The founding document of the United States, the Declaration of Independence, states that governments derive “their just powers from the consent of the governed.” Today, however, just 21% of voters nationwide believe that the federal government enjoys the consent of the governed.
A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 61% disagree and say the government does not have the necessary consent. Eighteen percent (18%) of voters are not sure. However, 63% of the Political Class think the government has the consent of the governed, but only six percent (6%) of those with Mainstream views agree.
Seventy-one percent (71%) of all voters now view the federal government as a special interest group, and 70% believe that the government and big business typically work together in ways that hurt consumers and investors.
That helps explain why 75% of voters are angry at the policies of the federal government, and 63% say it would be better for the country if most members of Congress are defeated this November. Just 27% believe their own representative in Congress is the best person for the job.
Among voters under 40, 25% believe government has the consent of the governed. That compares to 19% of those ages 50 to 64 and 16% of the nation’s senior citizens.
>I’ve found all of this debate very intersting over the past few days. Please allow me to share my pespective.
I spent the beginning of my career in the Ridgewood Public Schools before moving to another affluent Bergen County school district.
While in Ridgewood, I worked with many gifted teachers. But, I also saw the arrogance of some of the staff and administration at work, and it was making the district weaker even then, and that was almost a decade ago. Sure, some of the teachers were catty and competitive types. I remember having great enthusiasm when I was there, in my first two years, and basically I was a threat in the eyes of a few of the teachers I worked with. I know that when I left, the parents in the students in the building felt a loss based on who replaced me. I don’t think Ridgewood has always hired well over the past few years.
Another part of the problem in Ridgewood is the administration. The Central Office group is a joke, moving through superintendents, although I can’t judge the current one, Fishbein, as I don’t know much about him. But how many dollars were wasted during the Porter years for those that remember those? Porter was brought in to change the philosophy of the district to a “standards based” approach. His philosophy was so out there he couldn’t so much as articulate it himself.
The district also brought in some horrible principals as the years passed. Several of the elementary schools today–with just a few exceptions–have horrible leaders at the helm. I personally saw one particular school ruined by a woman who is now a supt. elsewhere in the county after a longtime principal left. Friends experienced the same thing at some of the other elementary schools.
I didn’t find the parent community to be bad to work with at all. I found them to be very supportive. I had no complaints there. You had some jerks, but you have that everywhere.
People should really think about what they say when they bash the entire profession. In Ridgewood, I felt that the majority of the staff, despite some of the losers mentioned above (not by name), were dedicated teachers who wanted the best for their students.
Most teachers work hard to earn every single dime that we make. Take a look at salary scales. Where is it that we’re doing so well? After the first dozen years of teaching, one’s salary finally hits the range of professionals who do far less every day in some fields.
When people say don’t give teachers raises and take away benefits, do they realize the cost of this? If you want to attack school districts for crazy spending habits, look at how top heavy their administrations are.
You’re going to find bad teachers out there. They exist. And it’s a shame the union protects them, but we do. I know, I’ve been a rep for years. One of the things that is frustrating is having no choice but to defend certain bums. But the majority of the people I represent, I can proudly say, are true professionals, and it is an honor to represent them.
So, when teachers ask for a 4% raise and to keep benefits, don’t think that is so unreasonable. After taxes, and considering how the money is spread out on a salary guide, the average teacher may be lucky to see 2%. Now, add in paying for health benefits. And, where exactly would the raise be then?
It’s cool, and in style, to bash teachers right now. I understand how tough the job market is for people in other fields. But, here is my final thought: THE NEXT TIME SOME OF THE ARROGANT JERKS ON THIS BLOG WANT TO SAY HOW EASY TEACHING IS, AND THAT IT IS NOT A REAL JOB, I CHALLENGE THEM TO SPEND ONE DAY IN A TEACHER’S SHOES. JUST ONE DAY. THEN, IF THEY STILL FEEL THE WAY THEY DO, THAT WOULD BE FINE WITH ME. WHY DO I SAY THIS? BECA– USE I KNOW THE AVERAGE PERSON CAN’T DO THE JOB WELL. THEY CAN’T DO IT THE WAY I’VE DONE IT EVERY DAY FOR THE LAST TEN YEARS, AND UP UNTIL THE DAY I RETIRE.
Jim Powell, a Senior Fellow at the Cato Institute, is the author of FDR’s Folly, Bully Boy, and Greatest Emancipations
Added to cato.org on January 7, 2009
This article appeared on National Review (Online) on January 7, 2009
Which U.S. president ranks as America’s greatest depression fighter?
Not the fabled Franklin Delano Roosevelt, since unemployment averaged 17 percent through the New Deal period (1933–1940). What banished high unemployment was the conscription of 12 million men into the armed forces during World War II. FDR actually prolonged high unemployment: he tripled taxes; he signed laws that made it more expensive for employers to hire people, made discounting illegal, and authorized the destruction of food; and he launched costly infrastructure projects like the Tennessee Valley Authority that became a drag on states receiving TVA-subsidized electricity.
America’s greatest depression fighter was Warren Gamaliel Harding. An Ohio senator when he was elected president in 1920, he followed the much praised Woodrow Wilson— who had brought America into World War I, built up huge federal bureaucracies, imprisoned dissenters, and incurred $25 billion of debt.
Harding inherited Wilson’s mess— in particular, a post–World War I depression that was almost as severe, from peak to trough, as the Great Contraction from 1929 to 1933that FDR would later inherit. The estimated gross national product plunged 24 percent from $91.5 billion in 1920 to $69.6 billion in 1921. The number of unemployed people jumped from 2.1 million to 4.9 million.
Harding had a much better understanding of how an economy works than FDR. As historian Robert K. Murray wrote in The Harding Era, the man who would become our 29th president “always decried high taxes, government waste, and excessive governmental interference in the private sector of the economy. In February 1920, shortly after announcing his candidacy, he advocated a cut in government expenditures and stated that government ought to ‘strike the shackles from industry. . . . We need vastly more freedom than we do regulation.’ “
One of Harding’s campaign slogans was “less government in business,” and it served him well. Harding embraced the advice of Treasury Secretary Andrew Mellon and called for tax cuts in his first message to Congress on April 12, 1921. The highest taxes, on corporate revenues and “excess” profits, were to be cut. Personal income taxes were to be left as is, with a top rate of 8 percent of incomes above $4,000. Harding recognized the crucial importance of encouraging the investment that is essential for growth and jobs, something that FDR never did.
Powerful senators, however, favored giving bonuses to veterans, as 38 states had done. But such spending increases would have put upward pressure on taxes. On July 12, 1921, Harding went to the Senate and urged tax and spending cuts. He noted that a half-billion dollars in compensation and insurance claims were already being paid to 813,442 veterans, and 107,824 veterans were enrolled in government-sponsored vocational training programs.
In 1922, the House passed a veterans’ bonus bill 333-70, without saying how the bonuses would be funded. The senate passed it 35-17. Despite intense lobbying from the American Legion, Harding vetoed the bill on September 19— just six weeks before congressional elections, when presidents generally throw goodies at voters. Harding said it was unfair to add to the burdens of 110 million taxpayers.
Harding’s Secretary of Commerce Herbert Hoover wanted government intervention in the economy— which as president he was to pursue when he faced the Great Depression a decade later— but Harding would have none of it. He insisted that relief measures were a local responsibility.
Federal spending was cut from $6.3 billion in 1920 to $5 billion in 1921 and $3.2 billion in 1922. Federal taxes fell from $6.6 billion in 1920 to $5.5 billion in 1921 and $4 billion in 1922. Harding’s policies started a trend. The low point for federal taxes was reached in 1924; for federal spending, in1925. The federal government paid off debt, which had been $24.2 billion in 1920, and it continued to decline until 1930.
Conspicuously absent was the business-bashing that became a hallmark of FDR’s speeches. Absent, too, were New Deal-type big government programs to make it more expensive for employers to hire people, to force prices above market levels, or to promote cartels and monopolies.
With Harding’s tax and spending cuts and relatively non-interventionist economic policy, GNP rebounded to $74.1 billion in 1922. The number of unemployed fell to 2.8 million— a reported 6.7 percent of the labor force— in 1922. So, just a year and a half after Harding became president, the Roaring Twenties were underway. The unemployment rate continued to decline, reaching an extraordinary low of 1.8 percent in 1926. Since then, the unemployment rate has been lower only once in wartime (1944), and never in peacetime.
The Roaring Twenties were a time of unprecedented prosperity. GNP expanded year after year without inflation. Productivity improved, and real wages increased. The stock market tripled. There was a dramatic expansion of the middle class. The Great Migration occurred during the 1920s, with some 7 million African-Americans moving north for better schools and job opportunities. Women had the vote. Millions of Americans began to buy cars, originally a luxury of the rich. People bought radios that enabled ordinary people to hear the finest entertainers in their own homes. Movies became popular. Frozen food made possible a more varied diet year-round. Doctors developed new medicines to fight deadly diseases like diphtheria and tuberculosis.
While Harding can hardly be considered a champion of laissez-faire economics (he supported tariffs, after all), the pro-growth policies he implemented are directly responsible for the astonishingly rapid growth in prosperity— and widely shared prosperity— America enjoyed throughout the Roaring 20s.
Unfortunately, Harding’s stunning success as a depression fighter was overshadowed by the Teapot Dome scandal that engulfed his administration after his death in August 1923. This resulted from “progressive” era conservation policies in which the government owned land known to have petroleum reserves— at Teapot Dome, Wyoming, and Elk Hills, California. Since the beginnings of recorded history, government involvement in the economy has led to corruption, and Secretary of the Interior Albert Fall accepted bribes for leases enabling private companies to extract the oil. There wouldn’t have been a scandal if the reserves had been privatized, as more than 250 million acres of government land had been privatized during the previous century.
Rather than follow the model of FDR— whose policies raised only Americans’ spirits— President-Elect Obama ought to consider the model of Warren G. Harding, whose policies raised Americans’ standard of living, and lifted the nation itself out of a depression— before it had a chance to become Great.
>U.S. Senator Frank Lautenberg taken to area hospital after fall
U.S. Sen. Frank Lautenberg was taken by ambulance tonight from his Cliffside Park home after suffering a fall, his spokesman said. The 86-year-old Democrat was conscious when he was taken to the hospital “as a precautionary measure,” said the spokesman, Caley Grey. Grey said he did not know if Lautenberg had fallen inside the Bergen County condominium or whether he had suffered any injuries. Lautenberg was elected to his fifth term in the Senate in 2008, defeating former U.S. Rep. Richard Zimmer with roughly 55 percent of the vote.
He was thrust back into the political spotlight in recent months as his name became synonymous with two major political storylines in the state — the security breach at Newark Liberty International Airport and the Sean Goldman custody case. The Paterson-born Lautenberg was one of the most outspoken critics of the Transportation Security Administration after Haisong Jiang, a Rutgers graduate student, wandered beyond a security checkpoint last month to steal a kiss from his girlfriend, shutting down Terminal C for nearly six hours and accidentally exposing security flaws at one of the nation’s largest airports. Just a week before the airport incident, Lautenberg claimed he “used the hammer” of senatorial power to help Tinton Falls resident David Goldman regain custody of his son, Sean, ending an international custody dispute between the Monmouth County man and the Brazilian government which had dragged on for years.
Lautenberg returned Friday night from a whirlwind 11-hour trip to Haiti with a congressional delegation that included House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. He was scheduled to have a news conference today in Newark to discuss the trip and state efforts providing relief. (Queally/Jackson, Star Ledger/The Record)
The First Democrat elected after the Civil War, Grover Cleveland was the only President to leave the White House and return for a second term four years later.
One of nine children of a Presbyterian minister, Cleveland was born in New Jersey in 1837. He was raised in upstate New York. As a lawyer in Buffalo, he became notable for his single-minded concentration upon whatever task faced him.
At 44, he emerged into a political prominence that carried him to the White House in three years. Running as a reformer, he was elected Mayor of Buffalo in 1881, and later, Governor of New York.
Cleveland won the Presidency with the combined support of Democrats and reform Republicans, the “Mugwumps,” who disliked the record of his opponent James G. Blaine of Maine.
A bachelor, Cleveland was ill at ease at first with all the comforts of the White House. “I must go to dinner,” he wrote a friend, “but I wish it was to eat a pickled herring a Swiss cheese and a chop at Louis’ instead of the French stuff I shall find.” In June 1886 Cleveland married 21-year-old Frances Folsom; he was the only President married in the White House.
Cleveland vigorously pursued a policy barring special favors to any economic group. Vetoing a bill to appropriate $10,000 to distribute seed grain among drought-stricken farmers in Texas, he wrote: “Federal aid in such cases encourages the expectation of paternal care on the part of the Government and weakens the sturdiness of our national character. . . . “
He also vetoed many private pension bills to Civil War veterans whose claims were fraudulent. When Congress, pressured by the Grand Army of the Republic, passed a bill granting pensions for disabilities not caused by military service, Cleveland vetoed it, too.
He angered the railroads by ordering an investigation of western lands they held by Government grant. He forced them to return 81,000,000 acres. He also signed the Interstate Commerce Act, the first law attempting Federal regulation of the railroads.
In December 1887 he called on Congress to reduce high protective tariffs. Told that he had given Republicans an effective issue for the campaign of 1888, he retorted, “What is the use of being elected or re-elected unless you stand for something?” But Cleveland was defeated in 1888; although he won a larger popular majority than the Republican candidate Benjamin Harrison, he received fewer electoral votes.
Elected again in 1892, Cleveland faced an acute depression. He dealt directly with the Treasury crisis rather than with business failures, farm mortgage foreclosures, and unemployment. He obtained repeal of the mildly inflationary Sherman Silver Purchase Act and, with the aid of Wall Street, maintained the Treasury’s gold reserve.
When railroad strikers in Chicago violated an injunction, Cleveland sent Federal troops to enforce it. “If it takes the entire army and navy of the United States to deliver a post card in Chicago,” he thundered, “that card will be delivered.”
Cleveland’s blunt treatment of the railroad strikers stirred the pride of many Americans. So did the vigorous way in which he forced Great Britain to accept arbitration of a disputed boundary in Venezuela. But his policies during the depression were generally unpopular. His party deserted him and nominated William Jennings Bryan in 1896.
After leaving the White House, Cleveland lived in retirement in Princeton, New Jersey. He died in 1908.
Washington’s Birthday is the official name designated to what many of us know as President’s Day. During the month of February the birthday of two of our greatest President’s takes place. Both George Washington who was born on Feb. 22nd and Abraham Lincoln born on Feb. 12th.
However, Washington’s birthday has been publicly celebrated since he was in office, before Abraham Lincoln was even born. Much of the debate over the name of the holiday springs from the fact that state’s can follow their own holidays how they see fit and many of them chose to also honor Lincoln, calling the celebration President’s Day.
It was in 1968 that the term President’s Day came up for legal consideration in the Congress but was shot down, though the holiday was moved to fall between the two President’s birthdays. Again in the 1980’s there was a resurgence of the term with advertisers which solidfied the holiday name in American culture. Today, few Americans perfer to call the holiday Washington’s Birthday in lieu of President’s Day.
To Honor Presidents Day the Ridgewood blog will use this week to give a little back ground on a few of our late presidents , we started with Lincoln last week and we will end with Washington next Monday.
Chinese New Year or Spring Festival is the most important of the traditional Chinese holidays. It is also called “Lunar New Year”, because it is based on the lunisolar Chinese calendar. The festival traditionally begins on the first day of the first month pinyin: pronounced zhēng yuè in the Chinese calendar and ends on the 15th; this day is called Lantern Festival. Chinese New Year’s Eve is known as chú xī. It literally means “Year-pass Eve”.
Chinese New Year By the Chinese Calendar 2010 is the Year of the Tiger,which is also known by its formal name of Geng Yin.2010 is also Year 4707 in the Chinese Calendar .The Chinese calendar has been in continuous use for centuries. It predates the International Calendar (based on the Gregorian Calendar) in use at the present, which goes back only some 430 years. Basically, a calendar is a system we use to measures the passage of time, from short durations of minutes and hours, to intervals of time measured in days, months, years and centuries. These are fundamentally based on the astronomical observations of the movement of the Sun, Moon and stars.
Each year is also designated by one of the 12 Animals For instance, 2005 is Year of Rooster; 2006 is Year of Dog; and 2007 is the Year of Pig. 2008 is the Year of the Rat and 2010 is the Year of the Tiger.
This system is extremely practical. A child does not have to learn a new answer to the question, “How old are you?” in each new year. Old people often lose track of their age, because they are rarely asked about their present age. Every one just have to remember that he or she was born in the “Year of the Dog” or whatever.
>Bergen LEADS is a year-long learning and leadership experience for adults who live or work in Bergen County.
We’re looking for 30 talented leaders for the Bergen LEADS Class of 2011.
WANT TO KNOW MORE?
REGISTER TODAY FOR A FREE INFORMATIONAL OPEN HO– USE
Find out how you can become a part of Bergen LEADS Meet alumni and members of the Class of 2010
Bergen LEADS February Open House Schedule Open houses are free of charge. Directions will be sent upon receipt of your registration.
Tuesday, February 16 9:00 – 10:30 am Cole, Schotz, Meisel, Forman & Leonard Hackensack
Thursday, February 18 NEW! 8:15 – 10:00 am Meadowlands Regional Chamber of Commerce Membership Meeting* Rutherford *$500 scholarship available to four MRC members!
Thursday, February 18 11:30 am – 1:00 pm TD Bank Ramsey
Tuesday, February 23 8:30 – 10:00 am Bergen Regional Medical Center Paramus
Thursday, February 25 8:30 – 10:00 am Holy Name Hospital Teaneck
More than $70 billion in wealth left New Jersey between 2004 and 2008 as affluent residents moved elsewhere, according to a report released Wednesday that marks a swift reversal of fortune for a state once considered the nation’s wealthiest.
Conducted by the Center on Wealth and Philanthropy at Boston College, the report found wealthy households in New Jersey were leaving for other states — mainly Florida, Pennsylvania and New York — at a faster rate than they were being replaced.
——————————————————————————– • Rutgers University economists say it could take seven years to recover from recession
——————————————————————————–
“The wealth is not being replaced,” said John Havens, who directed the study. “It’s above and beyond the general trend that is affecting the rest of the northeast.”
This was not always the case. The study – the first on interstate wealth migration in the country — noted the state actually saw an influx of $98 billion in the five years preceding 2004. The exodus of wealth, then, local experts and economists concluded, was a reaction to a series of changes in the state’s tax structure — including increases in the income, sales, property and “millionaire” taxes.
“This study makes it crystal clear that New Jersey’s tax policies are resulting in a significant decline in the state’s wealth,” said Dennis Bone, chairman of the New Jersey Chamber of Commerce and president of Verizon New Jersey.
>At the insistence of Deputy Mayor Keith D. Killion, Village Council members effectively killed a proposal to increase Graydon Pool membership fees for the 2010 season.
Village Parks and Recreation Director Timothy Cronin and Village Manager Kenneth Gabbert had proposed the following changes:
a) $10.00 increase in seasonal membership (from $75.00 to $85.00)
b) Senior citizens (now free) would have been charged $15.00 for the season
c) Elimination of coupon books
Citing a continued poor economy, and a desire to encourage as many residents as possible to use the controversial facility, Council members agreed with Killion that fees should be held in place for the entire 2010 season.
Following the public decision last night, resident Roger Wiegand proposed to Killion that fees actually be lowered to draw more users to the pool. Killion indicated that he would take Wiegand’s suggestion under consideration.
A proposal to modify The Valley Hospital’s expansion plan by putting parking and other facilities underground is doable, but handling groundwater during construction would be a problem, a geology expert told the Ridgewood Planning Board.
“It’s technically feasible” to build parking for 2,000 cars and locate hospital mechanicals underground, said Larry Keller, director of geotechnical engineering for Whitestone Associates of Warren. But he said excavation would involve discharging “lots of groundwater” as well as digging through bedrock.
The proposal to go underground – suggested by a consultant to the planning board — is favored by residents who strongly oppose Valley’s original expansion plan.
The original Valley plan calls for replacing two buildings with three new ones and erecting a parking deck — increasing the hospital’s size by 67 percent. But nearby residents worry that those buildings would overshadow their neighborhood. The modified proposal would set the buildings farther back from the residential streets.
Keller was hired by the Planning Board to study whether the modified building plan would work. “Part of this plan is an assessment of the groundwater, and it would be worthwhile to know now, rather than during construction,” how to pump it out and what to do with it, Keller told the Planning Board late Tuesday night.
Another concern would be how to support structures during excavation which, depending on how far buildings are set back, might encroach on property along Steilen Avenue, to the east, he said….
“I understand the village typically wouldn’t want blasting,” Keller said. The blasting charges are small, and might make for a shorter construction schedule, but would create vibration of nearby property that would have to be monitored, he said.
Raymond Skorupa, the medical planning consultant who last fall recommended the underground parking plan, said Keller’s report hadn’t changed his mind, “but I have a better understanding of the impediments.”
“We’d like to see more of the hospital space below grade,” Skorupa said. But it’s up to Valley to decide how much to spend on the project and to the surrounding community to decide on “the trade-off of going deeper, but having to endure the construction, and maybe more trucks,” he said.
Keller and Skorupa were hired by the Planning Board, and paid with escrow funds from Valley. Board Chairman David Nicholson asked Skorupa to return in three weeks with more options. …
Valley officials are concerned that underground construction would disrupt the neighborhood and make the hospital vulnerable to Hurricane Katrina-like flooding.
Paul Gould, spokesman for Concerned Residents of Ridgewood, said that argument was “bogus,” because there are no bodies of water near Valley to flood the hospital.
>Major cable network is searching for a large, extended and multi-generational family to be the stars of their own comedy reality show. We’re looking for funny families that BREAK THE MOLD and BREAK THE MOLD of your typical ho-hum American household. This show will document their lives and explore the family’s complexity while witnessing the craziness, chaos and love that makes their family special.
• At your annual Thanksgiving dinner, do you look around and think your family should have a reality show because no one would believe it otherwise?
• Do you find yourself having to explain your family dynamic to those unfamiliar with how things work in your non-traditional household?
• Do your siblings, parents, in-laws or hired help bring a new element that pushes the envelope? Maybe someone is in a May/Dec relationship or has taken on responsibilities or roles that might deviate from the norm? Perhaps one of them is gay or was adopted from a far-flung exotic locale? Is there someone of a different race or ethnicity that’s mixing things up in your previously homogenous family?
If your family puts the FUN in dysFUNctional, then this is the show for you!!!
Tell us about you and your family. The good, the bad and the ugly.
Please include: All Family Names, ages and occupations. A brief bio about your immediate and extended family. Include a family photo(s). Contact Phone numbers for the main contact in each family. Email info to: [email protected]
*This is a feel good show where at the end of the day LOVE CONQUERS ALL. * All family members involved must live in close proximity to one another. *Characters welcome.
> Tickets for the Jamboree 2010 production “And the Winner Is” are now on sale and available to you from the Jamboree website www.rhsjamboree.com
The shows are February 4th and 5th at 8:00 p.m. and February 6th at 7:00 p.m.
Celebrating its 64th year, Jamboree is a tremendous collaboration of Ridgewood H.S. parents,all volunteering to put together this wonderful production of “And the Winner Is”.
All proceeds from Jamboree go to the Jamboree Scholarship program. The scholarships are distributed in the spring to deserving RHS students who would not otherwise be able to realize their dreams of attending college.
For additional support, go to our web site and under “Kings Scholarship Card” click to download the card and proceeds from your purchases at King’s on Maple Ave. will go towards the fund.
>NJ Voters Reject Majority Of School Bond Referenda
The results from yesterday’s school bond referenda are encouraging for New Jersey taxpayers. Under consideration were 14 measures across 9 districts totaling approximately $293M. Among these, only two were approved by the voters.
Referenda Passed
•Cumberland, NJ approved $9,960,123 in bonding to replace roof and install solar panels at high school. •Montague Township approved $395,125 in new bonding for partial roof replacement and repairs at elementary school. Referenda Rejected
The following are a few of the bond measures with the highest price tags that were rejected:
•Edison Township: $137,068,139 in bonding for renovations to 13 schools; $29,775,888 in bonding to build a new elementary school. •Pennsauken Township: $34,665,986 in bonding to demolish an elementary school and construct a new school •Wood Ridge: $14,922,540 in bonding for additions and renovations, including new classrooms and science labs, boilers, solar panels, and roof repairs; $10,388,543 in bonding for additions and renovations, including new classrooms, window replacement, electrical upgrades These results are a strong sign that New Jersey voters are no longer willing to tolerate more borrowing, debt and higher property taxes.
In contrast, in 2009 there were 81 school bond referenda and only 33 were voted down.
>N.J. Gov. Chris Christie nominates health commissioner, school construction chief Gov. Chris Christie continued to expand the management team for his 8-day-old administration today by nominating an insurance company’s medical director to lead the state Health Department and a federal prosecutor to run the controversial Schools Development Authority.
As he introduced Marc Larkins as the schools authority’s chief executive officer, Christie also declared he’s ended the agency’s free-spending days. The governor said that on Tuesday he stopped the authority from making a $1.2 million payment for a $28.7 million high school in Burlington City that already was nearly $17 million over budget. He nullified the authority’s approval by vetoing the minutes of the Jan. 6 meeting when the change order was approved. “You could practically build another school for what they are over budget,’’ Christie said incredulously yesterday. “This is exactly why the Schools Development Authority has continued to run through billions of dollars of taxpayer money — because of this kind of irresponsibility.’’ Christie said he intended to maintain the authority that members of his transition team said in a report last week will be insolvent by March. “The question is how it operates going forward,’’ he said. Christie, who was Larkins’ boss at the U.S. attorney’s office, said he hired the 35-year-old Irvington resident again for his “compassion and accountability. … He will bring extraordinary focus and personal experience to this position.’’
The governor said he picked Poonam Alaigh, 45, of Warren Township, to lead the state Department of Health and Senior Services because of her versatile experience as a physician and as manager in the health care and pharmaceutical industries. Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey, the largest health insurer in the state, hired Alaigh 10 months ago as its executive medical director for Quality and Care Management. She previously had been the medical director for the pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline. She is also a practicing physician, specializing in vascular diseases. Alaigh told reporters at a Statehouse press conference yesterday her first priority is to help the governor “balance the budget,” which Christie has said is hobbled by a $1.3 billion deficit. But the economic pressure on the Health Department is always intense, particularly from the troubled hospital industry, hobbled in recent years by bankruptcies and closures and dependent on government subsidies to treat uninsured, elderly and poor people. (Livio, Star Ledger)
