>N.J. treasurer: $1.2 trillion in federal savings would not significantly hurt state budget
State Treasurer Andrew P. Sidamon-Eristoff said Wednesday the $1.2 trillion in federal spending cuts triggered by a congressional committee’s failure to reach a deficit reduction agreement would not significantly harm New Jersey’s budget.
The bipartisan panel, which was established this summer, failed to reach an agreement earlier in the week, setting off a default plan to make across-the-board-spending cuts.
The reductions in spending will come from the military budget and a host of domestic programs. But Social Security, Medicaid, food stamps and other federal programs, which states rely heavily on, were spared from the budget ax. (Renshaw, The Star-Ledger)
>As lameduck period begins, Assembly panel to consider ‘Back to Work NJ’ job training bill
The Assembly on Monday will begin what is scheduled as a three-week lame duck session with committee meetings where lawmakers will consider renewed legislation to create the Back to Work NJ job creation program and bills to help employers stave off layoffs, assist local governments repair Hurricane Irene damage, strengthen teen driver safety, promote the state’s wine industry, help juveniles forced into prostitution get services they need and protect the state from cyber terrorism.
The Labor Committee will consider legislation (A-4332) sponsored by Assembly Speaker Sheila Y. Oliver (D-Essex) to establish the Back to Work NJ program to help out-of-work residents receive job training from potential employers. Gov. Chris Christie vetoed a similar bill earlier this year. A similar program is in effect in Georgia, and President Obama has included the concept in his jobs program. (Hester, New Jersey Newsroom)
>Garrett: FHA Report Proves Conforming Loan Level Increase is Reckless WASHINGTON, DC, November 15, 2011
Rep. Scott Garrett (R-NJ), Chairman of the Financial Services Subcommittee on Capital Markets and Government-Sponsored Enterprises, issued the following statement today after an independent audit of the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) revealed that the housing agency’s cash reserves are down 45% from last year and the “chance that future net losses on the current, outstanding portfolio could exceed current capital resources is close to 50 percent,” which could necessitate a taxpayer bailout next year:
“This is what happens when the federal government meddles in economic affairs best left to the private market. Because the federal government has played an outsized role in our country’s housing system, the American taxpayers are now at risk of another costly bailout that will put future generations even deeper into debt. Today’s report shows that FHA is overleveraged at a shockingly high rate of 400 to 1, making Lehman Brothers and Bear Stearns, the poster children of the 2008 financial collapse, look like financially solvent institutions. The FHA audit proves once again that, if left unchanged, the reckless policies currently guiding our nation’s housing finance system will threaten the financial solvency of the United States of America.
“In light of this bleak outlook for the FHA, it makes no sense to increase the size of the loans the FHA can insure. With the potential for tens of billions of dollars in taxpayer losses, it is unconscionable to be even considering raising the conforming loan limit so that the American taxpayers can insure the mortgages for million dollar homes.”
>Outrage over court program that rewards juvenile offenders with gifts
Camden County officials are outraged over a court program that rewards juvenile offenders with gifts such as computers and iPods for completing their probation, according to the Courier-Post of Cherry Hill.
Freeholders issued a news release this week demanding the state courts end the program, which is offered only in Camden County. The statement described the program as a “disgraceful expenditure of taxpayers’ funds” that sends the wrong message.
The freeholders said many other children are working hard in school to get good grades or to find jobs to help their families and cannot afford iPods, notebook computers, and similar items. (Associated Press)
>Steve Rothman says it costs more to make a penny and nickel than the coins are worth
Penny-pinching holiday shoppers may be more thrifty than you think.
The U.S. Mint spends more to make coins stamped with portraits of Abraham Lincoln and Thomas Jefferson than the currency is worth, according to U.S. Rep. Steve Rothman.
“Currently it costs more than a penny for the U.S. Mint to make a one cent coin and more than a nickel to make the five cent piece,” Rothman (D-9th Dist.) said in a statement submitted to the Congressional Record on Nov. 2. Rothman’s statement called attention to an opinion article in the New York Times written by a Bergen County freeholder that suggested alternate materials for penny production. (O’Neill, PolitiFact New Jersey)
Santa Breakfast, Gifts, Movie Sponsored by Chamber of Commerce
Saturday, December 3 9:30am – Breakfast with Santa at Park West Tavern – Reservations: 201/445-5400 10:00am – Santa arrives E. Ridgewood Avenue on a Fire Truck – giving gifts at Columbia Bank; entertainment ARt of Motion 10:30am – Free Kids Movie at Clearview Cinema – title to be announced www.experienceridgewood.com SANTA IN THE PARK
Ridgewood Chamber of Commerce Santa will be in the Park at Van Neste Square – Dec. 3, 2 to 4pm; Dec. 10, 11am to 4pm; Dec. 17, 11am to 4pm; Dec. 24, 11am to 2pm
>The bridge is in trouble because the BOE — its owners — deferred necessary maintenance.
Let’s not spin this as a good thing. The bridge is in trouble because the BOE — its owners — deferred necessary maintenance. By this argument, if the BOE stops maintaining the High School building itself maybe it will fall down and we can get a new one. It’s only money, after all.
Charlie Reilly’s comments are worth examining:
“Recently resigned trustee Charlie Reilly spoke up as a member of the public to defend the decision to delay bridge repairs in favor of other capital improvements from a budgetary standpoint.
“To say that expenditures on this bridge could have been done, and that we had the resources to do it, is completely fallacious,” he said, adding that the bond referendum vote would likely have not passed if bridge repairs were incorporated.”
So the BOE, knowing that the bridge had serious structural issues as documented in the 2009 engineering report, hid that fact during the bonding process. Reilly’s comment that expenditures could have been done is itself fallacious. The BOE had $48M to work with. Do we seriously think fixing or rebuilding the bridge would have caused the bond not to pass?
These are apologies after the fact. The BOE knew the situation, deliberately did nothing, and now we have a much larger bill to pay.
Rebuilding this bridge will cost hundreds of thousands.
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 24, 2011 BY JEFFREY PAGE SPECIAL TO THE RECORD THE RECORD
Eating Out on $50 is a monthly restaurant feature. Two people determined to spend only $50 on dinner, drinks, tax and tip will discover just how much can be purchased for so little.
What do you do after the waiter takes your order? Sip wine? Hum along with canned music? Watch TV? Talk with your dinner companion?
At Baste, you can browse the bookshelves. That’s where, among a collection of about 50 titles, I found “At the Center of the Storm” by George Tenet, the former director of the CIA; Bob Woodward’s “Five Presidents and the Legacy of Watergate”; and a biography of Harry S Truman.
There also are some of Baste chef Alex Gorant’s favorite cookbooks. “We thought [books] might be an interesting way to spend the time until dinner arrives,” Gorant, a part owner, told me a few days after my visit.
>Rasmussen: 62% Plan To Spend Less On Gifts This Year Saturday, November 26, 2011
Most Americans plan to spend less money on gifts than they did last year, and fewer adults will be doing their shopping on the Internet.
A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 62% of American Adults say they’ll spend less on gifts than they did a year ago, while just 11% say they’ll spend more.
Ridge Thai is warmly decorated in mellow gold and mahogany tones, with Thai artwork. By SCOTT VEALE Published: November 25, 2011
WHEN was the last time you were surprised by mee krob, those sweet, crispy rice noodles that appear on many a Thai menu, or by pad Thai, which has a way of losing its luster after only a few bites? You might find yourself surprised, and pleasantly so, at Ridge Thai, a tiny but well-focused restaurant in downtown
Those two are among a number of worthy items on a large, varied and reasonably priced menu of traditional Thai dishes, some familiar, others less so. The owners, Supat and Temduang Techaratanaprasert, moved to New York from Bangkok in the early 1980s and opened their place in Ridgewood in 2005. She’s the chef and runs the show while he works as the manager of Pongsri Thai Restaurant, on Manhattan’s West Side, where he has been since the couple arrived.
>‘Company Policy: We are not hiring until Obama is gone’
WACO, Ga. — A west Georgia business owner is stirring up controversy with signs he posted on his company’s trucks, for all to see as the trucks roll up and down roads, highways and interstates:
“New Company Policy: We are not hiring until Obama is gone.”
“Can’t afford it,” explained the employer, Bill Looman, Tuesday evening. “I’ve got people that I want to hire now, but I just can’t afford it. And I don’t foresee that I’ll be able to afford it unless some things change in D.C.”
>ARC rail tunnel’s high price tag, financial impact criticized at transportation forum
Had New Jersey not pulled the plug on it, the ARC commuter train tunnel to New York City would have been a transportation Frankenstein that crippled the state with debt, siphoned money intended for crumbling roads and bridges, and failed to take riders where they wanted to go.
That was the dire scenario described today by state Transportation Commissioner Jim Simpson during a Newark Regional Business Partnership transportation symposium.
“The tunnel project was sucking the life out of the rest of the system and the state,” Simpson said from the top floor of One Newark Center, in front of big windows that framed the Manhattan skyline and North Jersey’s extensive network of roads, rails, bridges and runways. “…You’d have to shut the Pulaski Skyway and shut the Wittpenn Bridge.” (Frassinelli, The Star-Ledger)
Pedestrian Struck, South Broad Street, Ridgewood 11/25/2011 Boyd A. Loving
At approximately 9:05 PM on Friday, November 25, the Ridgewood Police Department received a telephoned report of a pedestrian struck by a motor vehicle in front of the NY Sports Club on South Broad Street in Ridgewood.
Responding police and basic life support EMS units found a conscious and alert male victim partially lodged underneath a parked motor vehicle. An advanced life support unit from The Valley Hospital was summoned due to the nature of the victim’s injuries. The victim was medically stabilized at the scene and then transported to The Valley Hospital by Ridgewood EMS.
Based on the result of a field sobriety test conducted by responding Ridgewood PD officers, the driver of one vehicle involved in the collision was placed under arrest for DWI and subsequently transported to Ridgewood PD headquarters.
>Putting a face to New Jersey’s homeschooled students
New Jersey has long been known as one of the least restrictive states when it comes to homeschooling, not only not requiring much of families that choose to educate their own children but also not even keeping track of who they are.
But reacting to a spate of child abuse incidents and other concerns, State Sen. Loretta Weinberg (D-Bergen) has moved to try to put in place some rules that she calls “minimal” to at least get some accounting of the children’s existence, along with their health and education.
Weinberg, the incoming Senate majority leader, on Monday introduced legislation that would require homeschooled students to register with their home districts, submit proof of schoolwork, and present an annual medical exam.
This has been a long-running issue for Weinberg, also chairman of the Senate health committee, who sought to place some rules on homeschooled students nearly a decade ago as an Assembly member. (Mooney, NJ Spotlight)
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