But what’s most surprising about New Jersey is how in such a blue, labor-dominated state, Democrats and union members seem to be cracking under the pressure of the state’s tax burden, revealing a kind of split-personality disorder.

The syndrome surfaced last summer during Mr. Christie’s campaign, when he vowed to bring New Jersey’s property taxes, the nation’s highest, under control. As a candidate he saved his sternest threats for the teachers’ and state workers’ unions, whose healthy pay and benefits packages, he argued, were slowly strangling the schools and running the state’s finances into the ground. Union members, state workers and teachers, it turned out, weren’t offended by his rhetoric. In fact, public opinion surveys showed they ate it up.

The New York Times leans left on most, if not all, issues. This is why you see the writer suggesting that it is surprising how the people in New Jersey are mostly for Christie’s cuts. However, the truth is that even the hardest leftist person in this state can understand how our current tax and overspend system is not sustainable. When you have a tax and overspend system, there are two basic ways to fix it: spend less or tax more. Governor Christie, to his great credit, has opted for the traditionally unpopular fix by spending less money.

Spending less money means cutting the amount of programs that can be funded and it was high time that someone came along to New Jersey to cut back the unnecessary, duplicitous programs that this state offers. The New York Times article cited above says that the public ate up Governor Christie’s message on the campaign trail. You’re damn right we ate it up! Finally, we had a guy talking sense instead of spewing the typical “vote for me” crap that previous politicians put out there. Plus, Christie had the good fortune to run against a man who will go down in history as one of the worst Governors in New Jersey history. More from the New York Times:

No polls have been taken since Mr. Christie’s budget speech, but it held few real surprises. “Voters felt Christie was being honest about what the situation was, and what he needed to do to move forward, and then he did exactly what he said he was going to do,” Mr. Murray said. “It’s a sad statement, but that’s almost unheard of.”

This is the part of the outrage that makes me laugh the hardest. People are actually outraged that Governor Christie instituted the hard spending cuts that he said he would during the campaign. For those of you who don’t have the luck of living in the Garden State, we don’t expect our politicians to tell the truth…ever. Governor Christie, on the other hand, is actually doing what he said he would do and it’s great!

These spending cuts are what New Jersey needs. There’s no question about it.

However, I’m sick and tired of hearing the ignorant bullshit flowing out of people regarding the end result of these spending cuts. The biggest load of crap comes out of the legions of young professionals who will likely be let go because of these cuts. These morons spout on and on about how Governor Christie is costing them their jobs. Bullshit. First of all, anyone who spews this crap clearly doesn’t know how the government works and I strongly question whether or not they should be employed by a school district in the first place. Governor Christie is not costing you your job since he does not control local property taxes. Period. End of story. Done. No questions asked.

Second, I’m sick of hearing these young “professionals” (and I use the term “professionals” lightly since if you read some of their online posts, they are anything but professional) bitch and moan about how education cuts lead to more students in each classroom and a lower quality of education. Folks, if you want to define what it means to be “brainwashed,” then try to follow this ridiculous train of logic. If you ever hear anyone saying this particular line of crap, then you automatically know that you’re hearing someone who either can’t think independently (and thus shouldn’t be a teacher) or you’re talking to someone who can’t make logical, financial connections (and thus shouldn’t be a teacher) or in some cases, you might be talking to someone who is a coward. I’ll explain.

The true cause of these young professionals losing their jobs is the excess and waste embedded in the current education system in New Jersey. There are administrators making six figures who are secretaries to assistants to secretaries to assistants, etc. There are administrators who are the second, third, or fourth assistant superintendent in some of these districts (completely unnecessary). There are administrators who don’t do shit, but collect a salary that should be going to a young teacher who actually wants to be around students. Any of these soon-to-be laid off teachers and young professionals that spew the bullshit false choices listed above, but do not scour the set up of their local school districts (and I mean look at each line in the budget as well as using Data Universe to find the salaries of the district administrators) is a coward. Just like the whole world knew that New Jersey spent too much money and this day was coming, the whole world knows that the excessive waste that goes on in New Jersey’s local governments and local school districts is unsustainable.

If you’re a young education professional who has either already been laid off or will be laid off, then I want to hear about your research into the local district and what you’ve uncovered in terms of waste. What percentage of a raise did your fellow teachers get in the last year (hint – anything other than 1% – 2% is excessive in this economy)? What about the administrators and their percentage raise? Where did that money come from when the economy grew at 0% last year (hint – the answer is increased local property taxes)? What about your administrators? Does your district have excess administrators that are taking up dollars from the budget that would have better been spent paying you and your teaching colleagues?

And here’s the key question – what did you do about what you found out?! The most that Governor Christie can do is advocate on your behalf and he’s doing that (I heard him say it with my own two ears at last week’s New Jersey Charter Schools Association conference). But what have YOU done to fight for what’s right? If your answer is, “Well, I complained that Governor Christie is costing me my job because he is costing me my job,” then you just don’t get it.

Further, if you work for a school district, then you have a government job. What did you expect to happen in a state where government spending has been out of control for over a decade?! And this wasn’t a big secret – everyone knew that government spending was out of control and that a day of reckoning was coming sooner rather than later. In fact, Governor Christie ran on a platform where he essentially said that he was going to bring this day of reckoning to New Jersey! Are some of these people who have now turned on Governor Christie so stupid that they didn’t think that he was actually going to do what he said he was going to do?!

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again – I hate that some of my friends will be losing their jobs. I would never begrudge anyone a job or the ability to make a living – never. However, Governor Christie is doing exactly what he said he would do, which is exactly what New Jersey needs right now!

Dear Governer Christie, Thank you for being the biggest dick new jersey has ever known. Because of you, and your school “cuts” I will most likely not have a job next year. I honestly hope someone punches you in one of your chins. Good day. Oh and FUCK YOU!

For those of you who know some of the fraternity guys that I used to advise, this message is from Turkey Sub’s Facebook. And while I actually do like Turkey Sub, he has provided a great example of the complete idiocy that Christie’s decisions have brought out of some people. I will address the rest of this entry as though I was yelling at Turkey Sub.

First of all, look at how inherently stupid that comment above is (you don’t capitalize New Jersey and yet you teach children?!) – no one writing such one-sided rubbish should be teaching our school children in the first place. Second, think about how dumb you must be to not understand how school funding works. The Governor didn’t single-handedly create life-ending cuts to the education budget. In fact, in his own words he said, “We have worked to ensure that no school district in New Jersey will face a reduction in aid that is greater than 5% of their school budget.” Do you know how school funding works in this state? Did you know that local property taxes are set by people at the… LOCAL level of government?! In other words, if you think that taxes should be raised in this state to continue to pay for waste and excess, then go to your local town council and tell them to raise property taxes. But be forewarned, because people who are sick of being taxed out of this state are forcing the 2.5% cap in spending increases at the local level.

Did you get that, stupid?

The end result of the Governor’s budget is a state government structure that spends less money and thus needs to take in less money and there you have a reduction in taxes. This is what everyday people do in tough times – they tighten their belt and they stop wasting money on bullshit. They don’t go out for dinner every night, they don’t go buy clothes that they don’t need, they don’t waste their money on material items that won’t mean a damn thing in a few days or weeks. Instead, they move back in with their parents, they use an old car instead of buying a new one, they spend less money, they save more money, and they prepare for tough times ahead. Get with the fucking program you dummy.

Anyone who can’t made due in this economy by trimming 5% off of their annual revenue doesn’t know how to budget money and is likely wasting money all over the place. How many six-figure earning Vice-Principals and Assistant Superintendents does your district have, Sub? More than one? More than two? More than five? What about excessive administrative aides? Before your idiot ass wrote, “Because of you, and your school ‘cuts’ I will most likely not have a job next year,” did you consider that the reason why you most likely won’t have a job next year is because your district wastes tens to hundreds of thousands of dollars on salaries for unnecessary positions? Or did your union give you some type of propaganda bullshit that suggested otherwise and you immediately believed it without doing any research so you can make an informed decision?

Look, Sub. It sucks that you’re going to lose your job. I don’t want anyone to lose their job! But where is the outrage at the years upon years of both Democratic and Republican governors and legislatures who opted for quick fixes to budget gaps instead of actually cutting spending? Don’t get mad at Christie because he made the right decision! People are getting mad because we live in a state that doesn’t expect the right decisions to be made in Trenton, and thus we expect more spending and higher taxes. This is the beginning of a change for New Jersey and it’s the type of change that every forward-thinking family and individual made two years ago when the economy started to tank.

If you want to get mad at someone, get mad at the Republican and Democratic legislators who created the disastrous, unsustainable system that we currently live in. But for God’s Sake, don’t get mad at the guy who is calling a spade a spade and saying enough is enough. And don’t get mad because the guy is doing exactly what he said he would do during the campaign!

And dude, if you want to be a teacher, be more fucking articulate in your criticisms of the government and stop being a bitch drama queen. Otherwise, you’re a bigger part of the problem than your ignorant Facebook post even shows.

In recent years, we have allowed the problem to become bigger through a series of one-time gimmicks that have worsened our situation. This year, for example, some state employees will be given an 11% salary increase, at a cost of $300 million to the taxpayers, while many New Jerseyans are lucky to even have a job. Incredible.

Are you serious? How can any public employee justify an 11% salary increase when people are losing jobs in the private sector left and right? This is ridiculous. This is the type of public excesses that drove Jon “Money Bags” Corzine out of office and brought in a no-nonsense reformer like Chris Christie. An 11% salary increase in the midst of an economic mess? Talk about certain public employees being out of step with the economy…

$700 million in one-time revenues came in from granting amnesty to tax cheats in another gimmick that was used to paper over problems. As usual, our government spent it all in one year, and built that much more spending into the budget for this coming year, with no way to pay for it now or in the future. So too were federal stimulus funds for education irresponsibly spent all in one year — and then simply added into the budget, with no way to pay for it this year.

Some people are getting mad at Chris Christie for his strong budget address (not this voter, but others out there). Where is the outrage at the previous administrations (both Republican and Democrat) that have had these gigantic influxes of cash and doled the funds out without any long term planning? How many intelligent people get a raise at work or a bonus check and have their first thought immediately be, “How can I spend all of this money right away?!” One billion stimulus dollars spent for educational purposes by Jon Corzine as he tried to buy the election last year. Absolutely disgraceful. I wish he could be sued for his misuse of public (i.e. OUR) funds.

Over the course of two decades, time and again the State has borrowed to pay its every day bills. You wouldn’t do that in your own home, and we shouldn’t do that with your tax dollars. The result is overwhelming. Outstanding direct debt has ballooned from $3.9 billion in 1989 to $33.9 billion last year. And total debt, including all obligations, has tripled from $17 billion to over $51 billion, just since 2002. Our debt is equal to an obligation of $4,100 for each and every man, woman, and child in this state 130% higher than in 2002.

Damn right we wouldn’t do it in our own homes, but if you DID do that in your own home, you might find yourself on your ass with no roof over your head. When you spend money like an idiot, bad things happen. At least Chris Christie has the political fortitude to say that in public and to add that he intends to make the system right. And I don’t know about you folks, but adding $30 billion in direct state debt over a 21 year period is absolutely unacceptable, damn it.

That is bad enough, but as you know, more than half of what the State spends every year is sent to local governments, in the form of aid for municipal government and school districts. And local government has exercised even less control. Spending at the local government level has risen 69% since 2001.

How many times have I railed away on this blog about the need to remove the corruption at the local level? Enough is enough of people pocketing a few thousand here and a few thousand there. Enough is enough with people getting hired who are unqualified or are politically associated or blood related to local politicians. Enough is enough with property taxes increasing to maintain a bloated local school system that doles out an unbelievable amount of cash to unnecessary school administrators (take a look at what goes on in Camden). Enough is enough already, damn it.

Even now, in the depths of a great economic crisis, local governments and school boards can’t hold back on the pressure that comes from the public sector unions. What is the proof? While New Jersey’s private sector lost 121,000 jobs just in 2009, New Jersey’s local governments added 11,300 new municipal and school employees. 11,300 new government employees paid for by your taxes just this last year. 11,300 new employees added while you are struggling to keep your job and pay the bills. We must give the voters the tools to stop the madness and stop it this year.

If reading that last paragraph doesn’t piss you off, then you must not really give a shit about what’s going on in our state. And I made that last line bold to make a point that most citizens don’t understand. The Governor is NOT the one who can destroy the corruption at the local level – the corruption that might exist in your hometown or in a local school board. YOU ARE THE ONES WHO NEED TO BUST THAT CORRUPTION! That’s it! That’s the key! The Governor is going to give you the tools to get it done, but the action has to come from you! In other words, the most the Governor can do to actually make the policy changes that are necessary at the local level is advocate on our behalf and he’s doing that day in and day out. It is up to US, at citizens of our local municipalities, to make sure that our elected officials do what is right. And if you don’t have the guts to stand up and make your local elected officials do what is right, then you deserve whatever you get.

We have worked to ensure that no school district in New Jersey will face a reduction in aid that is greater than 5% of their school budget– so school districts will face a budget cut that is 4% less than the cut in state spending as a whole. During a crisis worsened by the election year foolishness of our predecessors, we keep school aid cuts at less than state spending cuts.

Make no bones about it, folks – Governor Christie is doing the right thing here. If anyone can’t live within a budget that, in this economy, has revenue reduced by 4% – 5%, then they are living too far outside of their means. No one is going after teachers – teachers are awesome and they do a job that is truly a service to the public good. No one denies that at all. However, do you really need all of the excess administrators making six figure salaries at the district level? Of course not. I go on Facebook and I see all of my young friends who are teachers that are bashing Christie because they are probably going to lose their jobs and I have three immediate thoughts:

First, much of the grammar and spelling in these Facebook updates are horrendous (let alone crude) and I don’t want New Jersey’s kids learning from these morons (who I really all love, but if you can’t spell “Governor” or if you attack Christie for being fat, then you shouldn’t be a teacher, period).

Second, most of the stuff I’m reading in their Facebook updates are nothing more than rehashed propaganda and lies from the New Jersey Education Association (NJEA aka the “Teacher’s Union”). This tells me that my younger friends are brainwashed.

Third and finally, these folks are misdirecting their anger. Getting angry at Chris Christie is the dumb man’s argument. Think of a moron saying, “He going to cut funding and, uhhh, he then cut my salary and, ummm, I no job.” Idiots. You want to get mad at someone? You want to get angry at someone? Go get your school district’s budget and find out where money is being wasted. Teachers are certainly NOT wasting money. But how many school districts have three and four Assistant Principals and Vice Principals? How many Board Secretary subordinates are there making $5,000 here or $10,000 there? If you serve on a school board, are you not inherently accepting a job that is a volunteer position? Why do some school board members get stipends?

You want to get mad at someone and you want to direct your anger somewhere? Direct that anger towards the fat cats that might exist in your own districts. Direct that anger toward the few school districts in this state that exist, but have no actual schools in their super small towns (for the rest of the nation reading this entry, yes – we have that in New Jersey).

I LOVE when citizens get fired up over their government, but don’t be ignorant about your anger. Direct your anger to the right place – to the local and county-level excesses that the Governor cannot single-handedly change because he’s not a king (or at least think he is a king like President Obama does).

The leaders of the union who represent these teachers, however, have used their political muscle to set up two classes of citizens in New Jersey: those who enjoy rich public benefits and those who pay for them. That has created a system that cannot be sustained a system fueled by mandatory dues of more than $700 a year taken out of every one of the nearly 200,000 teachers’ paychecks.

Political muscle fueled by intimidation tactics, political bullying and smears of public officials who dare to disagree. This conduct has set up an unfair system. Is it fair to have any public employees getting 4-5% salary increases every year, even when inflation is zero %, paid for by citizens struggling to survive? It is fair to have New Jersey taxpayers foot the bill for 100% of the health insurance costs of teachers and their families from the day they are hired until the day they die? Is it fair that teachers have a better, richer health plan than even state workers and pay absolutely nothing for it?

I believe rank and file teachers know this is not fair and that we can no longer afford to burden our taxpayers with these costs and runaway taxes. The union bosses will tell you, as they always have each time their empire is threatened, that they are protecting our children. This tired song has grown old and inaccurate. Is the way our children learn affected by whether the union gets free family health insurance for life for its members? Does a child learn more if the union gets 5% taxpayer funded raises every year for its members? This is nonsensical and self-serving and we all know it.

You tell ’em, Governor Christie! Enough is enough with this absolute abomination of a system! Get ’em, Christie! This is why we voted you into office!

So I ask those of you in the legislature, and all of the citizens of our state, to join me — in pitching in, in working together — not only to share in the sacrifices we must make today, but in forging the path to a better tomorrow. The journey starts today, and I know it will be worth the effort.

I’m with this Governor. We need these reforms NOW (we actually needed them a decade ago, but we have to make the changes now to get the ball rolling). Battling against the entrenched education interests is the first step. Let’s get this state going in the right direction again so we can afford tomorrow!

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.