>One other thing that he needs to do is to work with our US senators and representatives to figure how how to get more of our Federal tax money back from Washington. We only get back 61 cents out of every dollar we send to Washington. Closing that gap would take some pressure off the state and local budgets.
I totally agree! CA Governor Terminator was on Meet the Press last weekend, and I think he quoted CA as only getting 71 cents back on the dollar. Does anyone have a link to where those numbers are? If NJ, NY, and CA are only getting 60/70% back, where the heck are those dollars going, and what is the justification? There’s probably a few billion right there going right down the tubes.
The way to get more money back is to elect Senators who give a shit about their NJ constituents, rather than pushing the agenda of the democratic party. They go to washington, and forget about us back home. With the billions NJ residents send to DC via income taxes, it is a disgrace we are LAST in terms of getting funds back. Our roads suck. The inner cities are a disgrace. And Frank Lautenberg pushes for a national .08 breathalizer bill and killed our restaurant/bar biz here. Thanks Frank its time to check into a nursing home.
President Obama’s misbegotten bank tax is precisely the wrong policy at precisely the wrong time. It will wind up backfiring across the board. Why? Because bank consumers and borrowers are the ones who will wind up paying this tax, creating an obstacle to economic recovery.
Obama is actually rewarding losers and punishing winners — exactly the reverse of free-market capitalism.
Who’s being rewarded? Obama’s bank-tax penalty is being used to finance the failed government takeovers of GM, GMAC, and Fannie and Freddie. And let’s not forget the $75 billion failure of the so-called foreclosure loan-modification program. To this day, no one knows where that money went. But the big banks are going to be forced to finance this through a tax that will damage lending, stockholders, and consumers.
This is sheer political favoritism. Crony capitalism at its worst, with a sub-theme of bailing out Obama’s Big Labor political allies. It’s just like his bailout of the unions by exempting them from the so-called Cadillac insurance tax until 2018, all while the rest of us may have to suffer under that tax.
Speaking of political unfairness and favoritism, mortgage giants Fannie and Freddie will not pay a nickel of this tax. These government-sponsored enterprises were at the very center of the financial maelstrom, financing the government’s quotas and targets for unaffordable mortgages.
Think about this for a second. President Obama is out there bashing away at excessive bonuses. And yet Fannie and Freddie’s CEOs stand to make $6 million in the next year or two. Huh? These are big-government-owned bureaucrats. They ought to be paid like GS-18s.
Of course, the Federal Reserve, which is having its most profitable year ever, was probably the main culprit in all this, with its negative-real-interest-rate easy-money policy, which amounted to throwing red meat to a pack of sharks in the deepest waters. But this tax punishes and penalizes the biggest banks, institutions that have already met their obligations by paying down TARP, with interest, and by providing taxpayers with a tidy profit on the stock warrants they held.
Now, this is not to condone the major mistakes made by the big banks. They were overleveraged, borrowed way too much, and sold highly flawed mortgage bonds and other complex derivatives. And the banks should not be paying big bonuses for 2009 — not for the period during which they were TARPed. That’s their biggest mistake.
However, with the banks having paid down TARP, the U.S. government should not be waging war against them. Somebody ought to tell the White House that al-Qaeda is the real enemy, not the banks.
At the same time, taxing the living hell out of the banks will not promote economic recovery and long-term prosperity.
President Obama says he wants to stop risky bets. Well look, the way to accomplish that is through higher capital requirements, stricter limits on leveraged borrowing, and an end to the policy of “too big to fail.” Across-the-board FDIC insurance assessments are a much better way of maintaining a bank safety net.
Instead, Team Obama wants to place a 15-basis-point tax on the banks, essentially layering it on non-insured bank funding. It amounts to a tax on future lending, shareholder equity value, and the consumers of bank services who will pay the tax costs passed on by the banks. It’s just like the corporate tax: Businesses don’t pay taxes, people do.
And consider this: One dollar of bank capital generally works out to around ten dollars of potential bank loans. That means this $90 billion tax proposal could very well cut off a staggering $1 trillion of future bank lending when credit demand picks up.
That’s how this works. This tax will slow down profits and capital. And the diminished capital will mean fewer loans when loan demand picks up. It’s exactly the reverse of what we need to grow our economy.
And the unfairness continues. Insurer MetLife, a bank holding company, and the regional Hudson City Bank Corp., both of which never took a dime of TARP money, will be penalized by this tax. That just ain’t fair.
President Obama’s crony politics rewards losers and penalizes winners. He is engaging in sheer, raw, left-wing, class-warfare politics. It’s yet one more reason why the Democrats are going to get clobbered at the polls come November.
Voters know a smoked turkey when they see one. Remember, you can fool some of the people some of the time, but you can’t fool all the people all the time.
Mark my words, all of this left-wing demagoguery, political favoritism, and crony capitalism will not end well for the Obama Democrats.
Big Labor got some big love from President Obama and congressional Democrats yesterday after they agreed to exempt union workers from the whopping “Cadillac tax” on high-cost health-care plans until 2018.
The sweetheart deal, hammered out behind closed doors, will save union employees at least $60 billion over the years involved, while others won’t be as lucky — they’ll have to cough up almost $90 billion.
The 40 percent excise tax on what have come to be called “Cadillac” health-care plans would exempt collective-bargaining contracts covering government employees and other union members until Jan. 1, 2018.
Jan. 16 (Bloomberg) — Even if Democrats lose the Jan. 19 special election to pick a new Massachusetts senator, Congress may still pass a health-care overhaul by using a process called reconciliation, a top House Democrat said.
That procedure requires 51 votes rather than the 60 needed to prevent Republicans from blocking votes on President Barack Obama’s top legislative priorities. That supermajority is at risk as the Massachusetts race has tightened.
“Even before Massachusetts and that race was on the radar screen, we prepared for the process of using reconciliation,” said Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.
“Getting health-care reform passed is important,” Van Hollen said in an interview on Bloomberg Television’s “Political Capital with Al Hunt,” airing this weekend. “Reconciliation is an option.”
Using reconciliation would likely force Democrats to scale back their health-care plans. The procedure is designed to make deficit-cutting easier by reducing the number of votes needed to pass unpopular tax increases and spending cuts. Lawmakers can’t include policy changes that the parliamentarian deems have only an “incidental” connection to budget-cutting, and senators would need 60 votes to override those rulings.
>Ridgewood Christian Reformed Church Announces a Special Benefit Piano Concert at Forte Piano with piano virtuosos Dean Tomanelli and Vladimir Zaslavsky
Paramus, NJ – January 29, 2010 – The piano duo of Dean Tomanelli and Vladimir Zaslavsky will perform a benefit concert of standards from the “great American songbook” by Irving Berlin, Duke Ellington, George Gershwin, Cole Porter, and others, at 7:30 p.m. on January 29, at the Forte Piano store, 385 Route 17 Southbound in Paramus. This is a benefit for barrier-free access at Ridgewood Christian Reformed Church. Tickets at $25 can be ordered from the church office: (201) 445-1832 Forte Piano musicians
Vladimir Zaslavsky, the owner of Forte Piano, is a native of Abkhazia and a graduate of the University of Culture in St. Petersburg, Russia. He spent nine years as music director of the Chamber Jewish Musical Theater in Moscow while also playing piano at jazz festivals across Russia. He wrote the music for the children’s opera “Wise Man from Helom,” which received 120 performances in Eastern Europe. He then became assistant to the conductor at Italy’s Opera di Roma, and emigrated to the U.S. in 1990.
Dean Tomanelli began exploring the piano at age 3. By high school he was directing musicals for his school and local theater groups, and doing cabaret performances taken from the “great American songbook.” He studied at the Shenandoah Conservatory of Music in Virginia. For the past 20 years he has been a bandleader and solo pianist in the New York area at such prestigious venues as the Rainbow Room, the Plaza, Tavern on the Green, the Waldorf Astoria, and Windows on the World.
A sampling of this duo’s performances is available for viewing on the Forte Piano website–www.pianostorenj.com.
About Ridgewood Christian Reformed Church
Ridgewood Christian Reformed Church is a community of people drawn together by Jesus Christ. Our life as a church is built around worship, ministry and fellowship, and marked by praise, commitment to truth, commitment to neighbors and each other, servanthood, mutual caring, and hope.
You are invited to visit us and to join in our church’s life of faith and service.
About Forte Piano
Forte Piano was founded in 1995 by the Zaslavsky family. They have come a long way, from a small local showroom to one of the largest single store piano operations in the country. Forte Piano represents the best piano brands in every quality and price They have earned the highest reputation in the industry for having a large selection of the finest new and pre-owned pianos and for providing the closest personal attention and the highest quality customer service.
Ridgewood Christian Reformed Church
Pastor Craig Broek
271 Lincoln Avenue Ridgewood, NJ 07450 201-445-1832 Ridgewood Christian Reformed Church Forte Piano
Vladimir Zaslavsky
385 Southbound Route 17 Paramus, NJ 07652 201-265-1212 Forte Piano
>Once again I feel the need to comment on this blog because some of the people on here make me so angry!
Enough already with the Clifford Holmes subject! Mr Holmes was in the wrong he went after a Police Officers gun…. Instead of celebrating the Holiday I could have been attending my Brothers Funeral… Yes, Officer Steven Shortway is my younger brother I am not afraid to put my name on this blog.. My brother has an injury that has effected his job and his family’s life! He can not go to work, he is in pain, he can not take his young children to the park or get on the floor and play with them. He will need surgery the day before his son’s first birthday..
So you feel sorry for Mr Holmes invite him over when he gets out of jail.. How about some respect for Police Officers that are willing to put their life on the line instead of beating them up all the time!!!!
Suzanne Shortway
*Suzanne, the Staff of the Ridgewood is 100% behind Officer Steven Shortway
>Police go on ticket blitz before Chris Christie gets sworn in . Looks like desperate for cash Municipalities suspect the worse from Christie budget cuts .Many readers have reported in neighboring towns ,particularly Paramus that the Police are aggressively targeting even parked vehicles for their latest ticket barrage. Many readers are urging other motorist to avoid high ticket towns and take your business other places. The Ridgewood blog has been contacted by several groups that are looking to boycott certain jurisdictions particularly on the Jersey Shore because of the excess use of police power to collect revenues . To this date thankfully no one has reported this in Ridgewood and local merchants who seem to have enough issues these days have one less thing to worry about. The Ridgwood blog suggests at lest for the next week or so that shoppers avoid the malls and try to keep you business local and once again we remind everyone that Policing is about public safety not revenue generation.
Governor-elect Christopher Christie today introduced Andrew Sidamon-Eristoff, a former Republican New York City councilman and finance commissioner, as his nominee to be the next state treasurer. If confirmed by the state senate, Eristoff will take the helm of the Department of Treasury in the face of a budget deficit that is expected to be anywhere from $6 to $10 billion. “The way that we’ve been going for the last decade or more has proven to be a failure,” said Christie while introducing Eristoff at Seton Hall Law School. Eristoff, 46, lives in Manhattan but said that he plans to move his family to New Jersey.
He kept his remarks brief and made a request to reporters to go easy on him for today. “I would ask that before you attempt to stump me with arcane financial questions, that you allow me just a few hours, if not days, to be fully briefed up on the minutiae of New Jersey’s current circumstances,” said Eristoff, a city councilman from 1992 to 1999. He was New York City Commissioner of Finance under Mayor Rudy Giuliani, from 1999 to 2002, and Commissioner of the New York State Department of Taxation and Finance under Gov. George Pataki from 2003 to 2006.
Eristoff did say that he was looking to institute a “fundamental restructuring and reform of New Jersey’s state finances” and that the job gave him “an incredible opportunity to serve at the front lines of what I believe will be a nationally significant movement to restructure state government as we know it.”… (Friedman, PolitickerNJ)
MIAMI (AP) – A record 2.8 million households were threatened with foreclosure last year, and that number is expected to rise this year as more unemployed and cash-strapped homeowners fall behind on their mortgages.
The number of households that received a foreclosure-related notice rose 21 percent from 2008, RealtyTrac Inc. reported Thursday. One in 45 homes were sent a filing, which includes default notices, scheduled foreclosure auctions and bank repossessions.
In December, more than 349,000 households, or one in 366 homes, were hit with a foreclosure-related notice. That represents a 14 percent spike from November and a 15percent jump from December 2008.
Banks repossessed more than 92,000 homes, up 19 percent from November. That increase was likely due to lenders working to clear their books at the end of the year, RealtyTrac said.
>On Sunday, Jan. 17, a special family music event in memory of Ridgewood resident Sylvie Rose Hughes will be held at 11 a.m. at the YM-YWHA of North Jersey, 1 Pike Drive, Wayne. The event, which will feature children’s recording artist Suzi Shelton, will benefit the Tomorrows Children’s Fund.
The concert will run for about 60 minutes and is appropriate for families with children 10 and under. Tickets are priced at $10 for adults and $8 for children (those under age 2 will be admitted free). Sponsors ($100) will receive four reserved seats and a meet-and-greet with Shelton. To buy tickets, call 973-595-0100, ext. 237. For more information, contact Shari Kalter at 973-595-0100, ext. 272.
> 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.
