The Ridgewood Blog Brings a Free Market Laissez-faire Point of View to Local, New Jersey State and National Issues.
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Washington DC, Fitch Ratings downgraded the United States’ long-term foreign currency issuer default rating to AA+ from AAA on Tuesday, pointing to “expected fiscal deterioration over the next three years,” an erosion of governance and a growing general debt burden.
Having a strong financial situation is important for families as it provides stability, security, and peace of mind. But when money is tight, it can be difficult to figure out ways to improve your finances. Fortunately, there are many methods you can use to build financial security for your family.
$11,534 is the 2023 savings goal for the average New Jerseyan, finds survey.
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood NJ, as the new year begins, it’s usually the time we start to think about what we want to do, or achieve, over the year ahead, and make some resolutions. Perhaps it’s to lose weight, quit smoking, or even save money – but if what we want is vague, it’s less likely to happen. Indeed, studies that fewer than 25% of people actually stay committed to their resolutions after just 30 days and only 8% accomplish them.
Continue reading Survey Finds $11,534 is the 2023 savings goal for the average New Jerseyan
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Galloway NJ, Inflation is making the holidays a bit less merry, as many in New Jersey are cutting back on gift-giving or seasonal travel, according to a Stockton University Poll released Monday.
Are you looking for ways to slash your spending in half? Figuring out ways on how to slash your spending in half isn’t as easy as it sounds, since you may not know where you overspend, and breaking long-held habits is hard to do.
Many of us have problems with money and a lack thereof. Due to the 21st century and its many wonders, the moment many of us have money, we find ourselves frittering it away and spending it on useless and unessential things. Once we have spent everything on nothing, it is often that a real emergency and disaster occurs. We always find ourselves in the same situation – without a penny and an impending catastrophe requiring us to make an immediate purchase. Money problems can be a real drag.
file photo Phil Murphy
Progressive Groups Looking for More, More, More
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Trenton NJ, Senator Michael Testa called the $3 billion tax increase plan promoted this week by a coalition of progressive organizations “a recipe for disaster.”
Sen. Michael Testa derided a plan to increase taxes by $3 billion, floated this week by liberal organizations. ‘Taxes are the problem, not the solution,’ he said.
” I live by the motto “if you have to ask how much, you can’t afford it.” That’s why a lot of people move to Ridgewood so the high costs keeps the less desirable people out. Stop complaining about everything and find somewhere else to complain if your taxes are going up. I have houses in Paterson and Clifton for rent if you want to live there. Plenty of people love Ridgewood.
It’s a group of people that probably haven’t lived here for many years who want to change things. I read in another post that the biggest complainer, Steve Kim, doesn’t even send his children to the Ridgewood schools. I would love to know why he chooses not to send them to Ridgewood. He wants to expose everything but yet doesn’t think the Ridgewood schools are good enough for his children. It’s bad enough that people drove Valley Hospital out. God forbid Ridgewood has 21st century technology. “
August 29, 2016
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
IFPTE & IBEW Financial Terms Protect Taxpayers, Ensure Public Services
Trenton, NJ , Governor Chris Christie today announced a key public employee contract agreement with the International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers (IFPTE), as well as two agreements with the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW). These state worker contracts, reflective of the state’s fiscal realities and budget challenges, will not require tax hikes, as taxpayers routinely experienced under past governors.
IFPTE’s negotiated settlement, ratified by the union last month, is retroactive to July 1, 2015 and extends through Fiscal Year 2019. Its financial terms include the following across-the-board salary increases: July 1, 2015 – 0 percent; July 1, 2016 – 0 percent; July 1, 2017 – 1.75 percent, and July 1, 2018 – 1.5 percent. This contract covers approximately 4,500 employees of the state and public higher education institutions.
The two negotiated settlements ratified by IBEW locals this month are also retroactive to July 1, 2015 and extend through Fiscal Year 2019, including the same across-the-board salary increases as IFPTE’s settlement. These two contracts cover an approximate total of 1,150 state employees, including several hundred in various managerial positions and hundreds of state attorneys.
“We have again negotiated fiscally responsible state employee contracts that protect taxpayers, provide the budgetary flexibility to fund public services and keep government wages in line with the private sector,” Governor Christie said. “This is how public worker negotiations should be, with union leaders and membership agreeing to sustainable fiscal decisions that they understand will benefit all residents. These are model public employee contracts to be followed by government at all levels in New Jersey and across the country.”
As Governor Christie has previously noted, he has similar expectations from the other public employee unions with which the Administration continues to negotiate another round of labor contracts.
In its first round of agreements with state employee unions, the Christie administration stood with taxpayers to produce 0-percent wage increases for tens of thousands of employees in 2011 and 2012, followed by a 1-percent increase and 1.75-percent increase in 2013 and 2014, respectively. Under the governor’s leadership, across-the-board wage increases have totaled only 6 percent over eight-years of negotiated agreements, an average of just .75 percent per year, which is in addition to the landmark pension and health benefit reforms enacted to save taxpayers tens of billions of dollars.
In Trenton, Senate Democrats now propose to continue bankrupting the state by cutting taxes when we can’t remotely afford it, while offering no means to cover the cost. Tom Moran, Star-Ledger Editorial Board Read more
‘Open Space’ Travesty Says It All
Aug. 11
By Matt Rooney | The Save Jersey Blog
Everything that drives me crazy about Trenton played out in last week’s passage of a new “Open Space” measure, Save Jerseyans, setting up a ballot question for the November election and another expenditure which we can ill-afford.
Bad logic. Reckless spending. And a little good old fashioned horse trading?
In case you’re not aware of the background information, SCR-84 results in a proposed constitutional amendment on New Jersey’s next general election ballot which, if approved by the voters, dedicates $150 million per year for open space conservation over 30 years. That’s a roughly $4 billion investment at a time when our government just declined to make an additional, pre-planned $2.4 billion payment towards our chronically underfunded pension system.
And it doesn’t make much sense, does it? At least not right now regardless of how you feel about open space land preservation. But it’s part of a disturbing trend where our legislators shirk their responsibility to make tough decisions by passing reckless constitutional amendment proposals that are designed, at least in part, to boost Election Day turnout. Last year’s minimum wage question and 2012′s higher education Big Labor stimulus package were apparently just the beginning.
Set aside for a moment your conceptions of what government should do or what you know it can afford. Personally, I think open space is great idea as a general concept. Government should use smart zoning and general funds to create parks and prevent our entire state from resembling that planet-sized capital city from the Star Wars movies.
What you may not know is that New Jersey taxpayers have already preserved an area of land, inside our state’ boundaries, that’s approximately the same size as Delaware – almost 2,000 square miles.
– See more at: https://savejersey.com/2014/08/open-space-bail-reform-new-jersey/#sthash.zCmy7klW.dpuf
Christie Embraces Irresponsible Spending says credit agencies are the ‘same group of folks who allowed the financial crisis to occur’
TRENTON – Don’t put too much stock in those Wall Street rating agency downgrades, says Gov. Chris Christie.
The governor, whose administration has been at the helm during six credit rating downgrades over the course of his tenure to date, says he’s not worried about additional downgrades. Christie said he finds it interesting they “continue to downgrade the people who try to act responsibly,” but added he doesn’t live in fear of rating agencies.
“No, I don’t fear it,” he said Wednesday during a Statehouse news conference.
“This is the same group of folks who allowed the financial crisis to occur,” he said, arguing they “sat on their hands collecting huge fees” from clients during the financial collapse and essentially got paid “to look the other way,” he said.
“I don’t know how much credibility these places have,” Christie said. (Arco/PolitickerNJ)
