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.

Fiscal gamesmanship

I’ll open this post by saying that I am skeptical — and this is generous — of the plan announced today by the governor to “monetize” the state’s toll roads.

Speaking at the state League of Municipalities convention in Atlantic City today, he offered the plan as a way to cut the state’s debt load in half.

In a speech before the 92nd annual New Jersey League of Municipalities convention, Corzine said he would reduce the state’s bonded debt by at least 50 percent, largely through toll increases. He would not say how much tolls would be going up, nor offer a range.

Corzine promised to unveil details of the plan in January, including any proposed toll hikes. He stressed he would not sell the New Jersey Turnpike or the Garden State Parkway, but try to form a nonprofit agency to manage the toll roads and raise money through bonding to pay down the debt.

“Every dollar that goes to debt service or unfunded liabilities is a dollar that can’t go to municipal aid or school funding,” Corzine said to several hundred local, county and state officials who attended the luncheon. “It’s all connected.”

There is something to be said for doing something drastic to reduce the state’s $32 billion debt, which as Juan Melli at Blue Jersey points out “could save about $1.5 billion in yearly interest payments which would help close our over $3 billion structural deficit.”

There is truth in this. The question is whether the method being floated is anything more than another in a long line of gimmicks.

I remain skeptical.

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.

The long season

I’ve held off on commenting on Stephon Marbury’s sudden departure from the Knickerbockers and the circus that surrounds this lousy team, mostly because the entire sordid episode has left me speechless. In fact, much about this ballclub — a team for whom I’ve rooted for most of my life — leaves me speechless these days.

  • Sexual harassment trial? Speechless.
  • Bad tickets that go for $100 or more? Speechless.
  • Best-case scenario being 40 wins? Speechless.
  • Isaiah Thomas (which explains the smile, I guess) getting a contract extension last year, even as the team continued its woeful play under his watch? Speechless.

This is a team without a plan, an organization without class, a hard team to like and one that has me more interested in what the Suns are doing, what the Spurs are doing and what LeBron James is up to than what is happening at the Garden.

I don’t see it getting better anytime soon — at least not before the coach and the team’s highest-paid headcase are sent packing. Once that happens, we’re still probably a few years away from getting this mess cleaned up.

Where are you when we need you, Patrick Ewing?

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.