State workers are getting more vacation time. The Democrats will pay them for the time the state was closed. But who is going to pay the casino workers? Who is going to pay the racetrack workers? Who is going to pay the trucker who can't get the truck he bought last week registered? Who is going to pay the convenience store owners and employees who depend on lottery sales to generate foot traffic? No one is going to pay these people and they will suffer real hardship.
I would suggest amending the constitution to allow for continuing resolutions like the federal government and several other states have, but that shouldn't be necessary because our politicians and judges don't pay attention to our state constitution anyway unless it serves their purposes.
The constitution prohibits borrowing to balance the budget, yet the Govenor and Legislature did just that last year, and the State Supreme Court went along with it "just this once." The State constitution prohibits spending money not appropriated for in any fiscal year. There is no exemption for "essential services" in the Constitution.
Paying those essential workers who show up today will be a violation of the constitution. Paying those non-essential workers for time not worked, after the budget is passed will be a violation of common sense. Closing the state government to the detriment of the private industries, i.e. casinos, trucking and others, and then to pay those who otherwise would have been available to provide the services essential to those industries, is a violation of common decency.
This shutdown is nothing more than a ploy of the part of Thug Corzine and his ex-girlfriend to create enough pain to break the will of the people who have had enough of the reckless spending in Trenton.
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3 comments:
The Democrats are not arguing about whether to raise taxes, they're arguing about how to raise taxes. Raising taxes is a done deal with them.
I actually wonder whether this is all just a game of "good cop - bad cop" on the part of the Democrats, pre-planned between the Bozo-coiffed Gov. Corzine and Democratic legislative leaders. A "weapon of mass distraction." Such a charade would serve them in at least two ways. It diverts public attention from any plan the Republicans have. It then creates a situation where the public chooses up sides, not between a tax-increasing Democrat plan and a cost-cutting Republican plan, but between two tax-increasing Democrat plans. Then, whichever one seems to have the most traction, gets approved. The shut-down is simply to pressure the public, kind of like a teachers' strike.
honest abe said:
I actually wonder whether this is all just a game of "good cop - bad cop" on the part of the Democrats, pre-planned between the Bozo-coiffed Gov. Corzine and Democratic legislative leaders. A "weapon of mass distraction."
I highly doubt that Abe. The Democrats in legislature were cool to Corzine in his inaugural address and budget address.
The Govenor is right about our needing to do away with the gimmickry year after year in the budget. However he is beholden to the unions and will never cut spending.
Abe:
Nope, not preplanned. It's an honest to god bruhaha. Yes, someone called shananigans.
And it's a democratic state, so inevitably, in a situation like this democratic factions would be opposing each other.
i think it's fair to note that some republicans are as good as democrats insofar as being aligned with various dem blocs.
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