http://www.wcbs880.com/

strand wrote:

“Resorting to the quick fix,” you kidding me. Cutting a few employees and improving efficiencies only go so far. Any businessman knows that, and that you need to grow out of problems not just cut away.

However, saying that It is important for government to do both when facing an issue of debt as large as what New Jersey has going on. And I hate taxes as much as the next guy but if we dont get the debt down its just going to grow and grow untill income and property and sales taxes need to be increased through the roof.

There’s a difference. Cutting costs by eliminating waste comes before reducing staff. Waste is not an operational essential but rather mismanagement of limited resource. Unneccessary overhead – whether private or government. Get rid of it. As to simultaneously ‘growing out of a problem’ while reducing costs – that’s done by liquidating holdings that do more harm than generate benefit.

Tarragon recently did this and instantly removed debt by selling its real estate holdings which incurred heavy monthly costs. They didn’t buy more land and begin building more projects, but cut back and restructured how they did business. Yet, NJ takes the opposite approach. Still wanting to keep all the waste and build more and more and more programs.

By focusing on removing waste (and corruption), and given the large amounts of revenue generated by the highest property taxes in the US, as well as really high corporate tax rates, being ranked as one of the wealthiest states in the republic, NJ would probably see a surplus. Instantly. And, that would be the quickest solution possible. Why that isn’t a priority – who knows.

work hard, eliminate waste, and YES, cut programs. reduce the size of gov’t. and let people take care of themselves.

in gov’t, it’s different though. need more revenue? raise taxes. so here is Johnny Boy, resorting to the quick fix.

so whoever votes for him again in ‘09 – you’re part of the problem.

strand tramp wrote:

anyone who has ever spent the day at a NJ DMV

All NJDMVs are not created equal.

I know of one in Bergen County where you’re pretty much out the door (with photos) in 20 – 40 minutes depending on how crowded it is.

For some reason, the people there seem to care about their jobs and perform them efficiently.

matt_72 wrote:

bmacqueens wrote:

Matt — unless you know something I don’t, under ERISA, those employee pensions will get first priority of payment in any bankruptcy proceeding, which will never actually happen because NJ will never be able to float a bond again (remember, Ford to NYC — “Drop Dead”). Nobody’s losing their pension, not at the state level.

Restricting terms going forward? Sure. But loss of the already vested benefits? Never gonna happen.

You are forgetting that priority and admin claims step ahead of all unsecured claims. Sure all the unsecured claimants get screwed over – but hey, the state is INSOLVENT! I know, it will never happen. And I know they cannot go after vested pensions barring an insolvency. But they can absolutely FREEZE COLA increases for pensions AND payroll. I am pretty sure if they freeze salaries for an extended period of time, they can absolutely freeze the pensions. And if they fire all the dead wood, they can stop accruing pension obligations for these workers.

Sure, priority and admin wins, but the lawyers and accountant bills won’t be large enough to dig into the pensions. Query whether there is anything that would have priority over pensions … secured bond holders on a bridge project? Mortgage on a school building? Interesting idea … Super-secured mortgage on the NJ Turnpike? Construction lien for the company that lays the blacktop?

Could be an article in there for anyone who wants to do the research. Scarlett?