The Ridgewood Blog Brings a Free Market Laissez-faire Point of View to Local, New Jersey State and National Issues.
Assemblywomen Holly Schepisi
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Trenton NJ, Senator Declan O’Scanlon (R-13), a member of the Senate Budget & Appropriations Committee, issued the following statement following the announcement of an agreement today by Governor Murphy and Democrat legislative leaders to borrow nearly $10 billion without voter approval:
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Trenton NJ, Statements from Senate Republican Budget Members on Democrats’ $10 Billion Borrowing Scheme
The Republican members of the Senate Budget & Appropriations Committee issued the following statements in response to a private, partisan agreement between Governor Phil Murphy and Democrat legislative leaders to borrow $10 billion to fund State spending next year.
photo by Boyd Loving former Ridgewood Mayor and Village Manager at BCIA meeting
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Hackensack NJ, according to NorthJersey.com , when Bergen County borrows money to pay for public projects, Democratic donors get paid. (https://www.northjersey.com/story/news/bergen/2020/01/29/nj-democratic-donors-get-contracts-when-bergen-county-borrows-money/4434551002/ )
Since 2015, when Democrats retook control of the county executive seat and the Freeholder Board, 18 firms have been paid more than $20,000 in fees from no-bid contracts when the Bergen County Improvement Authority has issued bonds, according to a review of BCIA records and campaign finance reports by NorthJersey.com. Continue reading Democrats Donors Get Paid When Bergen County Improvement Authority Borrows Money
Provides Clarity but Questions Remain
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
ROSELAND NJ, The New Jersey Society of Certified Public Accountants (NJCPA) reminds taxpayers that the Internal Revenue Service’s newly released two-part guidance on the tax treatment of virtual currency — such as Bitcoin, Litecoin and Libra — helps to clarify many issues relating to accounting, financial reporting and distribution. However, questions still remain over addressing noncompliance as well as whether or not the IRS will differentiate hard forks (blockchain nodes that no longer accept the newest version of the blockchain and diverge from the existing distributed ledger) from airdrops (means of distributing units of a cryptocurrency to the distributed ledger addresses of multiple taxpayers). Soft forks do not generate a taxable event due to the lack of new cryptocurrency creation.
Continue reading New Jersey Society of CPAs Reminds Taxpayers of New IRS Guidance on Cryptocurrency
The first rule of government is: “Embrace the status quo.”
Why? Well, the answer is simple: a lifetime appointment to a cushy job, with the added bonus of a pension.
Unlike the private sector, these people can’t be fired (unless they REALLY screw the proverbial pooch).
Why on earth would they make sweeping changes to satisfy the very people (the taxpayers) who make it possible for them to hold those cushy positions in the first place?
The majority of these government workers have no interest in the private sector because they would be held truly accountable. Instead, they don’t upset the apple cart and they milk that cow as for long as possible…
And, to the Federal employees who aren’t earning paychecks right now: quit moaning you greedy, self-serving bastards! Consider it a extended *paid* vacation courtesy of the taxpayers! Where can I get that deal?!?
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood NJ, Ridgewood Water is seeking to identify the companies behind the chemical contamination of its water supply know as PFAS .
PFAS do not occur naturally, but are widespread and extremely persistent in the environment. They are man-made chemicals that have been used to make carpets, clothing, fabrics for furniture, paper packaging for food and other materials (e.g., cookware) resistant to water, grease or stains. They are also used for firefighting at airfields and in a number of industrial processes.
While Ridgewood Water is working to identify specific sources, and has retained a California-based law firm to potentially sue over the expensive costs of meeting new state and federal water quality standards.
She is mean and nasty. She is self serving and does favors for friends
She ruined a neighborhood Park by allowing her friends business to go there. Made serious usage changes without consulting neighbors.
Healthbarn is a private for profit business owned by a NYC resident. Classmate of Roberta, friend to Nancy Bigos and Janet ( Roberta’s other friend)
Roberta had NO regard for tax payers…keep her out. Do not vote for anyone she supports. They will be as nasty and rude as she is and the 3 amigos.
If these candidates get in watch out your quiet neighborhood could host a nursery school in the Home next door, a camp all summer long and holidays even a massage parlor. Who knows. Laws get changed if Roberta and the 3 amigos have a buddy that needs a place to run a business and maybe they will disguise it as a partnership with Ridgewood ( yet Ridgewood does not get ANY of the profits) all Ridgewood gets is below market rent!! That is a tenant/ landlord relationship NOT a partnership!!
Beware it could happen to anyone!!!!
March 14,2018
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Trenton NJ, Assemblyman Robert Auth (R-Bergen) issued the following statement in response to Gov. Phil Murphy’s $37.4 billion spending proposal:
“Governor Murphy has something for everyone with this budget whether you’re a business owner or hardworking citizen: taxes, taxes and more taxes. Raising taxes on the state’s job creators and spiking the minimum wage by $2.40 an hour will be devastating to our business community and, ultimately, our economy. Middle class families will also take a direct hit with a sales tax increase. The governor obviously is not listening to the people. Asking already overburdened taxpayers to pay more to balance this governor’s budget is grossly irresponsible.”
Most of the taxpayers would like to see more police on foot patrol improving pedestrian crosswalk compliance and general community involvement at least in the dangerous business district .
They sit in these cacoon SUVs as part of their patrols but I agree we are paying too much
in taxes to not seek a more efficient use of our money on issues like overnight parking , and babysitting PSEG despite the per diem the town bills the utility while we the taxpayers fund their pensions and old plated
benefits .
The do a good job but in many ways we spend like drunken sailors in this town.Parking enforcement is fat on expenses too.
Updated on May 29, 2017 at 1:53 PMPosted on May 29, 2017 at 11:02 AM
BY TERRENCE T. MCDONALD
The Jersey Journal
A lawsuit between a conservative group and the Jersey City teachers union will proceed after a judge denied the union’s bid to dismiss the suit on Friday.
The legal spat focuses on “release time,” a provision in the union’s contract with the public-school district that allows two top union officials to devote all of their time to union activities while getting paid by the district.
Judge Barry Sarkisian dismissed the Jersey City Education Association’s efforts to derail the lawsuit during a roughly 30-minute hearing on Friday morning.
JCEA President Ron Greco declined to comment. Greco is one of the two officials permitted to work full time for the union. The JCEA has argued that freeing Greco of his teaching duties allows him to resolve “potentially disruptive disputes” between the 28,000-student district and its staff.
Updated on April 3, 2017 at 7:08 AMPosted on April 3, 2017 at 6:30 AM
BY STAR-LEDGER EDITORIAL BOARD
eletters@starledger.com
Sick pay is for when you’re sick. If you’re not sick, and you don’t use it, you lose it.
This is the simple policy fix to one of New Jersey’s most maddening problems. Yet, again and again, we have failed to write it into law.
There is no justifiable reason. Sick pay is supposed to protect you from losing income when you’re ill – not amount to a kingly entitlement bonus. You don’t deserve a six-figure payout just for being healthy.
COLLEEN O’DEA | FEBRUARY 27, 2017
Advocates and immigrants urge lawmakers to make New Jersey a sanctuary state, one that will not cooperate with ICE if it makes broad sweeps of undocumented communities
Immigrants and advocates concerned about the national crackdown on the undocumented may have a sympathetic ally in legislative Democrats, but it’s doubtful Gov. Chris Christie will support any of their suggestions for protecting those born abroad who consider New Jersey their home.
Testifying to high levels of fear and anxiety among the state’s immigrant communities, a number of lawyers and advocates, as well as two undocumented young people, told an Assembly committee last Friday that the state and local governments should take steps to protect immigrants, or at least turn a blind eye to the recently launched federal crackdown on the undocumented. One even suggested that New Jersey declare itself a sanctuary that refuses to help federal authorities arrest the undocumented.
“You should consider passing a resolution declaring New Jersey a sanctuary state and risk losing federal funds,” the Rev. Seth Kaper-Dale, a Highland Park pastor whose Interstate-RISE organization recently was approved as a refugee resettlement agency, urged the Assembly Regulatory Oversight and Reform and Federal Relations Committee. Kaper-Dale, who is running for governor under the banner of the Green Party, termed the Trump administration’s executive orders and policies regarding immigration “a planned and coordinated attack based on race and ethnicity.”
James — you should post this and then seek comment from the progressive Clinton/Gottheimer fans. How much are they willing to pay Hudson County over and beyond the Abbott money already going there?
By Steve Strunsky | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com
on February 07, 2017 at 8:06 PM, updated February 08, 2017 at 9:27 AM
UNION CITY — New Jersey lawmakers from immigrant-rich Hudson County on Tuesday announced a bill that would provide state aid to sanctuary cities denied federal funds for failing to comply with immigration rules.
The bill was introduced in both houses of the legislature on Tuesday by State Sen. Brian Stack, Assemblyman Raj Mukherji and Assemblywoman Annette Chaparro, all Democrats from the 33rd District.
The three held a press conference in the garage at City Hall in Union City, where Stack is also the mayor.
“Union City, technically, has always been a sanctuary city,” said Stack. “We have never turned away anybody, documented or undocumented, when they come in looking for help.”
The difference now is that President Donald Trump issued a Jan. 25 executive order intended to, “ensure that jurisdictions that fail to comply with applicable Federal law do not receive Federal funds, except as mandated by law,” specifically targeting sanctuary cities and states.
file photo by Boyd Loving
Let’s just hope that residents don’t fall into the slumber again that allowed these shysters to get where they did. We’ve all learned a valuable lesson that taxpayers get screwed far more at the local level than at the Federal level.
“Let’s just hope residents don’t fall into the slumber again”…that’s pretty funny. Aside from the usual social gadflys that rattle about everyone else is and will always be in a slumber. Don’t you get it? That’s exactly the way the union thugs want it and 90 % of the dopes in Ridgewood are more than happy to oblige. Nobody cares….
