New Jersey: Leading the Nation in Irony

By Mayor Mike Halfacre, Fair Haven

If it wasn’t so sad, it would be funny.

New Jersey Democratic officials, instead of taking “bold, meaningful action” here at home, are lobbying Washington D.C. for handouts. Governor Corzine thinks he is still at Goldman Sachs, but instead of leading a private investment bank to bankruptcy, he has led the State of New Jersey to its brink. Republicans are suing him to disclose his budget plans, but he won’t disclose them, perhaps because he has none. Instead, his only hope appears to be a Federal bailout.

In an Op-Ed Piece first published in the Washington Post, King Jon, presumably sticking his pinkie to the corner of his mouth in his best “Dr. Evil” voice, asks for 1 Trillion dollars, ($1,000,000,000,000.00) to go for infrastructure, housing, education, “safety net” programs and middle-class tax cuts. He says 20,000 people will get back to work for every billion dollars spent in infrastructure. Assemblyman Lou Greenwald, D-Camden, in an Op-Ed piece in the Asbury Park Press, also climbed into his DeLorean and activated the flux capacitor: “Rejuvenating consumer demand needs to begin with providing people with a paycheck. Investing in critical infrastructure projects can put thousands of residents back to work and give them the disposable income they need to stabilize their own situations, all the while jumpstarting New Jersey's economic engine.”

What these rocket scientists forget to mention is that not every ex-Wall Streeter or Bed, Bath and Beyond cashier knows how to operate a back hoe or an arc welder. Note to Jon and Lou: This isn’t 1933 when any former banker could pick up a shovel and dig a ditch.

Corzine’s Op-Ed piece followed up a story in which Education Czarina Lucille Davy complained about the “unfunded mandates” imposed on the State by No Child Left Behind, and how the Federal Government should increase spending because those unfunded mandates are unfair. The complaint is that New Jersey is considered by the Feds a “rich state” and the funding formula is unfair to “rich states”. Was she really able to put forth this argument with a straight face? Talk to the vast number of middle class school districts in the State of New Jersey, considered “rich” by Corzine, and ask about the “funding formula” developed by his Administration last year. The irony is delicious. (Of course, this argument also conveniently forgets to mention that Federal Education spending has increased, overall, under the Bush Administration)

Corzine goes on to say “…the states, local governments and the federal government must be full partners in the recovery process.” This is a bold statement. Never before has the State of New Jersey partnered with local governments. Sure, the State has bullied, bribed and attempted to bankrupt local governments, but never actually partner with them to find solutions. Trenton continually forces unfunded mandates down the throats of municipalities. The Democratic-led State Legislature is considering mandating new pension deferrals while towns are still trying to catch up on the last round of pension deferrals, imposing draconian, one-sided COAH obligations, Stormwater Management Regulations, and Highlands Act regulations, all without considering their impact on municipalities.

Now, when the State needs something from the Federal Government, Corzine wants to “partner up”? Where was he when the municipalities he cut aid to last year wanted to partner up?

The comparison of municipalities seeking relief from an entirely ineffective legislature last year, to Corzine seeking relief from an entirely ineffective Congress, is an apt one. There is a reason New Jersey continues to rank last in money back from Congress: Holt, Pallone, Lautenberg, Menendez and the rest of the Keystone Kops representing New Jersey, will, I am sure, deliver exactly what they always have: Nada. Zip. Zilch.

What will King Jon do then?

Presumably, he will come back to his “partners” the suburban municipalities, and continue to slash state aid, all the time crying poor, while catering to his labor union, democratic, big city base. It is time that the residents of the Great State of New Jersey said “Enough” and replaced this inept and embarrassing Executive Branch in 2009, as well as give control of the Assembly to a new wave of Republicans. This will hopefully be a first step toward the 2010 midterm elections, where the voters will get a chance to correct the obvious mistake of this past November.