CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER/DIRECTOR OF PARKING UTILITY
Village of Ridgewood, Bergen County is searching for a position of Chief Financial Officer/Director of Parking Utility. The successful candidate shall have a minimum of 5 years’ experience as a New Jersey municipal CFO, a Bachelor’s degree in accounting or finance from an accredited college and must possess a valid certification as a Chief Municipal Financial Officer issued by the New Jersey Department of Community Affairs. In addition, in overseeing the Parking Utility, will be responsible for strategic planning; cost/revenue optimization and working with a changing paradigm of parking in the Village, resulting in improved controls and increased resident, business, and visitor satisfaction. Send cover letter detailing experience and qualifications, resume and salary history to: Sharyn Matthews, Senior Human Resources Professional, Village of Ridgewood, 131 North Maple Ave., Ridgewood, NJ 07451; or email to smatthews@ridgewoodnj.net.
Obamnomics ,Giving Up in America : 40% Women, 28% Men, 39% Youth Don’t Want A Job
(Washington Examiner) – Nearly four in 10 Americans, or 92 million, are not in the labor force and now there’s a reason why: They have simply given up and don’t want to work.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the largest group of people not in the labor force are those who don’t want a job, a remarkable statement on the nation’s work ethic. The federal job counter said that 85.9 million adults last month didn’t want a job, or 93 percent of all adults not in the labor force.
A Pew Research Center analysis out Friday dug a bit deeper to find out who those people are. Many are younger Americans who seem far less interested it landing a job than previous generations, possibly discouraged by the lack of good-paying jobs.
SPECIAL: Join the Tea Party REVOLUTION! The Obama Regime must be dismantled!
Pew said that 39 percent of 16- to 24-year-olds don’t want to work, up from 29 percent in 2000.
Women especially don’t want a job, but men have similar feelings.
“Women are more likely than men to say they don’t want a job, although the gap has been narrowing — especially since the Great Recession. Last month, 28.5 percent of men said they didn’t want a job, up from 23.9 percent in October 2000 and 25.2 percent in October 2008. For women, the share saying they didn’t want a job hovered around 38 percent throughout the 2000s but began creeping up in 2010, reaching 40.2 percent last month,” said the Pew analysis.
Which Cities/States Will Be The First To Default When The Economy Rolls Over?
Submitted by Charles Hugh-Smith of OfTwoMinds blog,
What happens to local governments when the economy rolls over?
Though we’re constantly reassured the “recovery” that’s stumbled for five years has years of strong growth ahead, history suggests the “recovery” is due to roll over. Few recoveries last longer than 5 or 6 years, and the business cycle is graying fast: subprime auto loans are not exactly the foundation of “strong growth.” So what might push the economy over the cliff? The strong U.S. dollar is crimping overseas sales and profits, the global economy is already recessionary, mortgage applications have dried up, auto sales are being driven by subprime loans, and the valuation bubbles in stocks and real estate are due for a breather, if not an outright reversal. Retail sales are flat, and with all these headwinds, growing profits by 10% to 20% a year becomes impossible for the vast majority of enterprises. So what happens to local governments when the economy rolls over? Tax revenues decline. The consensus is that local governments are sitting pretty: sales and property values have risen smartly, pushing tax revenues higher, and the cost of borrowing money via tax-free municipal bonds has fallen. Nice, but these are all functions of expansion and rising tax rates. The uneven nature of the “recovery” has left some cities and states more vulnerable to a downturn than others.Let’s catalog the various risk factors that might become consequential as the global and U.S. economies weaken.
1. Those dependent on foreign tourism. The weak dollar made America a bargain destination for the past decade. As the dollar strengthens and other currencies lose purchasing power, America is no longer a bargain–especially as job cuts decimate the number of people who can blow a few thousand dollars on overseas vacations to the U.S. 2. Auto manufacturing-dependent locales. Vehicle sales have been strong, and the cheerleaders claim sales will keep rising for years to come. Really? With what money? As soon as layoffs hit the marginal workforce and the subprime auto loan bubble implodes, vehicle sales will follow suit. 3. Cities and states that depend heavily on capital gains taxes. Once the current housing and stock bubbles deflate–or simply stop expanding–tax revenues from the enormous capital gains reaped in the past five years will wither. 4. Locales dependent on high income taxes. Given that most of the job growth of the past five years has occurred in low-wage sectors, adding jobs hasn’t boosted income taxes much. High income-tax states have jacked up rates on high-income earners, but there is no law of nature that says high-income jobs will survive a global downturn. Rather, enterprises desperate to tighten operating costs will want to jettison high-cost employees first. 5. Local governments with enormous debt burdens. With interest rates low, municipalities and states went to the bond market over the past few years for “free money.” Once tax revenues plummet, the interest on all that “free money” will take a larger percentage of tax revenues, heightening the cost of new bond debt as buyers start adding in the risk of eventual default. 6. Locales with high fixed costs. These include high healthcare costs for homeless, elderly, government employees, etc., interest on all those bonds, government employee pensions, etc. The fixed costs only increase every year, regardless of tax revenues. Every local government with high fixed costs is in a tightening fiscal vice once tax revenues plummet. 7. Local governments with generous employee benefits and pensions. Once the stock market rolls over, the big capital gains that have funded public pension plans dry up, and the annual contribution has to be paid out of declining tax revenues. Should interest rates actually rise, pension fund bond portfolios would plummet in value, too. 8. Local governments dominated by self-serving entrenched interests. That is, all of them: sclerotic, self-serving, entrenched interests resolutely refuse to accept any cuts in their swag. As tax revenues fall off a cliff, government managers will face a dilemma: they can’t cut costs because the self-serving interests have made that politically impossible, and they can’t borrow money for operating expenses.
That leaves defaulting on debt as the only choice left. And since that’s the only choice left, that’s what they’ll do. The vice will close on some cities and states sooner than others, but it will eventually squeeze every city and state with declining revenues and rising fixed costs into default.
50% of occupations today will no longer exist in 2025: Report
Press Trust of India | Mumbai
November 7, 2014 Last Updated at 21:40 IST
A paradigm shift is expected to be witnessed in the way workplaces operate over the next 15 years, making nearly 50 per cent of occupations existing today redundant by 2025, a report has said.
Artificial intelligence will transform businesses and the work that people do. Process work, customer work and vast swathes of middle management will simply disappear, it said.
The report titled ‘Fast Forward 2030: The Future of Work and the Workplace’ has been prepared by realty consulting firm CBRE and China-based Genesis, a property developer, after interviewing 220 experts, business leaders and young people from Asia, Europe and North America.
“Nearly 50 per cent of occupations today will no longer exist in 2025. New jobs will require creative intelligence, social and emotional intelligence and ability to leverage artificial intelligence. Those jobs will be immensely more fulfilling than today’s jobs,” the report said.
Tuesdays Ballot Questions a Yes Vote Means More Taxes
Most often a YES vote means more taxes…… vote NO
Please use this information to inform your friends and family, and tell them it is critical for them to get out to vote! Important Questions on the ballot, Tuesday, November 4 There are two State questions that are proposed constitutional amendments. One relates to your right to bail and pretrial release, and the other is on Open Space. Public question No. 1 – End the Right to Bail !!!! A “yes” vote on this constitutional amendment would END yourcurrent right to release on bail prior to trial. You’re being asked to abolish this Constitutional right, and find out later what will replace it. It could allow a court to order indefinite detention pending trial in a criminal case; it does not require “a speedy trial.” Recommendation: Vote NO!
The question says, in part, “This would change the current constitutional right to bail. The change to the Constitution would mean that a court could order that a person remain in jail prior to trial, even without a chance for the person to post bail, in some situations”. Article I, Sec. 11 of the NJ Constitution presently says, …”All persons shall, before conviction, be bailable by sufficient sureties.” This amendment would abolish that right.
Public question No. 2 – Divert Corporate Income Tax, then increase it
This would amend the Constitution to “Dedicate State funds for Open Space, Farmland, and Historic Preservation, and change existing dedication for water programs, underground storage tanks, and hazardous site cleanups”. A “Yes” vote would divert 4% of NJ corporate income tax funds, or $150M per year (NO SUNSET CLA– USE!), then increase that dedicated tax to six percent, or $200M in 2019. You will notice that there is NO reference to the cost on your sample ballot. Nor is there mention of how programs currently funded with the 4% that is to be diverted will be funded after this change. A convenient oversight? There are NUMEROUS reasons to vote “No” :
1) it is unconscionable that New Jersey attempts to manage its annual budget by Constitutional amendment, without a sunset clause. Why would we bind the state FOREVER, rather than do this through legislation, that could be changed when necessary? THIS IS LUNACY! (will cause your taxes to rise) 2) NJ already has already protected 31% of its land area, equivalent to the state of Delaware, from development. Approval of this question would take more land off the tax rolls – equivalent to Rhode Island! (will cause your taxes to rise) 3) The precedent for government owning so much (formerly) private property is greatly disturbing. Such land is forever removed from the tax rolls (and from any potential to generate revenue or profit for either the State or for private business), and that cost is shifted to the already over-burdened NJ taxpayer. (will cause your taxes to rise) 4) NJ already ranks dead last in terms of growth and business climate, and #1 in taxation, according to the Tax Foundation. (more taxes) 5) An Allied Van Lines report indicates that, for every one customer they move into NJ, almost two are heading out. NJ is listed as the #1 outbound state for two of the last three years.(more tax for you!) 6) Our state is approaching bankruptcy, with everything from the State’s pension system, to roads and transportation, education, and everything in between scrambling for funds. Our unfunded liabilities for pensions and healthcare benefits is $254B (seven times the annual budget!), according to Americans for Prosperity, and the annual budget shortfall is nearing $1.6B. (even more taxes for your and your family) 7) Even some of the environmentalists are concerned, because of the reallocation of the corporate tax that they fear could negatively impact currently funded programs. (eventually more taxes for you) IF YOU NEED TO READ MORE ABOUT OPEN SPACE QUESTION 2: What Will Question 2 Cost Taxpayers? October 24, 2014 by Richard Miner https://watchdogwire.com/new-jersey/2014/10/24/nj-open-space-ballot-initiative-would-give-govt-control-of-43-3-of-state-land/
Ranking the Best and Worst States for Business Taxes
Annual release of the 2015 State Business Tax Climate Index
Washington, DC (Oct 28, 2014)—Wyoming, South Dakota, and Nevada rank among the best business tax climates, while companies in New Jersey, New York, and California struggle with the worst tax codes in the county, according to the newest edition of the Tax Foundation’s annual State Business Tax Climate Index.
The report’s key findings include:
The 10 most competitive states are: Wyoming (#1), South Dakota (#2), Nevada (#3), Alaska (#4), Florida (#5), Montana (#6), New Hampshire (#7), Indiana (#8), Utah (#9) and Texas (#10). The 10 least competitive states are: New Jersey (#50), New York (#49), California (#48), Minnesota (#47), Vermont (#46), Rhode Island (#45), Ohio (#44), Wisconsin (#43), Connecticut (#42), and Iowa (#41). The most notable ranking changes occurred in North Carolina, Nebraska, North Dakota, New York, Wisconsin, Maine, and Kansas (see state specific press releases for more details).
The report, now in its 11th edition, measures how well structured each state’s code is by analyzing over 100 tax variables in five different categories: corporate, individual income, sales, property, and unemployment insurance taxes. States are punished for overly complex, burdensome, and economically harmful tax codes, but are rewarded for transparent and neutral tax codes that do not distort business decisions. A state’s ranking can rise or fall significantly based not just on its own actions, but on the changes or reforms made by other states.
Since the last edition, many states have experienced ranking changes largely because of the fundamental reforms made in a handful of states. The most exciting change occurred in North Carolina which experienced the largest rank improvement in the study’s history, jumping from 44th to 16th place due to a fundamental overhaul of state’s tax code. Nebraska, North Dakota, New York, and Wisconsin also improved their tax codes. Conversely, Maine was the only state that saw a significant drop in rank this year due to its increased state sales tax rate.
“The federal government is gridlocked, but state policymakers on both sides of the aisle are enacting truly fundamental reforms,” said Tax Foundation Economist and Manager of State Projects Scott Drenkard. “States are doing their part and it’s time that Washington steps up.”
The goal of the State Business Tax Climate Index is to start a conversation between taxpayers and policymakers about how their states fare against the rest of the country. This report helps answer the questions: How well is your tax code structured? How competitive is your state compared to the rest of the county? Are businesses in your state spending too much time complying with onerous tax provisions? Are you double taxing things you shouldn’t?
7 things the middle class can’t afford anymore
Erika Rawes, The Cheat Sheet 8 a.m. EDT October 25, 2014
During debates and speeches, politicians often bring up the financial burden that’s placed on the middle class. We talk about the middle class as though they are this singular entity, who used to thrive until they underwent persecution by the evil 1%. But, realistically speaking, the middle class and the 99% are not really synonymous. So, who are the middle class?
In its discussion of historical middle class societies, The Economist reports, “Their members are neither rich nor poor but somewhere in-between. . . . ‘Middle-class’ describes an income category but also a set of attitudes . . . An essential characteristic is the possession of a reasonable amount of discretionary income. Middle-class people do not live from hand to mouth, job to job, season to season, as the poor do.”
Some argue that the most sensible income amount to attach to the middle class would be the median household income, of around $54,000. Perhaps, anyone who earns between the 25th percentile and 75th percentile is a member of the middle class.
Diana Farrell, once Deputy Director of America’s National Economic Council, told The Economist she thinks a middle class income begins at the point where a person (or family) has one-third of their income left over for discretionary purposes after they’ve provided themselves with food and shelter. In other words, someone who earns $3,000 per month would have $1,000 left after they’ve paid their mortgage or rent, utilities, and grocery bills.
Hillary: ‘Don’t Let Anybody Tell You’ That ‘Businesses Create Jobs’
Appearing at a Boston rally for Democrat gubernatorial candidate Martha Coakley on Friday, Hillary Clinton told the crowd gathered at the Park Plaza Hotel not to listen to anybody who says that “businesses create jobs.”
“Don’t let anybody tell you it’s corporations and businesses create jobs,” Clinton said.
“You know that old theory, ‘trickle-down economics,’” she continued. “That has been tried, that has failed. It has failed rather spectacularly.”
“You know, one of the things my husband says when people say ‘Well, what did you bring to Washington,’ he said, ‘Well, I brought arithmetic,’” Clinton said, which elicited loud laughs from the crowd.
Research shows marriage is responsible for the creation of wealth – so why aren’t millennials interested?
Generation Screwed By Naomi Schaefer Riley October 20, 2014 | 7:47pm
The attitudes of millennials toward marriage are getting harder and harder to understand.
This is a demographic whose economic prospects have never looked good.
They are coming of age at a time when college tuition is at record levels, student debt has surpassed a trillion dollars, houses (even after the bubble popping) are unaffordable, unemployment remains stubbornly high and wages have stagnated in recent years.
It’s no wonder they’ve been nicknamed “The Screwed Generation.”
So you’d think that if research shows there is something that could be a surefire way of improving their economic lot, they would grab hold of it like a life preserver. Well, you’d be wrong.
In fact, research has shown marriage to be responsible for the significant creation of wealth — yet millennials don’t seem interested. The average age of a first marriage for men is 29 and for women it’s 27. Many are simply not marrying at all.
Almost half of children born to women under 30 are out-of-wedlock births now, according to a recent study by Child Trends, a Washington-based research group.
Gov. Cuomo Awarded for Outstanding Achievement in State Tax Reform in 2014
Washington, DC (Oct. 16, 2014)—Today, the nonpartisan Tax Foundation will award New York Governor Andrew Cuomo with the 2014 Outstanding Achievement in State Tax Reform award for championing a comprehensive corporate tax reform bill that will transform New York’s treatment of corporate taxes from one of the worst in the country to one of the best. The Tax Foundation will present Governor Cuomo with the award at a 12:00pm press conference this afternoon at the Museum of American Finance in New York City.
As the award’s name suggests, honorees are selected due to their extraordinary efforts to advance the cause of simpler, smarter tax policy in the previous year. New York’s reforms in 2014 reduced unnecessary complexity in the corporate tax base and lowered the corporate income tax rate to the lowest level since 1968 (read more on the reform bill). As these reforms phase in, New York’s ranking on the State Business Tax Climate Index will improve from 50th to 48th and its corporate tax system will improve from 25th place to 4th best in the nation.
“New York’s efforts mark a tremendous step towards reforming one of the least competitive tax codes in the nation,” said Joseph Henchman, Vice President of State Projects at the Tax Foundation. “New York’s economic successes occur because of strengths that overcome a challenging business tax environment, but with 2014’s reforms, one less obstacle will stand in the way of the economic growth in New York.”
“At a time when the gridlocked federal government is slow to enact substantive reforms, it’s encouraging to see states enacting crucial and well-crafted reforms,” added Henchman.
This year, six people will receive the award, the rest of whom will be announced next week.
Ridgewood Chamber of Commerce Welcomes New Business to Ridgewood
GRAND OPENINGS IN RIDGEWOOD
the town is filled with great businesses to visit…
PLEASE WELCOME
Grand Opening Party
Anik-Ridgewood
119 E. Ridgewood Ave.
Saturday, October 18, 2014, 6-9pm
6:00pm ribbon cutting
***
Grand Re-opening
Super Cellars
32 South Broad Street
Saturday, November 1, 2014 @ 3:00pm
ribbon cutting at 3:00pm
Super Cellars has doubled in size!
***
GRAND OPENING
PINOT’S PALETTE
25 Oak Street
Saturday, November 1, 2014 @ 4:00pm
ribbon cutting at 4:00pm
*****
Grand Re-Opening-new location
The Couture Baby
new location 66 E. Ridgewood Ave.
Ribbon Cutting at 12Noon
bigger and better than ever!
Congressmen Scott Garrett points out ,” Really disappointing news. It’s time to do away with the stale, failed ideas of the past. We must unleash our economy and help get our people back to work. The House has passed more than 40 jobs bills that are#StuckInTheSenate; it’s time for the Senate to take action.”
N.J.’s long-term unemployed rate worse than 48 states By Erin O’Neill | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com Email the author | Follow on Twitter on October 15, 2014 at 6:50 AM, updated October 15, 2014 at 7:41 AM
Nearly half of jobless residents in New Jersey have been out of work for more than six months, according to a new report, a level that ranks the state among the worst in the country.
The brief released today by New Jersey Policy Perspective notes the “long-term unemployment crisis is a national problem” but found every other state except Florida fared better than New Jersey. Also, while the share of long-term unemployed in New Jersey has fallen from its peak in 2010, the brief found that drop has not been as sharp as it has nationally.
“We’re in a much deeper pickle than most of the rest of the country,” said Gordon MacInnes, president of New Jersey Policy Perspective, a liberal-leaning think tank. “The reason for that is pretty plain: we haven’t produced enough jobs for people who are unemployed over a long period of time to fill.”
The report, which relies on analysis of federal labor data by the Economic Policy Institute, shows that 46.3 percent of the state’s jobless residents were unemployed for more than six months as of March 2014, compared to the state’s peak of 51.4 percent in December 2010. Those values represent 12-month moving averages.
On the national level, the share of long-term unemployed peaked at nearly 44 percent of all jobless residents in November 2011 and has since dropped to roughly 37 percent.
Only Florida had a larger share of long-term unemployed among the states in March at 46.5 percent.
How Awesome Would the U.S. Economy Be If It Were Set Free from Massive Government Regulations?
IImagine if the U.S.’s economy had grown an extra 1% every year since 1949 as a result from less strangulating federal regulation.
This is the thesis for a recent Forbes article by Rich Karlgaard, the magazine’s publisher and head writer. Using the concept of compound interest, along with an assertion that runaway federal tinkering and silly regulations have had a massive impact on the country’s economic growth over the decades, he gives a handful of answers to the question:
“Where would the U.S. economy be today without massive federal regulation?”
Here’s what he came up with:
The 2014 GDP would be $32 trillion, not $17 trillion. Per capita income would be $101,000, not $54,000. Per capita wealth would be $480,000, not $260,000. It would probably be higher than that, since savings rates might be higher. The U.S. would have no federal, state or municipal debts or deficits. Pensions would be solid. So would Social Security. The trend of new entrants to The Forbes 400 would not favor entrepreneurs in software, the Internet and financial services but would be more broadly distributed across all industries. Electronic bits–money and software–are less prone to regulation than such physical things as factories, transportation, etc. Faster, quieter successors to the supersonic Concorde? Cheap, safe nuclear power? Cancer-curing drugs for small populations? Bullet trains financed by private investors? Yes! The U.S. would have the resources to fight the multiplicity of threats from abroad, from ISIS to hackers.
His conclusion is that when considering political leaders, those that are committed to less government interference should be preferred.
Furthermore, he wisely points out that it’s not a partisan idea, stating that Kennedy, Reagan, and Clinton are examples of these types of leaders, whereas Truman, George W. Bush, and Obama are examples of precisely the opposite.
Why welfare, minimum wage make it harder for poor Americans to succeed
By John Stossel
Published October 08, 2014 FoxNews.com
Fifty years ago, President Lyndon Johnson declared “War on Poverty.” It sounded great to me.
I was taught at Princeton, “We’re a rich country. All we have to do is tax the rich, and then use that money to create programs that will lift the poor out of poverty.” Government created job-training programs for the strong and expanded social security for the weak.
It seemed to work. The poverty rate dropped from 17 percent to 12 percent in the programs’ first decade. Unfortunately, few people noticed that during the half-decade before the “War,” the rate dropped from 22 percent to 17 percent. Without big government, Americans were already lifting themselves out of poverty!
ArtChick(the Rocky Steps) of ArtChick Photography who also moved from North Jersey to Philly 4 years ago
N.J. firm moving to Philly
September 22, 2014 Last updated: Monday, September 22, 2014, 1:32 PM
The Record
The Associated Press
MARLTON, N.J. – A southern New Jersey firm that manages construction projects around the world is planning to move its headquarters to Philadelphia in the latest move in a battle between New Jersey and Pennsylvania for businesses.
Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett announced the move of Hill International Inc., on Monday.
He says the company will move 222 jobs to the city over the next three years and has approval for $1.8 million in grants and tax credits
In a statement, Hill President and CEO David Richter says the company was looking to consolidate its operations.
