Monday, May 20, 2013
Jobless rate drops to 8.7 percent, revenues sufficient to avoid further cuts.
Gov. Chris Christie got a double dose of good news last week, as New Jersey's April unemployment rate dipped below 9 percent for the first time in four years and state revenue collections met his Treasury Department's revised targets. Echoing former President Ronald Reagan, an ebullient Christie declared at a town meeting in Sayreville that "the best social program is a job," and declared that his economic and fiscal policies were responsible for New Jersey's economic, employment, and revenue growth. “Revenues are up, jobs are up and unemployment is down," Assembly Minority Leader Jon Bramnick (R-Union) declared. Treasury's announcement that April's revenues came in just ahead of target takes some of the drama out of Monday's Senate Budget…
Monday, May 13, 2013
But Community Affairs chief says systemic reforms, cuts in total tax rate are key.
Assembly Democrats last week assailed Gov. Chris Christie for an 18.6 percent increase in net property taxes over the past three years, but Christie’s community affairs commissioner said long-term savings and cuts in overall tax rates are more important. Community Affairs commissioner Richard E. Constable III told the Assembly Budget Committee that the 2.4 percent growth in property taxes in 2011 and 1.6 percent rise last year were the smallest statewide hikes in 20 years and an improvement over an "increase of 70 percent in the 10 years before Governor Christie took office." But Democratic committee members disputed Constable’s view, citing a New Jersey Spotlight analysis showing that net property taxes -- the net cost of property taxes …
Saturday, May 11, 2013
GOP lawmakers says proposal’s too expensive, not needed because people can cast absentee ballots.
Gov. Chris Christie on Thursday vetoed a bill that would have created a system for early voting in New Jersey, which Democrats saw as needed to expand voting opportunities but the governor deemed unnecessary. Inspired by the state’s chaotic 2012 presidential election held in the wake of Superstorm Sandy, the bill, S-2364and A-3553, would have permitted voters to cast ballots in person at designated polling locations as early as 15 days prior to an election. It was sponsored by and supported by only Democrats. All Republicans in both the Senate and Assembly opposed it, and given the composition of the Legislature, it is impossible to override a veto without GOP support. In his veto message, Christie said New Jersey voters have been able to …
Wednesday, May 8, 2013
One of the few things educators and administrators agree on: charter schools need multiple authorizers.
By Laura Waters [Laura Waters has been president of the Lawrence Township School Board in Mercer County for eight years. She also blogs about New Jersey education policy and politics at NJLeftBehind.com. A former instructor at SUNY Binghamton in a program that served educationally disadvantaged students from New York's inner cities, she holds a Ph.D. in early American literature from Binghamton.] Here’s a rarity within New Jersey’s education reform community: consensus. The NJ Education Association, Gov. Chris Christie, Commissioner Chris Cerf, Education Law Center, and NJ Charter Association concur that the state's charter school law is broken. In response, several members of the state Legislature are working on overhauls, and last week a…
Tuesday, May 7, 2013
Governor tells New York Post that Lap-Band procedure was done at the urging of his family. An NYU doctor made house calls to Christie's Mendham home to not draw attention to the surgery.
Gov. Chris Christie underwent stomach-shrinking Lap-Band surgery in February, he confirmed to the New York Post on Monday night while refuting speculation that he was slimming down for a White House run in 2016. Christie quietly had the Lap-Band -- or laparoscopic adjustable gastric binding -- procedure done in a New York hospital, telling the paper that he agreed to the surgery at the urging of his family after turning 50 in September. The governor insisted that the Lap-Band was not inserted to help him lose weight in the run-up to 2016. "I know it sounds crazy to say that running for president is minor, but in the grand scheme of things, it was looking at Mary Pat and the kids and going, 'I have to do this for them, even if I don’t …
Christie rebate cuts cause 22.4 percent increase in net property taxes that hits those making under $150,000.
Net property taxes in New Jersey rose 22.4 percent in Gov. Chris Christie's first three years in office, compared to just 6 percent in Democratic Gov. Jon Corzine's last three years in office, a New Jersey Spotlight analysis shows. Christie, who has made attacks on “Corzine Democrats” a centerpiece of his reelection campaign, has been touting his record of holding down overall property tax increases. But when Christie’s rebate reductions are factored in, his property tax record is not so clear-cut. While Corzine doubled average property tax rebates from 2006 to 2009 and provided rebates to families earning as much as $250,000, Christie sharply cut the size of rebate payments and limited eligibility for non-seniors to those earning $75,000 …
Sunday, May 5, 2013
Money to go to balancing the general state budget rather than building houses for low- and middle-income residents.
Defying several attempts at killing it off, the New Jersey Council on Affordable Housing met for the first time in more than two years on Wednesday to begin the process of taking at least $142 million in funds dedicated to low- and moderate-income housing to help balance the state budget. COAH, which has few friends in the Legislature, was reorganized out of existence in 2011 by Gov. Chris Christie. The council voted 4-1 to ask municipalities to send proof of their plans to spend any money that had been dormant in their affordable housing trust funds for four years as of July 17, 2012 and transfer the remaining, unspent money to the council by May 22, according to the resolution. The resolution also gave its acting director approval to …
Saturday, May 4, 2013
Christie cites families, wife -- and Jon Bon Jovi -- in explaining new position on ‘Good Samaritan’ bill.
From a governor who rarely changes course after stating his views on a bill, Chris Christie’s decision to sign a measure granting immunity to those who aid drug overdose victims was nearly unprecedented. It took dogged lobbying from the families of residents who died from overdoses, as well as urging from New Jersey First Lady Mary Pat Christie, for the governor to embrace the “Good Samaritan” bill. The effort also received an assist from celebrity rocker Jon Bon Jovi, whose daughter survived an overdose. The bill (S-2082) protects both overdose victims and those who are with them from arrest for drug possession. It also offers immunity to those who administer an opioid overdose antidote, naloxone. Christie had issued a conditional veto of…
Friday, May 3, 2013
Administration shaves test score component of teacher evaluations by 5 percent.
After an extraordinary amount of public comment and some high-level meetings, the Christie administration has hedged on its plans to use test scores to evaluate teachers -- but not by much. State Education Commissioner Chris Cerf and his staff Wednesday presented revisions to the new teacher evaluation code before the State Board of Education that would slightly lessen the weight that test scores would have in a teacher’s annual evaluation. After first proposing that scores would amount to 35 percent of a performance evaluation for math and language arts teachers in grades 4-8, Cerf yesterday said that total would be trimmed to 30 percent for next year. In addition, he said only the scores of students who had been enrolled with a given …
Thursday, May 2, 2013
Rebuffed by Legislature, Christie goes for major regulatory changes through Civil Service Commission.
Tired of waiting for the Democratic-controlled Legislature to send him a new civil service bill to replace the one he vetoed two years ago, Gov. Chris Christie is pushing sweeping changes through a Civil Service Commission he effectively controls. Christie’s civil service overhaul is the latest in a series of high-profile battles with public employee unions that have defined his governorship and propelled him to national prominence. These have ranged from school vouchers and merit pay for teachers to a landmark pension and health benefits bill that not only forced public employees to pay more, but also eliminated the right of unions to bargain on health benefits for four years. The Christie administration's proposed civil service …
Chief Wahoo
10:30 am on Monday, May 13, 2013
Damn you math , why do you curse Christie so ????? more ›