|
|
Posts Tagged ‘Money Bags’
Sunday, October 4th, 2009
The other day I picked up my absentee ballot from my post office box. As some of you may recall, I’ve decided to go all absentee ballot, all of the time. Actually, this only counts for the “big” elections since the state doesn’t allow you to use this particular absentee balloting system for the smaller elections like the School Board. The ballot that I received did have small, local elections on it, but I’m permitted to vote in them since the larger election is for governor.
And what a decision we have to make in New Jersey politics, huh?
I think I’ve made it obvious on previous posts on this blog that I’m no big fan of Governor Money Bags (aka Jon Corzine). How this state elected a multi-millionaire to be the governor – especially when he ran on the basis of being able to understand the common man. How can a guy who doesn’t have to worry about money EVER understand what it’s like to be a regular person trying to survive in New Jersey?! Good grief!
Of course, like most statewide elections, the Democrats in New Jersey can get away with anything that they want because they have Essex and Camden counties on lock down. The amount of votes in those two counties is significant and puts the Democrats in a situation where they only need to get a few percentage points in each of the other counties to win major elections. It’s a shame, really.
But this election is different. New Jerseyans are fed up with the deteriorating state of our government and they want real change. Sound familiar? My concern is that while I’ll probably vote for Chris Christie, I’m not particularly voting FOR him, but rather against Corzine. And I’d much rather vote for Dagget or the Libertarian candidate, but I despise Corzine so much that I feel compelled to vote for the only guy who has a real chance to beat him.
A sorry state of affairs in Nw Jersey
Posted in Local People & Politics, The State of New Jersey | No Comments »
Sunday, May 3rd, 2009
Thankfully, New Jerseyans seems to be coming to their senses and it would appear that they are preparing to kick Governor Money Bags (aka Governor Corzine) out of office come November. An article in today’s Daily Record cited how an overwhelming majority of New Jersey voters agreed that our state’s budget is in critical condition. This follows a recent poll showing that Corzine is trailing his likely Republican opponent Chris Christie. The Daily Record article states:
(more…)
Posted in The State of New Jersey | No Comments »
Wednesday, March 11th, 2009
Governor Jon Corzine (aka Governor Money Bags) just doesn’t get it when it comes to New Jersey and the struggling families in our state. Yesterday he gave his budget address and it was a disaster for all working families. The total budget that he proposed was $29.8 billion which includes cutting property tax rebates to almost the entire middle class population of New Jersey: any family making more than $75,000 will have their property tax rebate eliminated.
I know that my friends living across the nation are thinking, “Wait – you guys are getting upset over people making more than $75,000 having their property tax rebates cut? Shut up!” Look, I understand that mindset and if this was going on in any other part of the nation, I might agree with you. But New Jersey is the most expensive state in the union! Property taxes in most of the state are between $7,000 and $10,000 each year. Each year! Most New Jerseyans wouldn’t mind paying so much in property taxes if the level of services that were received for the expense matched. However, in New Jersey most property tax revenues are shoveled into Newark and Camden and any other number of these so-called “underserved” Abbott school districts. Let me tell you something. I’ve toured many of the schools in these Abbott districts as well as many of the schools in the regular school districts. Trust me, the kids in the Abbott districts have a much better learning environment than their suburban counterparts. It’s bull.
Some thoughts from a posting on the Daily Record website:
Corzine struck a sober tone in his fourth budget address, saying tough choices are necessary now to ensure New Jersey emerges strong when the global recession lifts. He also reminded the Legislature of reckless spending in the past, saying years of irresponsible spending contributed to the state’s dire fiscal circumstances this year.
“You can’t correct 15 or 20 years of bad decisions in 38 months,” Corzine said. “The steps we’ve taken have put our state’s finances on more solid ground.”
What a sorry SOB this guy is. How out of touch with reality must one man be to say, “Hey, the last 15 years were a disaster,” when he operated the state for 3 of those 15 years!? Come on! When does reality sink in? When do the masses in Essex and Camden county finally stop and say “WAIT! Enough! We’re NOT voting for the New Jersey Democrats any more!”
I’m not advocating for everyone to vote for the Republicans (except for Chris Christie – see below), but damn it – STOP voting for these ridiculous Democrats who have no idea what it’s like to try to survive in this state. Vote for the Libertarians or the Constitution Party – vote for someone other than the Democrats already! They’ve ruined this state and they’re not going to stop.
And Governor Money Bags’ budget gets better… If you make more than $500,000, you could have your taxes raised this year only as a way to raise more funds for the state treasury. So if you were making all of this money, why wouldn’t you find a way to be listed as a Pennsylvania resident for this tax year? What stupid, stupid idea from this idiot governor.
Governor Money Bags also wants to money to hospitals and small towns (which are proven to be operated more efficiently and in a more cost-effective manner than their larger counterparts). Good grief! The next thing you know he’s going to start taxing the shore towns for how much sand is in their jurisdiction! Maybe he can go to an old folks home and tax them for each gray hair they have on their heads, too!
This man needs to be stopped as soon as possible. Chris Christie MUST win the upcoming gubernatorial election or this state is going to continue its out of control spiral towards being an unhealthy place for middle Americans to live, work, and retire.
Posted in Money, Jobs, & Finances, The State of New Jersey | 2 Comments »
Saturday, November 15th, 2008
Over the last few days I’ve posted some information about a third party in the 2008 election – the Constitution Party. I’m just putting this information out there because I really believe that third parties are railroaded by the mainstream media and that America needs a strong third party to challenge the Democrats and Republicans. But as I look at these parties, I begin to wonder why they don’t start smaller and use more aggressive tactics.
For example, I’ve been looking at the voter results in my hometown of Mount Arlington (obsessively so). The Constitution Party received 2 votes in my hometown out of a total of 2,536 votes case. Repeat: they received 2 votes. Honestly, that’s not too bad! Mount Arlington isn’t too big and for a third party to pull any votes is impressive. Write-ins received 14 votes, Ralph Nader had 13, the Libertarians had 5 votes, the list goes on. In total, third parties received 41 votes or 1.6% of the vote.
Again, that’s not totally bad in this type of election, but if the third parties want to do better then they should be building a stronger base at the local level. For example, there were 4,387 votes cast for the Mount Arlington Borough Council (you get to cast two votes, which means a total of 5,072 votes could have been cast – some voters obviously chose not to vote for Borough Council or only cast one vote). I have to imagine that if a third party really wants to make an impact, they would spend a good deal of time and money at the lowest level of government and try to win these smaller elections. You win the local election for Mayor or Town Council or whatever, prove that your policies work at the local level, then try to expand to other local municipalities or to the county level (depending where you are in the United States).
The Republicans won in Mount Arlington and from what I can see, they’ve done a fine job of leading. They were handed the short end of the stick thanks to Governor Money Bags’ new anti-small town policies, but they’re managing. That said, their leading candidate received 24.34% of the votes cast. A third party should be able to meet that percentage if they wage a good campaign.
Or maybe there are other reasons why third parties aren’t making it in America. If I were running a third party, I’d choose a few small towns across America and use them as examples for why my party should be elected to higher offices. Hell, I’d even look at taking in disenfranchised members of the Republicans or Democrats and use them as the candidates for my party! Why not use those folks who already have name recognition and some type of rapport with the public?
But I would do more. I would hold voter registration drives and be sure to get those people who have never registered or never thought of registering. Go door to door if necessary and have unregistered voters fill out a voter registration form at the same time as they fill out an absentee ballot request. Put them on that perpetual absentee ballot program and tell them that it means they can literally vote from home – so long as they drop the ballot in the mail in time. If it’s legal (and I don’t know if it is), drop them some simple, uncomplicated campaign propaganda. Get them a button or a bumper sticker or something.
It just seems to me that third parties aren’t utilizing these very simple tactics in order to take a foothold at the smallest levels of American society. Again, maybe they are doing these things in places other than New Jersey and I don’t see it, but I have to think that third parties could be doing a better job of getting the word out about their existence and their platforms.
Posted in Local People & Politics, The State of New Jersey, United States Politics | 1 Comment »
Thursday, November 13th, 2008
Today’s Daily Record ran a story entitled, “Builders in Highlands must add affordable units.” The increased production of affordable or workforce housing units in northwest New Jersey (also known as the Highlands) should be a priority – there’s no doubt about it. There are many people like me who are making a decent salary that just cannot afford to live in New Jersey because the asking prices for homes are completely outlandish. God bless my fellow New Jerseyans for wanting top dollar for their homes, but unlike the national housing bubble – the local housing bubble hasn’t totally burst yet in New Jersey.
That said, let me make it clear that the latest COAH rules are infringing on what makes the Highlands one of the most beautiful parts of the state. For those non-New Jersey folks out there, you wouldn’t know that you were still in this state if you were driving around portions of Morris, Sussex, Warren, and Hunterdon counties. We have large forests and some gorgeous wildlife areas that are being preserved by the Highlands Commission. But we also have Governor Money Bags (you non-New Jerseyans may know him as Jon Corzine). This man knows nothing of New Jersey outside of Newark, Trenton, and Camden and – frankly – the way that the masses in Essex, Mercer, and Camden counties constantly vote Democratic, he has no reason to know anything else.
From the article in the Daily Record:
COAH issued a “scarce resource restraint” on all Highlands towns under its control — 72 of the 88 towns in the region, including 24 of Morris County’s 32 municipalities — that appears to stop all construction that does not include affordable units. The order applies even to those towns in the Highlands region’s planning area, where compliance with a regional master plan is voluntary. Still allowed would be any building exempted from the 2004 Highlands law, including a single home on an existing lot.
Stopping construction may not be the best news for those of us looking for a home in that part of the state, but given the economy construction may have stopped anyway. Forcing affordable units into larger developments, though, is not the proper way to move forward. In fact, I talk to many housing developers on a daily basis and restrictions like these almost always lead to an increase in the total number of units being built – though the amount of land to build on is not increased. What does this mean? It means more bodies in less space. It’s unnecessary urbanization. More from the article:
COAH’s action was in response to Gov. Jon S. Corzine’s September executive order that affordable housing not be built at the expense of protecting water resources in the 860,000-acre environmentally sensitive region and that COAH and the New Jersey Highlands Council work together to reconcile their competing mandates.
Highlands Executive Director Eileen Swan said that COAH’s order won’t stop all development. Any subdivision in which 20 percent of the homes will be affordable — for instance, 10 units in a 50-unit development — and those meeting one of the 17 exemptions written into the Highlands law will be permitted. So will development in any town that proves to COAH it has ample water, sewer and land for building.
In other words, if you’ve already figured out how to build affordable units in one of the areas of the nation where real estate is still overvalued, then you can go ahead and build. But the interesting part of this blocked quote is Governor Money Bags’ order that affordable housing come second to protecting our natural resources. With one hand, he’s forcing higher density units and with the other he says to keep water resources at the forefront. Double talk at its best…or worst.
New Jersey should leave the Highlands area alone. There are more than enough brownfields (former industrial sites that are no longer in use) in this state that can be demolished, cleaned, and redeveloped. Let’s work on those areas first and then think about manifest destiny to the Pennsylvania border.
Posted in Idiots, Morons, & Fools, Local People & Politics, Sustainable Living, The State of New Jersey | No Comments »
|
|
|
| |
|
