The Ridgewood Blog Brings a Free Market Laissez-faire Point of View to Local, New Jersey State and National Issues.
photos courtesy of the Protect Our Coast – NJ Community Group
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On Saturday July 15th New Jerseyans up and down the coast protested the heavily subsidized wind projects being built up and down the Jersey shore. Protestors joined hands on beaches from Lavallette, Asbury Park, Long Beach Island, Ocean City all the way down to Cape May in a demonstration against off shore wind projects.
Continue reading New Jersey Hands Across the Beaches Protests Hits Jersey Shore
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New Brunswick NJ, the Rutgers Board of Governors today approved a $5.4 billion operating budget for the fiscal year that began July 1. The budget is supported in part by a 6 percent increase in tuition and fees for the 2023-2024 academic year, a nearly 7 percent increase for meal plan costs and a 5 percent increase in housing costs for students who reside in Rutgers facilities.
Continue reading Rutgers Approves $5.4 Billion Budget with 6 Percent Tuition and Fees Increase
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Berlin, Germany, the German energy giant Siemens Energy scrapped its profit guidance in late June, citing a “substantial increase in failure rates of wind turbine components” at its wind division Siemens Gamesa. Leaving a major loss of confidence by investors in the group’s ability to fix its struggling wind turbine division. Siemens Energy stock plunged by around 37% on June 23, while other wind companies also saw shares retreat as investors worried that the problems at Gamesa might be a symptom of a wider issue for the industry.
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Morristown NJ, On June 30th, the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis issued its report on the Gross Domestic Product by State and Personal Income by State, 1st Quarter 2023, covering the months of January through March 2023. Dr. Charles Steindel, the former Chief Economist of the State of New Jersey, analyzed the report for the Garden State Initiative:
Continue reading New Jersey Q1 GDP and Personal Income Continue to Trail the Nation
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Trenton NJ, NJBIA today is testifying in support of legislation that would make New Jersey’s corporate tax policies more competitive with other states by changing the way global intangible low-taxed income (GILTI) and net operating losses (NOLs) are treated under state law.
Continue reading Time to Make New Jersey Corporate Taxes More Competitive
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Glassborro NJ, Senator Ed Durr issued the following response after the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) determined that the deaths of two humpback whales were caused by vessel strikes off the coast of New York and New Jersey.
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Ridgewood NJ, according to the website Upgradepoints the COVID-19 pandemic altered American spending patterns dramatically. In the early days of the pandemic, social distancing and stay-at-home orders resulted in a shift away from transportation, restaurant, and entertainment expenditures. However, consumer spending has since rebounded, and now high inflation has raised the basic cost of living. In addition, rising interest rates are making the cost of borrowing more expensive. While many Americans use credit cards regularly for their rewards and benefits, more people are turning to credit cards for temporary relief as prices continue to rise.
Continue reading Study: 39.7% of New Jersey adults used credit cards for basic living expenses
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Trenton NJ, Senate Republican Leader Steven Oroho called for the Murphy administration to dedicate pandemic relief funds to the Unemployment Insurance (UI) Fund to prevent $1 billion of cumulative payroll tax increases on New Jersey employers.
Results Repudiate Murphy and His Party Leaders’ Radical Abortion Policies
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Trenton NJ, New Jersey Right to Life sponsored a Marist Poll that asked specific questions on abortion. The survey of 1,024 New Jersey registered voters was conducted April 10th through April 12th. The poll’s results are listed below.
Michael I. Halfacre, Esq. is the Executive Director of the Beer Wholesalers Association of New Jersey and a former ABC Director.
Trenton NJ, Recently, Governor Murphy announced plans to make liquor licenses cheaper and more available in the Garden State. Specifically, the Governor’s plan would increase licenses by decreasing the population cap, currently set at one on-premise license per 3,000 residents. The Governor’s plan would do this gradually over five years after which there would be no limits on the number of licenses issued in the state. Under Governor Murphy’s plan, after five years, no license could be sold privately, effectively rendering current liquor licenses worthless and crushing their current fair market value. To address this loss, the Governor also proposes a complicated system of tax credits to compensate for the loss of the license value. Unfortunately, a tax credit is worthless when your business does not turn a profit or goes bankrupt and could cost taxpayers billions to fund.
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Montville NJ, With dead mammals washing up on New Jersey beaches and with a lack of financial details on the state’s offshore wind farm program, the Ocean First project should be halted until there is legislative oversight of the project said Morris County Commissioner and State Senate candidate Thomas Mastrangelo.
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Trenton NJ, as we approach the third anniversary of COVID, the number of world leaders who are admitting they mishandled the pandemic continues to grow.
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Bay Head NJ, twelve New Jersey coastal mayors signed a letter calling for immediate stoppage of all offshore wind farm research after another whale was found dead Monday morning.
The whale washed up on Long Island at Lido Beach around 20 miles northeast of Sandy Hook. It’s now the eighth time a whale has been found dead in the region.
photo courtesy of the Marine Mammal Stranding Center
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Brigantine NJ, after the 7th dead whale washed up in the NJ and NY Wind Farm shore areas and New Jersey bought and paid for “environmental groups” make excuses for Governor Murphy, for the City of Brigantine is demanding a complete stop to all work for offshore wind power until federal and state agencies investigate whether the projects are responsible for a spate of recent whale deaths. City council voted nearly unanimously to approve a resolution calling for the moratorium at Wednesday night’s meeting, with one member Rick Delucry voting to abstain. New Jersey 101.5 reached out to Delucry for comment Thursday. “This resolution isn’t about being for or against ocean wind projects, it’s about our due diligence and getting real scientifically supported facts about the potential impacts that these ocean wind projects could have on whales and other marine life,” Mayor Vince Sera said in a statement. Gov. Phil Murphy last week called the whale deaths “tragic” but said offshore wind projects would not be halted.