The Anti-Funds Went Where?

Rep. Rodney Frelinghuysen is asking Attorney General Peter Harvey for a detailed analysis of how the $300 million in federal anti-terror funds have been spent in the state. He is also questioning why New Jersey has only spent around $80 million of the money available. Quoted in a Star Ledger article, Frelinghuysen said:

"The U.S. House of Representatives is doing its part by passing legislation that would send more federal homeland security resources to New Jersey and other high-threat areas where risk is greatest," noted. ...Clearly, there also needs to be assurances in place that the funds New Jersey has received to date are being distributed according to risk and vulnerability, not politics."

You just know that the Attorney General is going to claim that he can't release detailed information of the spending for security reasons. I, for one, am very concerned that there is no comprehensive plan for dealing with terror activities in this state. Maybe we need to hire Golan Cipel as Terror Czar!

The SCC is Officially Broke!

Well, it's official. The SCC has allocated the last $1.5 billion that it has. The SCC has chosen to build 31 new schools and make improvements an additional 28. Cities that did not have ongoing construction were shut out.

Because of mis-management or fraud (depends on who you talk to)at the SCC cities all over the state are still using their eminent domain powers to throw people out their homes to make room for schools that are not coming.

I really hope that the State Legislature defies the courts and refuses to spend the additional billions that the SCC will require.

High Schools and Random Drug Testing

In Hunterdon County High Schools require that any child wishing to participate in -curricular activities must consent to the possibility of random drug testing. I believe that this is a huge intrusion on personal liberty, expensive and probably not necessary.

Last week Hackettstown High in nearby Warren County released the results of it's testing for this year. Seventy children were tested and one came back positive.

Doesn't this just show what most parents know? Active, involved children tend not to be drug abusers?

This is another example of the state intruding into our lives and spending our money needlessly.

Property Taxes to Soar Next Year

The long deferred bill for unfunded pension benefits for municipal employees is coming due next April to the tune of $385 million. A staggering increase of $208 million. The Star Ledger shows the following examples of how two Essex County Towns will fare:

In Newark, for instance, the bill for pensions will jump from $9.6 million this year to $20.2 million. West Orange, the hometown of acting Gov. Richard Codey, will owe $1.9 million in pension payments next year -- $1 million more than the township paid this year.

Christy Whitman stopped the pension fund funding during the go-go years of the market. Then the pension fund suffered dramatic loses when the markets collapsed Leaving the pension funds $35 billion (that's right) short. At this new level taxpayers will have to fund this shortfall over the next 9 years!

Transit Security & Random Checks

I was watching CNN this morning where they were running a story on NYC and it's new random bag checks. The story was about Liberty vs. Security issues and Commisioner Ray Kelly was quoted as saying that as long as the police used a numerical formula the courts have no problem with the searches. The part of the report that caught my attention, however, was a video tape of one of the searches. There for all to see was the politically correct transit policeman dutifully checking the bag of a 60ish white female. I guess checking that she wasn't with Gandmothers for Allah.

New Jersey is going to start the same kind of checks on NJT next week. I guess that they will use the same random features as New York. Does this make me feel any safer. No. How about you?

Tom Moran Gets It Right

Tom Moran has an excellent column in the Ledger about Hoboken getting a new high school curtesy of New Jersey tax payers because the state still classifies the town as an Abbott District. Hoboken is a well to do town with a booming downtown and booming real estate market. This situation has been a pet peave of Paul Mulshine for years.

Read the column and shake your head.

Laws of Unintended Consequences

Tax court Judge Harold Kuskin has ruled that ruled that the New Jersey Turnpike Authority owes the township of Holmdel $30 million all because the Authority privatized many of it's operations in 1997. Included in the privatization was selling alcohol, charging for parking, and charging sales tax on concert tickets, which Holmdel has argued, revoked the public purpose tax exemption of the Center. There was an excellent article
on this some days ago in Holmdel's local paper the Independent.

An interesting question is whether the State Taxpayers have to ante up or whether the operator, GSC Partners, has to pay.

Picking Up on the Homeland Security Funding Theme

I see that the folks at Enlighten-NewJersey have picked up on the Homeland Security funding issues in our great state. In their exellent post Enlighten says:

"We assume the state has analyzed security risks, developed a strategic homeland security plan, established programs to execute the strategy and has budgeted and funded security initiatives in order of risk assessment priority. We also assume transit security would have been high on the state’s list of priorities and homeland security funds have been spent accordingly."

I doubt it.

Last week in NJ Terror Thoughts I wrote about the political football that our representitives were playing with homeland security funds. My conclusion then,

"Planning for large terror attacks and making sure the proper resources are in place and available is the responsibility of our elected leaders. It's clear from previous revelations of Newark buying garbage trucks and cranes they can't use with anti-terrorism grants and from this article that many of our elected leaders could have innocent blood on their hands."

stands today.

Another Reason School Taxes are out of Control

Clinton Township voters had approved building a new middle school for $34.7 million in 2002. The school was scheduled to open in 2006, but now won't open till at least 2007 because of over regulation and either incompetence or fraud by a consultant on the project. It seems when the consultant applied for the permits for the project from the DEP he failed to mention that the site had an old farm house built in 1759 which was to be demolished to make a wider driveway. When the DEP learned about the demolition, according to the Star Ledger

"...the state Department of Environmental Protection withheld permits while the State Historic Preservation Office developed a plan to protect the structure.

Earlier this month, the DEP issued the last of the required permits, but attached a dozen conditions, said department spokeswoman Erin Phalon.

They include archaeological monitoring during the school construction; curating artifacts from the house; "mothballing" the building to ensure it is watertight, structurally stable and secure; and preparing a school lesson plan on the history of the site, she said."

There is no historical value to this house! The original owner of the house was a farmer that organized loyalists who fought for the British. But the real reason to save the house, according to James Turk of the State Museum is that the plaster in the house is a "remarkable treasure"

He also said "Without question, the Voght ceilings are of statewide and very likely national importance" And there is a plaster snake that curls down the center hall "appears to be unique and without precedent in the Mid-Atlantic region"

So the taxpayers of Clinton Township are going to be forced to preserve this building, at the cost of hundreds of thousands of dollars, because of a plaster snake. It's out of control!

Forrester Needs to Keep Attacking

Corzine and his partner in crime Frank Lautenberg are trying to make it look like Doug Forrester has close ties to George Bush. Link It seems that Forrester's web site noted that VP Dick Cheney would be coming to NJ to help Forrester raise money. Forrester has used national GOP money in his campaigns. The Corzine camp is trying to use this as a way to link Forrester to GWB. What I found funniest about this whole matter was Lautenberg's idiotic statement to the Ledger "urging Forrester to return the "blood money" Bush's chief political strategist, Karl Rove, raised for state Republicans at two events in June."

Blood money? This guy actually created ADP. I can't believe it.

How Much Would You Spend for an Assembly Seat

The Hunterdon County Democrat reported that Hunterdon Freeholder Frank Fuzo spent over $117,000 to win a seat in the State Assembly. According to the Democrat "more than twice as much as the two winners -- in his unsuccessful bid to win an Assembly nomination in the June 7 primary." His largest contributer... The CWA which represents all Hunterdon County employees.

Mr. Fuzo, according to the article, said

"he didn't see any conflict taking money from the union local that represents county employees. "Anybody who looks at my voting record will see I take in the whole operation (of government), and that I am fair to the taxpayer and county employees," he said. "I think that's what they looked at."

Politics in NJ.

Corzine Backpedal

Just the other day Jon Corzine gave a statement on raising the gas tax.

"Given the recent spike in oil and gas prices that are squeezing family budgets, we must find other alternatives to raising the gas tax," Corzine's Monday statement read, adding that the state should consider selling assets such as land near train stations and major highways.

Now after getting pressure from union leaders he has backed off this position and said he would support a hike in the gas tax.

Even funnier than him backing off his previous position was him saying he wasn't backing off his previous statement.

"Corzine said yesterday that he was not reversing his position. He said again that rising oil prices and petroleum shortages make a gasoline tax increase an unattractive option. But he added, "You can't take the thing off" the table."

One of the reasons that people vote for millionaire clowns like this is because supposedly they can't be bought by the special interests. Not good ol' Jon. Mister "I'm for the little guy" is really for special interests at the expense of the taxpayers of the state. This guy's a joke!

NJ Terror Thoughts

After the bombings in London I started thinking about terrorism here in New Jersey. Since 9/11, I suspect most of us have found ways to push the threat of another attack out of our most conscience thoughts and only periodically, whether at a crowded event or maybe when a jet flies by lower than normal, give it a thought.

According to an article in the Ledger today our elected representatives are no different than the rest of us. Preparing for a terror event has become just another political football where the game is to get more of the money than anyone else regardless of actual need.

"This year, lawmakers from each party requested about the same amount of Homeland Security funding. The result: Democrats got more than $7.8 million, while Republicans received $523,454.

More than $1 million in grants went to just one district — that of Democratic Sen. Wayne Bryant, D-Camden, the chairman of the Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee."

I thought as I read that maybe Democratic districts got more because they are in more vulnerable districts and that's exactly what the State Attorney General's office said. However the Ledger's analysis of funding showed

"...several instances in which comparable suburban districts controlled by Democrats received money, while Republican ones didn't.

For example, Somerville, Manville and South Bound Brook in heavily Republican Somerset County are similar in population and economics to three towns located not far away in Democratic Middlesex County: Edison, Metuchen and South River. The three Middlesex towns this year received $385,000 in state grants; the three Somerset towns got nothing."

When thinking of Terror attacks it is clear that eastern New Jersey,with it's chemical plants, refineries and proximity to New York City is much more at risk than western New Jersey. However, looking at the state as a whole is required for dealing with any terror planning. For example, if a 1 kiloton suitcase nuke were detonated in downtown Manhattan the fallout would damage across the river in Hudson and Essex, but because of the normal prevailing winds would also drift down through Ocean and Momouth counties. People would be fleeing west in large numbers, unprepared for the trip, possibly sick and maybe armed. Authorities in each town and county would be overwhelmed. Scary thoughts aren't they?

Planning for large terror attacks and making sure the proper resources are in place and available is the responsibility of our elected leaders. It's clear from previous revelations of Newark buying garbage trucks and cranes they can't use with anti-terrorism grants and from this article that many of our elected leaders could have innocent blood on their hands.

Scathing!

The folks over at Enlighten-NJ have the most scathing description of Jon Corizne from an article published in NYMetro.com

The article describes a vain, passive aggressive man that has nothing but his own ego in mind. A must read.

Hats off to the folks at enlighten for finding this!

They Can't Help Themselves

According to the Ledger

"Less than a week after they put the finishing touches on the state's $27.9 billion budget, New Jersey lawmakers held a special committee meeting yesterday to steer $37 million in extra state aid to the city of Camden"

The money was not included in last weeks budget and was taken from other State accounts that had money left over from last year.

Guess who the committee chair was - Sen. Wayne Bryant (D-Camden)

Thank God NYC Lost the Olympic Bid

Can you imagine the cost to New Jersey for the security for a NYC Olympic event. The Port Authority would need to guard all their bridges and tunnels as well as the airports. New Jersey Transit would have to add rail security especially in light of today's events in London. The Path, State Police overtime... and New Jersey wouldn't get any of the name recognition for the event. My gosh... What an expense we have avoided. Thank You IOC.

London attacks

London was struck today by a series of coordinated bombings. Scores of people were hurt and as of now 2 (with rumors of a total of 40) people have been killed. An Islamist group claimed responsibility in the name of Al Qaeda.

President Bush, in his comments, said

"The war on terror goes on. I was most impressed by the resolve of all the leaders in the room. Their resolve is as strong as my resolve. And that is, we will not yield to these people, will not yield to the terrorists.

We will find them. We will bring them to justice. And at the same time we will spread an ideology of hope and compassion that will overwhelm their ideology of hate."

It's about time we stopped calling this "The War on Terror". You can't have a war on a method. We are at war, which they declared, on Islamic Fascists. Until western governments start calling our enemies by name we can never make meaningful progress in this war.

No action on property taxes. Where do we go from here?

Richard Dougherty (aka The Mogambo Guru) over at The Daily Reckoning has this sarcastic comment on why the city of New London needs to upgrade its tax ratables and it could apply to nearly every city in New Jersey and to the Sate as well.

“They have provided for legions of city workers who are, like all government workers everywhere, grossly overpaid and under-worked, and who have benefit packages so outrageously generous that they are not even available anywhere in the private sector, and they are under-funded. They have promised lifetime pensions to everybody that ever sat on the City Council, or worked for the government, or even merely walked by City Hall one day when they were handing out generous pensions to everybody in sight. They have continuously built parks and playgrounds and recreational facilities and gymnasiums and nature trails and museums and swimming pools and erected a multitude of public buildings, and staffed all of them to the max. They have responded to the egregiously bad performance of their educational system by paying the bad teachers and administrators more and more and more, instead of firing them. They have created local entitlement programs and welfare programs and before-school breakfast programs and after-school latch-key programs and school-crossing guard programs and assistance programs of every stripe. They have whole fleets of new cars and trucks for city employees. They have issued general obligation bonds and revenue-anticipation bonds by the truck full. “

The Legislature has left town without addressing the property tax issue on any level whether through the convention or by special session. This issue is going to be fought in a bruising gubernatorial election this year where property taxes are going to be the single largest issue. Both candidates have put forward plans that, to me, don’t seem to offer any long lasting relief from the non-stop growth of spending on both a State and Municipal level. What are we to do?

As citizens we need to be fighting for initiative and referendum. It is only by this device will we be able to stop the over-heated spending of our elected representatives. Four times there has been an effort in New Jersey to allow residents initiative and referendum power. Four times it has failed. Now is the time to resurrect this idea. Our elected leaders are incapable legislating any spending cuts. Let the people do it for them!

Hinderaker takes a second look at Kelo

John Hinderaker of Powerline wrote an article for the Weekly Standard that takes a second look at Kelo v. City of New London. His take on the decision is that it wasn't as bad as it looked on first blush. In fact he contends that had the minority opinion prevailed that all urban renewal projects would be stopped. It's an interesting read and a subject worthy of discussion.

Our elected representitives should re-read this. Happy 4th

The Declaration of Independence of the Thirteen Colonies
In CONGRESS, July 4, 1776

The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America,

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. --That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. —Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain [George III] is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.

He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.

He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.

He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.

He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.

He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.

He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.

He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people, and eat out their substance.

He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the consent of our legislatures.

He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.

He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:

For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:

For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:

For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:

For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:

For depriving us, in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:

For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:

For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:

For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:

For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.

He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.

He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty and perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.

He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.

He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by the Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.

The signers of the Declaration represented the new states as follows:

New Hampshire
Josiah Bartlett, William Whipple, Matthew Thornton

Massachusetts
John Hancock, Samual Adams, John Adams, Robert Treat Paine, Elbridge Gerry

Rhode Island
Stephen Hopkins, William Ellery

Connecticut
Roger Sherman, Samuel Huntington, William Williams, Oliver Wolcott

New York
William Floyd, Philip Livingston, Francis Lewis, Lewis Morris

New Jersey
Richard Stockton, John Witherspoon, Francis Hopkinson, John Hart, Abraham Clark

Pennsylvania
Robert Morris, Benjamin Rush, Benjamin Franklin, John Morton, George Clymer, James Smith, George Taylor, James Wilson, George Ross

Delaware
Caesar Rodney, George Read, Thomas McKean

Maryland
Samuel Chase, William Paca, Thomas Stone, Charles Carroll of Carrollton

Virginia
George Wythe, Richard Henry Lee, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Harrison, Thomas Nelson, Jr., Francis Lightfoot Lee, Carter Braxton

North Carolina
William Hooper, Joseph Hewes, John Penn

South Carolina
Edward Rutledge, Thomas Heyward, Jr., Thomas Lynch, Jr., Arthur Middleton

Georgia
Button Gwinnett, Lyman Hall, George Walton