Author: hankkalet

Graphic from Gawker

The Romney campaign has been among the most unforthcoming in memory, so Gawker’s release of what The Huffington Post is calling “a treasure trove of leaked documents” is big news in the political world.

The documents were obtained and posted online by Gawker at a time of unusually high interest in Romney’s finances. Though they are not nearly as revealing as the years of tax returns he refuses to release might be, they still have enough information and detail to make Romney uncomfortable. They show he has money indirectly invested in companies on which the Mormon church might frown and also highlight the lengths to which his complicated investments are shielded from taxes.

Given that he has refused to release his tax returns and that he now is telling reporters what questions he’ll answer before talking with them, this has got to have him apoplectic (or as apoplectic as he can get).

• Send me an e-mail.
• Read poetry at The Subterranean.
• Certainties and Uncertainties a chapbook by Hank Kalet, will be published in November by Finishing Line Press. It can be ordered here.
• Suburban Pastoral, a chapbook by Hank Kalet, available here.

Latest on the uptick in New Jersey unemployment from my latest project, the New Jersey Poverty and Economic Reporting Project.

• Send me an e-mail.
• Read poetry at The Subterranean.
• Certainties and Uncertainties a chapbook by Hank Kalet, will be published in November by Finishing Line Press. It can be ordered here.
• Suburban Pastoral, a chapbook by Hank Kalet, available here.

The Washington Post today criticized Vice President Joe Biden for making a “dumb” and “uncalled for” comment and Republican Presidential candidate Mitt Romney for his over-the-top response.

And yet, in the same editorial, the Post engages in the same kind of inane hyperbole as it pushed to fix a Social Security system that is not broken. The Post editorial board proclaimed that “Social Security is going broke,” and defended its statement this way:

Is “going broke” too strong? Well, let’s ask the experts — the trustees of the Social Security Trust Fund, who include President Obama’s Treasury, labor, and health and human services secretaries. In their annual report in April — delivered, as it happens, to Mr. Biden, in his capacity as Senate president — the trustees noted that the disability portion of the trust fund “becomes exhausted in 2016, so legislative action is needed as soon as possible.” The overall fund, combining retirement and disability, will “become exhausted and unable to pay scheduled benefits in full on a timely basis in 2033.” That leaves Congress with four choices, the trustees explained: raise the payroll tax, reduce benefits, devote other revenue to Social Security or some combination of the above.

There is no doubt that the program needs to be tweaked. But we are 21 years away from any potential failure to pay benefits — far from being broke.

• Send me an e-mail.
• Read poetry at The Subterranean.
• Certainties and Uncertainties a chapbook by Hank Kalet, will be published in November by Finishing Line Press. It can be ordered here.
• Suburban Pastoral, a chapbook by Hank Kalet, available here.

Gov. Chris Christie has prided himself on having an open administration. At least that’s what he says.

But one has to wonder how he defines openness, given that it has withheld a state revenue report even as it is “suggesting New Jersey collected more tax revenue in July 2012 than it did in July 2011,” according to a blog post by John Reitmeyer of The Record.

The governor says July revenues are up, though for the moment we’ll have to take his word for it because

the governor’s office did not release the full revenue report for July 2012, and neither did the state Department of Treasury – the agency that traditionally collects and disseminates data on tax collections.

Last year, the department released a July revenue report on Aug. 12.

The full report for July 2012 would show how revenue collections during the month compared to the budget projections included in the $31.7 billion spending plan Christie signed into law in late June. That budget, which increased spending by $2 billion, called for roughly 7 percent growth through the end of June 2013 to help sustain the spending hike.

Budget projections are important because they are used to set spending in the budget. If tax collections surpass projections, the state builds its surplus. But if collections fall short, that can eat into surplus or bring on mid-year cuts as was experienced when the recession hit during then-Gov. Jon S. Corzine’s tenure.

The timing is disturbing, because the governor and Legislature just concluded a very public fight over his budget projects and the governor is scheduled to give the keynote speech at the Republican convention later this month.

As long as the Christie administration withholds the full July 2012 report, it’s impossible to say definitively whether the state is in a position to responsibly dip into surplus to fund the tax cut right now.

And it also preserves Christie’s ability to go to Tampa and proclaim economic growth — the “New Jersey Comeback” he regularly talks about – even if it’s really a mixed bag back home.

So much for the straight talk, I guess, Mr. Governor.

• Send me an e-mail.
• Read poetry at The Subterranean.
• Certainties and Uncertainties a chapbook by Hank Kalet, will be published in November by Finishing Line Press. It can be ordered here.
• Suburban Pastoral, a chapbook by Hank Kalet, available here.

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