Today's Morning Update July 1, 2009
TODAY’S MORNING UPDATE: What
You Need to Know, Polling Update, Quote of the Day, Today’s News
What You Need to Know:
- Corzine-CWA agreement inked
- New fiscal year begins
- Cigarette tax increase, others, take effect due to Corzine
budget
Polling Update:
June
24:
Christie 51%, Corzine 39% - Strategic Vision
June 30: Christie
51%, Corzine 41% - Public Policy Polling
July 1: Christie
45%, Corzine 39% - Fairleigh
Dickinson University
Points
of Interest:
Christie
leads significantly among Independents (PPP
poll): Christie 60%, Corzine 26%
Corzine
has an usually large split among his Democratic base (FDU
poll): Christie 20%, Corzine 66%
Quote of
the Day:
Asbury Park Press:
“Gov.
Jon S. Corzine must think the taxpayers of New Jersey are stupid. Suddenly
there is money to give property tax rebates to folks other than seniors.
I wonder if the fact that Corzine is behind in the polls by 10 points has
something to do with finding this money.", Ronnie
Maresca, LTE: “The Taxes Will Come, Just You Wait,” June 30, 2009)
Today’s News Clips:
·
New
Jersey ushers in fiscal year with added, higher taxes, Star Ledger
·
Christie
tells NJEA truths Corzine won't, Asbury Park Press
·
Merger
plan more for show than saving dough, Courier News
- State
employees union members OK controversial contract, New Jersey Newsroom
- Chris
Christie Enjoys 'Unusually Lopsided' Lead Among Independents, National
Review Online
- Regionalization
agreements endangered under Corzine plan, Examiner News
New Jersey ushers in fiscal year with
added, higher taxes
by John Reitmeyer
Star Ledger
Wednesday, July 01, 2009
Happy
fiscal new year, Jersey residents.
New
Jersey's fiscal year begins today, and with that comes higher taxes for
smokers, high-income earners and businesses. Next month, hard alcohol and wine
drinkers will pay more. It's all part of $1 billion in added and higher taxes
folded into the $29 billion state budget Gov. Jon Corzine signed into law on
Monday. The governor says the extra cash was needed to offset declining
revenues during the recession.
Here's a
look at the major tax increases:
LTE: Christie tells NJEA truths Corzine
won't
By Victoria R. Krezonis
Asbury Park Press
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
The New
Jersey Education Association endorsed Jon Corzine for governor during his first
run. That was no surprise to anyone.
However,
after taking office, Gov. Corzine attempted to reduce pension benefits for NJEA
members as well as other union members in the state, without doing anything
about the corruption in government. Only a huge rally in Trenton forced the
governor to change his mind. The NJEA will quickly forget this ever happened,
and they will endorse Corzine again.
Recently,
after Republican gubernatorial candidate Chris Christie decided not to seek the
NJEA endorsement, the NJEA president called this a "snub." However,
what Christie said was so logical that it received little attention by the NJEA
and the media. His statement read in part, "I am not seeking the formal
endorsement of your organization because it will require promises that the
governor and I both know will not be kept by either candidate who makes them. .
. . I have every interest in engaging in a dialogue with (NJEA) . . . about
these important issues, but I have no interest in doing that in a setting where
I would be seeking their endorsement, which only leads to pandering by
politicians."
Editorial: Merger plan more for show than
saving dough
Courier News
Wednesday, July 01, 2009
Gov. Jon
Corzine is promoting the mandated elimination of the state's so-called
nonoperating school districts — those without schools — as a
cost-cutting first step toward larger government consolidations and property
tax reform.
The forced
mergers make sense — but they're little more than symbolic at this point.
And not terribly meaningful at that.
State employees union members OK
controversial contract
By Tom Hester Sr.
Newjerseynewsroom.com
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Members of
the largest state employees union have ratified a revised and controversial
contract pact with the Corzine administration that calls for 10 unpaid furlough
days and delays pay hikes in exchange for no layoffs.
Leaders of
the Communications Workers of America announced Tuesday that 69 percent of the
13,055 members who voted supported the new pact. Member of four separate CWA
state employee locals voted.
One unit,
CWA Local 1033, voted against the pact, contending that it "breaks our
contract and is not enforceable.''
Under the
revised contract, employees will have to take 10 unpaid furlough days while
seeing a wage hike delayed though December 2010 in return for the no-layoffs
pledge. The workers will also be able to accrue up to seven paid leave days
that can be used after next June 30. They will also not sustain any loss to
their pension benefits.
Gov. Jon
Corzine maintains the new pact will save more than $300 million in the 2009-10
budget he signed Monday but Republican legislative leaders and GOP
gubernatorial candidate Chris Christie contend the agreement will cost
taxpayers more than that amount in the future, including two pay increases in
2011.
Chris Christie Enjoys 'Unusually Lopsided'
Lead Among Independents
Jim Geraghty
National Review Online
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
This lead
is a bit smaller than a few other recent polls, but is within the margin of
error: "In the first of what will be monthly surveys on the New Jersey
race for Governor, Public Policy Polling finds incumbent Jon Corzine trailing
Republican challenger Chris Christie 51-41. Christie has an unusually lopsided
60-26 lead with independent voters."
Regionalization agreements endangered under
Corzine plan
by Mark Impomeni
North Jersey Conservative Examiner
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
There was
a time when New Jersey governors advocated for municipalities to regionalize
services to save money. Those days could be long gone, if a controversial
school funding formula pushed by Governor Jon Corzine survives a test in
court. Loch Arbour, a tiny hamlet in Monmouth County is suing to prevent
a law that would force the cancellation of the town's school and police
services contract with neighboring Ocean Township from taking effect.
The
provision canceling Loch Arbour's contract was part of the governor's School
Funding Reform Act, signed into law last year. Paul Mulshine writes in
the Star-Ledger that a similar bill canceling 23 other shared services
agreements has been approved by the Democratic controlled state
legislature. The bill would give Corzine the authority to impose a
rateables-based funding system on towns like Loch Arbour that contract with
other municipalities for school services, canceling the per pupil arrangements
of most existing contracts. For Loch Arbour, that could mean that the
annual amount it pays to Ocean Township could increase more than five fold.