Exactly where does state Sen. Tom Kean, the Republican candidate for U.S. Senate, stand on Social Security? Read about it in this week’s Dispatches.
The Pelfrey watch
Can I bit be a bit selfish?
Can I make a pitch for keeping super prospect Mike Pelfrey in AA, at least for another week?
I know the arguments in favor of bringing him up: He’s young and the Mets need a starter; they have a big lead and room for error; and now seems as good a time as any.
But I am selfish. If Pelfrey stays in AA through Friday or Saturday, then there is a chance that he’ll pitch Friday night when the Binghampton Mets visit the Trenton Thunder, and he might even pitch against the Yankees’ top pitching prosepct Phil Hughes.
And if that happens, my trip to Waterfront Park has the potential to be rather special — adding a little luster to what promises to be a special night anyway when we take my 5-year-old nephew Joey to his first ball game.
Time for a compromise in Trenton
Still no budget, though the Star-Ledger is reporting that the governor has placed a new compromise on the table in the hopes of ending the impasse and getting the state back to work. According to the Ledger,
Aides to the governor said Corzine has offered a new plan that would provide 50 percent of the sales tax increase to property tax relief each year if voters approve it in a constitutional amendment. Using a constitutional amendment would mean lawmakers would be forced to use half the sales tax for property tax relief even if there is a big budget crunch. The new plan modifies a deal offered by Senate President Richard Codey (D-Essex).
It seems like a logical plan, one that might address all of the concerns out there. And it is similar to one proposed by the Ledger in an editorial called “A budget impasse answer“:
Instead of placing the $550 million in a fund that wouldn’t be tapped for year, why not add that to the property tax rebates this year? The current proposed budget allocates slightly more to property tax rebates than last year but considerably less than Corzine promised in his campaign.
If some of the sales tax increase went to property tax re bates — instead of the fund for future relief — Democrats could campaign next year on the strength of the enhanced re bates. And if the Legislature ever gets around to addressing property tax relief, the funds at hand would amount to about $1.6 billion. This should appeal to Roberts because last year he successfully fought to retain the re bates after Codey, then the governor, proposed eliminating them to help balance the budget. At the time, Roberts was concerned that if the rebate program went away, so too would the money. That would make finding a way to lower property taxes that much more difficult. That’s a justified concern.
The key, utimately, is ending what The Record calls the “Trenton’s train wreck” — one it blames — rightly, I’d say — on Assembly Speaker Joe Roberts.
Mr. Roberts has had 3½ months to offer a fiscally responsible alternative to Governor Corzine’s $30.9 billion budget plan, but as of late yesterday afternoon, most of the Assembly speaker’s proposals were still sketchy. Indeed, for all the talk about open government in Trenton, the most recent budget talks have been held behind closed doors, as Mr. Roberts and his Democratic allies in the Assembly try to find a way to avoid Mr. Corzine’s proposed penny sales tax increase.
While the governor solicited all sorts of public input on his budget plan, Mr. Roberts has played it far too close to the vest. Although Mr. Roberts and the Assembly have had months to respond to Mr. Corzine’s proposals, all that anybody has gotten is trial balloons that may or may not get off the ground.
The governor has made major concessions on the budget already, without compromising the basic goal of imposing fiscal responsibility on a state that has begged and borrowed over the years so it could avoid making tough decisions. The ball is in the Assembly’s court. Let’s see if Speaker Roberts and his allies are willing to keep it in play.
Another example of why baseball’s All-Star game is silly
“Why is this man an all-star?” asks Record columnist Adrian Wojnarowski — essentially taking the same tack I’ve been taking since Bud Selig in his infinite wisdom decided to attach home-field advantage in the World Series to what should be a fun, but meaningless exhibition showing of the games’ stars.
Do we need a reprise of the Pete Rose-Ray Fosse incident, when Rose barrelled over the unprepared catcher, a man poised for serious stardom but spent the next handful of years as a journeyman because of his injuries?
Do we need a serious injury to Albert Pujols or David Wright or Dontrelle Willis?
Should Jim Leyland have to worry that Ozzie Guillen will overuse one of his young pitchers, causing him problems later in the year?
The language of gasoline
I really like this poem by Tony Hoagland, published in teh Summer issue of the Three Penny Review. The language fairly explodes, taking the mundane act of filling the tank up and imbuing it with a metaphysical air.
Hank Kalet 