NEWS RELEASE

Governor Tom Kean to visit Monmouth County on August 8

Father of U.S. Senate candidate to visit Peters, Lucas and Freeholder Little at Navesink Country Club

Monmouth County, New Jersey – Monmouth Republican Chairman Adam Puharic is proud to announce that Governor Tom Kean will be a very special guest at the upcoming Monmouth County Republican Finance Gala. The event is scheduled to take place at 6pm on August 8, at the Navesink Country Club.

Tickets are available at $300 per person. In addition, a limited number of memberships are available for the Monmouth County Republican Leadership Council, at $500 per member. This is a unique opportunity to meet fellow Republicans, and meet the esteemed former Republican Governor in an intimate setting of luxury and splendor.

In addition to Governor Kean, Monmouth County Republican candidate for Surrogate Rosemarie Peters, Andrew Lucas, candidate for Freeholder, and Freeholder Anna Little will be on hand. Peters, Lucas and Little will share their vision for victory in the November 7th general election, and their plans for keeping Monmouth County a great place to live, work, and raise a family.

The Monmouth County Republicans are dedicated to the values of freedom, personal responsibility, opportunity and economic prosperity that unite the diverse cultures of our 635,000 residents. The Monmouth GOP is looking forward to building on the election victories of 2005. For more information call (732) 431-6664 or log onto www.monmouthrepublican.org.

Pandering at its finest

Senator Bob, Pull my finger and I'll vote against your bill even though I'm for it, Menendez has proposed federal legislation that would grant homeowners who claim the standard deduction (meaning those who don't itemize) and extra $500 or $1000 deduction to compensate for rising property taxes. So reports Herb Jackson, Washington correspondent for The Record.

Obviously this is not a serious legislative effort, but a response to the polls that indicate that New Jersey residents have had enough of property taxes. And Mendendez has already demonstrated that he thinks the voters are stupid.

Why is this not serious?

1) The only people who could benefit from such a deduction are homeowners who do not have mortgage interest and or property taxes that exceed the standard deduction. That is a very small population.

2) The population gets even smaller when you eliminate taxpayers from states that don't have property taxes or have modest property taxes.

So basically, Baggage Bob is proposing legislation that he knows will never go anywhere and that he knows would make very little difference if it did, in order to give himself a better political position in the upcoming election.

To quote the fictional President Andrew Sheppard, "We have serious problems to solve, and we need serious people to solve them. ..." ..."Bob, your fifteen minutes are up."

Menendez is not a serious leader. He's a political hack only out for himself and his cronies.

Special Legislative Session. Will it make a difference?

So the boys (and a few girls) will be back in town, Trenton, that is, for a Special Legislative session to address property tax reform.

Does anyone believe anything will really be reformed? If so, will the reforms be better than what we've got. This blogger fears that more damage than good may be done, if anything is done.

Govenor Corzine is advocating consolidation of municipalities and school boards. This is a notion that has been advocated by Democrats and Republicans for years, from former Assembly Speaker Alan Karcher, author of New Jersey's Multiple Municipal Madness, to more recently Senator Joe Kryillos. I like the idea. 566 towns and 615 school boards sure seems like madness. If we were starting New Jersey today, would be organize it this way? Probably not.

The problem with the Governor's proposal is that he wants to borrow $7 billion against the anticipated revenues from the new sales tax increase in order to give the municipalities incentives to consolidate. I never worked for Goldman Sachs, but I can imagine the banker and lawyers celebrating at Harry's over how big their bonuses will be if Jon boy gets that one through.

Didn't Corzine just shut down the government in order to get this sales tax increase that we needed to balance the budget without gimmicks? This sure sounds like a gimmick to me.

Do we have to pay our municipal politicians $7 billion to give up their fiefdoms? Maybe that won't be enough if they each get the deal that Sharp James got.

Consolidation will really be its own reward, to the taxpayers. That $7 billion will have to be paid back with future tax increases.

The Asbury Park Press reports that along with consolidation that the Governor wants a school funding formula that based on children's needs, not districts needs. Again, an admirable goal, but the devil is in the details. Will the Governor have the courage and clout to stand up to the NJEA the way he did to Speaker Joe Roberts? If so, here's a formula that make sense: Give the parents or guardians every child a voucher for $10,000 payable at the school of their choice, and let the schools compete for the best students and teachers. Instead of selling or leasing the NJ Turnpike, sell the schools and then license the schools so that only those that meet appropriate standards and qualifications are eligible for vouchers. Within 10 years the "cost" of educating children will decline to $8000 per pupil and the schools will be making of profit of $2,000 per pupil. Goldmam Sachs and the like can make their commissions and fees on taking the schools public rather than floating bonds. This would work great for the kids, but it will never happen in a culture that rewards and protects mediocrity.

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The Shutdown is Over

This morning the legislature approved a budget and Gov. Corzine signed an order reopening the government. Casinos will be open within hours. Parks and beaches should be open by Sunday. MVC offices and the rest of the state "non-essentional" services should be up and running on Monday.

Did the shutdown impact your life?

What impact will the new taxes have on you?

OH! That explains it!

It's a testosterone problem!



Maybe this will help

This proposal makes too much sense.

Kyrillos Calls for Adopting An Essential Services Budget

Senator Joe Kyrillos, Jr., (R-13), today issued the following statement proposing the adoption of an essential services and continuation budget that would reopen state offices and parks, and the casinos, lottery and racetracks:

“It’s ridiculous that the essential services, including operations that produce state revenues, are being interrupted as a result of the Democratic stalemate. The current situation is inexcusable and unacceptable. And it will only get worse. The Governor has said the state’s prescription drug program for low-income seniors will be suspended next week if the impasse continues. People shouldn’t be taken hostage by this political wrangling.

I’m calling upon the Governor and the Legislative leaders to adopt a rational budget that allows essential state services – like the senior drug program and motor vehicle offices – to operate at their fiscal 2006 levels and permit casinos, racetracks and the lottery – that generate substantial income for PAAD, education programs and services for the disabled – to reopen.

The state’s existing revenues of nearly $29 billion are more than sufficient to pay for the fundamental services people count on the state to provide. Once the Democrats’ settle their feud, other services could be funded through a supplemental appropriations bill if deemed necessary or desirable after public debate.

The current dysfunction in Trenton is appalling and has undermined the public’s faith in government and New Jersey’s reputation across America.”

This shutdown is a disgrace.

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.