Just a quotation from Fran Wood’s Star-Ledger column offering a brief glimpse into the failure that is New Jersey politics, a bruising partisanship that puts political labels above potential solutions. The state’s politiicans are not the only one infected by this disease –the first strain of it comes from Washington and it has worked its way down to towns like South Brunswick and Monroe — but at the state level it is helping to ensure that property tax reform is a non-starter.
Democrats control a majority, but too many are too concerned about too many constituencies — teachers and unions and municipal officials and so on and so on. This is where bipartisan discussion and compromise is needed to break the gridlock and make things happen. But as Ms. Wood points out, the behavior this week — with legislators walking out on the State of the State and sending self-serving e-mails and press releases — indicates that they are more interested in making political points than making change.
The problem with New Jersey’s finances — specifically our property tax problem — is that we want more things than we want to pay for. That’s hard to resolve by itself, but it becomes nearly impossible when we all want different things. Young folks with families want more spending on education. Seniors want more spending on prescription drugs. Suburbanites want dead deer picked up. Urbanites want rat control and lead paint testing. And so it goes.
Unable to please everyone, too many legislators try to blame the resulting gridlock on the other side. Victory isn’t solving the problem, it’s making the other party responsible. That’s what those walkouts and press releases were about.
So the problem will continue to fester and New Jersey voters will continue to Tbrood, eventually voting out those they deem responsible, starting the cycle over and giving a new set of partisans a chance to play political games.
South Brunswick Post, The Cranbury Press
The Blog of South Brunswick
Hank Kalet 