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JerseySmarts.com

The Associated Press Lies About Governor Chris Christie’s Staff’s Salaries

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Ugh. Sometimes you have to absolutely hate the mainstream media. If you’re a New Jersey resident, you might have been subjected to a recent report from the Associated Press that stated Governor Chris Christie’s staff was making a ton more money than former Governor Money Bags – I mean Jon Corzine’s – staff was making.

Well, once again we have a situation where the Associated Press did almost no fact checking once the information was put in front of their biased little faces. Either that or they blatantly wanted to produce a story that was heavily negative against Governor Christie. Anyway, here’s the response coming out of the Governor’s office to the Associated Press’ unbelievably inaccurate story:

An Associated Press story late today made several false statements and faulty assumptions about the Governor’s Office payroll costs under Governor Chris Christie when comparing it against payroll of the prior administration.

The AP story falsely stated that Governor Christie’s payroll was nearly $2 million more than that of the prior administration. Payroll and staff reports on both the Governor’s Office website and given to the Asbury Park Press as part of an OPRA request show the total salary of all employees to be $8.9 million for 117 employees.

The AP story erroneously reported that the Corzine Administration salary total was only $7 million. In fact, there were a large number of employees not included in the Corzine Administration numbers. Adding those employees – so-called “mobility” personnel on loan to the Governor’s Office from other departments – would bring the total salaries to more than $8.3 million for the Corzine Administration. The difference covers at least a dozen of these “mobility” personnel utilized during the Corzine Administration, with a total salary of more than $1.1 million between them.

In contrast, the Christie Administration included and identified by name all its employees – including approximately 15 people on mobility from other agencies – when it posted the administration salaries two weeks ago on the Governor’s Office website, which was also the identical information provided to the Asbury Park Press at the same time.

“We have gone to great lengths to be open and transparent in all regards, including in the reporting of salary and personnel,” said Press Secretary Michael Drewniak. “In the AP’s haste to get out of the gate first, it did so with a story that was half-reported, full of errors of fact and omission and despite administration warnings that it was wrong. We hope the AP will retract its story.”

The AP story also reported that the Corzine Administration had only 17 people earning salaries of $100,000 or more. In fact, there were at least an additional nine employees earning more than $100,000. Again, the story failed to include “mobility” employees or seek to verify all 2009 salaries in the Corzine Administration.

Also, in comparing the total salary numbers between the administrations, the AP story failed to note that Governor Christie receives a salary of $175,000, as allowed by law. His predecessor declined a salary due to his independent wealth.

The story also doesn’t take into account the new position of Lieutenant Governor, which has no budget. The Governor’s Office provides some staff and resources to support the Lieutenant Governor’s Office, which by statute does not include any staff.

Finally, Governor Corzine was unmarried during his term and, therefore, had no staff for a First Lady. The First Lady, Mary Pat Christie, has two staff members in the Office of Protocol.

Wait, so when you compare apples to apples (which you really can’t do because this Governor is taking a salary, this Governor has a wife, and this Governor has a Lieutenant Governor) it turns out that Corzine still remains the king of reckless spending?! WOW, I’m shocked! (sarcasm)

While I wouldn’t run the numbers myself, I’d assume that if you add up how much MORE it would have cost to run the Corzine administration with all of these additional expenses, his budget would have been in excess of Christie’s $8.9 million total Governor’s Office budget. But why would any of the mainstream media sources want to actually run those numbers anyway? Idiots…

New Jersey Division of Taxation – Customer Service at its Worst

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Normally, I wouldn’t single out a government agency or private enterprise as having horrible customer service unless I was beaten down by them time and time again. In fact, I would normally reserve my angry rants until I actually had a voice-to-voice interaction with the agency – either through physically going to their location or speaking on the telephone. Typically, I wouldn’t suggest that an agency has horrible customer service based on their e-mail communication alone… Until I received an e-mail from the New Jersey Division of Taxation.

Wow.

Let me try to set the stage as quickly and clearly as possible. I use H&R Block’s “At Home” software to prepare and file my taxes each year. This year, because of an answer that I gave regarding my 2009 investments, I had to actually print my tax return and supporting documents and send them to the Division of Taxation. Believe it or not, this is the first time in many years that I’ve submitted a paper copy of my state tax return instead of e-filing, but I don’t want to go off on a techno-tangent right now.

The H&R Block program suggested a few weeks ago that there were no forthcoming software updates for the New Jersey tax program. Since I was filing by paper this year, when I saw that there were no pending changes to the program I printed out my tax return and sent it in with delivery confirmation. About a week went by and I received the stamped “received” receipt and all was well with the world.

Until I turned on the H&R Block program against last night. All of a sudden there was an update for the New Jersey tax program. I downloaded and installed the update and (surprise, surprise), my expected return nearly doubled! DOUBLED! Granted, we’re talking about going from $140 something to $280 something, but still – that’s a good little piece of money these days.

Being faced with the reality that my already-filed taxes were sitting in Trenton somewhere reporting that the state owed me less than they actually owed me, I decided to report the situation to the Division of Taxation. Figuring that in 2010 e-mail was the quickest and easiest way to get a response, I e-mailed my situation to the Division. This is what I received in return:

The New Jersey Division of Taxation received your e-mail. Due to the high volume of e-mail, please allow AT LEAST 15 business days and possibly longer for a reply. We appreciate your patience and will make every effort to respond to your e-mail as soon as possible. However, if the information listed below answers your question, you will NOT receive any further response from the Division.

So let me lay this out for everyone… My e-mail was received (good news), but the Division of Taxation is so busy that they may not be able to answer me until Thursday, April 29th (bad news)? Name me one private company on the planet that can get away with not responding to a customer inquiry for FIFTEEN business days. But wait! Read on, my friends, because the fun doesn’t end there…

Not only do I have to wait until Thursday, April 28th until I receive a response, but there is a possible chance that I’ll have to wait even longer. EVEN LONGER?! Really?!

Look, I work around the corner from the Division of Taxation building in Trenton. In fact, I walk by it every once in a while (as well as the dozen and a half people who seem to be smoking outside consistently). The building is gigantic – absolutely huge. You mean to tell me that in that gigantic, huge building there isn’t one person who can get back to me on what I should do in order to get the proper refund? Really?

That is customer service at its worst and that is why the current tax code should be replaced with the fair tax. I’ll just chalk this up to another example of how the “little people” don’t seem to really matter to the government machine.

The Teachers’ Union in New Jersey is Packed with Scumbags

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First, I apologize for continuing to bring up the education funding battle as it relates to New Jersey’s budget. It’s just such a great opportunity to expose the scumbags that work for the New Jersey Education Association (NJEA). For example, did you read this piece that was released yesterday by the Associated Press? Pay particular attention to the portions in bold…

Scumbags at NJEA Pray for Chris Christie's Death

TRENTON, N.J. (AP) — Amid a state budget crisis, schools across New Jersey are facing layoffs and homeowners are bracing for hefty increases to their highest-in-the-nation property tax bills.

Gov. Chris Christie is blaming teachers unions. Teachers unions are blaming Christie.

The enmity, which goes back to last year’s gubernatorial campaign, intensified with a memo from the Bergen County Education Association to local union leaders that hints about the governor’s death.

The memo, first reported by The Record of Bergen County, reads, in part: “Dear Lord this year you have taken away my favorite actor, Patrick Swayze, my favorite actress, Farrah Fawcett, my favorite singer, Michael Jackson, and my favorite salesman, Billy Mays. I just wanted to let you know that Chris Christie is my favorite governor.”

Association president Joe Coppola said the “prayer” was a joke and was never meant to be made public.

The New Jersey Education Association was more contrite. It issued an apology on Friday, saying the attack wasn’t funny and that it takes away from the more serious discussion the group would like to have with the governor. NJEA President Barbara Keshishian said she would try to apologize personally to Christie.

At an appearance in New Brunswick on Friday, Christie didn’t see any humor in the memo — and used it as another chance to blast the teachers unions.

“They said they didn’t intend it to be public,” Christie said. “So, private prayer for my death would have been OK?”

The message so offended Republican Assemblyman Alex DeCroce that he’s asking the state’s attorney general to investigate it.

The memo — even if it was a joke — escalates an ongoing war of words.

During the Republican Christie’s run for governor last year, he didn’t mind offending the teachers union.

He refused to meet with the NJEA as it interviewed candidates to consider whom to endorse. And he attacked the union on the campaign trail. In July, he said: “Frequently, the leadership of the NJEA has been a strong advocate for the status quo, whether the status quo is succeeding or failing.”

The union endorsed incumbent Democrat Jon Corzine in the election — and paid for fliers, staffed phone banks and knocked on doors on his behalf.

This year, the state education association has aired television commercials critical of the governor.

It intensified last month when Christie proposed a state budget that called for state and federal aid to school districts to be cut about 11 percent.

Most districts will lose more state aid than that for their main programs — including some that won’t any. The majority of school districts are planning layoffs as part of their budgets. On top of that, many are planning to hike their property taxes by close to the legal limit of 4 percent.

Christie, though, says that he’ll give extra aid to any district where educators agree to freeze their salaries for the year and start paying a portion of their health insurance costs. Any layoffs, he says, will be the fault of the unions — not him.

The governor said this week that school employees in 115 of the states’ 590 districts have agreed to wage freezes. But in most of those districts, the concessions came from administrators rather than teachers. The NJEA has not encouraged its locals to make the deals.

Steve Baker, an NJEA spokesman, said the group hopes the memo dustup will create an opportunity for the group to meet with Christie to talk about the future of the state’s schools.

“Frankly, we have been talking at each other and we haven’t been talking with each other,” he said.

The NJEA is just a bunch of scumbags. You see stuff like this in the news and you do a little bit of research and find out that everything is confirmed and you just hate these people. The NJEA sucks.

Time to Take a Look at the “At Risk” Designation for Some NJ Students

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Every once in a while I head over to the PolitickerNJ.com website and read what some of New Jersey’s muckety-mucks have to say about what’s going on in our state. This morning, I was glad to see that one New Jersey State Senator is openly questioning the “at risk” designation that applies to some New Jersey students versus others. Here’s the article, in full:

TRENTON – It’s a favorite issue of state Sen. Mike Doherty (R-Washington Twp.), a rural legislator who grew up in Essex County and long heard what he interpreted as the sucking sound of money from the suburbs into Newark.

Conceding that Newark’s porverty rate stands at 24%, Doherty believes urban schools unfairly receive a disproportionately high share of state aid based on the designation of “at-risk” children.

In his turn at the microphone here during this Budget and appropriations hearing, he drums the issue into the consciousness of Treasurer Andrew Sidamon-Eristoff.

The average New Jersey pupil receives $9,600, while an at-risk student gets an additional $8,000 or $9,000.

Doherty wants more oversight concerning that designation, particularly in a city where there is an international airport, sports arena and numerous other facilities lacking in rural Warren and Hunterdon counties, which comprise Doherty’s home district.

“If administrators are not checking, perhaps there may be an incentive to get that number (of at-risk children) up because it bumps up the amount of state aid you’re getting,” Doherty says.

I see this stuff almost everyday at my day job – a school comes to us for financing and they are either able to afford it because they receive an abundance of “at risk” aid or they are unable to afford a facility upgrade because they don’t receive any “at risk” aid. It’s very cut and dry – either you get the money or you don’t.

The state is engaged in a deep conversation about the current school funding formula, how education funding should be changed, and what the final outcome will be for school districts and educators. A crucial part of this conversation – indeed the very base of the conversation – must be a discussion about property taxes in New Jersey. Why must this be the base of the conversation? Because in New Jersey, education is funded through property taxes. And anyone who even takes a cursory look at the school funding formula will find that the current property tax system in New Jersey is essentially a wealth redistribution system.

In essence, money is sucked from the suburbs and sent to the urban districts. As Senator Doherty says above, every single one of these “at risk” students located in urban districts receives an additional $8,000 to $9,000 in state education aid. Where does that money come from? Well, New Jersey doesn’t have the highest property taxes in the nation by mistake!

The root of the problem with the “at risk” aid is that it ties educational performance to cost per pupil…and it’s wrong. One only needs to look at the Asbury Park School District – where hundreds of thousands and even millions of additional aid dollars have been dumped over the years – to see that more money does not equal higher student engagement or performance.

Education – the actual act of learning something new and retaining that knowledge – doesn’t happen because of more money being dumped into a school district. Real learning takes place because a great educator can relate to and “reach” a student. It’s plain and simple. If the wrong people are in education in the first place, then you wind up with students who are not engaged, not learning, and who do not want to be in school.

Education reform has to take place from both the bottom up (getting the right people in schools) and from the top down (fixing the funding formula).

Some Teachers and Education Support Staff Work on Finding Real Solutions

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Whether any of the fear-mongers at the New Jersey Education Association (NJEA) like it or not, Governor Chris Christie is not backing down from his campaign promises. He promised to take the fight directly to the teachers’ union and force them to share in the same financial sacrifice that every other citizen of New Jersey is experiencing…and that’s exactly what he’s doing. He promised not to raise taxes because it is a “quick fix” for the state’s budget problem and not a long term solution…the only “solution” that the NJEA has been able to come up with for filling the gap in the budget is to raise taxes (typical).

But as I said yesterday, most people are getting sick of this fight because of the phony horror-stories-to-be coming out of the NJEA and the consistent pressure being put on them by the Governor. Well, it seems like some teachers and educators out there in overpaid public employee land have gotten the point and are ready to share in the same financial sacrifice and join the same real world as the rest of us in New Jersey.

According to a late afternoon release issued by the governor’s office, the type of freeze varies district by district, according to data from the state Department of Education.

“Teachers in 11 school districts have accepted wage freezes for a year or part of the year (nine for a full year; two for partial year). In five school districts, teachers have accepted a reduction in pay,” according to the governor’s office. “Administrative and support staffs have been more willing to step up and take action to protect jobs and education resources: Of the 115 districts reporting wage freezes or reductions, administrators in 101 of them have taken a full-year or part-year salary freeze (most by far were full-year freezes). Support staff in 40 did the same. In more than 16 districts, administrators and/or staff took a reduction in pay.”

“Unfortunately, these figures illustrate the obvious: that the teachers unions overwhelmingly believe everyone else should share in the sacrifice, but they alone should be held harmless in the middle of this fiscal crisis,” said the governor. “The sense of entitlement is incredible and reveals the belief that they should continue, even now, to get 4 and 5 percent salary increases year after year and pay nothing for health insurance. Meanwhile, younger, less senior teachers are losing jobs. Frankly, I just don’t understand this; nor do I believe that the public does either.”

This information was taken from a post on PolitickerNJ.com and I think it shows that there is some degree of hope in the battle between the NJEA and the Governor. What it comes down to – as always – is that public employee unions are too strong (and arrogant) in New Jersey and their unchecked strength has led to an unsustainable public benefits system. Where else in the world (besides dictatorships) does it make better financial sense to work for the government instead of private enterprise?! That’s crazy.

I’m not saying that we shouldn’t pay good people for good work. We absolutely should. However, I am saying that when the rest of the people in this state are struggling to make ends meet and when the private sector is shedding jobs left and right – who are the public employee unions to say that they are above the Great Recession? Who are these unions to say that they are untouchable by the whims of the free market?

Get real. Public employees should be taking pay freezes and public employees should be taking wage reductions and public employees should be getting laid off in these economic times. This is what happens when times are tough – everyone suffers…public employees, too!