Here Comes the Guv

Boooooooooooooooooooo

Snore.

Thank God I stayed home to smoke a pork butt.

Seeing this guy would have turned my stomach!

What kind of rolling papers do you use with a pork butt? :-)

Went to see the film, "The Visitor." Excellent. I chose not to watch the parade or the Governor.

I kinda like Jon Corzine. A little less party machinery and he could be a pretty good gov, considering the mess he inherited.

No rolling papers Mrs. Martta needed as the meat falls off the bone...

And with my homemade bbq sauce-- we gotta winner.

(Early tomorrow I'll smoke up the baby backs...)

As for Corzine.... He's a loser who left the Senate because he didn't like being in the minority and NEVER thought the Dems would take over (they did).

So he BOUGHT the election here by scaring Cody and "donating" to the Black Pastors....

And that damn beard!!!

Carlin had the answer to your prejudice prof:

Here's my beard.
Ain't it weird?
Don't be sceeered,
Just a beard.

I can't believe it......I just passed Bloomfield Avenue and Midland Avenue.......There is a toll booth there now!!!!

Thanks Corzine!!

Thank you Pokey.
Who cares if he has a beard? Is this guy ACTUALLY going to balance the budget? Perhaps property taxes and government spending will someday be within realistic limits.

Sorry citigal, except for the beard part, corzine is all promise and no reality.

Git2itGal & Citigal,

It appears that you are using the papers Mrs. Martta speaks of.

The only thing Jon Corzine has done about the terrible fiscal condition of the State of New Jersey is to make it worse than ever. A case in point is the budget he just rammed through the Legislature, a budget that he claims is a reduction but that actually has millions more in spending than last year's budget (he claims it's a reduction because he's hiding almost $1 Billion (that's a B) in spending with accounting tricks). What's worse, his budget does not address the cause of our financial problems in any meaningful way, instead, he continues to plunder the State's treasury and borrow against our children's future to benefit the political cronies that allowed him to buy the Democratic nomination for Governor in 2005.

It's true that the Jon Corzine is good at talking about solving our fiscal woes, the problem is that Jon Corzine usually says one thing, then does another.

Jon Corzine says he wants to attack wasteful municipal spending but what does he do? - he cuts the aid to Municipalities that are well-run instead. The reason is simple enough - virtually all of the worst-run, graft-ridden cities in the state are run by his cronies, so he can't cut there!

Jon Corzine says he wants to bring wasteful school spending under control, then what does he do? He pours billions of dollars into school districts that spend money hand-over-fist on everything but education ? including an increase of almost $1 Billion in the new budget. Corzine and his cohorts need the votes that money will deliver ? so while these school districts cheat children of their futures - Jon Corzine and his Department of Education look the other way.

Jon Corzine says he wants N.J. to stop borrowing money, but what does he do? He tries to push through the biggest bonding scheme ever attempted by any state ever.

Jon Corzine says that the N.J. State Constitution requirement that voters approve all bonding should be followed, but what does he do? Just last week he rammed an additional $3.9 Billion dollar bonding scheme through the legislature to fund additional School Construction without voter approval - in spite of the fact that the last School Funding Bond resulted in billions of dollars of waste and fraud, and pennies on the dollar actually spent on school construction.

Jon Corzine has broken virtually every promise he has made to the citizens of New Jersey, he is a complete failure as Governor and he is deserving only of our scorn.

Baristanet has problems with certain characters, this paragraph should read:

Jon Corzine says he wants to bring wasteful school spending under control, then what does he do? He pours billions of dollars into school districts that spend money hand-over-fist on everything but education - including an increase of almost $1 Billion in the new budget. Corzine and his cohorts need the votes that money will deliver - so while these school districts cheat children of their futures - Jon Corzine and his Department of Education look the other way.

tell us how you really feel, Carl.

Jon Corzine has been an abject failure. In other words, he lies. A "beard."

Thank you Mr. Bergmanson.

I appreciate the educated input in these matters. You should update regularly in this area. These are things the average people are not aware of.

And we all know that if they were in the Star Liar, they would be on page 14.

Star Liar...love it. That paper is rapidly becoming a house organ for a select few.

Memo to Lewis Black:

Jon Corzine is the root of all
EEEEE-VVVVIIIILLLLLLLLLLLLL!!!!

jimmyp, since when is beard synonymous with liar?

"Eww...He's all beardy"
-"Juno"

Endlessly amused by the adults who can muster only to make fun of the man's beard, or list that as a reason he should be hated.
I am unsure why Corzine inspires such passion... which governor of the past 30 years has done a "better" job?
I don't think anyone thinks he a hero, but at least I see him trying to present some politically unpopular ideas. We all know he's earned the scorn of Mr. Bergmanson for daring to suggest that it makes very little sense to have NJ continue to operate with the giant mishmosh of tiny municipalities with major duplication of services. Since this puts a target on a town like Glen Ridge, it clearly has stoked the fire. To me, it makes perfect sense. Clearly reducing the duplication of services that exists between county, state and the pile of local governments would mean a loss of authority by many small town mayor types but it would save some cash.

Clearly reducing the duplication of services that exists between county, state and the pile of local governments would mean a loss of authority by many small town mayor types but it would save some cash.

But you have it in reverse! Cut at the higher, more diffuse levels, including elimination altogether of the county governments. Local spending is the most accountable spending.

Drob,

While it may make "perfect sense" to you, that's only because you don't know what you are talking about. You may think it would "save some cash", but there is no evidence whatsoever to support the contention that it would actually save money to reduce the number of munis and tons of evidence to the contrary.

In New Jersey, almost without exception, small towns are more efficient than medium-sized towns, and medium-sized towns are more efficient than big towns.

That said, if the governor had put forth a proposal to penalize towns for being inefficient based on actual facts and actual spending numbers, I probably would have supported it. Of course, he's not going to do that, because, as I said above - virtually all of the worst-run, graft-ridden cities in the state are run by his cronies!

And if the Governor had done as jlo suggests above and rid us of those patronage-mills known as County Governments, I would have been at the parade cheering him. Again, since he owes his nomination to the County Machines, that isn't going to happen.

I don't know much about "the gov"
I do know that I think it sucks that so few Montclair entities march in the parade. I don't want to take away from the ones who do. In fact they have my support and I will be donating to them during the next year. But w here are the MHS, middle school and elementary school groups, bands etc.? It's pretty embarrassing to watch marching bands from Wayne and Philadelphia march when there is not hide nor tail of MHS bands, cheerleaders,members of sports teams or whatever. Thanks to goddesses for the robotics club. Otherwise people would thin this town doesn't even have a high school

Pokey..ever hear that someone acted "as a beard ?"

Carl Honey:

Corzine is well connected (and very wealthy) and the only thing you are going to "recall" is your failed attempt to recall the gov! His support network is embedded and you won't penetrate it, so learn to work with it and don't be a radical! Leave that kind of stuff to me after a bottle (or two) of merlot!

No he's not a personal friend, but I am influenced by his circle...his circle touches my circle!

If his circle touched my circle, I'd want to take a long, hot shower.

Laura,

Thanks for your concern.

Since this thread was originally about the Fourth of July Parade (In case you've forgotten Laura, that's "Independence Day"), I find myself wondering how many folks like you were there in July, 1776 - King George certainly had more wealth and more power than King Jon does.

While it is true that, barring a tremendous increase in petitions coming in, we are not going to come anywhere near the 1.2 million signatures & 400,000 notarized signatures the state is requiring, as I have said from the start, we measure our success in increments. We have received a lot of support and encouragement from the public, and we have put some pressure on the Governor which has helped force him to back off some of his really bad proposals, so I already consider the effort a success.

That said, we will continue to push right up to the deadline, and, since it seems that almost every day the Governor goes down in popularity as more incompetence, waste, mismanagement, graft and scandals are exposed, who knows?

Besides, while I love the Declaration of Independence (I carry a copy of it with me most of the time) and marvel at the genius - and the balls - of those men in Philadelphia, it took a lot more than Thomas Jefferson's fiery words and a room full of testicular fortitude to bring down their tyrant. It was a long and difficult struggle with many battles.

While it is not nearly as daunting or dangerous as the struggle those folks in the 1770's faced, it will also be difficult to rid our state of this tyrant - as you point out, he is wealthy and well-connected - this is just the first battle.

Just make sure to clean out the drain from his beard hair.

(I'm sure he'll pay....)

Dear Carl,
oh puleeze

He must be doing something right to get all the easy chair reactionaries upset.. jelously of upper class is very unbecoming loves..He's a great governor..

Only in NJ could someone call Corzine a "great" Governor.

Is the bar so low? ....... I guess so.

Imagine if we get someone who doesn't buy the office, can cut the budget, lower taxes and not be a nanny.... S/he'll be considered a God here.

Or maybe even the Boss.

When defending somebody's actions they should be compared on an absolute scale of how well they are doing... Not a sliding scale of how they are slightly better than the last failure of a person to take the same job.

jimmyp, I have heard of that expression. It is a slang term to describe a person who poses as a false date or romantic partner to mislead others about the status of a relationship, mostly I believe because of sexual orientation. Liar it is not.

"Not a sliding scale of how they are slightly better than the last failure of a person to take the same job."

Ha! So true, Brendan. That's like saying, "Well, he doesn't suck as bad as the last guy."

(MM, considering what we now know about the "last guy," he probably doesn't...)

But he still does.

That the goodly addled padre calls Corzine a "great" Governor only indicates just how weak he is from his daily loss of blood. Stigmata can be such a cross to bear.

Pokey ? Liar it is not ? I beg to differ.

Jon Corzine might yet get the budget into shape. He has been more successful to control the budget than any other Governor in the last 30 years. I think the repubs have a problem with Jon because he might actually get the job done.

Glen Ridge shouldn't exist. Let them unify with Montclair or Bloomfield. Glen Ridge's taxes are so high because they have no industry to speak of and they pour big bucks into their schools which is to their credit. If we want to cut taxes we have to work toward shared services including schools. You can fire all the superintendents right now. They are overpaid and unnecessary.

To fix NJ we have to start by reforming county government. New Jersey politics starts at the counties. Reform the counties and deliver services at economies of scale improving efficiency.

Miss Martta can snore (check your throat out-it could be blocked), and Prof. Wms can wax with professorial majesty regarding beard hair and drains (harumphh and harumphh), but, as it turns out, unlike them, I have no agenda with regard to the trashing of the Jersey guv.
On the other hand, my sis worked at Goldman when Corzine did, and she has nothing but good things to say about the man.

Working at Goldman and acting as Governor are two different things. Perhaps he was a wonderful employer (I can't know for sure as I haven't worked for him) but he's a lousy Governor. But, as another poster pointed out, no more or less lousy than previous administrations. That's NJ for you.

jimmyp, we all participate in lies almost everyday, or suffer the consequences (as in Liar,Liar with Jim Carey). A beard is not a liar because the spirit is totally different; the nuance is on disguise, functionality to get along without confrontation. A liar is all about personal gain at the expense of others, with no regard to anything but ?me?.

I still beg to differ Pokey. Perhaps I'm simple, but a deception is a lie. The spirit of a lie may or may not be germaine to the discussion, but don't asume we all take part in deceptions everyday, because that's simply not true.

(J Perlstein, as I still work to a proper HVAC resolution on my home addition, I'll leave all thoughts of professionalism aside....)

And that your sister thought he was a good employer is about the strangest endorsement of his tenure I've heard.

Hey, he looks good in a sweater too and took care of his lady-friend, he must be a great Gov.....

Ah, no.

That I enjoy making fun of his facial hair (same with our lousy Super of Schools, Alvarez), is par for the course-- he chose to be Gov- a public position....

(Funny that you love to call the President "shrub" but are so quick to defend our Bearded Wonder....)

AH, remember the good-old-days, when we had 6% sales tax and folks from New York would drive to NJ to shop and make our economy thrive.

Well it doesn't happen anymore!!!

Great Governor?? C'mon.......

Mike,
What a remarkable post! You actually managed to get pretty much every single thing incorrect.

You write:
Jon Corzine might yet get the budget into shape. He has been more successful to control the budget than any other Governor in the last 30 years. I think the repubs have a problem with Jon because he might actually get the job done.

This statement is completely unsupported by the facts. While it is true that (after two years of tremendous increases and if you don't count $4 BILLION dollars in additional borrowing) the rate of increase is fairly small (as I said above, it's not a cut in spending if you spend more), the areas he cut to achieve this are not the areas that are the problem, and will either result in increased fees and taxes, or reduced services. What's more, it's not just the "repubs" who have a problem with Governor Corzine, many independents (like myself) and Democrats have a problem with him too: In this heavily Democratic state, King Jon's popularity is at 37%.

You write:
Glen Ridge shouldn't exist.

Based on what? Your decree? Like King Jon, you can't produce any evidence to support the contention that this would save money, so you just declare that it's true. Newsflash boys: All the budget numbers are on line, so when you make statements like this, anyone who is actually interested in the truth can go online and run the numbers. In your case Mike, I'll give you the benefit of the doubt and say it's because you don?t know what you are talking about. King Jon gets no such pass from me, he knows what he's saying is a lie, he's just relying on folks who are too stupid, too lazy or too partisan to do the math.

You write:
Let them unify with Montclair

Far from saving any money, this would be a fiscal disaster for the citizens of Glen Ridge, and would cause Montclair's taxes to soar. I've already explained this on Baristanet a number of times, here's one of those discussions:

http://www.baristanet.com/2007/01/small_towns_stand_tall.php

You write:
or Bloomfield.

Again, far from saving any money, this would be a financial disaster for both towns, and might very well push them both into a death spiral.

You write:
Glen Ridge's taxes are so high because they have no industry to speak of

No, Glen Ridge's taxes are so high because it gets only 4% school aid, if it received the state average amount of school aid (45%), GR's overall property taxes would be (relatively for New Jersey) moderate - about 25% lower. So long as its property values are so high, GR's taxes would never be low, but also because of those high property values, commercial and industrial ratables don't really help reduce taxes (in spite of "conventional wisdom"). This is one reason why Montclair's taxes are so high, even with all their ratables.

You write:
and they pour big bucks into their schools which is to their credit. If we want to cut taxes we have to work toward shared services including schools.

Again, there is no evidence to support this, and lots of evidence that it is incorrect. Go online and check out school spending. If your really wanted to promote efficiency in Schools and Municipal Government, the way to do it would be to do what I have been advocating for years, give each school district the same amount of school aid per child, and each muni the same amount of municipal aid per person. Not only would that promote efficiency, it would be fair, and it would allow each town to decide what level of service best suited its needs. As I said above, King Jon can't support that, or any other genuine reform, because he and his cohorts benefit from the looting of the state treasury that's going on now.

You write:
You can fire all the superintendents right now. They are overpaid and unnecessary.

Like many things in our schools that waste money and fill patronage jobs, Superintendents are mandated by the state. Many school districts would love to reduce their administrative overhead, the State Educational Bureaucracy won't let them.

You Write:
To fix NJ we have to start by reforming county government. New Jersey politics starts at the counties. Reform the counties and deliver services at economies of scale improving efficiency.

This is just laughable. You might as well have written "Develop Geese that lay Golden Eggs". Our County Governments in New Jersey serve little function other than to hijack what little federal funding we get, and to generate patronage jobs. A few years back we crunched some numbers that showed that it costs Essex County 2 to 4 times as much to plow a road as it would cost one of the local munis (other than Newark) to do it. We don't need to reform the Counties, we need to eliminate them.

Have a nice week everyone, I'm off to work.

(I love Carl!!!!!)

Small towns will continue to pay higher taxes until they increase their buying power.

County reform could take 10 to 20 years by strong and consistent effort to elect the right people.

Glen Ridge, your taxes are going to go up because guys like Carl want to do it their way.

Carl, unify Glen Ridge with a larger town and shift services to the county. Glen ridge can not afford to deliver services on such a small scale.

Carl for Mayor of Everywhere!

I'm still recovering from post election shock that the residents of New Jersey elected a leader of a state who was not born or raised here.

Must be the same clown who wanted to get rid of the Department of Agriculture in New Jersey, which recieves 342 million dollars in Federal Aid, which goes to the State Budget and not the farmers. The governor wanted to get rid of the Department of Agriculture which costs the State over 20 million to run. Apparently the governor's office didn't realize is that when you get rid of your secretary seat with Department of Agriculture you as a state forfeits the federal funds to other states.

Are you sure this guy was CEO of Goldman Sac? I have serious doubts.