NJDEP Regulations to Electrify Building Sector Take Effect in December, Leading to Increases in Rents, Property Taxes and Grocery Bills
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood NJ, With the first round of NJDEP regulations set to take effect on December 6th, a diverse coalition of 24 business and labor organizations sent a letter to Senate President Nick Scutari and Assembly Speaker Craig Coughlin calling on the Legislature to halt Governor Murphy’s building electrification mandate until a full analysis of costs can be developed.
Ridgewood NJ, after years of supporting fringe leftwing causes Starbucks, arguably one of the nation’s most progressive-thinking companies, led by Howard Schultz, arguably one of the nation’s most progressive CEOs, has become a poster child of anti-unionism? Starbucks has become the subject of a small but significant organizing campaign by Starbucks Workers United, which is affiliated with the SEIU, or Service Employees International Union.
Trenton NJ, Senator Steven Oroho (R-24) and Senator Declan O’Scanlon (R-13) have introduced legislation to form a special legislative committee with subpoena power to investigate massive proposed premium increases for the health plans that cover state government, local government, and school employees.
Atlantic City NJ, the main union for Atlantic City casino workers local 54 of the Unite Here reached agreements on new contracts with four casinos on Thursday, The labor peace will avoid a strike on the Fourth of July weekend, one of the casinos’ busiest of the year. Continue reading Strike Narrowly Averted at Atlantic City Casinos
A labor movement in Chicago in 1894 left 30 Pullman workers dead, and later spurred Congress and President Grover Cleveland to pass a bill creating Labor Day. But the history of this holiday is rarely taught in schools, and there are few full-time labor journalists to write about working class communities.
“In a normal society, this virus would be handled by having the sick or vulnerable stay home for as long as necessary, while encouraging the young and healthy to go about normally with life. Teachers that are sickly could stay home and go on unemployment like everyone else in the country. Young college grads with education degrees can temporarily Take their place. Very simple. How are parents that are not teachers or other government employees supposed to work and feed their families if they have to stay home and care for their children who are doing remote learning? This point is rarely brought up. How have day care centers and summer camps in NJ been open since June, but schools cannot reopen? Why are day Care workers and summer camp workers lives valued less than teachers lives? I drove by the Ridgewood YMCA parking lot last week and witnessed large numbers of children, of various ages, over the age of two years old, standing very close together and not wearing masks. Why is this permitted when masks are required in NJ outdoors when not social distancing?
Locking down everyone is actually making everyone more sickly in mind, body and soul. Why is it that the government and their followers only care about people sick or dying from covid19, but not from any other cause, like the annual flu, being killed in riots, or from not being able to receive necessary medical treatment? Yes there is a pandemic, however, like it or not, the fact is that less than 0.5 percent of all people will die from it. It is obvious that the pandemic has become a convenient, catch all excuse, which is being massively abused. This is to the detriment of all humanity, the effects of which will be ever lasting. Wake up people! Please please start thinking for yourselves and you will realize what is actually going on here. Only when teachers and all government employees are treated the same and feel the same pain as small business owners have, during this pandemic, will people actually see the truth, be on the same team and be able, willing and ready to work together.”
Trenton NJ,Senator Anthony M. Bucco raised serious concerns about Governor Phil Murphy’s plan to borrow as much as $14 billion to fund government spending.
“Given his failure to consider fiscally responsible alternatives to balance the State budget, Governor Murphy’s borrowing scheme is premature, excessive, and almost certainly unconstitutional,” said Bucco (R-25). “When the State is already drowning in debt, New Jersey taxpayers cannot afford to give the Governor the blank check he’s demanding.”
Trenton NJ, Legislation authored by Senate President Steve Sweeney, Senator Declan O’Scanlon and Senator Michael Doherty allowing for the temporary reassignment of state and local employees outside of their job classifications for up to 30 days during public emergencies was approved by the Senate Budget Committee today.
Trenton NJ, Gov. Phil Murphy painted a dire outlook for New Jersey public worker jobs on Saturday afternoon, pleading for more financial aid to lift a state economy that has been cratered by the coronavirus. Gov. Phil Murphy said, “We will have layoffs that will be historic”
Ridgewood NJ, a recent article on NJ Insider attempting to quell the push to get the economy going promoting the false dichotomy that some how “Ranking Economic Benefits Over Human Life is Offensive ” . Life is a functioning economy end of story . Only someone who lives at the charity of others would not understand this.
Funny but the politicians in Trenton see fit to simultaneously raise the fuel tax and tolls on the NJ Turnpike and the Garden State Parkway so apparently “Ranking Economic Benefits Over Human Life ” is ok for them . So if we can raise taxes , we can go back to work.
Palisades Park NJ, The police chief in Palisades Park is retiring after a scathing review of the operation of his department, but only after he cashes more than $115,000 in checks for unused sick time. It’s just the latest example of a long string of abuses suffered by property taxpayers in the state, Senator Kip Bateman bristled.
“Sick time was never intended to be a personal retirement account for a select group of public employees, but here we go again,” said Bateman (R-16). “Another police chief retiring, and another six-figure invoice for the property taxpayers to deal with.”
GSI says ,”As of July 1, 2019, a total of 332,556 retirees were collecting pension payments from the state, with monthly payments totaling nearly $950 million, or over $11 billion annually.”
Ridgewood NJ, Garden State Initiative (GSI) today released Adding It All Up: The Path to Saving $2 Billion on the Cost of New Jersey’s Roads and Bridges, which includes recommendations based upon a data-driven analysis of our investments in our state’s roads and bridges. Third in a series of reports on the true size of New Jersey’s expansive government, this report identifies $2 billion in savings that can be reinvested for tangible improvements to our state’s infrastructure. The full report can be downloaded here.
MORRISTOWN NJ , Garden State Initiative (GSI) today released “The Stark Gap Between Public and Private Employee Benefits”, an analysis of the latest employee compensation data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics which illustrates some dramatic differences in compensation costs between the public and private sectors. While it’s less surprising that government costs for retirement and medical benefits far exceed the private sector, the 50% differential in cost in New Jersey versus the rest of the US is startling.
The analysis was conducted by Charles Steindel, Ph.D., a former New Jersey State Chief Economist and current resident scholar at Ramapo College. It is available for download at: https://www.gardenstateinitiative.org/updates/publicemployeebenefits
“NJ already has the highest combined, state, local, and corporate tax rates in the United States… and the public pension funds will be insolvent by 2027… which means NJ taxpayers have unlimited liability carrying the $12B per year paid out to retired public sector workers, plus their PAYGO (pay as you go) platinum health insurance… Ponzi scheme where the math doesn’t work when private sector employers are leaving and aren’t investing in the state. NJ also has net migration which only worsens the Ponzi scheme. Public sector unions only care about squeezing more blood from a shrinking stone. Greedy pigs “
“Same for CA, IL, etc, but When the state sends out $12bn a year already in annual pension checks (or 1/3 of our current annual NJ state budget), we have an unlimited pension liability in perpetuity once the public sector pension funds go insolvent by 2027… and that’s not even including “pay-as-you-go” (PAYGO) platinum healthcare insurance… the math doesn’t work. States like NJ, CA, IL, etc will have to explore bankruptcy filings to protect them from all of these excessive liability claims! “
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