Garden State Patriot

The amount of money New Jersey taxpayers pony up is bad enough, but this ought to just make you angry.

DeCROCE GRILLS EDUCATION COMMISSIONER
ON QUESTIONABLE SPENDING BY SCHOOL DISTRICTS  

TAX DOLLARS USED TO FUND CLOWN SCHOOL, FLYING LESSONS, TRIPS TO RESORT DESTINATIONS – EVEN BRASS APPLES 

            As school districts throughout the state grapple with budget cuts resulting in layoffs, school closings and reduced funds for extra curricular activities, some continue to spend tax dollars on questionable and frivolous items, such as trips to resorts, gourmet meals and gifts for teachers.

            At today’s hearing by the Assembly Budget Committee, Assembly Republican Leader Alex DeCroce will question State Education Commissioner Lucille Davy about instances of questionable spending practices and why they are still seen despite her previous assurances that improvements would be made.

            “At a time when people are struggling to make ends meet and denying themselves even simple amenities, it is outrageous that some school districts believe that they are entitled to travel and eat at places that most people only dream about,” said DeCroce, R-Morris and Passaic.  “In today’s economy, one has to question why we are spending taxpayer dollars on things that have no educational value.  People who cannot pay their mortgage or utility bills will understandably be upset when they learn of the ways money is being squandered.”

            DeCroce said an examination of vouchers from a sampling of school districts that were obtained under the Open Public Records Act (OPRA) demonstrate a need for stronger monitoring of expenditures by the state, which has provided billions of dollars in state aid, with the largest share going to Abbott districts.

            “While there is some good news that conditions have improved in a few areas, the bad news is that there are still school districts spending taxpayer money on trips to places like Miami, Palm Springs, New Orleans, and Orlando,” continued DeCroce.  “And they are staying at posh hotels such as the Four Seasons and Royal Sonesta.  Apparently certain districts haven’t heard that everyone is tightening their belts, and that they must do the same.

       “Far too many students in these districts are still lacking in the basic skills such as reading and math,” said DeCroce. “What this analysis indicates is that we must have even greater oversight and accountability to guarantee that the billions of dollars we spend on education are spent wisely and in the classroom.”

            Beginning in February, Assembly Republicans submitted OPRA requests to 11 school districts throughout the state. Three districts – Willingboro, Tenafly, and Hoboken – were non-responsive to the initial and follow up requests. Two districts – Teaneck and Pemberton – did not exhibit instances of wasteful spending.  However, numerous examples of highly questionable spending were evident in Camden, Newark, Cherry Hill, and Plainfield.

             “At a time when most districts are being forced to drastically reduce spending, it is incumbent on those receiving additional funding to recognize their responsibility for budgeting wisely,” continued DeCroce. “Unfortunately, we are still seeing too many instances where that lesson has not been learned.  For several years we have heard that oversight would become a high priority within the DOE.  These examples of waste suggest that this issue still is not being vigilantly monitored. ”

            Some notable examples of imprudent spending occurred in Newark, where $25,000 was allocated for eight students to take flight lessons, and $1,400 was spent for a workshop on Clown Arts. At this seminar students were taught balancing, juggling, and the history and challenges of clowning.

            Taxpayers are also paying $10,000 just to film each installment of the Newark School Superintendent’s monthly cable television show, and that teachers in Newark can be compensated at the doctorate level as long as they have obtained a Masters Degree and 30 additional credits. Actual completion of the course work is not required.

            And while Camden was purchasing engraved bells to ring on the opening day of school in 2007 and buying insulated lunch bags and brass apples for its teachers, Plainfield was spending taxpayer dollars to send students to a dude ranch in New York.

(more…)

As if the news for New Jerseyans couldn’t get worse, it does. The latest tax revenue projections indicate that the state’s take will be even lower than expected. Here’s the scoop from NJBiz:

MONROE — Gov. Jon S. Corzine will soon drop another budget bombshell as a “frightening” revenue shortfall imperils the state’s spending plans, New Jersey Chief Counsel William J. Castner Jr. said this morning.

Reduced sales tax collections and other revenue retreats driven by the weak economy already spurred Corzine to propose spending cuts and tax hikes, but the latest projections indicate the state’s revenue flow will shrivel even more.

“The governor will likely make a formal announcement [about further budget revisions] soon,” said Castner, who addressed about 50 business owners today at a New Jersey Chamber of Commerce breakfast held at Forsgate Country Club. “The revenue numbers that are coming down the pike are frightening, and all options will be on the table.”

He declined to detail the latest revenue shortfall, but Castner did say the state is “committed” to spending cuts and to taking other steps to rein in the budget, which currently stands at $29.8 billion.

The plan for the year beginning July 1 already shaves about $3 billion from the current budget — but increases employer payroll taxes, suspends property tax rebates for households making more than $75,000 and institutes a one-year income tax increase on individuals making more than $500,000.

“We’re aware of the financial challenges facing the state, but we don’t want to see the administration raise taxes and plug the budget gap on the backs of business owners,” said Jim Leonard, legislative lobbyist for the New Jersey Chamber of Commerce.

“Businesses are already facing tax hikes in the form of increased state unemployment insurance and the loss of the personal property tax deduction,” which may be used by sole proprietors, limited-liability partnerships and other business structures, he said. “We would like to see a re-evaluation of all budget programs. Nothing should be exempt” from possible spending cuts.

So, here’s the bottom line. New Jersey taxpayers are tapped out. The well has run dry and we can’t afford what Corzine wants. And it’s time for him to face reality and cut the size and scope of our state government.

Of course, I will not be holding my breath. Castner’s statement that ”all options will be on the table” tells us all we need to know – Corzine will continue to stick it to the New Jersey taxpayer while protecting his precious government workers. Unfortunately, this is about the only thing NJ taxpayers will be able to take the bank.

{UPDATE} Budget is another $1.5B-$2B short

Cross-posted at Conservatives with Attitude! and Red County.

Be happy my fellow New Jerseyans! Today is Tax Freedom Day for us. It only comes 16 full days after the national average of April 13th, but this is what happens when you live in the absolute worst state in the country for taxes thanks to liberal Democrats. That’s four entire months of your hard-earned salary going directly to Uncle Sam.

Tax Freedom Day has already passed for most Americans – but not yet for overtaxed New Jerseyans.

For most taxpayers, it is past the date in which if all their wages earned this year went to local, state and federal governments, they would be off the hook for the rest of the year.

New Jerseyans, however, have to keep working until the end of the month to settle up with Uncle Sam and New Jersey’s own bearded tax man, Gov. Jon S. Corzine.

Tax Freedom Day, calculated by the federal nonprofit Tax Foundation to illustrate the cost burden of government to individuals, occurred April 13 this year. Artificially, because of the recession and federal stimulus plan, it is the earliest Freedom Day since 1967.

Those factors bumped up New Jersey’s date from May 8 to April 29, but it continues to lag behind the rest of the country – preceding only Connecticut by one day.

Considering the illusionary effect of the federal stimulus plan on Tax Freedom Day, next year’s will likely be pushed back to May, if not June.

In his Special Report on Tax Freedom Day, Josh Barro, a Tax Foundation staff economist, wrote:

In 2009, Americans will pay more in taxes than they will spend on food, clothing and housing combined.

While tax revenues are falling, government expenditures are expected to explode in 2009, also driven in significant part by (federal stimulus funding). Tax Freedom Day, like almost all tax burden measures, ignores the current year’s deficits. If the projected deficit for 2009 were counted as a tax, Tax Freedom Day would arrive on May 29 instead of April 13 – the latest date ever for this deficit-inclusive measure.

But given the bevy of property, business and income tax increases related to Corzine’s proposed budget, New Jerseyans might have to wait until July next year.

States with the earliest Tax Freedom Day:
Alaska……….……..March 23
Louisiana………….March 28
Mississippi…………March 28
South Dakota……March 29
North Dakota…….April 1
West Virginia…….April 1

States with the latest Tax Freedom Day:
Connecticut…..April 30
New Jersey……April 29
New York………April 25
California…..….April 20
Maryland………April 19

New Jersey Tax Freedom Days compared with United States average
2009…..April 29…..April 13
2008…..May 8….….April 21
2007…..May 11……April 27
2006…..May 10……April 26
2005…..May 8……..April 24

Source: Tax Foundation

Watch TOTUS mess up The Messiah. Just comical.

Has ACORN been infiltrating Bergen County? Almost sounds like it.

Amazingly, two school board elections appear to have been tainted by voter fraud. In Palisades Park and Lodi, school board elections are under scrutiny due to unusually high numbers of absentee ballots. In Palisades Park…

The Elections Board received 932 absentee ballots from borough residents — more than twice the number of voters who cast ballots at the polls and one-third of the total of absentee ballots in the county, Chairman Peter Incardone Jr. said.

“This has to stop, something is really not right,” Incardone said of the borough parties’ predilection for signing voters up for absentee ballots, which has led to multiple investigations in recent years.

In Lodi, a high number of ballots have come from Housing Authority residents where the son of a board member happens to work (shock!):

In another race complicated by absentee ballots, Lodi school board candidate Louis Tuccillo wrote a letter asking the Elections Board to hold off on certifying the election until they release data on the absentee ballots.

The letter asks for a breakdown of ballots per district, the number of ballots that were thrown out, and the number of ballot requests that were hand-delivered to county offices, among other details

“It’s our right to have this information in the event that we decide to file an appeal,” he said.

The Elections Board investigated Lodi’s absentee ballots after Tuccillo complained that Housing Authority residents represented 20 percent of the ballot request total. The authority chairman’s son, Daniel Cody III, is a Board of Education member running for reelection.

Honestly, it amazes me the lengths people will go to to win an election. Nonetheless, I hope these cases are investigated fully and the truth comes out. No matter the importance of the election, voter fraud is a direct assault on our democracy and we should do everything we can to prevent it.

Cross-posted at Red County.

“How can Steve Lonegan be against government, as he says he is, when under his tax plan, 70% of the state is going to pay more money in income taxes?” 

Governor Corzine?

Joe “The Tool” Doria?

Joe “I’m Always” Cryan?

Nope. This quote comes from Mr. Chris Christie, stolen right out of the Democrat playbook on the chapter called ‘How to attack the Flat Tax.’

Gee, I wonder what flat tax advocate and Christie endorser, Steve Forbes, thinks of this?

Lonegan campaing pollster Rick Shaftan releeased an internal poll to the press today claiming the GOP primary race is a dead heat. Not surprisingly, some questioned the results of theses internals. Via Politicker NJ:

So is the race really as competitive as the Lonegan poll — which was conducted by the firm of Lonegan chief strategist Rick Shaftan — says it is?

Any internal campaign poll released to the press should be taken with a grain of salt, said Monmouth University pollster Patrick Murray.

“It’s a piece of propaganda.  That’s what all campaign communications are,” he said.

Murray said that the information available from the poll raised a couple red flags: that the poll publishes results within a tenth of a percentage point, giving it “an aura of more precision than these polls have,” and that, using a statewide sample size of 687 voters, it includes results for just one legislative district in northwest New Jersey.

“It raises the question for me if it over-sampled from the more conservative areas,” said Murray.

Shaftan, for his part, said that “the sample was drawn randomly and no part of the state was singled out for overcalling.”  He included numbers within a tenth of a percentage point for emphasis.

As for the 23rd Legislative District, Shaftan said the trend in Northwest New Jersey, which between Morris, Sussex, Warren and Hunterdon Counties accounts for about 25% of Republican primary turnout, was very much in Lonegan’s favor.

Moreover, Shaftan said, the survey did not describe the candidates before asking whether respondents preferred Lonegan or Christie.  In fact, he said his poll’s method of only polling Republicans who voted in at least two of the last primaries, if anything, favored Christie.

“Somebody who is not a two-of-five and who is voting in the primary is probably a Lonegan voter,” he said.  “New people come to us.  They don’t go to Christie.”

Shaftan disagreed that Schundler’s 2001 victory had anything to do with his opponents’ ballot switch, and said that Lonegan is running better at this point in the campaign than Schundler was running against Franks.

Christie Campaign Manager Bill Stepien argued that the poll’s results in Morris County, where Christie is from, diminishes its credibility.

“A poll that shows Lonegan up nearly two to one in Chris’s home county?  Seems a bit fishy,” he said.  “The next thing you’ll tell me is that Lonegan’s own consultant conducted the poll.”

Here’s my take. I do b

So is the race really as competitive as the Lonegan poll — which was conducted by the firm of Lonegan chief strategist Rick Shaftan — says it is?

Any internal campaign poll released to the press should be taken with a grain of salt, said Monmouth University pollster Patrick Murray.

“It’s a piece of propaganda.  That’s what all campaign communications are,” he said.

Murray said that the information available from the poll raised a couple red flags: that the poll publishes results within a tenth of a percentage point, giving it “an aura of more precision than these polls have,” and that, using a statewide sample size of 687 voters, it includes results for just one legislative district in northwest New Jersey.

“It raises the question for me if it over-sampled from the more conservative areas,” said Murray.

Shaftan, for his part, said that “the sample was drawn randomly and no part of the state was singled out for overcalling.”  He included numbers within a tenth of a percentage point for emphasis.

As for the 23rd Legislative District, Shaftan said the trend in Northwest New Jersey, which between Morris, Sussex, Warren and Hunterdon Counties accounts for about 25% of Republican primary turnout, was very much in Lonegan’s favor.

Moreover, Shaftan said, the survey did not describe the candidates before asking whether respondents preferred Lonegan or Christie.  In fact, he said his poll’s method of only polling Republicans who voted in at least two of the last primaries, if anything, favored Christie.

“Somebody who is not a two-of-five and who is voting in the primary is probably a Lonegan voter,” he said.  “New people come to us.  They don’t go to Christie.”

Shaftan disagreed that Schundler’s 2001 victory had anything to do with his opponents’ ballot switch, and said that Lonegan is running better at this point in the campaign than Schundler was running against Franks.

Christie Campaign Manager Bill Stepien argued that the poll’s results in Morris County, where Christie is from, diminishes its credibility.

“A poll that shows Lonegan up nearly two to one in Chris’s home county?  Seems a bit fishy,” he said.  “The next thing you’ll tell me is that Lonegan’s own consultant conducted the poll.”

Here’s my take. I’m not sure if it is as tight as the Lonegan camp’s internals are showing, but I do believe that Mayor Lonegan is continuing to gain on Christie and will continue to do so.

Ultimately, this primary is going to be decided by turnout and whether the grassroots conservatives will vote en masse for Mayor Lonegan on June 2nd.  

It’s important to also keep in mind that many voters have yet to take a full interest in this primary. With the debates right around the corner, though, that should certainly change things. By mid-may I think we’ll have a very clear idea of how this race truly stands.

Cross-posted at Red County.

Here is the latest polling from the great state of Pennsylvania per Rasmussen Reports.

Incumbent Senator Arlen Specter trails former Congressman Pat Toomey by 21 points in an early look at Pennsylvania’s 2010 Republican Primary. Fifty-one percent (51%) of Republican voters statewide say they’d vote for Toomey while just 30% would support Specter.

Specter is viewed favorably by 42% of Pennsylvania Republicans and unfavorably by 55%, according to a new Rasmussen Reports telephone survey of voters in the state. Those are stunningly poor numbers for a long-term incumbent senator. Specter was first elected to the Senate in 1980.

Toomey, who served in the House from 1999 to 2005, earns positive reviews from 66% and negative comments from just 19%.

Why do I have the feeling the Benedict Arlen will suddenly decide to retire for ‘family and health reasons’ soon? If not, we will continue to hound him for his unforgiveable vote for the Porkulous Bill.

The Rasmussen poll also had some other interesting results:

In another sign that could be troubling for Specter, the current poll finds that 79% of Pennsylvania Republicans have a favorable opinion of the “Tea Party” protests against big government spending and higher taxes held across the nation last week. Thirty percent (30%) know someone personally who took part. Overall, 82% of Pennsylvania Republicans say that the federal government has too much money and too much power. Just four percent (4%) say it has too little.

All in all, this is excellent news for conservatives as we try to rebuild our party.

Cross-posted at Conservatives with Attitude!

Senator, Laut…err…Lousenberg is the primary sponsor of legislation to close a so-called “gun show loophole.” The bill would do the following:

The Senators’ bill would close the loophole by requiring background checks on all sales at gun shows. The bill defines a gun show as any event where 50 or more guns are offered or exhibited for sale. In addition, the bill would require:

• gun show promoters to register with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF), maintain a list of vendors at all gun shows and ensure that all vendors acknowledge receipt of information about their legal obligations; and

• federal Firearms Licensees (FFLs) to submit information, including the manufacturer/importer, model and serial number of firearms transferred at gun shows to the ATF’s National Tracing Center (NTC). No personal information about either the seller or the purchaser would be given to the ATF. Instead, as under current law, FFLs would maintain personal information in their files. The National Tracing Center would request personal information from an FFL only if a firearm becomes the subject of a law enforcement trace request.

In typical liberal style, Lousenberg used the events like the anniversary of the Columbine shootings and the Virginia Tech shootings to gin up emotion and support for his initiative.

With the anniversaries of the Virginia Tech massacre and Columbine shootings in the news, Sen. Frank Lautenberg will push again Tuesday to close the so-called gun show loophole that lets some gun sales go through without background checks of the buyers. In a statement to Whispers, Lautenberg said: “There is no rational reason to oppose closing the loophole. The reason it’s still not closed is simple: the continuing power of the special-interest gun lobby in Washington. My legislation would require background checks for every gun purchased at every gun show across America and would keep guns out of the hands of people who should not have them. Without this change in the law, anyone—from felons to fugitives—can buy a gun at a gun show, no questions asked. That needs to change.”

Interestingly, liberals like Lousenberg who push for anti-gun legislation don’t seem to be as interested in protecting us from criminals who cross our borders and commit violent crimes, let alone preventing terrorists from entering our country anywhere along our southern border (but I digress).

The Viriginia Tech killer, I might add, did not purchase his weapons at a gun show.

More to the point, however, the first thing to understand about this is exactly what is being referred to as a “loophole.” Wikipedia describes it as follows:

The “gun show loophole” is a term coined by gun control advocates to describe the legal sale of firearms between private individuals at gun shows in states where this is legal. When these sales take place at a gun show, some perceive a “loophole” in the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS), although these laws have never applied to individual-to-individual sales of personal firearms. United States federal law requires persons engaged in interstate firearm commerce, or who are in the business of selling firearms, to hold a Federal Firearms License and to perform checks prior to transferring a firearm, but there is an exemption for private sales by individuals who are “not engaged in the business” of selling firearms, or who only make “occasional” sales. Unlicensed private sellers are permitted by law to sell privately-owned guns at gun shows, or at any other location, in 24 states (as of 1998).^[9]

Senator Lousenberg and his anti-gun partners would like to have us believe that dealers are somehow skirting the law, but this is simply not the case. The law just does not require private individuals to have a license. And any dealer who tried to sell a firearm without a license would immediately be arrested and prosecuted.

Furthermore, very few of these private transactions actually even occur at gun shows. In an article by David Kopel of the Cato Institute, David explains:

Conversely, people who are not engaged in the business of selling firearms, but who sell firearms from time to time (such as a man who sells a hunting rifle to his brother-in-law), are not required to obtain the federal license required of gun dealers or to call the FBI before completing the sale.

Similarly, if a gun collector dies and his widow wants to sell the guns, she does not need a federal firearms license because she is just selling off inherited property and is not “engaged in the business.” And if the widow doesn’t want to sell her deceased husband’s guns by taking out a classified ad in the newspaper, it is lawful for her to rent a table at a gun show and sell the entire collection.

If you walk along the aisles at any gun show, you will find that the overwhelming majority of guns offered for sale are from federally licensed dealers. Guns sold by private individuals (such as gun collectors getting rid of a gun or two over the the weekend) are the distinct minority.

Yet HCI claims that “25-50 percent of the vendors at most gun shows are unlicensed dealers.” That statistic is true only if one counts vendors who aren’t selling guns (e.g., vendors who are selling books, clothing or accessories) as “unlicensed dealers.”

David’s last point is likewise quite important. Lousenberg has used the 25-50 percent statistic in his efforts to sell this bill. But he is clearly being disingenuous in this respect because, as Mr. Kopel points out, many of the vendors at gun shows are not selling guns.

Last but not least, very few gun crimes – a mere 2% in fact – are committed using firearms purchased at gun shows. Again, via Wikipedia:

A 1997 Department of Justice survey of 3,959 prison inmates found that only 2% stated that they had bought a gun used in a crime from a gun show.^[10] The remaining 98% were obtained from other sources, in which the criminal had no direct connection with a gun show. The most common sources (35%) were family or friends.^[11]

Considering the facts I have outlined, it is difficult not to conclude that this is just another effort by the left-wing to infringe on the right to bear arms and an utterly misguided attempt prevent gun crimes. Even if enacted, this legislation would do little if anything in this respect. But what it would do is set the stage for the next incremental step to prevent law-abiding citizens from exercising their 2nd Amendment rights.

Americans deserve an honest and truthful debate about gun issues, not the kind of demagoguery being put forth by the likes of Senator Lousenberg.

Cross-posted at Conservatives with Attitude! and Red County.

Bergen County’s District 40 will be a compelling and important race in this year’s GOP primary season.  Incumbent Republicans David Russo and Scott Rumana are facing a challenge from conservative businessmen Joe Caruso and Anthony Rottino. The race is symbolic of the divide between moderate, establishment Republicans and the conservative base within the New Jersey GOP.

The decision of Mr. Caruso and Mr. Rottino to challenge 2 incumbent Republicans has, to no surprise, ruffled the feathers of those in the establishment. My fellow CWA! poster Sharon Soon detailed as much back in February.

However, if conservatives are to win back their party and control its destiny moving forward, it is these kinds of races that must be won. We simply must root out those Republicans who are unwilling to stand up for conservative values.

Mr. Caruso and Mr. Rottino also have a keen understanding of the issues facing New Jersey and will fight hard to keep taxes low and bring fairness to how our dollars are spent. There is no better example of this in New Jersey than the inequities in education spending and state aid. On this issue, Caruso and Rottino vow to fight for their district’s fair share.

WAYNE NJ, April 22, 2009 – District 40 N.J. General Assembly Republican candidates Anthony Rottino and  Joseph Caruso are offering their congratulations to the victorious school board candidates in yesterday’s election and vowed to work hard to bring more state education aid back to the district if elected to the Assembly.

Rottino said the concerns of local school board officials  regarding the lack of state funding are legitimate, but have gone unrecognized by the District 40 incumbents David Russo and Scott Rumana   

“I want to say to those school board members who ran on a platform of fighting for more  state aid – especially those in Wayne, where state aid is an major  issue – that Joe and I share your concerns and we will fight for more aid for the suburbs,” said Rottino.  

Wayne school board candidates  James Jimenez, Franco Mazzei and Jane B. Hutchison specifically made an issue of the lack of state school aid. Rottino, a graduate of Wayne  Valley High School,  said he wants to work with them to bring more money back to the district. He noted that Wayne  gets just $6.7 million in school aid , or $790 per pupil, while Paterson receives more than $420 million in school aid or $16,000 per pupil.  

“That aid  disparity is appalling and we will not allow it to stand,” said Rottino, who is running with Caruso in the June 2 Republican Primary Election.

“The unfortunate fact of life for Wayne residents and all those in District 40  is that Scott Rumana sits on the Assembly Education Committee and has done nothing to cut state aid to cities and send more aid to the suburbs,” said Rottino, a father of four. “Our position is that too much taxpayer money is being  wasted on urban education.”  

 

Caruso said he and Rottino have been pointing out wasteful education spending for months and noting the ridiculous sums of taxpayer money that are propping up urban school bureaucracies while little trickles down to the middle class school districts.

  

“More than $4 billion dollars is pumped into a handful of urban school districts in New Jersey  every year while the suburban taxpayers have to dig deeper into their pockets every year to educate their children,” said Caruso, the father of two young children and a Packanack Lake resident.

  

Caruso noted that while people in Wayne, Franklin Lakes and Wyckoff typically pay about 85 percent  of  their local school district’s needs, residents in cities like Paterson and Newark have more than 85 percent of their school costs paid by people who live in the suburbs.

“The education funding system has to be changed now,” said Caruso. “Currently the system exists to benefit administrators and the bosses of  the teachers’ union – not the taxpayers and,  in too many cases –- not the children either,” said Caruso.  

“Anthony and I, unlike the two incumbent Assemblyman, are not bought and paid for by education bureaucrats and union bosses. We will be in Trenton fighting for change and we will be in constant contact with the school boards in District 40. You can count on that,” added Caruso.

So, for those of you in District 40, I would urge you to get behind Joe Caruso and Anthony Rottino in their assembly bids.  For more on their campaign, you can visit their web site: BetterWay09.org

Cross-posted at Red County.