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Analysis: Wall Street skeptical of N.J.’s pension reforms

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Analysis: Wall Street skeptical of N.J.’s pension reforms

APRIL 10, 2014, 10:15 PM    LAST UPDATED: THURSDAY, APRIL 10, 2014, 10:20 PM
BY JOHN REITMEYER
STATE HO– USE BUREAU
THE RECORD

Governor Christie is calling for pension reforms, but analysts from the Wall Street ratings agency Standard & Poor’s said on Thursday that it’s unclear if that will put the state on a better financial footing.

Their concerns came a day after the agency lowered New Jersey’s bond rating, making it third worst among U.S. states.

In major speeches this year, and at many public events lately, Christie has said he wants to work with lawmakers to come up with new reforms, changes like those he negotiated with Democrats in 2011.

During a town-hall-style event in Fairfield on Wednesday, Christie said he would “force this discussion” again with lawmakers.

“I’m going to put a plan out there, and they’re going to have to deal with it,” Christie said.

But on Thursday, spokesman Kevin Roberts would not say exactly what Christie is considering at this stage.

“The governor has been clear that he is engaging the Legislature, and absent an indication from them that they are willing to recognize reality and negotiate next-step reforms in a bipartisan way, he will put forward a proposal of his own,” Roberts said.

Roberts also disputed the notion from the ratings agency analysts that recent changes to the pension formula and debt restructurings have pushed costs on to future budgets.

And it’s that uncertainty from Christie, along with his recent budget practices, like over-eager estimates for tax revenues that fall short, that have analysts concerned.

After years of skipped or only partial contributions from the state, the public employee pension system remains grossly underfunded and continues to weigh down New Jersey finances.

The burdensome pension payment — Christie’s latest spending plan calls for a record, $2.25 billion contribution that is still only a fraction of what actuaries say the state should be spending on an annual basis to bring the fund closer to solvency — was among the factors cited by Standard & Poor’s in announcing its move on Wednesday.

The downgrade was bad news for Christie, a Republican who has tried to portray his administration as having improved New Jersey’s finances after years of Democratic mismanagement. But the analysts said New Jersey is still dealing with some economic struggles while most other states have enjoyed fuller recoveries that have put their budgets back on solid ground.

The lower rating for New Jersey’s debt also comes just as state lawmakers are reviewing Christie’s latest spending plan, a $34.45 billion budget that is the largest in state history. The credit rating is an important factor in the budget talks because it helps determine how costly any future borrowing or refinancing will be.

Christie used the downgrade’s announcement to apply more pressure on Democratic lawmakers to enact new pension system changes, something they are reluctant to do yet again.

– See more at: https://www.northjersey.com/news/analysis-wall-street-skeptical-of-n-j-s-pension-reforms-1.898753#sthash.A1QigG3e.dpuf

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Hearing date set for proposed cell tower in Ridgewood

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photo by Boyd Loving

Hearing date set for proposed cell tower in Ridgewood

APRIL 11, 2014    LAST UPDATED: FRIDAY, APRIL 11, 2014, 12:31 AM
BY LAURA HERZOG
STAFF WRITER

The Zoning Board of Adjustment will discuss at its next meeting AT&T’s application to reinstall a temporary cell tower at the Route 17 Exxon Mobil station.

AT&T is hoping to reinstall a temporary cell phone tower that was removed in February.

The meeting is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday, April 22.

According to the zoning board’s attorney, Bruce Whitaker, “the first half” of the meeting will be devoted to the application, and AT&T will be bring a radio frequency engineer, a civil engineer and a planner to testify.

The temporary equipment requires a use variance, and various bulk variances, such as side and rear yard setbacks. AT&T is requesting waivers from site plan and design standard requirements found in the Village Code, according to the agenda for the board’s April 8 meeting. The board had planned to discuss the tower application at the end of Tuesday’s meeting, but officials decided at 10 p.m. that the meeting was running too long.

Despite the variances required for the placement of a temporary cell tower in Ridgewood, an unapproved 100-foot temporary AT&T cell tower previously sat for months at the same Exxon Mobil location.

– See more at: https://www.northjersey.com/news/cell-tower-hearing-date-set-1.899007#sthash.uQvofUt5.dpuf

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Ridgewood council members, school board trustees talk taxes

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file photo Boyd Loving Village Hall

Ridgewood council members, school board trustees talk taxes

APRIL 10, 2014    LAST UPDATED: THURSDAY, APRIL 10, 2014, 2:46 PM
BY LAURA HERZOG
STAFF WRITER

After receiving a short presentation on next year’s preliminary school budget, members of the Village Council questioned the Board of Education (BOE) on Monday about “efficiencies” and expressed an interest in more collaboration to potentially save taxpayers money.

District officials, meanwhile, highlighted the high performance level of Ridgewood’s schools and several already-existing fiscal efficiencies, while noting that Ridgewood’s school district receives relatively little state aid in comparison to poorer districts.

The two elected bodies have collaborated in several ways in the past year. In September, the council confirmed that the district owned Heermance Place and could therefore reserve it for Ridgewood High School faculty parking. In February, the council extended a smoking ban in village parks to sidewalks outside of BOE properties (including fields and schools). Now, the council is also discussing the potential of allocating the district a police officer specifically entrusted to the schools, known as a school resource officer, or SRO.

After Monday’s budget presentation in the BOE building, some council members, all of whom but Councilman Tom Riche were present, suggested there may be future ways to increase the district’s efficiency. Last year, the council managed to present taxpayers with a flat budget increase, and is working on doing the same this year. Ridgewood’s school budget for next year, which accounts for about two thirds of residents’ property taxes, includes a 1.908 percent local tax levy increase.

– See more at: https://www.northjersey.com/news/education/ridgewood-council-members-school-board-trustees-talk-taxes-1.898582#sthash.Dfi1OmS6.dpuf

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Ridgewood hopes to conduct audit before employee sentenced for half-million quarter theft

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Ridgewood hopes to conduct audit before employee sentenced for half-million quarter theft

APRIL 10, 2014, 5:56 PM    LAST UPDATED: THURSDAY, APRIL 10, 2014, 5:56 PM
BY CHRIS HARRIS
STAFF WRITER
THE RECORD

RIDGEWOOD — Officials hope to conduct a complete forensic analysis of the village’s financials before the June sentencing of a former employee who recently admitted stealing $460,000 in parking meter quarters.

At the council’s meeting Wednesday night, Village Manager Roberta Sonenfeld explained that she had met with representatives from the Joint Insurance Fund, which she said would fund the audit.

“We’d like to get this done in the next two weeks,” Sonenfeld said.

An independent review of the method by which the village manages its parking meter revenues will also be undertaken, she added.

That, Sonenfeld said, would be paid for by the village.

The results from both analyses, Sonenfeld noted, could serve to guide village officials as they mull what future actions to take to prevent theft.

Last month, Thomas Rica admitted taking handfuls of quarters out of the parking meter coin storage room in Village Hall.

– See more at: https://www.northjersey.com/news/ridgewood-hopes-to-conduct-audit-before-employee-sentenced-for-half-million-quarter-theft-1.898724#sthash.fXYnsVao.dpuf

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Ridgewood urged to investigate email sent to candidate’s employer

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Ridgewood urged to investigate email sent to candidate’s employer

APRIL 11, 2014    LAST UPDATED: FRIDAY, APRIL 11, 2014, 12:31 AM
BY DARIUS AMOS
STAFF WRITER

Candidate’s former employer contacted

The village will respond to continued calls for an investigation of a purported anonymous message sent to the employer of a Ridgewood Council candidate, but officials caution that they are still uncertain which direction to follow.

At least two residents urged current council members this week to look into an email that was delivered last month to the editor of the Staten Island Advance, a newspaper where Ridgewood resident Michael Sedon was employed. Sedon told The Ridgewood News that the email, whose sender is unknown, suggested that a conflict of interest existed if he continued to work as a reporter while campaigning during the municipal election season.

– See more at: https://www.northjersey.com/news/village-urged-to-investigate-email-1.899078#sthash.9DG9NrTQ.dpuf

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Sebelius Resigns After Troubles Over Health Site

Sebelius Resigns After Troubles Over Health Site

By MICHAEL D. SHEARAPRIL 10, 2014

WASHINGTON — Kathleen Sebelius, the health and human services secretary, is resigning, ending a stormy five-year tenure marred by the disastrous rollout of President Obama’s signature legislative achievement, the Affordable Care Act.

Mr. Obama accepted Ms. Sebelius’s resignation this week, and on Friday morning, he will nominate Sylvia Mathews Burwell, the director of the Office of Management and Budget, to replace her, officials said.

The departure comes as the Obama administration tries to move beyond its early stumbles in carrying out the law, convince a still-skeptical public of its lasting benefits, and help Democratic incumbents, who face blistering attack ads after supporting the legislation, survive the midterm elections this fall.

Officials said Ms. Sebelius, 65, made the decision to resign and was not forced out. But the frustration at the White House over her performance had become increasingly clear, as administration aides worried that the crippling problems at HealthCare.gov, the website set up to enroll Americans in insurance exchanges, would result in lasting damage to the president’s legacy.

https://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/11/us/politics/sebelius-resigning-as-health-secretary.html?_r=0

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Issa Accuses Cummings of Colluding with the IRS

Hearing on AIG Collapse and Federal Rescue

Issa Accuses Cummings of Colluding with the IRS
By Eliana Johnson
April 9, 2014 4:16 PM

The war between Oversight Committee chairman Darrell Issa and the committee’s ranking member, Elijah Cummings, rages on.

Issa on Wednesday accused the Maryland Democrat of colluding with the Internal Revenue Service in its targeting of the conservative nonprofit group True the Vote, whose founder, Catherine Engelbrecht, said she received multiple letters from Cummings in 2012 and personal visits from the IRS and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Explosives. Engelbrecht’s True the Vote is one of the many conservative groups that claims to have been improperly targeted by the IRS while it scrutinized the applications of tea-party groups.

In a letter signed by his five subcommittee chairmen, Issa raised the possibility that Cummings coordinated with the IRS, “surreptitiously” contacting the agency to request information about True the Vote.

E-mails unearthed in the course of Issa’s investigation into the IRS’s inappropriate targeting of right-leaning groups show that in January 2013, a member of Cummings’s staff contacted the IRS asking for any publicly available information on True the Vote. The matter was discussed by IRS officials that included Lois Lerner, the former exempt-organizations chief who retired in the wake of the targeting scandal. One of Lerner’s deputies, Holly Paz, subsequently sent the organization’s 990 forms to Cummings and his staff — not an illegal disclosure of taxpayer information, though sources say the exchange of such information was not routine.

https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/375429/issa-accuses-cummings-colluding-irs-eliana-johnson

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Menendez campaign donor and Fla. eye doctor is nation’s highest paid Medicare physician

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file photo Boyd Loving

Menendez campaign donor and Fla. eye doctor is nation’s highest paid Medicare physician

TRENTON — A West Palm Beach ophthalmologist and U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez’s close friend and major benefactor is Medicare’s $21 million man.

That’s how much Salomon Melgen, a retinal specialist, earned from treating elderly and disabled patients in 2012. He is Medicare’s highest reimbursed physician in the nation, according to never-before disclosed billing information released today by the Obama administration.

Ophthalmologists like Melgen were among the most highly compensated on the list of 770,000 physicians and health care organizations in the database. But Melgen earned more than 60 times than his average peer, taking in $20.8 million to treat 894 patients who underwent 94,000 procedures, according to the federal database.

Melgen’s relationship with Menendez came under scrutiny last year when New Jersey’s senior senator acknowledged he had accepted trips to the Dominican Republic in the doctor’s personal jet without reporting them on his campaign spending reports. Menendez went to bat for Melgen when Medicare audited the doctor and questioned $8.9 million in services billed from practice, according to a report in The Washington Post. Quoting Menendez aides, the Post said Menendez initially contacted federal officials in 2009 about the government’s audit of Melgen, complaining to the director overseeing Medicare payments that it was unfair to penalize the doctor because the billing rules were ambiguous, the aides said.

FBI agents raided Melgen’s office, Vitreo-Retinal Consultants Eye Center, last year. (Livio/Star-Ledger)

https://www.nj.com/politics/index.ssf/2014/04/menendez_campaign_donor_and_fla_eye_doctor_is_nations_highest_paid_medicare_physician.html#incart_river

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DiVincenzo wants Democrats to ‘do the right thing’ on arbitration cap bill

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DiVincenzo wants Democrats to ‘do the right thing’ on arbitration cap bill

FAIRFIELD – Essex County Executive Joe DiVincenzo says he hopes Democratic lawmakers “do the right thing” and move on an arbitration cap proposal Assembly Speaker Vincent Prieto (D-32) allowed to expire.

DiVincenzo, who attended Gov. Chris Christie’s town hall in Essex County, said he agreed with the governor that renewing the arbitration cap is the right thing to do. The state Senate recently voted to renew the cap, though the Assembly permitted the proposal to expire after refusing to bring it to the floor for a vote by the end of March.

“I haven’t spoken to Vinnie,” said DiVincenzo, adding, however, that he’s been “urging [his] colleagues” to support moving on the arbitration cap

“I hope they do the right thing,” he said. (Arco/PolitickerNJ)

DiVincenzo wants Democrats to ‘do the right thing’ on arbitration cap bill | Politicker NJ

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Judge: Christie ex-aides Kelly, Stepien can withhold documents in GWB probe

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despite the media hype case stalls

Judge: Christie ex-aides Kelly, Stepien can withhold documents in GWB probe

APRIL 9, 2014, 4:02 PM    LAST UPDATED: WEDNESDAY, APRIL 9, 2014, 6:41 PM
BY SHAWN BOBURG
STAFF WRITER
THE RECORD

Two key figures in the George Washington Bridge lane closure scandal do not have to comply with legislative subpoenas demanding that they turn over documents, a judge ruled Wednesday, delivering a  setback to lawmakers whose probe linked the closures to the governor’s office earlier this year.

The Mercer County Superior Court judge agreed that Bridget Anne Kelly, Governor Christie’s former deputy chief of staff, and Bill Stepien, a former campaign manager, were right to assert their Fifth Amendment protection against self-incrimination. A federal criminal investigation into the lane closure is under way.

Judge Mary C. Jacobson described the subpoenas demanding documents related to the lane closures as too broad, one of several issues she identified, while acknowledging the legal complexity of the case forced her into “largely uncharted waters.” But Jacobson appeared to suggest that the legislative panel could re-issue more narrow subpoenas to Kelly and Stepien that might hold up against a legal challenge.

– See more at: https://www.northjersey.com/news/judge-christie-ex-aides-kelly-stepien-can-withhold-documents-in-gwb-probe-1.877447#sthash.0oKtUsH8.dpuf

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Reader says The taxes and mandates placed upon private enterprise make doing business in NJ uncompetitive with other states

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Reader says The taxes and mandates placed upon private enterprise make doing business in NJ uncompetitive with other states

As a business owner in the private sector, let me add to it from that perspective.

The taxes and mandates placed upon private enterprise make doing business in NJ uncompetitive with other states.

The foolish Democrats that control Trenton kill the economy here every time they pass another law with the stroke of a pen.

Nobody ‘mandates’ that private enterprise make a profit (which is taxed), yet the morons who are elected from the big cities (Newark, Camden, Paterson etc) that milk the funds from the state treasury continue to pass rules that hurt businesses.

Many businesses will never expand here, and move new operations to more ‘tax friendly’/’regulation friendly’ states.

No large business would ever consider moving here.

The state is broke due to ‘obligations’ to the unions as mentioned in the previous post.
Further draining the state treasury are the billions of dollars that get flushed down the toilet in the “Abbot’ school districts (thanks to the left wing activist NJ supreme court).
It should come as no surprise that the ‘big earners’ make sure they do their ‘time’ out of state….spend 181 days per year in FLA and vote there… so NJ can no longer pick their pockets… and the rest of us will have to make up the difference in higher taxes..
Try to explain logic such as that to the Dumbocrats in Trenton… good luck.

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IRS Employees Brazenly Campaigned For Obama And Your Tax Money Paid For It!

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IRS Employees Brazenly Campaigned For Obama And Your Tax Money Paid For It!

IRS employees are being investigated for actually actively campaigning for Obama and other Democrats while on government time to taxpayers seeking information on how to pay their taxes. Amazingly, we’re supposed to still believe that there is no basis for the accusations of IRS targeting the Tea Party and other conservative groups.

From the Washington Times:

In one case the Office of Special Counsel, which investigates federal employees who conduct politics on government time, said it was “commonplace” in a Dallas IRS office for employees to have pro-Obama screensavers on their computers, and to have campaign-style buttons and stickers at their office.

In another case, a worker at the tax agency’s customer help line urged taxpayers “to re-elect President Obama in 2012 by repeatedly reciting a chant based on the spelling of his last name,” the Office of Special Counsel said in a statement.

…Another IRS employee in Kentucky has agreed to serve a 14-day suspension for blasting Republicans in a conversation with a taxpayer.

“They’re going to take women back 40 years,” the IRS employee said in a conversation that was recorded. The employee also said that “if you vote for a Republican, the rich are going to get richer and the poor are going to get poorer.”

That employee went on to tell the taxpayer she knew she wasn’t supposed to be voicing her political opinions, and asked the taxpayer not to say anything.

What kind of government office is run so poorly that the employees felt they had absolute carte blanche to rant to taxpayers about voting for Obama? This is an absolute disgrace and all Americans should be offended by this, but how many on the left will even hear about this or care to comment?

https://www.ijreview.com/2014/04/128186-irs-employees-campaigned-for-obama-and-your-tax-money-paid-for-it/

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New Jersey’s credit rating lowered to A+ by Standard & Poor’s

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New Jersey’s credit rating lowered to A+ by Standard & Poor’s

APRIL 9, 2014, 4:47 PM    LAST UPDATED: WEDNESDAY, APRIL 9, 2014, 7:00 PM
BY HUGH R. MORLEY
STAFF WRITER
THE RECORD

Standard & Poor’s downgraded New Jersey’s credit rating Wednesday, saying that the state is dealing with a “structural imbalance” and its efforts to balance the budget will “contribute to future budgetary pressures.”

The ratings agency reduced the state’s general obligation debt one step, to A+ from AA-, lowered ratings for other kinds of debt, and offered unsparing criticism of the state’s financial position just over two weeks after Governor Christie released a $34.4 billion budget.

“Almost five years after the official start of the economic recovery, New Jersey continues to struggle with structural imbalance and stands in stark difference to many of its peers who registered sizeable budgetary surpluses in fiscal 2013,” the statement said.

It added that the state is now suffering from the effects of “bullish revenue assumption and overreliance on untested or uncertain revenues” in the past two budgets.

The downgrade puts the state’s grade four levels below the top, and leaves it with California and Illinois in the single-A category, lower than 47 other states, Bloomberg News reported. A lowered rating generally leads to higher borrowing costs.

At the same time the ratings agency gave New Jersey a stable outlook. S&P had held a negative outlook for New Jersey since September 2012.

– See more at: https://www.northjersey.com/news/new-jersey-s-credit-rating-lowered-to-a-by-standard-poor-s-1.877458#sthash.C8zwFwtz.dpuf

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Ridgewood club seeks to improve lives of children in Cambodia

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decades ago damage from Communist murderer Pol Pot still effects Cambodia today

Ridgewood club seeks to improve lives of children in Cambodia

APRIL 7, 2014    LAST UPDATED: MONDAY, APRIL 7, 2014, 12:04 AM
BY BY LAURA HERZOG
STAFF WRITER

If the world were black and white, Cambodia might almost seem like two different places.

One, which suffered a genocide not too long ago – when nearly two million people, more than 20 percent of the population, were lost; the result of a communist regime’s extreme ideology targeting intellectuals and professionals, among others.

And another country filled with people known for their warmth and positivity.

Yet it’s all Cambodia. And, as unlikely as a connection between Ridgewood and this country may seem to a village outsider, it’s a place that has become near-and-dear to the hearts of several students from Ridgewood. The students have been engaging in an ongoing district-wide effort, started in 2007, to help Cambodia move forward. Ridgewood children have even made annual visits to the country, including a visit this past February.

Initiated by Ridgewood parents and later also led by educators and students, the effort is also raising global awareness and cross-cultural appreciation in an affluent school district.

“It’s so nice to give back – for us living this luxury lifestyle in Ridgewood, especially,” said George Washington Middle School (GW) eighth grader Ireland Horan. “Because honestly, even if you don’t need help, you’re going to need it some day.”

Horan, who has seen videos of Cambodia, but has not yet visited, noted that the Cambodian people she has seen “have nothing” and yet “they couldn’t be happier.”

– See more at: https://www.northjersey.com/community-news/clubs-and-service-organizations/ridgewood-club-seeks-to-improve-lives-of-children-in-cambodia-1.843402#sthash.MxqWMe2e.dpuf

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The Ridgewood Police Department will be participating in the DEA NATIONAL TAKE-BACK INITIATIVE

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file photo Boyd Loving

The Ridgewood Police Department will be participating in the DEA NATIONAL TAKE-BACK INITIATIVE

Ridgewood NJ, On Saturday APRIL 26, 2014 – 10:00 am to 2:00 pm: The Ridgewood Police Department will be participating in the DEA NATIONAL TAKE-BACK INITIATIVE

This program allows residents a safe and convenient way to dispose of unwanted, expired or unused prescription medication. Often, some of these medicines languish in the home and are highly susceptible to diversion, misuse, and abuse. Rates of prescription drug abuse in the U.S. are alarmingly high—more Americans currently abuse prescription drugs than the number of those using cocaine, hallucinogens, heroin, and inhalants combined, according to the 2010 National Survey on Drug Use and Health. Please bring any unwanted, expired or unused prescription medication to the Police department 131 N. Maple Ave and place them in the collection bin located near the Police Desk.