PolitickerNJ.com is pushing the idea that NJ governor Jon Corzine will run for re-election with a republican Lt. Governor, in particular Joan Verplanck. Ms. Verplanck is the President of the NJ Chamber of Commerce (see Corzine considering Chamber leader for LG and Sebelius and Schweitzer picked GOP running mates).

I’d be really surprised if Corzine goes with a republican. Corzine has had alot of conflicts with democrats in the legislature, and they’d be really ticked if he didn’t select a democrat. The lieutenant governor slot is a plum position, high profile with no responsibilities, and would be a perfect stepping stone for an ambitious democrat. Giving the slot to a republican would not go over too well.

I’ve got problems with the NJ Chamber of Commerce, which has sat on their collective behinds, twiddling their thumbs, while Corzine, Codey and Roberts destroy the business climate in this state via regulation and crippling taxes. But the NJCC is a bunch of lobbyists, and lobbyists need access to the Trenton power brokers. So they don’t say anything negative about those in power and they get all excited when Corzine throws them a few crumbs while lavishing tax dollars on the least productive.

I’m still leaning towards Anne Milgram for Corzine’s running mate. Unless Chris Christie picks her first.

The conventional wisdom is that New Jersey taxes are so high because this state has 566 cities, towns, townships, municipalities, boros, villages, etc. If only we could get the smaller towns to merge with other towns and cities, why then, our property taxes would magically drop.

Lots of discussion about this because LUARC is kicking into high gear. LUARC?? Why, of course, LUARC is the Local Unit Alignment Reorganization and Consolidation Commission, created in 2007 by the NJ legislature to “. . . recommend legislative changes which would encourage the more efficient operation of local government”.

Last week LUARC came out with a report singling out 40 small communities that should be merged out of existence. Many are “donut” towns, small towns that are totally or mostly encircled by another town. The most famous I know of is Morristown and Morris Township.

The initial 40 communities singled out by LUARC are concentrated in South Jersey. See the details at this Philly Inquirer article N.J. town mergers could start in 18 months. Candidates include: Medford Lakes and Medford Township; Riverton and Palmyra; Bordentown Township and Bordentown City; Pennsauken and Merchantville;Hi-Nella and Stratford.

The key word in the headline of the story is “could”. As of right now the mergers can’t be forced onto the towns, and so far nobody is rushing forward. Residents of Medford Lakes in Burlington county are so aroused that they are trying to recall the mayor who is pushing the idea of combining police forces. Medford Lakes (pop 4173 and area of 1.3 square miles) is the center of a donut with Medford Township (pop 22,253 and area of 40 square miles).

In New Jersey: An Extreme Example, the NY Times highlights the proposed merger between Corbin City (pop 468 and area of 9 square miles) in Atlantic County with nearby Upper Township (pop 11,363 and area of 68.5 square miles). Upper Township is in Cape May county, so Atlantic County would have to agree to give up Corbin City.

Another NY Times article A Wealth of Municipalities, and an Era of Hard Times talks about efforts in the tri-state area to consolidate. So far, lots of talk and very little action.

The last line from the article is a quote from NJ troublemaker, state assemblyman Reed Gusciora “We’ve tried everything to coax these communities to the altar . . . What we need now is a few shotgun weddings.” Good luck getting a majority of legislators to agree to that.

Combining recycling centers and sharing emergency dispatchers will only get you so much savings, and there already alot of towns sharing services and New Jersey property taxes are still going up. The big savings will be in eliminating teachers and police officers, and those two unions are the most powerful in the state. If two school districts merge, teachers from the lower paid district would get raises to match the salaries in the higher paid district.

And if big means more efficient, explain who New Jersey’s biggest cities (Newark, Paterson, Jersey City, Elizabeth) spend twice as much on schooling, emergency services and government as smaller towns, many of which have volunteer fireman and low paid town officials?

One area of saving is in the corruption tax, the negative effect on businesses from having to pay off so many officials to get anything done. Instead of greasing the palms of politicians from two or three towns, contractors will only have to hand over the cash filled envelopes to one crook. I guess that’s progress.

CNN has an article about the coming crisis to confront state budgets, and that’s the cost of pensions to retired state workers. The page with The public pension bomb actually is titled “New Jersey’s public pension bomb”. Yes, the Garden State is Exhibit A in how to bankrupt a state by overpromising benefits while at the same time underfunding the accounts to pay for it.

The article traces the beginning of the problem to 1992 and then governor Jim Florio’s Pension Revaluation Act of 1992, which used rosey assumptions to allow the state to underfund the pensions by almost $2 billion. Christie Whitman did the same thing a few years later with more phoney assumptions, but Florio and Whitman were amateurs compared to the master of pension malpractice, Jim McGrevey. And the 2001 decision to raise benefits by 9%, rushed through by acting governor Donnie DiFrancesco added over $4 billion to the long term liabilities.

The article gives current governor Jon Corzine credit for taking “baby steps” to reverse the tide, but even the modest reforms have caused the unions to go into full throated attack mode.

How to get out from this hole?? As the article notes, “The Tax Foundation says New Jersey charges the highest state and local taxes in the country, the highest residential and commercial property taxes, and some of the highest sin taxes in the nation on cigarettes and alcohol”. More taxes? The article suggests a massive bailout by the federal government. I’m not sure you can convince senators from small states that are well run that their citizens tax dollars should be used to fund the inflated pensions of workers in other states.

The other solution is a bankruptcy. Now that would be fun.

I thought this was a good list, You might be a chemical engineer if:.

(Well, I think it’s funny, since I am a chemical engineer).

I’ve actually done some of these things. I think I gave my son a scientific explanation for why the sky is blue, I have Dilbert comics on the board in my office, I have destroyed things to see how they work and I have used every button on my calculator.

I met a girl in college who had a cat named Schrödinger. Now that’s an engineer!!

“Throwing good money after bad”

My mother used to say that a lot when I was growing up. Well that and, “Yeah, if (fill in the blank) jumps off the George Washington Bridge, are you?”

But throwing good money after bad is a dead-on description for the multi-billion dollar project known as Xanadu. The temple to consumer spending excess being built in the New Jersey Meadowlands. A shopping mall that was supposed to open last year but is currently in a state of suspended animation due to funding problems and the economic meltdown.

Originally scheduled to open in November of 2008, but the newest opening date is “. . . sometime in 2010.” The NY Times has the gory details in At $2.3 Billion, This Mall Could Be Too Big to Fail.

Too big to fail?? When you hear that, make sure you’ve got your wallet in a secure place. I smell bail out.

You know it’s bad when you’re a governor and you’re profiled in the same article as New York state governor David Paterson. New Jersey governor Jon Corzine gets the honors in Tale of two governors. At least Paterson can point to the fact that he’s the accidental governor, only in office for a year or so due to the sexual proclivities of Elliot Spitzer. Corzine has only himself to blame for the budget debacle, though he’ll blame everything and everyone other than himself.

The article makes a claim I strongly disagree with. “. . . most political observers expect President Barack Obama to campaign for the governor as well.” I’d say if Corzine is still trailing by 10 points after Labor Day, 0bama will be able to find other things to do rather than be shown side by side with a losing candidate.

Even if you’ve never seen the sign, I’m sure most Jersey residents know about the slogan “Trenton Makes, The World Takes” that is displayed on one of the bridges near Trenton. At one time, Trenton was a manufacturing hub, supplying goods to the entire world.

No more. Trenton’s manufacturing base is gone, and instead it is home to the nastiest parasites in North America. Of course, I’m talking about the members of the state assembly and state senate.

So I thought of a new slogan to display on the bridge.

“Trenton Makes, The World Takes” should be:

Why is it that the New Jersey state government, led by alleged Wall Street wizard Jon Corzine, can’t figure out basic budgeting stuff, like costs and revenue?

I distinctly remember being told that the planned two day furloughs of state workers would save the state $35 million, $17.5 million per day. But according to this article in the APP press, the savings per day was recalculated to be $12.5 million and the final number being used is actually $8.1 million according to the Treasury department and it’s clueless leader David Rousseau.

Let’s not forget that Corzine and Rousseau were off by 40% in their estimate of state income tax receipts. They must be using a ouija board to determine budget figures.

Most of the budget “cuts” are actually not cuts, but deferring expenses into the 2009-2010 budget year. This will just dump the problem onto the next governor, who hopefully will not be Jon Corzine. Lawhawk at A Blog For All has the bogus numbers in Corzine Proposes Cuts By Shifting Costs To Next Year.

What’s the matter with New Jersey voters? It’s not that we’re overtaxed, and our government is run by lobbyists, government contractors and labor unions.

No, the problem is that we’re cranky. So says the NY Times in Voter Crankiness Still Bedevils Candidates.

And this inconvenient truth also seems to “bedevil” the political campaign consultants. This shouldn’t suprise anyone, since most consultants are out of state free agents who travel the country selling their overpriced “talent” to the highest bidder.

The article notes something that I have been saying for 6 years on this blog. “. . . voters here tend to be slightly less informed than those elsewhere . . .” It seems in many districts, the only information a voter cares about is if the letters “D” or “Dem” are next to a candidates name on the ballot. Perhaps if we were better informed we wouldn’t have this one party socialist state.

The Sunday Star-Ledger has a pretty even handed piece up today about Republican candidate for governor Steve Lonegan. Lonegan forces fellow Republican gubernatorial candidates to take notice.

Lonegan has a nice life story. And he’s rock-ribbed conservative who I think can make a case for conservatism in even a liberal state like New Jersey. A former furniture salesman with an MBA, he seems to think fast on his feet.

But there’s two problems with Lonegan.

First, he has a bit of a reputation as a gadfly. Crazy Uncle Stevie who will do anything to get attention. The Star-Ledger piece shows the other side, but I think people who follow politics think of him as a bit of a showman, and if he is the candidate he needs to get out there fast to counteract that image.

But the more serious problem is that he is the conservative outsider challenging the establishment candidate in the GOP primary, and I sense a repeat of 2001. The moderate candidate with all the party backing, Bob Franks, lost in the primary to the charismatic conservative outsider Bret Shundler. The party abandons Shundler in the general race and he gets trounced in the election. Good bye Bret, hello Governor Jim McGrevey and three years of corruption and sleaze. If Lonegan does beat Christie, expect the state GOP to do a repeat of 2001 and not lift a finger for Lonegan.

If you remember that 2001 race, most of the democrat ads played up the social issues, guns and abortion, to try to paint Shundler as the standard liberal caricature of a conservative. The media played along, as they have done for just about every NJ election I remember. They even tried labeling Christie Whitman as a right winger because she wasn’t pro-gun control. If they can talk about Whitman as a conservative without any shame, think about what will happen to Lonegan. And without any money to counteract the Corzine ATM funded campaign, he will have an uphill battle.

So, I’m still not sure who to vote for in June. In a primary, I won’t vote for the guy who I think has a better chance of winning even though I like the other guy better. And I have no problem with casting protest votes. In 1997 I voted for the libertarian candidate Murray Sabrin because I despised Whitman. And last year in the GOP presidential primary I voted for Mitt Romney even though McCain had the race locked up. This year, I can honestly say I’m undecided.

Headlines from last night and this morning:

Obama Set to Revive Military Commissions

White House aide resigns over N.Y. flyover

This appears to be a common White House tactic, release uncomfortable news on Friday night. The weekend is typically a slow news period, and by Monday there will be new stories to bump the Friday night releases to the bottom of the pile. 0bama has done it a few times during his first four months in office.

Oh, and see the post below concerning NJ Governor Jon Corzine’s plan to borrow $2 billion to get the state through the fiscal year. Also a Friday night news dump. Not exactly “Profiles in Courage” are these liberals??

update: Andy McCarthy at National Review has also noticed. See ” . . . this week’s Obama administration Embarrassing Friday Night News Dump . . . . “

There’s a scene at the beginning of the classic 1995 movie “Casino” that I think we can use to explain the current economic meltdown. The casino workers are in a locked room with a security guard posted outside, counting up the daily receipts from the gaming tables and slot machines. In walks a mobster with a suitcase, and as the workers are doing their jobs, the mobster picks up bundles of money, stuffs them in the suitcase and walks out. “The security guard in being taken care of” says the voiceover, who I think was the Robert DeNiro character.

This is basically what was going on for the past 10 years on Wall Street. Billions (trillions) of dollars were flying around for mortgages, credit default swaps, collateralized debt obligations and the Harvard MBA’s and Wall Street tycoons were skimming money off the top, paying themselves billions in bonuses and salaries.

Now that the market has collapsed and the world markets are in tatters, we learned that these “self made millionaires” created nothing. At least the Fords, Rockefellers, Mellons and Bill Gates’ of history founded companies that employed millions and made products and made the United States the engine that drove the world economy. Wall Street and the investment bankers created nothing. They were no better than gangsters skimming money from the daily receipts.

And then there’s Goldman Sach’s gift to the taxpayers of New Jersey, governor Jon Corzine. Part of his sales pitch to the voters in 2005 was that he was a businessman, a rich Wall Street success story who would bring business smarts to New Jersey. When you look at your 401K’s and retirement accounts, think of these Wall Street tycoons and remember that our governor was one of them. Think of that as you read about how New Jersey has become a financial basket case.

This story at NJ.com, Budget woes force N.J. to seek $2B line of credit summarizes in a few paragraphs what Corzine’s business smarts and political instincts have brought to this state. Corzine defenders in the blogosphere and at the Star-Ledger will give the bearded wonder a pass and blame the national economic slump, the real estate crash and even Christie Whitman for the problems.

Sorry, I don’t buy it. This budget crisis is the result of 4 years of inaction on facing up to the structural finance problems in New Jersey. New Jersey is now no better than a third world nation relying on IMF and World Bank loans to get us through the year.

New Jersey voters are generally passive. “Apathetic and ignorant” is a phrase I’ve used before to descibe the NJ electorate. I hope that this combination of financial market collapse, state financial meltdown and disgust with corruption will form a “Perfect Storm” that will toss Corzine from office and maybe even take out enough democrat co-conspirators in the NJ assembly to bring about some real change in this state.

Who said the following during a recent interview with Bloomberg:

“New Jersey will go bankrupt in 10 to 20 years because we cannot afford our employees as a state . . .I’m talking about every worker from the cities and counties to the state government. Eventually, we’re going to price ourselves out as a government or tax ourselves to death.”

And

“There should be a tax revolt in the state of New Jersey . . . We’re the most inefficient state in the country. We have more government per person than we need. You would never manage a business the way we manage our government - - we have overlapping provision of services and in my opinion, it’s insane.”

1. Steve Lonegan
2. Steve Forbes
3. Bret Shundler
4. Corey Booker

If you answered Newark mayor Corey Booker, you win a case of Ballentine beer and a Newark Bears hat. Can you believe it? A big city NJ mayor sounding like a government cutting conservative. Actions speak louder than words, and I hope he’s following up himself with the bloated Newark bureaucracy. But I like what I’m hearing. Actually, he sounds like me!!

Read more at New Jersey Can’t Afford Government, Booker Says (Update2).

I’m not a big fan of the Jersey Guys radio show on 101.5. I can only handle Casey Bartholemew in small doses. And then they announced that Carla Katz would be on the station, starting tonight at 6PM.

I don’t know why I listened to it. My gut feeling beforehand was that it would be really bad, but I tuned in anyway. And it was bad.

Carla didn’t say anything memorable, other than basically calling her ex-brother in law, Rocco Riccio, a liar and sociopath. Everything else was cutesy answers, with not a bit of new insight into Ms. Katz and her relationship to NJ governor Jon Corzine. Casey kept on bringing up Ms. Katz and Newark Mayor Corey Booker, but again, nothing memorable. And Carla has a really husky voice, not something soothing to the ear. A bit like tennis announcer Mary Carillo.

Actually, the e-mails don’t really bother me. What really burns me is that Ms. Katz, owner of a mansion in the Jersey ‘burbs and a waterfront condo in Hoboken and recipient of a multi-million dollar going away present from Corzine, was given a scholarship to Seton Hall Law School. Now, Seton Hall is a private university, so they can do whatever they want with their money, but couldn’t they find one person, just ONE kid, more in need of a college scholarship??

Oh, and she took a few phone calls. One guy was trying to connect union fringe benefits with socialism and another caller brought up the Seton Hall scholarship thing.

But on the DynamoBuzz rating scale of radio of 0 to 5 buzzes, this hour of radio gets a 1/2 buzz. I can only think that if this is what is in store every week, Ms. Katz’ radio career will be a short one.

NY Times Headline: Revenue Loss Putting Cities in Fiscal Vise. The article highlights some of the financial problems New Jersey towns are experiencing as tax receipts plunge.

Retroactive pay increases for union workers is a large contributing factor. Weehawken has to pay out over $800,000 this year after negotiating a contract. Gloucester police were awarded 3.5% increases, retroactive to 2007.

The article quotes Rutgers dean James Hughes, who notes that since 1999, government employment at the local level has increased by 63,000 while the private sector has lost almost the same amount.

And property tax appeals. In particular, Hoboken residents have filed an incredible 2000 property tax appeals this year. Perth Amboy has more than 300 compared to 80 in a typical year.

The article also puts the spotlight on New Jersey’s Local Finance Board. One of NJ governor Jon Corzine’s phony achievements is his 4% cap on property tax increases. The cap exempts many expenses, and even with the exemptions a city can exceed the cap. But they have to go to the Local Finance Board to get approval. From what I have read, this is basically a rubber stamp commission that rarely rejects a request. So much for Corzine’s success story.

A common talking point when debating the generous benefits packages given to New Jersey government workers compared to private sector workers is: “Yeah, but they are working for less salary than private sector workers”.

A great analysis at the Montclair Times ( Top municipal salaries outpace private-sector pay ) takes a look at municipal salaries in just one city, Montclair. The Times got this information via an Open Public Records Act (OPRA) request.

Township manager : $145,000
Community services and finance director : $124,298
Police Chief : $134,723

These are 2007 figures, so add 5 to 10% more for this year. And we’re not counting benefits.

According to Wikipedia, Montclair is the 50th largest town/city/boro in New Jersey, with a population of about 37,000 (2007 estimate).

A recent news story noted that Jersey City has 400 employees on the payroll making at least $100,000 a year.

It’s easy to find data on salaries for NJ state workers, but not so for county and municipal workers. Maybe some investigative reporter for the Star-Ledger or Gannett could look into it.

• Washington Post columnist Chris Cillizza looks at the governors race and isn’t ready to write off Jon Corzine. See Friday Governors Line: The Roots of a Republican Resurgence? And why does he use the word “heavy” twice in the same sentence while talking about GOP candidate Chris Christie (. . . while Christie is still the heavily favorite — given the heavy backing he enjoys from the party establishment . . . )?
• CQ Politics has the latest in New Jersey Governor’s Race: Christie Still Ahead, Voters Want to Talk Taxes. I think taxes is the last thing Corzine wants to talk about.
• Chuck Todd of MSNBC’s First Read says Corzine tries latching onto Obama. There are only two governors races in November, New Jersey and Virginia, and so far the democrats are not doing well in polling for either race. If it remains close, there’s no way 0bama does anything other than a late summer fundraiser for either candidate. That way if the democrat loses in November, it will be hard to spin it as an defeat for the great 0bama.

I was coming home from work a few weeks back, and as I’m opening up my front door I heard a pretty loud sound coming from a tree on my front lawn. I thought it was a couple of squirels, but when I looked I saw an outline of some kind of square shaped upright thing on a branch. I went into my house and got a camera and took this picture:

I actually took two pictures, and I was suprised that the flash from my camera didn’t spook him.

I did some research, and he appears to be an eastern screech owl, not uncommon in New Jersey in the early spring.

I was all excited, because it was the first time I’ve ever seen an owl outside of a zoo. I mentioned it to a few people at work, and they were like “Oh, yeah, I see them all the time”. Hey, I grew up in West New York, so anything other than a pigeon is wildlife to me.

The first news reports concerning the Carla Katz to 101.5 FM radio story said she was going to host a radio show. I was going to suggest a perfect title for the show.

The Katz Meow.

However, now it turns out Ms. Katz will just be a contributor to the station, similar to the way Gannett columnist Bob Ingle will sit in the studio for an hour or so. ( “Ousted N.J. union leader turns to radio” and Katz and the Jersey Guys on the air” ).

It’s probably better that she doesn’t host an entire three hour show. Liberals generally do lousy radio. Air America was a disaster. I am probably one of only a handful of people who heard Mario Cuomo during his incredibly brief career as a radio show host on WABC. It was bad, like someone with a bad sinus infection reading the white pages from the telephone book.

I’m still waiting for when (if) they take phone calls when Ms. Katz is on-air.

“We have Jon from Drumthwackett on the line with a question for Carla.”