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.

A new Democrat, a new direction?

Assembly Speaker Joe Roberts maybe trying to take the state in a new direction, says Charles Stiles of The Record, and if he is successful he could provide the right blueprint for saving the state.

Roberts believes it’s time to more aggressively define what it is that constitutes a Democrat. But he has to do it in a way that either saves money or doesn’t cost much — a reverse of the “big-government, free-spending liberal” cliche.

Call it the Big Liberal, Small Wallet philosophy.

Roberts described it this way to Stiles:

“When we ask people to vote for Democrats, we just can’t say we’re not the other guys. We have to stand for something,” Roberts said in an interview Wednesday. “The abolition of the death penalty is fundamental. Creating an environment where every family can afford to live in every part of our state is fundamental. One of the things I took from Election Day is it’s back to basics. Don’t start spending money in new areas, don’t go extending your reach until you get focused on the fundamentals.”

South Brunswick Post, The Cranbury Press
Blog of South Brunswick

E-mail me by clicking here.

Email me at grassroots at comcast dot net.

Sinking ships

I wrote yesterday about the governor’s announcement that he plans to move forward with his monetization plan, even if it means driving smack into the brick wall of public opinion.

“I’m willing to lose my job if that’s necessary to set our fiscal house in order.”

But, as The Asbury Park Press (an editorial page that I often disagree with) points out, the plan really is nothing more than another gimmick,

borrowing today what will have to be paid back tomorrow through taxes or tolls. It’s another quick fix that will bring an influx of cash that will be quickly frittered away, saddling either the commuters of New Jersey or the next generation of taxpayers with an even heavier financial burden.

The governor is right about the state’s finances and, as he has said over and over, the fiscal condition in the state makes it difficult to do the kinds of things that will make the lives of the people living here better. But gimmicks are the wrong way to address the issue.

The Press says the governor should try a different tack:

Corzine may have faith in his ideas to wring billions of dollars out of the state’s toll roads to cut the state’s borrowing debt in half and provide permanent funding for transportation projects. We don’t. Neither do many of the state’s residents, especially the commuters who would unfairly shoulder the burden of Corzine’s plan with the dramatic increase in tolls.

Corzine should instead insist that the Legislature get to work doing what most households have been forced to do in the face of skyrocketing property taxes over the past several years: Cut spending. He should make the state do what New Jersey families have done as a horde of new taxes and fees has driven their cost of living steadily higher: Eliminate waste and cut out “extras.”

This would be a good start, but it will not be enough. The state needs to completely reform its way of doing business — including streamlining government at all levels and reducing the number of towns and school districts.

New Jersey residents, as well, will have to reconsider what they believe is important. To right the fiscal ship while also cutting property taxes, New Jersey residents will have to sacrifice some things. I can’t say what — that will have to be up to those affected. That’s why we need to convene a constitutional convention that brings nonpolitical representatives together to hash these questions out.

The politicians have had their opportunities and failed miserably. It’s time to give someone else a try.

South Brunswick Post, The Cranbury Press
The Blog of South Brunswick

E-mail me by clicking here.

Email me at grassroots at comcast dot net.