So in one day?

One day after the hurricane hits, my gas prices go up $.40. There's no collusion. Right! Where's Harvey now?

Hurricanes and New Jersy

All hearts go out to those suffering through the effects of Katrina. It will be weeks and weeks until basic services are restored and many months till life returns to normal. The death toll will be very high as people decided to ride out the storm rather than evacuate.

It's been quite awhile since New Jersey has been hit by a Hurricane. There was a major storm in 1938 and then Carol iin 1954. Since these storms the population along the coast of New Jersey has grown by large numbers. Most people tend to think of the coast of New Jersey as Sandy Hook to Cape May, but in reality it includes the area around the newark bay and the mmouth of the Hudson.

Seeing all the damage done by the storm surge yesterday, I can't imagine what a "real" hurricane would do here.

Please tell me why

When I was young our local police officers wore pants with a strip, button down shirt with a tie, shiny shoes and a billed cap. They looked professional and friendly and usually were. Today in New Jersey many local police departments wear para-military uniforms complete with jump boots that make the police look threatening and non-friendly. Why the shift?

Real Estate Filing Fees

According to a Star Ledger Editorial link "real estate filing fees have risen by as much as 800 percent in some cases. ...The previous $500 fee has jumped to $1,715 on a $300,000 dwelling and $4,175 on a $500,000 house." This tax, was intended to help pay for help for "overworked" county clerks that had a major increase in workload because of an increase in real estate transactions.

Guess what? The funds never made it to their intended place.

"Over the four-year period studied by the SCI, more than $1.2 billion was collected but only $107.9 million went to the operations of the county clerks."

But the Ledger, which is starting to get it, gets to the real point at the end of it's editorial.

"Such a cavalier, public-be-damned attitude is unacceptable. The shell game has to stop."

The solution is to give the people of New Jersey referrendum power. New Jersey needs it's own version of California's Prop 13 and 4 which reduced taxes and severly limited the ability of politicians to spend. A brief history of Prop 13 and 4 can be found here , but the brief synopsis is:

In the 1970s soaring property values in California led to dramatic increases in property taxes, prompting a tax revolt that resulted in the passage of Proposition 13* in the June 1978 California primary. Also called the Jarvis-Gann Initiative after its chief sponsors, Howard Jarvis and Paul Gann. Proposition 13 reduced local property taxes by 57% and thereby slashed the revenue base for local governments and schools. Over the years the revenue loss has been made up by a varying mix of state funds and new revenue from specialized local fees and taxes, as well as by outright local budget cuts.

The California tax revolt did not end with Proposition 13. In November 1979 voters passed the Proposition 4,* also known as the Gann Amendment. Proposition 4 imposed a limit on most state and local government expenditures from tax sources. The limit is calculated annually according to a formula based on population and the cost of living. Under Proposition 4, excess revenues must be returned to the taxpayers. The Gann limit, as it is often called, was not exceeded until the 1986-87 fiscal year when $1.1 billion was refunded to taxpayers.

The Jersey Shore and Changes

I took my family to Wildwood Crest for a few days last week. What changes are going on there! They're tearing down many of the old motels that lined Ocean Ave. and replacing them with luxury condos. The boardwalk still has good ride piers, but the days of wheels and games are coming to a close. It's no wonder, with games costing $5.00 a try.

It was somewhat sad to see. Wildwood had always billed itself as a family vacation spot. Stay at the motels, walk the boards at night ect., but I got the feeling that it was all going to die. The advent of the luxery condos will bring luxury shops to the boardwalk. It will become a place for parents of a more affluent stripe rather than the middle class family vacation it had been.

Well, nothing ever stays the same.

Vacation Time!

I get to go on Vacation for the next week. I haven't been away for two years. Hope it doesn't rain.

EnlightenNJ Gets A Little Ahead of Themselves

I think the Carla Katz-Corzine issue is pretty big. I also think that Katz probably uses her influence fairly well, but Enlighten gets a little ahead of themselves today. Enlighten implies an impropriety in some house improvements at Carla Katz's house in Alexandria, which might (all of Alexandria is not in the preservation zone) be in the Highlands Preservation area.

Carla Katz, president of the largest state employee’s union, won a construction exemption from the Department of Environmental Protection, where the union she leads has a strong presence.


The Katz exemption allows the union president to build an addition and make other improvements in a region of Hunterdon County where the Highlands Water Protection and Planning Act severely limits development.

Katz is president of Local 1034 of the Communications Workers of America, which represents 9,000 state workers — including 2,379 in the DEP's 3,450-member work force.
The cash strapped Carla Katz has some big plans for the house:

"Alexandria Township Building Department records show Katz wants to add a three-to-five-room addition, lay a new driveway, build a deck, dig a swimming pool and install a new septic system."

However, the Highlands act makes a provision for existing single family homes

"1. The construction of a single family house for an individual’s own use or the use of an immediate family member, on a lot owned by the individual on the date of enactment, or on a lot under contract on or before May 17, 2004 [Sec. 30.a.(1)] as well as any improvement to a single family dwelling in existence on the date of enactment, including an addition, garage, shed, driveway, porch, deck, patio, swimming pool, or septic system. [Sec. 30.a.(5)]" link

I don't see why this is an issue.

Update: Enlighten and I have a nice comment thread on this over at their site.

Educational Progress

Last year 585 New Jersey public schools failed to meet the No Child Left Behind Standards. This year 851 schools failed. According to Education Commission William Librera "

We understand how this can carry confusing messages, and it doesn't accurately capture progress we've made in the state," "Our's is always a word of caution."

It's easy to see why the kids fail. The people administering the schools can't do simple word problems.

Commissioner, Take the number 851 put it on a number line, then put the number 585 on your number line and you'll see that 851 is to the right of 585 meaning more schools failed this year than last year. That's not progress it's failure. Oops! We don't fail in school, I forgot. We just achieved very well at a different level. Sorry, I didn't mean to hurt your self-esteem.

link

Power Line Picks up JonKat

The JonKat story is picked up by Powerline . Now he's made the big time!

A Bear of a Problem

The state Fish and Game Council approved a bear hunt for this year. Council Chairman Ernest Hahn has it right.

"The fact that we have bears breaking into homes, breaking into cars and confronting people inside their houses is unacceptable. A hunt is the only effective means to control the bear population,"

Jeff Tittle of the Sierra Club has it exactly wrong!

"the state has failed to address the root of the problem concerning bears -- the lack of garbage control by homeowners and businesses in the northwest. He also said the state has not committed enough money to solving the problem."

What amount of my money does he think appropriate to spend on wild bears that break into homes and kill livestock and does he honestly think that garbage control would seriously help. Jeez, everyone living in bear country takes care of their garbage, knows not to feed birds and makes lots of noise when going outside.

Bears are all over this state now. This year alone they have moved into every county. They only cost effective method of control is hunting. Let's get on with it.

Article Link

Playing With Our Lives

The Trenton cesspool just continues to grow. Governor's office steered terror aid

The operative quote:

"But a senior official in Harvey's office, speaking on the condition he not be identified, said the grants were made without input from the Attorney General's Office. This is the governor's budget ... and they determine how the money is spent,"

Politicians are playing with your family's safety and you should be mad!

Corzine-Katz and Taxes

Corzine forgave a loan to Katz. Outside of the obvious conflict of intrest issues there is the issue of income tax. When a person has a loan forgiven the person who is the beneficiary of the forgiven loan, in this case Katz, must report the amount as income. The IRS accounts for the amount as ordinary income. The party forgiving the loan needs to issue a 1099.

I figure that $470,000 plus a salary should put Katz into the 35% bracket. Between her federal and state obligations, assuming there were no mitigating circumstances, she should have paid roughly $173,000 in taxes on the $470,000.

Katz paid $361,850 to buy out her ex-husband leaving $108,000 over the amount. Corzines explanation of the $108,000 was "I think there were some repairs," link

I'd be willing to bet that the extra money was meant to cover the taxable portion of the transaction. What I'm wondering, though, is if Katz reported the income!

Talk About Pay to Play!

The Ledger is reporting:

U.S. Sen. Jon Corzine lent $470,000 to the president of the largest state workers union local nearly three years ago, when the two were in a romantic relationship.

Corzine then forgave the debt to Carla Katz, president of the Communications Workers of America Local 1034, a week after kicking off his campaign for governor late last year, turning the 10-year mortgage into a gift.

Corizine told the Ledger that it would have no impact on his dealings with the union.

Sure, and his sleeping with her makes no difference either. This guy is as arrogant and corrupt as McGreedy.

Why a Representitive Government

A quick bit of background on Fair-Housing in Clinton Township. The Township has been facing the prospect of having 911 homes built because of a Builders-Remedy (a brief discussion of the Fair-Housing Act Link) lawsuit brought by Pulte Homes after the planning board denied Pulte's application to build 911 homes on 292 acres in the township. Although local residents have fought against the development by getting the planning designation of the area changed, fighting to have a creek that runs through the property designated as a class 1 stream and the township spending large amounts of money on professionals, just before the primary, the town council voted to accept a compromise with the builder allowing approximately 350 age restricted units and 90 low income units to be built.

On June 7th the Clinton Township Republican primary for Mayor was held and it centered on whether to make the deal with Pulte homes or to continue fighting Pulte in court. The winner will run un-opposed in November. On the side of settlement was the Mayor Tom Borkowsi and on the other was the head of The Clinton Township Community Coalition, the group fighting the development, Nick Corcodillos. Corcodillos won.

During the campaign Borkowski laid out his reasons for accepting the deal; The township had lost nearly every major court battle to date, 350 age restricted houses would generate $8 Million in tax revenues without the addition of new schools and the 90 low income units would meet the town's affordable housing quota. His bottom line was that this settlement was the least risky avenue because if the town ended up losing in court the full 911 homes could be built.

Nick Corcodillos argued that the deal did not satisfy the COAH obligation. Under the new State environmental regulations, the site changed and could not support the 90 affordable housing units leaving the township open to other Builder-Remedy suits in the future.

How could a voter know what is the right position! The issue is in the courts now and will be for another 3-5 years. Both candidates, I believe, spoke and acted in good faith that their position was right. Corcodillos may have had personal reasons (he lives near the site and has spent years fighting it) to go for an all or nothing approach. But, the average voter could never become knowledgeable enough about all the aspects of this issue in order to cast an intelligent vote.

When the founders created a Representative Republic they did it just for this reason. In the old days much of the population was away from population centers and information sources and was not well informed. What an individual did know was whether the person running for office in their district held views and beliefs similar to his. The founders expected voters to vote on personality and character, not issues. In modern times we believe that we should vote on issues and pundits often comment on how uninformed voters are. I guess we are, but the founders accounted for it.

School Construction Going Forward

The Star Ledger ran an editorial on Sunday that addressed the issue of where do we go from here, now that the SCC is broke. While it is my sincere hope that our elected representitives stand up to the State Supreme Court and refuse any future funding the Ledger's suggestions deserve a closer look.

1. "Is the SCC even necessary? Couldn't the state Treasury Department, which handles other state construction, take over? Eliminating a level of bureaucracy that has failed seems like an idea worth exploring."

Outstanding idea. If the infrastructure is already in place at Treasury let's use it.

2. "land earmarked or purchased for schools must be protected against the day when construction money is available. The blocks of abandoned buildings the SCC purchased must be razed, not left to become fire hazards and drug dens."

How can you argue.

3. "Design and construction must be standardized, with a choice of several model schools -- good designs that can be modified to fit the idiosyncrasies of each site and personality of each neighborhood. If districts want extras, they should have to raise the money to pay for them."

Actually, why don't we standardize all school design. The Department of Education should have done this years ago and mandated that all towns use one of the standard designs. It would have saved taxpayers millions.

Over the past week Ken Adams over at Smadanek has done an excellent job at dissecting the correlation between spending and successful school report cards. The bottom line is that spending more money does not lead to better performing schools. It's easy to throw money at a problem as it makes it look as though the politicians are doing something, but it is time for honest discussions about the societal factors that lead to academic success.