Tag: Jobs

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Towns where property taxes hurt the most in each of N.J.’s 21 counties

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Updated July 18, 2017
Posted July 18, 2017

By Samantha Marcus | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com

So where in your county do property taxes hurt the most?

Last month, we showed you which towns in New Jersey had the highest property tax burdens, which is to say, those where the average property tax bill takes up the biggest share of median household income.

Here, we pulled out the top towns from each of New Jersey’s 21 counties.

New Jersey has the nation’s highest property taxes, but it’s much worse in some parts of the state than others. For example, Cumberland’s pain index is far lower than other counties. Top towns in eight counties did not crack our top 30 list for property tax pain.

Some of the state’s 565 municipalities were excluded from our analysis, as the median income margin of error was too high because of the American Community Survey’s small sample size.

Here’s the county-by-county list.

https://www.nj.com/politics/index.ssf/2017/07/highest_property_tax_burdens_in_all_21_counties.html#incart_river_mobileshort_home_pop

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50 Top Ranked Colleges That Pay Off the Least

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By Charles Stockdale July 13, 2017 8:26 pm EDT

For a special few Americans, such as Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, and Mark Zuckerberg, completing college was unnecessary — perhaps even a hindrance — to their vision and success. Most people, however, consider college to be fundamental to achieving their goals and doing well in life

In fact, the number of people attending degree-granting postsecondary institutions has grown to 17 million – a 30% increase since 2000, according to the National Center for Education Statistics.

Not all college degrees translate to financial success, however. In addition to nearly 70% of students graduating with debt in recent years, many graduates of even the country’s top-ranked schools are earning comparatively low salaries in the working world.

The average median salary for graduates who completed a four-year degree at one of the 206 schools the U.S. News & World Report considers to be the best national universities and national liberal arts colleges is nearly $54,000 a decade after graduating. Graduates from the 50 schools that produce the highest earners bring in nearly $70,000 on average.

On the other end of the spectrum, graduates from 84 schools report a median annual earnings of less than $50,000 a decade after entering school. Graduates from 15 schools report median earnings of less than $40,000 a year, and graduates from three less than $30,000.

In addition to being unable to promise high wages for students later in life, many colleges frequently increase tuition. Barely two decades ago, average tuition for a four-year private college or university was less than $15,000. Today, nearly three-quarters of the top ranked schools charged over $40,000 in tuition and fees in the 2016-2017 school year. This includes 33 of the schools that produced the lowest-earning graduates.

Click here to see the top ranked colleges that pay off the least.
Click here to see our detailed findings and methodology.

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Working Past 70: Americans Can’t Seem to Retire

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file photo by ArtChick

U.S. seniors are employed at the highest rates in 55 years.
By
Ben Steverman
July 10, 2017, 4:00 AM EDT

More and more Americans are spending their golden years on the job.

Almost 19 percent of people 65 or older were working at least part-time in the second quarter of 2017, according to the U.S. jobs report released on Friday. The age group’s employment/population ratio hasn’t been higher in 55 years, before American retirees won better health care and Social Security benefits starting in the late 1960s.

And the trend looks likely to continue. Millennials, prepare yourselves. Better yet, consider this and this, so you have a choice in the matter when your time comes.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-07-10/working-past-70-americans-can-t-seem-to-retire

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Solution to NYC’s commuter hell could ruin real estate developers

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By John Crudele

June 28, 2017 | 10:48pm

Commuters coming into New York City from the north, south, east and west are irate.

The Long Island Railroad, New Jersey Transit, Amtrak and Metro North — not to mention the New York City subway, which moves 5.7 million people every weekday — have all been plagued by dramatic breakdowns and crashes over the past few months.

And as angry as all those commuters are, there is another group of people who should be even more livid — only they don’t know it yet.

That group consists of real estate developers and New York City building owners. And I will give you my prediction of what will happen if the commuting nightmare isn’t straightened out very soon.

As I type this column on Wednesday afternoon, there are 387 new buildings under construction in Manhattan. According to the New York City Department of Buildings, that will add 95.7 million square feet of new space to Manhattan’s already massive real estate inventory.

When you include construction in the Bronx (380 buildings), Brooklyn (1,625 buildings), Queens (1,251 buildings) and Staten Island (713 buildings), the city as a whole will add 225.6 million square feet of new space.

So how is this real estate boom connected with the problems commuters are having? Easy, the attractiveness of telecommuting is going to increase.

https://nypost.com/2017/06/28/solution-to-nycs-commuter-hell-could-ruin-real-estate-developers/

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A ‘very credible’ new study on Seattle’s $15 minimum wage has bad news for liberals

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By Max Ehrenfreund June 26

When Seattle officials voted three years ago to incrementally boost the city’s minimum wage up to $15 an hour, they’d hoped to improve the lives of low-income workers. Yet according to a major new study that could force economists to reassess past research on the issue, the hike has had the opposite effect.

The city is gradually increasing the hourly minimum to $15 over several years. Already, though, some employers have not been able to afford the increased minimums. They’ve cut their payrolls, putting off new hiring, reducing hours or letting their workers go, the study found.

The costs to low-wage workers in Seattle outweighed the benefits by a ratio of three to one, according to the study, conducted by a group of economists at the University of Washington who were commissioned by the city. The study, published as a working paper Monday by the National Bureau of Economic Research, has not yet been peer reviewed.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2017/06/26/new-study-casts-doubt-on-whether-a-15-minimum-wage-really-helps-workers/?utm_term=.ae22e00b1144

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BUSINESS LEADERS MEH ABOUT NJ’S PROSPECTS BUT OPTIMISTIC FOR NATIONAL ECONOMY

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JOHN REITMEYER | JUNE 28, 2017

Executives are perturbed about New Jersey’s high taxes and the state government’s approach to business

New Jersey’s top business leaders are optimistic about the direction that the national economy is heading in this year, but as the state gets ready to elect a new governor, they are more cautious about New Jersey’s own immediate economic future.

The results of a new survey released yesterday by Rutgers University’s Real Estate and Policy Research Consortium revealed that enthusiasm among the state’s top business leaders has returned to the levels measured before the onset of the Great Recession in 2007, with 60 percent expecting some improvement in the national economy over the next 12 months.

At the same time, the survey found the executives still have concerns about New Jersey’s high taxes and state government’s handling of business policies, with nearly 50 percent saying they expect the state’s economic conditions to only remain about the same over the next year.

The results of the survey, outlined yesterday during a conference held at Rutgers University’s Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy in New Brunswick, emerge as New Jersey remains locked in a pattern of slow growth in the wake of the recession, which officially ended in 2009. New Jersey only recently added back all of the private-sector jobs that were lost to the recession as the annual rate of growth here has trailed that of the national economy, while the federal job losses were all recovered in 2014.

https://www.njspotlight.com/stories/17/06/27/business-leaders-optimistic-for-national-economy-but-meh-about-new-jersey-s-prospects/

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An average N.J. resident needs to make this much to afford a 2-bedroom apartment

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Updated on June 9, 2017 at 4:54 PMPosted on June 9, 2017 at 10:07 AM

BY JEFF GOLDMAN

[email protected],

NJ Advance Media for NJ.com

As expensive as it is to live in New Jersey, the cost to rent an apartment here isn’t close to being the priciest in the nation.

Renters in the Garden State — where the fair-market rate for a two-bedroom apartment is $1,420 per month — pay the seventh most in the country, according to a new report from the National Low Income Housing Coalition.

Hawaii, Washington D.C. and California are the most expensive. Those three are followed by Maryland, New York and Massachusetts.

So while renting in New Jersey is cheaper than a handful of spots, it still requires more money than most make.

In a state where the minimum wage is $8.44 an hour and the average person makes $17.86 per hour, a New Jersey worker needs to be paid $27.31 an hour to reasonably afford a two-bedroom apartment. The report defines “afford” as spending no more than 30 percent of your gross income on rent.

That translates to an annual salary of $56,810 per year. To live in a one-bedroom apartment, you need to make $46,619 per year on average.

https://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2017/06/a_typical_nj_resident_needs_to_make_this_much_to_a.html#incart_river_home

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Move over, millennials: NJ businesses looking at undefined ‘Generation Z’

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By Dino Flammia June 8, 2017 2:23 AM

Centennials. iGen. The Founders.

Any name you choose, the generation following millennials remains a mystery to those who will end up being their bosses.

But the oldest segment of Generation Z — somewhere in the age range of 17 to 21 years old — is hitting the workforce in the fashion of full-time employment and internships. Businesses and trend followers hope to get a better feel for what they’re all about.

“We don’t fully know their generational essence,” said James Hughes, an economist and demographer at Rutgers University. “We don’t have a good handle on them yet because we don’t have much experience dealing with them.”

Hughes said the post-millennial generation has been examined in several marketing studies, but they have not been the subject of true academic research.

“You can say they’re a connected generation. More than any other generation, their smartphone is their tie to everything else. They’re certainly technologically savvy, even more so than millennials,” Hughes said.

Read More: Move over, millennials: NJ businesses looking at undefined ‘Generation Z’ | https://nj1015.com/move-over-millennials-nj-businesses-looking-at-undefined-generation-z/?trackback=tsmclip

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Private companies wanted for $20B Gateway Project

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By Vince Calio, June 5, 2017 at 12:51 PM
Amtrak and NJ Transit would use a new Gateway tunnel under the Hudson River. – (AARON HOUSTON)

Private firms will be sought to help finance and construct the $20 billion rail tunnel connecting northern New Jersey and New York City.

During its June 1 board meeting, the Gateway Program Development Board approved a move to solicit private construction and finance companies to complete the project under a public-private partnership model. In a typical P3 procurement model, private financial institutions would raise part of the money for a public project through a combination of debt and direct equity infusions, and then hire outside construction firms to complete it.

If implemented, the procurement model could pump several billion dollars into both New York and New Jersey’s economy, said the board’s chairman, Richard Bagger, during the meeting.

https://www.njbiz.com/article/20170605/NJBIZ01/170609929/private-companies-wanted-for-20b-gateway-project

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NEW JERSEY’S COMING COLLEGE ENROLLMENT CRISIS

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DARRYL G. GREER | JUNE 2, 2017

A significant decline in the number of NJ high school graduates who will be seeking college degrees should be a major concern for the next governor and other leaders

Daryl G. Greer

New Jersey will experience about a 20 percent decline in the number of high school graduates through 2030, according to a recent report, “Knocking at the College Door,” by the Western Interstate Commission on Higher Education (WICHE.) That will mean a drop to 90,000 from a current high of about 111,000 graduates annually, and more of these students will be from lower- income families and less-prepared academically for college.

That has important economic consequences for colleges, students, businesses, and the state — which need to be considered, now.

Historically, 70 percent to 80 percent of New Jersey high school graduates enroll in college. Obviously, fewer students paying tuition places stress on colleges’ financial operations. This is especially true, because about 70 percent of public colleges’ revenue comes from student tuition and fees. Add to this increasing competition for New Jersey students from surrounding states, such as Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Massachusetts, which also face declining enrollments. Pile on another dilemma in a no-growth environment: New Jersey already leads the nation as the number one net exporter of college-bound students. We lose about 30,000 students annually to other states. Regional competition for well-prepared New Jersey students who are able to pay for college will be at an all-time high. Not every university in the state can compete effectively for students in this environment.

https://www.njspotlight.com/stories/17/06/01/op-ed-new-jersey-s-coming-college-enrollment-crisis/

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President Donald Trump announced the U.S. would withdraw from the Paris climate pact

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June 1,2017

the staff of the Ridgewood blog

Ridgewood NJ, President Donald Trump announced the U.S. would withdraw from the Paris climate pact. In a decision that spurns pleas from corporate executives who stood to gain , world leaders who would access US tax payer funds and even Pope Francis who warned the move imperils a global fight against climate change proving “Climate Change ” is religion not science .

 

“The Obama-negotiated accord imposes unrealistic targets on the U.S. for reducing our carbon emissions, while giving countries like China a free pass for years to come,” the White House said.

President Trump once again defended US Taxpayers who would fund the so called “Paris Accord” , pointing out the the many instances where the accord sought to redistribute and strip America’s wealth and industry to the rest of the world and imperil
the US economy.
The President also went to great lengths pointing out how the “Paris Accord”  would reduce America’s sovereignty giving outsiders control of US domestic agenda .
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IN NJ, AS IN NEARBY STATES, COMPETITIVENESS DRIVES AFFORDABILITY

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MICHELE SIEKERKA | MAY 30, 2017

The only way to stem our tide of outmigration is to bring our economic policies in line with our direct regional competitors — Pennsylvania and New York

NJBIA president and CEO Michele Siekerka

New Jersey has many positive attributes. We added almost 60,000 jobs in 2016, the state’s largest gain since 2000, according to the New Jersey Department of Labor and Workforce Development. We have among the best K-12 public education systems in the nation and a highly skilled workforce including the highest concentration of scientists and engineers in the world — more than 225,000 statewide.

New Jersey also has a strong transportation network. We are home to the Port of New York and New Jersey, the third largest seaport in North America and the largest and busiest maritime cargo center on the East Coast. And we are among the national leaders in logistics and distribution. New Jersey is also a great recreation state with more than 130 miles of shoreline, beautiful parks, and mountains.

Despite these great assets, New Jersey remains a significant outlier, both nationally and regionally when comparing competitiveness and affordability including our state’s high cost of living and its heavy tax burden. New Jersey’s border states, Pennsylvania and New York, continue to be the No. 1 and No. 2 outmigration states for New Jersey residents and are challenging our competitiveness.

To reverse this trend we must examine our policies on taxation, revenue generation, and spending, and we must do so through the filter of competitiveness and affordability.

https://www.njspotlight.com/stories/17/05/25/op-ed-in-nj-as-in-neighboring-states-competitiveness-drives-affordability/

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President Trump’s Taxpayer First Budget

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May 23,2017

the staff of the Ridgewood blog

Ridgewood NJ, President Trump’s first proposed budget shows respect for the people who pay the bills. The administration’s “Calvin Coolidge style” proposal reverses the damaging trends from previous administrations by putting our nation’s budget back into balance and reducing our debt through fiscally conservative principles, all the while delivering on President Trump’s campaign promise not to cut Social Security retirement or Medicare. The budget’s combination of regulatory, tax, and welfare reforms will provide opportunities for economic growth and creation.

Trump Budget Facts:

President Trump’s budget is designed to put the taxpayer first, create jobs, and build economic growth.

President Trump’s budget finally balances the Federal budget and turns the deficit into a $16 billion surplus by 2027.

President Trump’s budget makes national defense a top priority by increasing defense spending by $54 billion.

President Trump’s budget increases funding for the Department of Veterans Affairs by $4.3 billion.

President Trump’s budget puts Americans’ safety first by providing $2.6 billion in increased funding for border security.

President Trump’s budget balances the budget and makes no cuts to either Medicare or Social Security retirement.

President Trump’s budget provides national paid family leave for the first time in the history of this country.

President Trump’s budget helps American families by implementing the first national paid family leave initiative.

President Trump’s budget saves the American people billions of dollars through welfare and regulatory reform.

President Trump’s budget sees a decline in debt as a percentage of GDP every year in the budget window.

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Ridgewood Department of Parks and Recreation Seasonal Employment Opportunities

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SEASONAL EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITIES
May 21,2017

the staff of the Ridgewood blog

Ridgewood NJ, Applications are being sought for the many summer positions available with the Parks and Recreation Department including Day Camp Administrators, Day Camp Counselors, Graydon Pool Lifeguards, Security Attendants, and Badge Sale Attendants. Concession Attendant applications will be shared with the Water’s Edge vendor. NOTE: Day Camp staff attendance is mandatory for the full six week program, June 26 to August 4, 2017.
Applications will be considered for experience, interests, and accomplishments.

Mail completed applications to The Stable, 259 N. Maple Avenue, Ridgewood, NJ 07450.
2017 Seasonal Employment Application
2017 Waterfront Lifeguard Employment Application for Graydon Pool

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MAKING MANUFACTURING A MATTER OF PUBLIC POLICY FOR NEW JERSEY

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JOHN REITMEYER | MAY 8, 2017

A new ‘manufacturing caucus’ looks to explore what companies need in terms of employees, education, training, and business opportunities — and help make sure they get it

Although not as dominant an industry as it was several decades ago, manufacturing is still a major part of the New Jersey economy, and a sector where a majority of employers have indicated they’re still looking to hire.

To help foster what could be a manufacturing renaissance in New Jersey — a state with a rich industrial history that dates to colonial days — state lawmakers are launching a new “manufacturing caucus” that will focus specifically on figuring out ways to craft policies that lead to increased productivity and growth for manufacturing.

The formation of the new caucus, which will involve lawmakers from both the Assembly and Senate, and from both political parties, was announced last week by Senate President Stephen Sweeney (D-Gloucester). The panel will hold a series of hearings this summer to help inform a legislative agenda that will be pursued in the fall as lawmakers return to the State House following this year’s legislative elections. The effort will be led by state Sen. Robert Gordon, whose own background includes working in his family’s yarn mill in Paterson.

“I think (manufacturing) is critically important to the state,” said Gordon (D-Bergen) in an interview with NJ Spotlight. “Manufacturing is still a very important component of our economy.”

 

https://www.njspotlight.com/stories/17/05/07/making-manufacturing-a-matter-of-policy-for-new-jersey/