New Jersey’s finances are a long way from being set on solid ground — and it is unclear whether the state Legislature has the stomach to make the repairs necessary.
Of course, nonsense like this from a former governor who did so much to create the mess from which we are attempting to crawl really do not help.
South Brunswick Post, The Cranbury Press
The Blog of South Brunswick
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Author: hankkalet
Hank Kalet is a poet and freelance journalist. He is the economic needs reporter for NJ Spotlight, teaches journalism at Rutgers University and writing at Middlesex County College and Brookdale Community College. He writes a semi-monthly column for the Progressive Populist. He is a lifelong fan of the New York Mets and New York Knicks, drinks too much coffee and attends as many Bruce Springsteen concerts as his meager finances will allow. He lives in South Brunswick with his wife Annie.
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Hank Kalet 
Whether one agrees or disagrees with Governor Whitman\’s public policies, the statistics cited by Steven Malanga in \”The Most Reckless State\” (http://www.city-journal.org/html/17_2_sndgs05.html) indicate that subsequent administrations may bear significant responsibility for the state\’s fiscal mess.According to the article, the state\’s virtually unchecked hiring binge began with Acting Gov. DiFrancesco and has continued since. In the past six years, public sector employment in New Jersey increased by 63,000 full-time and full-time equivalents – a 14% increase in the number of employees and a staggering 38% increase in payroll.To be fair, inflation and other factors can affect labor costs, but Malanga notes that the state\’s population grew by only 4% during the same time the workforce grew by 14%. To put this into perspective, he calculates that the state and its municipalities could have saved \”about $250 million annually in payroll costs alone if public-sector hiring had merely kept pace with inflation and population growth.\”As for Gov. Whitman, public sector increased by just 2.7% for the period 1995 – 2000.Based on these statistics, Mr. Malanga\’s characterization of New Jersey\’s public management is correct – reckless. And in this particular arena, the Governors (and Acting Governors) following her appear to have been far more reckless than she.