.1 billion this year, according to the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation, a figure that doesn’t even include the cost of the additional coverage discussed above. Since Massachusetts has covered just 432,000 previously uninsured residents, the cost of covering a previously uninsured family of four — at least $20,000 — is well above the average cost of an employer-sponsored family policy (about $13,000).
by Adam B. Schaeffer is a policy analyst with Cato’s Center for Educational Freedom and author of “The Poverty of Preschool Promises: Saving Children and Money with the Early Education Tax Credit,” Cato Institute Policy Analysis no. 641, August 3, 2009.
Although public schools are usually the biggest item in state and local budgets, spending figures provided by public school officials and reported in the media often leave out major costs of education and thus understate what is actually spent.
To document the phenomenon, this paper reviews district budgets and state records for the nation’s five largest metro areas and the District of Columbia. It reveals that, on average, per-pupil spending in these areas is 44 percent higher than officially reported.
Real spending per pupil ranges from a low of nearly $12,000 in the Phoenix area schools to a high of nearly $27,000 in the New York metro area. The gap between real and reported per-pupil spending ranges from a low of 23 percent in the Chicago area to a high of 90 percent in the Los Angeles metro region.
To put public school spending in perspective, we compare it to estimated total expenditures in local private schools. We find that, in the areas studied, public schools are spending 93 percent more than the estimated median private school.
Citizens drastically underestimate current per-student spending and are misled by official figures. Taxpayers cannot make informed decisions about public school funding unless they know how much districts currently spend. And with state budgets stretched thin, it is more crucial than ever to carefully allocate every tax dollar.
This paper therefore presents model legislation that would bring transparency to school district budgets and enable citizens and legislators to hold the K–12 public education system accountable.
— PSE&G is reporting an estimated 148,000 customers without power due to the storm’s damaging winds and driving rain. The majority of outages – more than 92,000 — are in Bergen County. The utility provides electric service to 2.1 million customers.
— Crews will continue to work throughout the day and night to restore service. The utility has also reached out to other utilities for assistance.
— Based on the extensive damage – especially in hard-hit Bergen County, PSE&G is estimating that the majority of customers will be restored by Wednesday with the remainder on Thursday.
— Many of the outages are caused by falling trees and limbs, which bring down power lines. Downed wires should always be considered “live.” STAY AWAY FROM ALL DOWNED LINES. Do not approach or drive over a downed line and do not touch anything that it might be in contact with. To report a downed wire, call 1-800-436-PSEG and tell PSE&G the nearest cross street.
— To report a power outage, call PSE&G’s Customer Service line: 1-800-436-PSEG. Customers who have registered with My Account can also report power outages. To do so, Log In now or register.
— At this time, PSE&G is reporting an estimated 133,000 customers without power due to yesterday’s damaging winds and driving rain. About 81,000 of the outages are in Bergen County. The utility provides electric service to 2.1 million customers.
— The state’s largest electric and gas utility is continuing to monitor weather conditions, and has extra personnel and supplies on hand to assure that storm-related emergencies are handled safely and promptly.
— Many of the outages are caused by falling trees and limbs, which bring down power lines. Downed wires should always be considered “live.” STAY AWAY FROM ALL DOWNED LINES. Do not approach or drive over a downed line and do not touch anything that it might be in contact with. To report a downed wire, call 1-800-436-PSEG and tell PSE&G the nearest cross street.
— Crews will continue to work throughout the day to restore service. The company is estimating that all customers may not be restored until Tuesday evening.
— To report a power outage, call PSE&G’s Customer Service line: 1-800-436-PSEG.
**The next update will be at approximately 11:30 a.m.
Public Service Electric and Gas Company (PSE&G) is New Jersey’s oldest and largest regulated gas and electric delivery utility, serving nearly three-quarters of the state’s population. PSE&G is the winner of the ReliabilityOne Award for superior electric system reliability. PSE&G is a subsidiary of Public Service Enterprise Group Incorporated (PSEG) (NYSE:PEG), a diversified energy company (www.pseg.com).
READER: No power at my house; now at my daughter’s in Hoboken. PSE&G says power to most of Ridgewood was turned off for safety reasons. Power should be back on Monday or Tuesday at the latest.
