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.

Poll: Public supports consolidations, sort of

A Quinnipiac Poll issued last week contained what I think is an interesting nugget that indicates that New Jerseyans may not be as selfish as I’ve come to think..

There is no doubt that we have too much government in New Jersey. We have a bloated state government, expensive and often superfluous county governments and more local entities than any other state on a per capita basis. All told, there are more tha 1,400 taxing entities in the state, an absurd figure that creates its own momentum for more and more taxes.

South Brunswick and Monroe, for instance, are each served by five separate and independent taxing authorities — three fire districts, a school district and governing body. Jamesburg is served by three, Cranbury by two, Plainsboro by three and so on.

And yet we keep hearing that consolidation of towns and school districts is off the table.

But what should we make of last week’s poll which showed a huge majority of respondents answer yes to this question:

One recommendation to raise the money needed to fund a cut in property taxes is
to merge neighboring municipal governments and school districts. Would you
support or oppose merging school districts or governments in the county in which
you live if it meant lowering your property taxes?

The numbers: 73 percent favored mergers, with little variation based on political affiliation, gender or race.

And support has increased over the last three years, from 61 percent who said they’d support mergers in 2006 to 73 percent today.

The question, however, is this: Can these poll results be translated into real merger proposals? I’m not so sure. Much of what I know is anecdotal, but my read on the situation based on discussions with people in the area — mayors and council members, school officials, parents, seniors, etc. — is that most people favor mergers when their communities are not affected. Their support, basically, is theoretical.

That said, I think the state could move this question along if it were to force the consolidation question onto the agenda. We have a commission meant to look into the issue — one that has could have had more teeth — but it has been dormant. That was Gov. Jon Corzine’s fault. It’s now in Chris Christie’s hands and I can only hope he will let the committee loose on the question and develop some hard data that can be used to convince voters — forget the mayors — that they may just save some money, get better services and not lose the rather amorphous notion of identity.

Email me at grassroots at comcast dot net.

Maddow cheerleads

Rachel Maddow, speaking after the president’s speech during MSNBC’s analysis, said something that puzzled me and really raises questions about whether she is anything more than a cheerleader for Obama.

I like Maddow, generally, but how she can think that this speech “neutralizes” critics is beyond me. The left certainly will not be pacified by this speech because the antiwar left knows that you can’t call an escalation a withdrawal (thanks to Bob Witanek for this line of thinking). The right, on the other hand, would criticize Obama for killing Osama bin Laden with his bare hands, their hatred for the president running so deep that it blinds them to reason.

And the independents? As Chris Matthews said (did I just write that?), they are weary of the war and want it to end.

The political analysis, of course, is the problem, whether it is Maddow cheerleading for the president or Fox making things up to make him look bad. Political analysis, however, is limited and empty. What we need is real policy analysis and real information.

We already have spent too many lives — on both sides — and money. We need to get out and get out quickly.

Email me at grassroots at comcast dot net.

Time to rethink Afghanistan

I interviewed Robert Greenwald of Brave New Films, which produces video documentaries on progressive subjects with the goal of distributing them on a grassroots basis, earlier this evening, before the president spoke. (It is for next week’s Dispatches.)

His film, “Rethink Afghanistan,” pretty much makes the case that our presence in Afghanistan is only inflaming the situation in Afghanistan.

Greenwald told me that the president is working on the “misguided notion that this was making us more secure.”

Obama, he said, “should look at the fundamental issues.” He echoed something I said in this week’s column (out tomorrow): That the internal debate essentially “was a travesty of a debate.”

“It was whether to have 10,000, 20,000 or 30 ,000 more troops,” he said. “It should have been asking why are we there what are our security interests. If al Qaida is enemy, then what is the most effective way to get the less than 100 members who are in Afghanistan.”

Just as importantly, he added this: “How do you justify the billions of billions of dollars (on the war) when there is not enough money for healthcare, for jobs, for housing.”

I wish the president could have talked with Greenwald before his speech tonight.

Email me at grassroots at comcast dot net.