Asbury Park Press photo/illustration
By cramming his school funding plan and the massive spending increases it calls for in the next fiscal year during the lame duck legislative session, Governor Corzine will force the new legislature to approve his massive borrowing and toll road plan previously known as Asset Monetization.
With a $3 billion deficit already projected for the next fiscal year, Corzine is proposing to increase education spending by $530 million. The only way to pay for that is by postponing the debt service of $1.5 billion due next year, which will be done by paying off old debt with the new toll road debt, and other fiscal chicanery.
After a full year of refusing to reveal any details of his school funding and asset monetization schemes, Corzine reveals the school funding plan three weeks before the legislatures term expires and demands they pass it on their way out the door. The asset monetization plan will be unveiled on the first day of the new legislature, leaving the new session no choice but to approve the borrowing/toll raising scheme that 60% of New Jersey residents oppose, because the money will already have been spent.
Both the school funding and asset monetization schemes will have profound impacts on the lives of every New Jersey resident for generations to come. Corzine's clever gambit to slip these plans by the people when they don't have time to read the fine print is very much like a car salesman, sub-prime mortgage consultant or home remodeling contractor pressuring a consumer to just sign on the dotted line with the assurance that the contracts are standard and everything will be fine. Previous legislatures and governors have given consumers protection--waiting periods--from these kind of practices. This legislature, and the next, needs to force a waiting period on Corzine.
Corzine made the entire state wait for the details of his programs that he spent millions of dollars of our money formulating. Let him wait for the legislature, and the people, to understand, debate and hopefully make changes to his plans for our future.
Posts
2 comments:
Art,
I could not agree more. As inthelobby.net called it earlier this week, "The Ministry of Secretization" is going at full speed trying to make the taxpayers (sheep) of NJ have no choice but to swallow his toll hike plan.
Every legislature every senator ,and every taxpayer should be on high alert .This scheme should NOT be implemented ,New Jersey in on the verge on bankruptcy ,our economy is heading into difficult times people have voted down spending bills we do not want any more borrowing or spending it is imperative our Governor gets this message .This monitazation plan will be the death of future generations to come ,this should be the writing on the wall
Post a Comment