March 3,2017
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood NJ, in a recent ‘U.S. News & World Report’ Best States Ranking, New Jersey ranks 14th.New Jersey beat out New York, Florida, California, Hawaii and Pennsylvania in the overall rankings.
According to the study, the Best States ranking of U.S. states draws on thousands of data points to measure how well states are performing for their citizens. In addition to health care and education, the metrics take into account a state’s economy, the opportunity it offers people, its roads, bridges, internet and other infrastructure, its public safety and the integrity and health of state government.
What’s amazing is the rankings not only consider such categories as health care(pricey in NJ ), education (forgetaboutit ) but the “state’s economy(ugh), the opportunity it offers people (live with mom), its roads, bridges (total disaster), internet and other infrastructure (public rest rooms), its public safety (cops everywhere) and the integrity and health of state government( your kidding right).”
The Top 10 states in the overall rankings include (in order):
1. Massachusetts
2. New Hampshire
3. Minnesota
4. North Dakota
5. Washington
6. Iowa
7. Utah
8. Maryland
9. Colorado
10. Vermont
The Rankings noted the state’s “world-class universities, leading technology and biological science firms and one fast turnpike,” out of 50 states, the report lists New Jersey 2nd in education, 8th in health care, and 27th in opportunity.
In other categories, you guessed it New Jersey comes in dead last in the category of government, which takes into consideration such things as “Fiscal Stability” (ranked 49th in the country), “Budget Transparency” (29th), and “State Integrity” (18th) Scary New Jersey placed 18th.
The good news in the rankings, New Jersey leads the rest of U.S. states with a zero-percent over-capacity of its State Prison System. New Jersey comes in 2nd place for “Public Transit Usage,” and its low property crime rate ranked 3rd out of all 50 states.
Meanwhile, New Jersey ranked well in overall household income (4th), low suicide rate (2nd), fewest nursing home citations (4th), and pre-school enrollment (1st).
70% more cops per capita than any other state, making 50% more than the average cop in the US according to FBI data, why?
Many of those cops are in our suburbs manning speed traps to help pay for the cost of so many cops. So it’s a vicious circle – we’re actually paying people to drive up our auto insurance premiums just so they can justify their job.
Cut the police force by 50% by not replacing retiring cops, and put them on bronze level health benefits and 401(k) style defined contribution pension plans.
Then perhaps NJ goes up the rankings, our auto insurance premiums and taxes go down, and maybe we can afford some new investments in bridges, roads, tunnels and our schools instead of overpaying for public safety and public sector pensioners?