>There is a difference between EARNING money and living off someone else’s money. We all need to live within our means. We are not yet a socialist country, but a lot of good Americans are starting to talk like socialists.
If you have 4 kids then you should have a plan to send them to college. Stop applying to private schools and then complaining that the financial aid is not enough. There are a lot of good state schools that a person can go to. Live within your means and send them to one. I pay full freight so that your kids can get a “package”.
I have a family that I take care of and I should not be asked to support yours. The state has no business trying to level the playing field. They will destroy incentives to work hard.
James Simpson, the new commissioner of the New Jersey Department of Transportation, inherits plenty of problems as he takes over the sprawling agency. The state Transportation Trust Fund is running dry. The condition of New Jersey’s crowded highways is the worst in the nation, according to federal data. NJ Transit ridership is down and fares are slated to increase 25 percent. The state’s toll collectors recently drew unwanted attention for hundreds of complaints by motorists about nasty behavior. (Nussbaum, Inquirer)
>Examining IRS tax return data by state, E.J. McMahon, a fiscal expert at the Manhattan Institute, measured the impact of large income-tax rate increases on the rich ($200,000 income or more) in Connecticut, which raised its tax rate in 2003 to 5% from 4.5%; in New Jersey, which raised its rate in 2004 to 8.97% from 6.35%; and in New York, which raised its tax rate in 2003 to 7.7% from 6.85%. Over the period 2002-2005, in each of these states the “soak the rich” tax hike was followed by a significant reduction in the number of rich people paying taxes in these states relative to the national average. Amazingly, these three states ranked 46th, 49th and 50th among all states in the percentage increase in wealthy tax filers in the years after they tried to soak the rich.
This result was all the more remarkable given that these were years when the stock market boomed and Wall Street gains were in the trillions of dollars. Examining data from a 2008 Princeton study on the New Jersey tax hike on the wealthy, we found that there were 4,000 missing half-millionaires in New Jersey after that tax took effect. New Jersey now has one of the largest budget deficits in the nation.
However, history hasn’t stopped the anti-Christie crowd from demanding the restoration of the “millionaire surcharge” on individuals earning $400,000 or more annually. I’ll be generous and attribute it to short memories. If they got their way, more business owners, investors, and other high-end taxpayers will quit the fight and head for the state line. New Jersey would experience another collapse in its revenue base and, ironically, school aid reductions for the following fiscal year would assuredly prove even more dramatic than what’s currently on the table. An utter and complete disaster of epic proportions! blog.savejersey.com/2010/04/06/remember-how-we-got-here.aspx
> On Saturday, January 30, a special brunch will be held at Winberrie’s to benefit Haley Tyrrell, a Ridgewood 5th grader who is battling osteosarcoma and who recently underwent a leg amputation. Three seating times are available. Visit the attached site to register or to make a donation if you can’t attend.
Join us for a special brunch in honor of
Haley Tyrrell
Saturday, January 30, 2010 Seatings at 9:00 a.m., 11:00 a.m. & 1:00 p.m.
Incredible door prizes courtesy of local businesses!
Bret Schundler, a former Jersey City Mayor and gubernatorial candidate who attracted national attention for his support of school vouchers and charter schools, is Gov.-elect Christopher Christie’s choice to head the state Department of Education. Christie waged a public battle against the state teachers unions during his campaign for governor, and the New Jersey Education Association (NJEA) spent a huge amount of money in a bid to re-elect Gov. Jon Corzine.
Christie has continued to toss barbs at the teachers union since Election Day. Schundler, 50, also feuded with the NJEA during his nine years as mayor and as the Republican nominee for governor in 2001. In 1993, a Wall Street Journal editorial identified Schundler as the National Education Association’s “Public Enemy #1” because of his school voucher initiative.
“I want to save inner-city public schools by forcing them to improve,” Schundler told the WSJ, in comments echoed fifteen years later by Christie. “They may have a monopoly now, but no one enjoys working in them. They are an urban tragedy.” After graduating Harvard in 1981, Schundler worked as a congressional aide before embarking on a successful Wall Street career. He ran a strong but unsuccessful race for State Senator in the heavily Democratic 31st district in 1991, and then won a special election for mayor in Jersey City in 1992 after Gerald McCann was removed from office following his criminal conviction. Schundler was re-elected in 1993, and again in 1997 against then-Municipal Court Judge Jerramiah Healy.
Schundler was the GOP nominee for governor in 2001, but lost to Democrat James E. McGreevey by a 56%-42% margin. He ran again in 2005, but was narrowly defeated in the GOP primary. He is a Professor at The Kings College, a small Christian school in Manhattan, and serves as the school’s chief operating officer. (Editor, PolitickerNJ)
Regardless of whether compliance with an NFPA standard is voluntary or mandatory, fire and rescue departments must consider the impact of “voluntary” standards on private litigation. In some states, a department may be liable for the negligent performance of their duties. Even in states that protect rescue workers under an immunity statute, most state laws do not protect fire or rescue departments for grossly negligent acts. Essentially, negligence involves the violation of a standard of care that results in injury or loss to some other individual or organization. In establishing the standard of care for rescue operations, the courts will frequently look to the “voluntary” standards issued by NFPA and other organizations. Although “voluntary” in name, these standards can become, in effect, the legally enforceable standard of care for fire or rescue department. Accordingly, fire and rescue departments should pay close attention to applicable standards.
Understaffing of fire departments is a nationwide problem. So much so in fact, that the ICMA, International City Managers Association, has conducted studies to determine the effectiveness of fire companies based on staffing. This information was published Managing Fire Services, 2nd edition. This international organization of city leaders recognizes the importance of a properly staffed fire department. This publication included this information:
1. Fire suppression operations have three basic functions: (1) RESCUE; (2) work involving ladder, forcible entry, and ventilation; and (3) the application of water. To raise ladders, ventilate, search, and RESCUE simultaneously takes quick action by at least FOUR and often EIGHT or more firefighters, each under the supervision of an officer.
2. If about SIXTEEN trained firefighters are not operating at the scene of a working fire within the critical time period, then DOLLAR LOSS and INJURIES are significantly INCREASED as is fire spread.
>Ridgewood Council will pay back remainder of parking garage bond Wednesday, January 13, 2010
The Ridgewood Village Council passed a resolution Tuesday night essentially canceling the balance on a bond ordinance and saving taxpayer money on interest payments. But officials said the ordinance itself is still active and could be used down the road to borrow the money again.
The unanimous vote authorizes the chief financial officer pay back $1.6 million left over from a $3 million bond ordinance. The bond was originally issued to begin work on a proposed parking garage at the North Walnut Street municipal parking lot and it was used to pay for environmental studies that revealed the presence of hydrocarbons at the site; the property had been home to many gas stations in past decades.
Some of the money was also used in an attempt to purchase the Town Garage property next to the municipal parking lot through eminent domain. That property was needed to build a proposed 360-space parking structure, which would have included nearly 40,000 square feet of retail.
Money was used to declare the North Walnut Street lot a “blighted area in need of redevelopment” based on the results of the environmental study. The project began with the previous council, but the current village council voted the project down, leaving the fate of the remaining bond up for debate for the past year.
According to figures provided by Village Manager Ken Gabbert to resident Boyd Loving, who spoke during the public comment portion of the meeting, giving back the leftover money will save Ridgewood taxpayers about $1,500 a month in interest payments.
“Every 30 days you are holding on to that money, taxpayers are spending $1,500 of interest for a yearly total of $18,000, according to the memo that Dr. Gabbert gave me,” Loving explained.
The council held the meeting on Tuesday night because an interest payment on the bond is due by Jan. 22.
The move to not cancel the actual bond ordinance will allow the council to borrow up to $1.6 million again if it decided to use the funds to remediate the contaminated North Walnut Street municipal parking lot or purchase the Town Garage property.
Mayor David Pfund mentioned “flipping” that money to a proposed parking deck at a Hudson Street municipal lot, but Gabbert informed him that doing so would require a new ordinance since the money was originally bonded for a project in the North Walnut Street Redevelopment District.
Councilwoman Anne Zusy asked how difficult it would be to borrow the money again if the council were to proceed with a project on North Walnut Street. Gabbert said that it would take at least two months to introduce and adopt another ordinance, not including the time it would take to negotiate a purchase price for the Town Garage property with its current owner, Ridgewood 120 LLC, should that be the route the council takes.
Pfund described the ordinance as an “unfunded authorization” that would allow the town to borrow the remaining $1.6 million to purchase the Town Garage property if it decided to move in that direction.
“You can cancel the ability to borrow under this bond by being in a position of revising or amending the ordinance, or canceling the ordinance that’s in existence. That’s a separate vote,” said Village Attorney Matt Rogers. “This is a resolution to specifically deal with the cancellation of the amount to reduce the bond to what we’ve used, basically.”
Deputy Mayor Keith Killion said that if there is support to purchase the Town Garage property, it “should be discussed in closed [session].”
Councilman Paul Aronsohn went on record with his long-held position that he was not in favor of purchasing the Town Garage property, and he felt the bond ordinance should be canceled Tuesday night.
“I’ve been directed by the council to contact the other side [Ridgewood 120 LLC] to see if there was a way that we could negotiate a price for the property,” Rogers said. “That’s all my charge was, Paul. That’s all I was asked to do.”
Rogers also noted that in order to cancel the bond ordinance, a “super majority,” or four votes, would be required. A super majority is necessary for any action to take place regarding a bond ordinance, he said.
“With the issue of remediation still outstanding, and the issue of possibly purchasing Ridgewood 120 LLC, 120 Franklin Ave., unresolved, but under consideration, this is what I thought,” Rogers said.
Councilman Pat Mancuso discussed a Jan. 6 council meeting, during which a $1.75 million estimate was given in relation to constructing one level of parking at a Hudson Street lot.
“This is what I’ve wanted to achieve, spreading out the parking,” Mancuso said. “I am not for the big parking garage on Franklin, I am not for that at all. And I agree with Paul — let’s vote on it, get it out of the way and move forward.”
Killion added that a past parking committee recommended “six or seven years ago” to construct single levels of parking at a variety of municipal lots throughout the Central Business District. Zusy said the same thought was submitted as part of recommendations made by a more recent parking committee, of which she was a member.
Pfund almost ended the meeting without a vote, but Aronsohn and Killion pushed for a formal vote to pay back the remainder of the bond to avoid paying interest on money that the council is not going to use right now.
“So this vote is showing our approval and desire that the money gets paid back so there’s no interest,” Pfund said just before the vote was taken.
> Despite years of recruitment efforts, Ridgewood has only a skeletal crew of volunteer firefighters. And since so few volunteer ambulance members are available during the day, firefighter EMTs respond to those calls.
Cutting in the area of public safety should be one of the last resorts. There is plenty of spending in this town that should be curtailed first. Buying property and equipment, planning parking garages, etc should be first on the chopping block.
I look at having a paid fire dept the way I look at insurance. You pay for it and hope you never need to use it, but when you do need it you are damn glad you have it. When I remember the Red Cross building fire and the West Side Pres fire, as well as a number of serious house fires, to name just a few, I shudder to think of what may have happened with fewer or volunteer firefighters.And we have a large hospital in this town! The other towns with large hospitals in this area all have paid departments, for good reason!!!
Also, keep in mind that many of the services that our FD provides, such as help pumping out flooded basements and some educational fire prevention programs, would not be provided by a smaller or volunteer dept.
The cost savings would be small and the potential problems would be large. I really feel messing with the fire dept is a big mistake.
check out: www.getinshapeforwomen.com Salary: Managers $45-$70K, Full-time trainers: $45-$60k Part-time trainers $15-20hr Benefits: Health/dental insurance, vacation, Opportunity to Grow! Opportunity to own your own studio after 12 months.
WASHINGTON (AP) – Labor leaders are pushing hard on President Barack Obama and Senate Democrats to drop a proposed new tax on high-value health insurance plans, warning of political consequences.
The White House has indicated the tax may change so it hits fewer workers – but it’s not going away.
A Monday evening meeting at the White House between Obama and about a dozen heads of the country’s biggest labor unions capped a day when two union leaders fired broadsides at Obama and Senate Democrats over their plans to pay for overhauling the nation’s health care system with a tax union leaders fear could hurt their workers.
The 40 percent tax would fall on employer health plans worth more than $8,500 for an individual or $23,000 for a family. Although Obama terms them “Cadillac” plans, union leaders say numerous working-class Americans who’ve negotiated good benefits in exchange for lesser pay would be hurt.
The president of the AFL-CIO, Richard Trumka, warned that Democrats risk catastrophic election defeats similar to 1994 if they fail to come up with a health bill labor likes.
“A bad bill could have that kind of effect – a place where people sit at home” – as happened in 1994, when Democrats lost 54 House seats and eight in the Senate, costing them control of Congress, Trumka told reporters.
The head of the International Association of Firefighters, Harold A. Schaitberger, made similarly threatening remarks in a statement Monday. “The president’s support for the excise tax is a huge disappointment and cannot be ignored. If President Obama continues to support it and signs a bill that includes the excise tax on workers, we will hold him accountable,” said Schaitberger, who was not among the attendees at the White House meeting.
>Craig Hueneke said… 8:13 – How can you say that? Have you read the countless reports published by some of the WORLD’S LEADING & MOST RESPECTED doctors and medical organizations showing the findings of use of marijuana for medical use?
In a 1977 publication in the Journal of the American Medical Association, it states that marijuana is less addictive than everyday and readily available items such as cigarettes (by 90% – yes ninety!), followed by alcohol, prescription drugs, household medications like cough medicine and even caffeine.
Also history CLEARLY show us that the only reason marijuana was made illegal was the fact that in the late 1930’s William Randolph Hearst had spent MILLIONS of dollars on a smear campaign against marijuana because hemp, which is the fibers within the cannabis (marijuana)plant, was and still is the fastest growing biomasses known and was found to be a more sustainable and easier way to make paper. This greatly concerned Hearst because he was the largest newspaper publisher in the country and all that newspaper was printed on paper he milled himself from trees. In fear of losing millions in investments in the timber industry, he declared a personal war of which he funded and even paid a few cronies like Harry Anslinger to help destroy the hemp industry by demonizing marijuana as a very dangerous drug.
The funny thing about Anslinger is at the time was the Assistant Prohibition Commissioner and he feared that he would be out of a job in tough times if prohibition ended, so he saw marijuana as the next “booze”. And in fact he was right, because he was made the commissioner of the newly formed Fed. Bureau of Narcotics after prohibition ended.
Hearst’s money and Anslinger’s “unbiased & expert testimony” helped convince Washington D.C. (imagine that..money making a politician do something?!)to pass the Marijuana Stamp Act of 1937.The act demanded that the sale/and possession of marijuana required a tax stamp and for some strange reason no stamps were never produced. The funny thing is that the same thing happened to alcohol and tobacco but those stamps were and still are produced.
So please don’t look at marijuana as the drug your parents told you about, I’m not saying it should be sold to children and as long as it is illegal not used, but trust me when I tell you that there are much more benefits to our health, economy and environment from marijuana than probably 75% of the crap we put in our bodies EVERY DAY.
In one last note, the growing of hemp is still illegal in the U.S. and I bet you can’t guess which country is the largest IMPORTER of hemp? You got that right… THE UNITED STATES.
So please stop drinking the cool-aide and think about it.
>Vote On N.J. Bill Allowing In-State Tuition for Illegal Immigrants Called Off
The sponsor of a bill that would have allowed illegal immigrants to pay lower in-state tuition rates at New Jersey’s public colleges called off a vote on it Monday because he lacked the support needed to pass.
“We just don’t have enough votes,” explained Sen. Ronald Rice, D-Essex, adding that it was about four votes short of the necessary 21 during the closing hours of the Legislature’s lame-duck session.
Read the story here: https://www.northjersey.com/news/Vote_on_NJ_bill_allowing_in-state_tuition_for_illegal_immigrants_called_off.html
Thanks to everyone who called and voiced opposition to this Bill
>Christmas Tree Pick Up Process – Is There a Better Way?
The Spider has observed a Village owned and operated pick up truck with one man driving throughout her neighborhood, picking up Christmas trees one by one and throwing them into the pick up truck’s bed.
Certainly, there’s got to be a more efficient and cost effective process of collecting discarded Christmas trees than sending a lone employee out driving around in a truck big enough to carry no more than a dozen trees at a time.
What happened to the days when Christmas trees were all picked up and compacted into a large sanitation truck and then dumped at the leaf compost site for shredding? Or, the days when members of the Shade Tree Department would drive a truck with the chipper/shredder in tow, and chip/shred the trees right on the spot?
Is there a reason why we’ve taken a step back in time? Gold plated bathrooms, thousands on parking meter sleeves, and now, the most inefficient and costly process of removing items left at the curb? What next Dr. Gabbert?
>Village Council to Consider Permanent Closure of West Glen Avenue Firehouse
It is being rumored that Village Council members will soon debate permanent closure of the West Glen Avenue firehouse. The firehouse is currently staffed 24/7/365 by nine career firefighters (three per shift/tour of duty), who respond to fire and medical emergencies throughout the Village.
As previously reported on The Ridgewood Blog, Village Council members are scheduled to vote this Wednesday, January 13th, on an ordinance that would permit Village Manager Dr. Kenneth A. Gabbert to reduce the career firefighting force by up to nine career firefighters.
Several former and current members of the Village Council view continued operation of a full time career firefighting organization as a luxury Ridgewoodites can no longer afford. The most frequently asked question at Village Hall nowadays seems to be: “If the Borough of Paramus can survive with a completely volunteer fire department, why can’t Ridgewood?”
Tough economic times and the projected loss of significant economic aid from the State of NJ may force Council members to close up the West Glen Avenue fire station prior to this year’s municipal election (scheduled to take place in May).
I’m high on life, Save Jerseyans. For those who aren’t, you now have a more… shall we say… “organic” method to rely on.
The New York Times reports:
“The New Jersey General Assembly approved a measure on Monday that would make the state the first in the region and the 14th in the nation to legalize the use of marijuana for medical reasons.
The measure was to be voted on by the State Senate later in the afternoon, the final day of the legislative session. If passed, it would allow patients diagnosed with severe illnesses like cancer, AIDS, muscular dystrophy and multiple sclerosis to have access to marijuana distributed through state-monitored dispensaries.”
