Hank Kalet

You’ve got to be kidding

This is an ugly story. How this can be the dog’s fault, I’m not sure. And how a judge can call for the dog to be destroyed — given that the dog was reacting (as dogs do) to its puppies and owner being threatened and/or attacked.

My dog, as sweet as she is, would probably not take too kindly to any attack against my wife or me — or any of our family members.

Here is are some rules for contractors:

If there are dogs in the yard, stay in your trucks.
If the owner of the dogs tells you to stay in your truck until he puts the dogs inside,do what he says.
Never hit a puppy or touch the dog’s owner if the mother is around.

These things would seem to be common sense but, then, I’m a dog owner.

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

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Runner’s diary, Thursday

Man, it was cold outside this morning. And I’m a wimp. So I stayed inside on the treadmill at the gym and pushed out seven miles in 60:10 — the middle three I pushed as hard as I could, managing a 23:30 (7:50!). I was wiped out, as you can expect.

Then I spent about a half hour streatching.

I think I need a nap.

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

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Election, Part IV: countdown to reform

There is a good post on Blue Jersey about how Tuesday’s status quo election may offer the Democrats a two-year window to get reform done and that, should they left it close, they are likely to find themselves feeling the wrath of voters.

Here is the response I offered:

I am in complete agreement with Mr. Rudy that the time has passed for reform to take place. Property taxes are too high, there are too many layers of government in this state and too many people with too many hands in too many tills.

But I am less optimistic that the voters want reform. My suspicion, from covering elections over the years and writing about local and state government, is that voters know their is a problem and want it fixed, but that they want it fixed without there being any pain — or at least no pain for them.

So suburban voters are ready to toss the urban school kids overboard and residents of towns who are unlikely to face consolidation want to see consolidation happen elsewhere.

Consider Jamesburg, which has almost no tax base and nearly had to close its library this year. Jamesburg should merge with Monroe — it is the donought hole to Monroe’s donought — but its elected officials are vehemently opposed to consolidation, as are Monroe’s. I understand this from a purely parochial point of view — no one wants to put themselves out of a job — but it is an example of the difficulties that consolidating municipalties will face. That’s why I was chagrined to find that the consolidation commission that was created earlier this year was defanged before it ever came into being (originally, towns would have been forced to merge after a vote of the Legislature).

There is a need for progressives to craft a bold plan for reform — municipal and school consolidation, a general reduction in the number of taxing districts (there are about 1,400 in the state right now), a realignment of the counties (elimination??), a new school-funding formula, an increased reliance on income taxes (this would not only reduce property taxes but change the warped, tax-chasing incentives that drive our land-use decisions), etc.

Much of this may not be popular — as I said, New Jerseyans tend to want others to pay for their reforms — and it could lead to some volatility. I would argue — as Mr. Rudy does — that the volatility already is there.

We’ve wasted too much time spinning our wheels. Let’s get the reform
train moving forward.

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

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Election, Part III: the broken GOP

Republicans in South Brunswick and Monroe can’t be too happy with the results of Tuesday’s election.

While Bill Baroni won a Senate seat rather handidly, he only squeaked by in South Brunswick — he bested a weak candidate, South Brunswick resident Seema Singha — a town that he has visited often and in which he has always been popular. Mr. Baroni was the top votegetter in town in 2005, as well, but only by 24 votes in his last Assembly race — plus, his runningmate, former South Brunswick Police Chief Michael Paquette, managed only a third-place finish, raising questions about Baroni’s coattails.

Taken together — along with Linda Greenstein’s huge showing in the township this time around (she was the top votegetter with 1,966, which probably helped put her over the top) — show once again how difficult it has become for Republicans to win in South Brunswick.

The same goes for Monroe, where a controversy over the proposed new high school should have inflicted some damage on the Democrats, especially with Mayor Richard Pucci topping the ticket. Instead, as has been the case for several years, the GOP offered only the barest of challenges (though, if the party can find a decent candidate for Ward 3 in 2009 and find some real cash to fund him or her and not come off sounding shrill and petty….).

There are several reasons for this, I think, including demographics — senior voters in Monroe, a more affluent, East Coast voter in South Brunswick. But the big reason is that both GOP organizations are broken (Monroe Chairwoman Sidna Mitchell has been working dilligently to repair things there, but the party does not have much of a farm system at this point) and have failed to offer decent candidates or a coherent platform in years.

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

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Election, Part II

There are those — myself included — who see the defeat of the first two ballot questions as a slap against using budget gimmicks and pushing the state farther into debt. We editorialized against the first three questions for a simple reason: The state is without a plan to address its debt problem or its structural deficit and shouldn’t borrow more money until it crafts one.

I stand by that idea. I hope our elected leaders will listen, address the issue and then come back with the stem cell plan when money is not so tight.

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

E-mail me by clicking here.