Yes, the tell all book now has a due date. New Jersey’s disgraced ex-governor Jim McGreevey signed with Reagan Books last year to wtite a tell-all political memoir, and it has just been announced that the book will hit the stores on September 19th. [link}. The title of the book?? The Confession.

They should have planned for August 13th, the 2nd anniversary of his downfall.

Amazon.com is already taking orders [link to Amazon.com]. Advance price is only $16.98, a $9.97 discount from the $26.95 planned sticker price. You can save the money and just wait for the movie, maybe Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal will star in it.

McGreevey will do a book tour which means interviews and maybe TV and radio appearances. I wonder if he’ll do the Howard Stern show?? Stern also published his biographies with Reagan Books, so there is a connection. I’d sign up for Sirius radio just to hear that.

Plans to rebuild at ground zero, the site in downtown NYC where the Twin Towers once stood, have been slow to develop due to the normal big government bureacracy and political wrangling over the shape and scope of a memorial to the victims of 9-11. Now, Jon Corzine has gotten involved, and the NY Post is not too happy.

“Ground Zero” is controlled by the Port Authority, a joint New Jersey - Nw York agency that manages the three airports in the NY-NJ metro area along with the PATH trains, the Lincoln Tunnel, the GW bridge, the ports and just about every other major piece of transporation infrastructure.

Jon Corzine has demanded that the Ground Zero developer kick in the extra money, at least $100 million, to keep the project solvent and to fund the memorial {link].

The NY Post responds by attacking the governor and his motives. In N.J. Side Shaking PA Talks quotes members of the Port Authority board of directors saying New Jersey is throwing up roadblocks “…because they don’t have to live with a hole in the ground.” And in an editorial
Corzine’s Blackmail they editors really let loose, saying New Jersey is blocking Ground Zero redevelopment because they don’t want the added competition for office space and commercial real estate that would happen occur when the site is developed. “New Yorkers may wonder why the fate of a prime parcel of land in their city should be subject to the whims of a neighboring state” says the editorial. They also describe New Jersey as a financial parasite “…the only big action in New Jersey. The state’s elected officials have been milking that cow for decades”. And they note that one of the Jersey members of the PA managing board is himself a commercial real estate developer.

The Wall Street Journal points at Jon Corzine’s recent flip flop on taxes and property tax rebates and use that predict what would occur if, God forbid, the democrats regain control of Congress in the 2006 mid-term elections.

In Corzine the Canary, they note that Democrats Jim Florio and Bob Menendez both see Corzine back tracking on his campaign promises and label it “honest”, and the media is going along. And they note the “no tax” pledges of Jim McGreevey shortly followed by huge increases on income and businesses. “Knowing that track record, New Jersey voters may be getting what they deserve ..” says the writers.

NJ.com is reporting that Sharpe James told the Star-Ledger and the Newark City Clerk that he is dropping out of the race for mayor of Newark [link]. He will stay on as a state senator.

This clears the way for Cory Booker to win the democrat primary and most likely become the next mayor of New Jersey’s largest city.

James did not give a reason. This is New Jersey, so my first thought is that there is some kind of legal thing coming down on Sharpe. But maybe after 20 years he’s decided enough is enough. Very interesting.

I just deleted about 100 comment spams. Is there any creature on the planet lower than someone who spams blogs?? It’s worse than the Nigerian foreign minister e-mails. It’s like someone invaded my personal space with only bad intentions. Hell is not hot enough for blog comment spammers.

I guess Blogspot has pretty good spam filters. I use b2 blogging software which by default has just about no comment spam filtering so I had to do some customizing. I know a bit of PHP which is the server side scripting language that b2 uses, so I search for words like “levitra”, “cialis”, “poker” and “phentermine” and those comments are denied. So if any of you regular DynamoBuzz readers want to comment about “viagra” your comment may get rejected. Sorry about that, but comment spammers ruin it for everyone.

Yes, it’s March 26th, but as the temperature warms up (just a bit) and the days start getting longer, my thoughts shift to sun, sand, water and sausage, peppers and onions on a hard roll. Summertime and the Jersey shore.

The Philadelphia Inquirer has an article up today, “Shore tries a new way to lure you: Perfect together? Forget that. N.J. gets edgy on the Web” about a new site sponsored by the Jersey Shore Alliance, a not for profit association trying to promote Jersey shore tourism.

The alliance has a site called The Jersey Shore - Your Play Therapy which is a work in progress stil but has a few features up and running. Click on the “Find a Play Therapy That’s Right for You” and answer a series of questions. Based on your answers, you’ll get suggestions of which Jersey shore destination is right for you. Since I’m a family guy, the #1 recommendation for me was Ocean City, followed by Seaside, Atlantic City and Wildwood.

The site also has a games section which is not up yet but promises virtual Skee Ball and Water Balloon Clowns. It’s based on Flash, so the faster your computer the better.

Many columnists are throwing around the “F” word when talking about Jon Corzine and his most recent tax and spend plan for New Jersey. No, not that “F” word. “F” as in “Florio”. Or as retired radio talk show host Bob Grant called him, “Flim Flam Florio”.

Bergen Record columnist Jeffrey Page refreshes our memories in “Hey, Gov: Tax hikes don’t pay. Ask Florio“. In case you forgot, Florio proposed twice as big a tax hike as Corzine, $2.8 billion, and that was 12 years ago when a billion dollars was real money. And of course the toilet paper tax is still symbolic of Florio’s tax plan. The public was so outraged that a taxpayer revolt started and the democrats lost their senate and assembly majorities in the next election.

Not sure if the same will happen in 2006. Part of Florio’s problem was that he was not the most likeable guy, while Corzine has the “aw shucks” schtick down pat. And I don’t give the NJ electorate too much credit for being informed or showing too much outrage. We’ll see.

And speaking of disgraced ex-governor, Star-Ledger colunmnist Paul Mulshine doesn’t see a Corzine-Florio connection, he sees a Corzine-McGreevey collection!! In Bringing back memories of McGreevey, Mulshine notices the spooky similarities between McGreevey’s tired old rhetoric and Corzine’s recent budget address. Word for word in some spots. Best line from Mulshine: “The most striking similarity between Corzine and McGreevey lies in the ability to highlight a real structural problem with state government — and then do nothing about it.”

You know you’re in trouble when you’re New Jersey governor and Christie Todd Whitman has the gumption to criticize your budget. But poor Jon Corzine finds himself in that situation this morning. Call it the battle of liberal ex=governors and governors. Or maybe the slugfest between the old money Whitman from Far Hills vs. the nouveau riche Corzine.

In today’s APP, Madame Whitman has her take on Corzine 2006-2007 budget, “Corzine’s budget wrong for state’s families, economic growth“. Part of her criticism is that the spending is going up sharply, and she notes that since she left office in 2001, NJ state government spending has increased over 30%. If I remember correctly, she didn’t do much in 7 years as governor to reign in spending. And she lays into Corzine for exacerbating the property tax problem, yet Whitman’s record on property tax reform was non-existent.

At least she doesn’t have the nerve to criticize the borrowing Corzine did for the transportation trust fund. Madame Whitman had her share of gimmicks and borrowing while in office. She rightly notes all the tax increases Corzine is proposing are bad for NJ families and businesses, perhaps her only point where she had a good record as governor.

Yes, I’m sitting pretty in my NCAA Basketball pool. I’m not kidding, I had LSU beating Duke in my pool. I’ve never picked Duke in an NCAA basketball pool because then I would have to want them to win. I don’t care if it costs me my $10, I refuse to root for Duke.

I’ve got Villanova beating UCLA in the final, and UCLA pulled out a razor thin victory over Gonzaga last night. Yes!!

A quick scan of the morning’s headlines on NJ governor Jon Corzine’s $31 billion tax and spend budget plan:

Star-Ledger: A Businesslike Corzine Offers a Sobering Budget
Asbury Park Press: Corzine has tough sell ahead for budget plan
N.Y. Times: Corzine Proposes Tax Increases for New Jersey
Philly Enquirer: Corzine submits budget, saying: ‘Boy, does it hurt’
AP: Residents see higher taxes, less relief under Corzine’s $30.9 billion budget
Bloomberg: Corzine to Propose Record New Jersey Budget, Sales-Tax Increase
Reuters/Washington Post: Corzine to hike sales tax in NJ budget
N.Y. Post: Corzine’s Budget a Taxing Situation
Bergen Record: Rebates, taxes both rising
Gannett: Consumers to feel brunt of Corzine’s tax increases

Hmm.. Seems as if the Star-Ledger is the most sympathetic to the governor. The Bergen Record headline is a bit deceiving, since in the first sentence of the story John McAlpin notes: “..Property tax rebate checks will get bigger this year — but less than half of what Governor Corzine promised voters last year.”

The latest Quinnipiac University shows democrat Senator Bob Menendez with a four point lead over likely republican challenger Tom Kean Jr in the race for the senate seat from New Jersey [link]. Menendez leads 40 to 36 percent with the rest undecided. The election is almost 8 months away, a lifetime in politics.

National republicans have been coming to New Jersey to help raise funds for Kean, including vice president Dick Cheney just a few days ago. Kean, however, did not attend the fund raiser, claiming he was busy at work and then got stuck in traffic [Kean arrives late for his own fundraiser]. Kate O’Beirne at National Review mocked the young Kean, noting that he better learn how to maneuver the state’s highways, or perhaps he was avoiding the VP? [link]. Kate says there are already plenty of weak kneed republicans in Washington, we don’t need another one. Doug Forrester tried to run for governor in 2005 by distancing himself from Bush and Cheney, and he got crushed in the election.

Kean should try being nicer to the national GOP if he’s expecting to get any financial help in November. If they sense he’s not ready for prime time, they will steer their money and efforts towards candidates in other senate races that are more competitive.

As it is, Menendez has a massive financial campain warchest, over $4 million at the end of 2005. Luckily for Kean, Menendez throws around his campaign funds like it’s confetti at a ticker tape parade. As Derek Willis notes in The Scoop, the Bergen Record looked at the campaign money Menendez has spent in the last five years and found that he’s spent over a million dollars on pollsters and consultants, $80,000 at Morton’s Steakhouse in DC, $79,000 to Willie Mays to appear at a fundraiser at the Meadowlands Race Track. He’s spent almost $10 million the past five years, and that’s in the 13th congressional district where he has faced only token opposition in his elections, races he has won by landslide totals. Herb Jackson has the lowdown on the Menendez money machine [Fund raising is Menendez's meal ticket].

Jon Corzine looks at the New Jersey budget and shrugs his shoulders, saying, “Hey, I can’t do anything about alot of it due to court mandates”. He’s talking about the NJ Supreme Court and the school funding scam. And if he had the political will, he could solve it.

As Star-Ledger columnist Paul Mulshine has repeatedly noted over the years, New Jersey already has a property tax relief plan. It’s called the state income tax. As Paul Nelson explains over at NJ Fiscal Folly (”The Black Holes Of NJ“), the NJ constitution specifically says the income tax can only used to reduce or offset property taxes. That’s what then governor Brendan Byrne promised when the income tax was first introduced in 1976.

Instead the income tax has been hijacked by a bunch of unelected lawyers in black robes, aka the New Jersey Supreme Court. The NJ constitution states “The Legislature shall provide for the maintenance and support of a thorough and efficient system of free public schools for the instruction of all children in the State between the ages of five and eighteen years.” What does “thorough and efficient” mean?? The Supreme Court ruled in the Abbott case that “thorough and efficient” means that the poorest schools in New Jersey must get funding equal to the richest schools in New Jersey. They later ruled that the state must pay for pre-schooling for three and four year olds, even though the constitution says children between 5 and 18 years old. That’s why the NJ Supreme Court is consistently the most activist out of control state court in the union. Just wait until they rule on gay marriage later this year.

Thanks to the Supreme Court, an ever increasing percentage of the state income tax receipts go to thirty one Abbott districts. Hoboken, home to the rich urban elite and covered border to border by half million dollar condos, is an Abbott district. Newark, home to a taxpayer subsidized hockey arena and employing some of the highest paid elementary school teachers in America, is an Abbott district.

It’s easy to fix this, if Corzine and our elecetd officials had the guts. Just reduce the number of Abbott districts. Eliminating just a handful would save several hundreds of millions of dollars. And instead of funding them to match the spending in the highest spending school districts, just fund them so they are at least at the average. And if the Supreme Court gets in the way, you just amend the state constitution. The state constitution has been amended many times, and the political will is there to do it now. That would shift the decisions on school spending from unaccountable judges to the legislature and governor elected by the voters and taxpayers of New Jersey which is where it belongs.

Actually, there would be opposition to amending the constitution from the NJ teacher’s unions and big city mayors. Unfortunately for the taxpayers, those are two of Jon Corzine’s biggest supporters.

Is Jon Corzine going to get away with breaking the central promise of his 2005 New Jersey gubernatorial campaign??

I remember how the MSM beat up on George Bush in 2001 for breaking his “promise” to regulate greenhouse gases. What the media called a Bush “promise” and “pledge” was a one line statement by Bush at some 2000 press conference. He never mentioned it anyplace else and greenhouse gases were never a main theme in the Bush campaign, but the Bush hating media never cut him any slack, calling him a liar and campaign promise breaker.

The difference here is that the “40 in 4″ pledge was a central theme of the Corzine campaign. He even attacked Doug Forresters “30 in 3″ plan as financially unsound while pushing his own plan as more achievable. The Corzine campaign promise was based on the higher property tax rebates in 2004. Instead, his proposed rebates are based on the lower 2005 rebate numbers. Now that it’s time to back up his talk, the governor is taking a pass.

With a straight face, Corzine said: “To those who thought my financial background would mean I had some magic bullet in my holster to balance the budget …” Hey, the electorate got that idea from you!. Corzine portrayed himself as some kind of super business guru, uniquely gifted to tackle New Jersey’s budgetary disaster. Apparently pushing paper around at Goldman Sachs and making millions during the go-go 1990’s stock market wasn’t exactly due to any special business and economic talent that Corzine possessed.

Will he get away with it?? The cynical me says he will, thanks to a largely sypathetic media that will mostly apologize for the governor, a New Jersey electorate that is basically uninformed and apathetic and a NJ republican party that is without fresh ideas and unable to compete financially with a democrat party flush with pay to play cash.

Remember the “40 in 4″ property tax reform plan that Corzine touted during the campaign?? Fuhgeddaboudit. Unless you’re a member of a state workers union, there’s only bad news for you in Jon Corzine’s 2006-2007 NJ budget. The budget plan outlined today has spending at a record $31 billion, about 8 percent higher than last year.

As always with democrats, “hard choices” usually means higher taxes, and the center piece of the governor’s budget is a hike in the NJ sales tax, possibly the most regressive tax a government can levy. Corzine tries to soften it a bit by eliminating the state income tax for some families at the low end of the scale. Sales taxes are expanding to cover more services. Cigarette and beer taxes are going up, also very regressive taxes. A new tax on water. The only positive tax news is he’s not renewing the “temporary” taxes that Jim McGreevey slapped businesses with in his first budget, though he’s making up for it with a new temporary three year 2.5% business surtax.

The majority of his proposed budget cuts are invisible to the average taxpayer. Headcount reduction is mostly by attrition. In many cases, his “cut” is just a reduction in the planned increase. In budget speak, if you spend $100 million this year and spend $115 million next year, that’s a $10 million cut if the plan was to spend $125 million. I’d like to see a list of the 75 programs he claims he is cutting.

A problem for Corzine is that the tax hikes will be visible every time you go shopping. And you can pick up a newspaper any day and read about NJ school superintendants retiring as millionaires, hundreds of millions down the drain with the school construction program, unchecked abuses of the state pension plan. And don’t forget property taxes, likely to increase by another 5 to 10 percent this year. These are all visible and real, as opposed to most of the cuts.

I wanted to eliminate at least one department, the department of state. No luck. And for all his talk about NJ higher education, you can expect tuition hikes that may be double digit for the fall. By freezing aid to municipalities, you can expect property taxes to also rise sharply. So much for another Corzine promise, tackling the affordability crisis in New Jersey.

Sharon at Center of NJ Life has a kinder and gentler review of the spending and taxing program. Not so kind reviews from Enlighten-NewJersey and NJ Conservative. Jon Shure of the liberal NJPP notes the regressive nature of tax hikes on lower income residents and says “This will not be a good budget for them“. Anheuser Busch, one of NJ’s largest employers, notes that half the beer in America is bought by households with income under $40,000 and they will get hit by the higher beer tax and the higher sales tax [link]. Hey, the beer is cheaper in Pennsylvania.

One fact we can all agree upon is that the final budget that will be voted on in June will look different than what Corzine is proposing. If the Bush recovery continues into the second quarter of 2006, that will mean some additional revenue that will hopefully go towards property tax relief and not more spending.

According to the AP, governor Jon Corzine updated the New Jersey republican caucus in Trenton earlier today with an outline of the upcoming state budget. Newsday has the details, “Corzine mulls broad tax, spending increases in upcoming budget“.

The lowlights:

• Sales tax to increase from 6 to 7 percent.
• Adding the sales tax to goods and services now exempt from the tax. Stuff like landscaping services and limo rentals.
• Increase in liquor and cigarette taxes.
• NJ businesses would get whacked with a 2.5 percent surcharge on the corporate business tax.

And forget about the talk of tough time and budget cutbacks. Corzine’s proposed budget will be over $30 billion. That’s an 8.5 percent increase from last year. 8.5%. Incredible.

And to top it off, remember the Corzine promise to increase property tax rebates by 10%?? Well, it was always assumed it was based on the higher rebates given handed out during the final year of the McGreevey administration, when rebates averaged nearly $700. Instead, Corzine will base his “plan” on a 10% increase based on the reduced rebates handed out last year. Considering the average non-senior rebate in 2005 was about $385, that means a $38 increase in rebates, not even enough to cover the higher sales taxes let alone the higher property taxes.

Wikipedia defines “trial balloon” as “..information sent out in order to observe the reaction of an audience . . . it can be used by politicians who deliberately leak information on a policy change under consideration.”

Well, it’s trial balloon time for Jon Corzine with respect to the New Jersey budget. Today’s headline is certainly no shock to me : Corzine considering routes to raise taxes. Amongst the routes considered are raising the sales tax from 6 to 7 percent, extending the sales tax to goods and services now exempt from the tax, or maybe both “..according to two of the people, who spoke to Gannett New Jersey on the condition of anonymity.” Hmm….

They’re looking to raise $1.5 billion through new sales taxes. It’s all unofficial, of course, since nothing has been decided yet.

Hopefully the NJ GOP will not roll over for the Corzine tax grab the way they did on the transportation trust fund. Otherwise you have to wonder what the republican party stands for in New Jersey, other than protecting the perks and spoils of government.

Sunday’s Star-Ledger had an article chronicling the changes going on in the mecca of neon and ’50s nostalgia on the Jersey shore, Wildwood. The piece, “Wildwood trades the kitsch for the glitz” has the sad and sorry details. A unique piece of Jersey landscape, a vacation spot for teens and kids and families, is being rapidly tranformed into wall to wall high priced condos because, well, because that’s where the money is.

As regular DynamoBuzz readers know, my family starts the summer vacation season every year with a trip to Wildwood. It was June of 2004 when I commented on the “tear-down-motels-and-old-buildings-and-build-condos spree”. The process has only picked up pace, and in addition to the condo and townhouse spree, the town has 9 25 story condo buildings in the works. As many as 75 hotels and motels have been sold and torn down, to be replaced by condos and townhouses going for half a million bucks and upwards. Well, at least they’re not age restricted.

For years we stayed at the Satellite Motel and it shut down after the 2004 summer season. The picture below is one I took in 2003, showing the sign on the motel’s roof. The owner spoke to us that last summer about the future of the motel, and he sent us a letter that next winter/spring telling us that he was selling out. He was tired, I think his wife had just died so he was running the place by himself. The price he was offered was too good to pass up. Last year we stayed at the Adventurer, a nice place, but not as cozy as the Satellite.

Yeah, alot of the places were a bit tacky but that was part of the appeal of the town. Neon signs, doo-wop, minature golf, driving up and down Ocean Avenue. But in New Jersey, developers don’t really care about tradition, just putting as many high priced units as possible per lot. Yeah, it’s capitalism, and that’s what developers do, but as Paul Newman said in “Cool Hand Luke”, “..callin’ it your job don’t make it right”.

The article quotes the mayor of Wildwood who is all giddy with excitement. I wonder if it has anything to do with the “political contributions” from all the real estate interests. In order to save Wildwood, the mayor will destroy the town as we knew it. “It’s called progess” says the mayor. Calling it progress don’t make it right.

I haven’t posted about the Jon Corzine - Karen Golding - lobbyist - $5000 bail deal because, well, when I first heard about it I didn’t think it was a big deal. So far, there hasn’t been anything really coming out of it, other than it was a stupid thing to bail someone out without asking what the crime was. I’m sure there’s someone in the Corzine inner circle who could have actually come up with the money other than the governor himself. The victim of her stalking crime was NJ democrat state chairman and Union County political boss Joe Cryan. Cryan is also a member of the NJ Assembly.

My thought is that Golding probably thought Corzine would talk to the arresting officer and maybe get the thing “taken care of”. No luck for Ms. Golding, the governor isn’t stupid.

As far as Mr. Corzine’s judgment, Philly Inquirer columnist Monica Yant Kinney has the best take in her article, “In a state of crisis, we aren’t killing the messenger - yet“. Her opinion of this in light of the $470,000 loan/gift to Carla Katz: “The governor is either the most generous nouveau riche divorcé on the planet, or a fleeceable mark for women of far less means”.

Jon Corzine’s plan to replenish the New Jersey Transportation Trust Fund has already cleared two legislative hurdles with votes in senate and assembly committees, even though at the time the total costs of the borrowing plan were not really that clear.

Now all the details are out, and it’s actually worse than I first thought. Corzine’s plan doesn’t just refinance existing debt. That appears to be just window dressing. The guts of the plan is a bit over $6 billion in new borrowing with the money to be spent over five years (”Corzine transit fund fix buys time“).

The money is supposed to last five years. If this money is managed like the NJ School Construction Corporation money, it will be gone in three.

So the guy who out of one side of his mouth is running around complaining about past budget gimmicks and one shot fixes comes up with more of the same old, same old. This “solution” will cost about $18 billion to be paid over the next 30 years. My kids will be paying for this, that is if they can still afford New Jersey when they become adults. As the article says, “Corzine’s first big financial decision was to punt”. No wonder the public is so cynical about politicians, no wonder NJ voter apathy is so deep and ingrained.

The article quotes the NJ media’s favorite political scientist, David Rebovich: “My initial reaction was that it was not consistent at all with his talk about fiscal integrity,… It’s a political plan.” No kidding, doctor.

As for the question of why didn’t Corzine propose a gas tax increase?? The answer is the same as I said all the way back in January, right after the inauguration when his numerous policy groups was putting out plans. He’s going to be proposing a bunch of new taxes in his 2006-2007 budget plan and he didn’t want to use up all his political capital on a gas tax hike.

As Charles Webster said in the Trentonian, “Corzine is not the financial Messiah everyone hoped for“.

So far, Jon Corzine’s plan to replenish the NJ transportation trust fund by refinancing the existing debt has gotten rotten reviews from the media and the NJ blogosphere (well, at least from me). The politicians in Trenton love the Corzine plan because (1) they don’t have to vote for a gasoline tax increase and (2) it postpones the tough decisions on a permanent funding solution for about 5 years, an eternity in politics.

The first vote for the Corzine gimmick was Monday in the senate budget committee. The Corzine administration didn’t even have a firm cost of the gimmick, only that it could be as much as $8 billion in debt, but it didn’t matter, the committee voted 13-1 in favor of the borrowing scheme [Lawmakers OK borrowing for trust fund]. One GOP commitee member, Sen. Robert Littell abstained. I’m assuming the committee is 8 democrats and 7 republicans which means 5 GOP senators supported this stinker of a plan. I’m dissapointed.

Doesn’t the NJ GOP realize this gimmick just postpones the really tough decisions for the next governor?? Do they plan on winning the next gubernatorial election or are they content with being the permanent minority party in Trenton??

Thankfully one republican senator, Leonard Lance, voted against the borrowing gimmick. Lance has been the lone voice in Trenton for the past 15 years who has been consistently against the budget tricks and borrowing. He was against Christie Whitman’s borrowing and gimmicks. When Jim McGreevey used billions in new borrowing to balance the budget, Lance took him to court and won. Now in 2006 Lance is leading the lonely fight against the first of what is likely to be many gimmicks and tricks that will add billions to New Jersey’s debt, already amongst the highest in the nation.