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Sun Mar 14, 2010 at 09:09:55 PM EDT
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Promoted by Jason: Joey found another cut for the Governor. In yet another Executive Order sure to rile clock and calendar makers, Governor Chris Christie issued Executive Order 247, cutting back an hour a day from the days in New Jersey.
"This will save New Jersey residents 365 hours every year, and at least $7.25 per hour per resident ----roughly a total of $23,067,361,250.00 for our state coffers. That's a lot, I think," said the spokesman for the governor.
Democratic legislative leadership vowed to request the New Jersey Supreme Court to issue a stay to the Executive Order 247, and have the "Order only effect just Sunday, March 14," and "to get the hour back by the fall in November." This order particularly irked the Democratic leadership because of the governor signing the order to take place "between 2AM and 3AM" Sunday morning, "while New Jersey residents slept".
EXECUTIVE ORDER NO. 247
WHEREAS, the State of New Jersey ("State") is confronting an unprecedented temporal crisis affecting all levels of government; and
WHEREAS, actual and anticipated time spent and utilized by the State continue to fall far below the amounts estimated in the Temporal Year 2010
NOW, THEREFORE, I, CHRIS CHRISTIE, Governor of the State of New Jersey, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and by the Statutes of this State, do hereby ORDER and DIRECT:
That ONE-HOUR per day shall be removed from the days in New Jersey, commencing Sunday, March 14th, 2010.
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Sun Mar 14, 2010 at 05:05:20 PM EDT
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I wonder if all the right-wingers ranting against Democrats and Frank LoBiondo for voting for a cap-and-trade bill know that New Jersey is already in a 10-state regional cap-and-trade agreement to limit carbon dioxide emissions.
On March 12, the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative announced the results of the latest auction (PDF):
The states participating in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) today announced the results of the first quarterly auction of carbon dioxide (CO2) allowances in 2010. The auction, held Wednesday, March 10th, yielded $87,956,944.56 for investment in the clean energy economy.
All of the 40,612,408 CO2 allowances for the first three-year control period (2009-2011) offered in Wednesday's auction sold at a price of $2.07.
In a parallel offering, the RGGI states also auctioned CO2 allowances for the second three-year control period (2012-2014). A total of 2,091,000 of the 2,137,992 CO2 allowances for the second control period sold at a price of $1.86. Unsold allowances may be sold in future auctions according to each state's regulations.
Proceeds from all auctions held to date now total more than $582.3 million. States are investing proceeds to improve energy efficiency and accelerate the deployment of renewable energy technologies, creating thousands of jobs.
I don't have New Jersey's share of the proceeds (Delaware made $2 million), but according to law New Jersey's share is invested as follows:
* 60 percent of proceeds to the New Jersey Economic Development Authority (EDA) for end-use energy efficiency, combined heat and power, and renewable energy project loans and grants in the commercial, institutional, and industrial sectors.
* 20 percent of proceeds to the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities (BPU) to support programs to reduce electricity costs or electricity demand for low- and moderate-income residential electricity customers.
* 20 percent of proceeds to the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) to support local government programs to implement greenhouse gas emissions reduction measures (10%) and programs to enhance forest stewardship and tidal marsh restoration that provide important opportunities to sequester carbon (10%).
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Sun Mar 14, 2010 at 03:18:29 PM EDT
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I just can't understand the Democrats in the state right now. Consider this piece from the Auditor today about the marginalizing of Joe Cryan::One of the key differences that has emerged resulted from Cryan's push to restore a tax surcharge on the wealthiest New Jerseyans. Cryan is advocating for the so-called "millionaire's tax" both on the merits (it would raise money during a budget crunch) and on the politics (it would give Democrats a chance to portray Gov. Chris Christie as tool of the rich and enemy of the working class). But Senate President Steve Sweeney (D-Gloucester), The Auditor is told by key Statehouse sources, has told Cryan he doesn't support it and Christie would veto it. It makes no sense on any level. There is widespread support for a millionaires tax, including among the wealthy. Even Republicans are split down the middle on the issue. Cutting the millionaire's tax is an unpopular move, but it looks like Sweeney is about to give Christie a pass on it. So let Christie veto it and draw the contrast about who everyone is fighting for. I don't get the strategy on a practical or political level.
While millionaires get tax cuts, the working class faces higher bus fares, less funding for schools, and higher property taxes. If the Democrats aren't willing to show they will stand up and fight for the people that put them there and are taking it on the chin, why should those people keep fighting to put them in office? It's time for our leaders to stand up, not down.
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Sun Mar 14, 2010 at 02:10:28 PM EDT
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We wrote about the heat the new Burlington County Freeholder administrator Paul Drayton has been taking since his selection by the Republican Freeholder board the other day. Now the board is coming under greater scrutiny because of the choice, a close friend of Party boss Glenn Paulsen. Their unwillingness to be forthcoming and inability to admit they made a mistake has led the Courier to offer this take on what they are doing:The Republican majority on the freeholder board appears to be ignoring what's in the public interest in favor of what's in their partisan interest. The Courier wants the Freeholder board to cut their losses and let Drayton go, but the Republican Freeholders haven't been willing to take that step yet. The editorial called the selection of Drayton a "highly partisan pick, and a bad one given some of what we know." Not only is the selection questionable, but the process by which he came about deserves further scrutiny. The Republican Freeholders have been unwilling to make public the names of the people who interviewed for the position and the finalists only met with the Freeholder Director and Deputy Director. That's far from the transparency they promised the voters.
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Sun Mar 14, 2010 at 12:00:00 PM EDT
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 On the Record has Michael Aron having a conversation with Barbara Keshishian, NJEA President. In the discussion, she responds to Governor Chris Christie's tough rhetoric on teacher pensions/health benefits, budget cuts and possible administration tax.
 Over on Reporter's Roundtable, - they will talk about Governor Chris Christie's upcoming budget message, the Governor announcing he can't break the contract made with the state worker's union, and the Governor creating a commission to look at privatization.
Michael Aron hosted this weeks show with a panel including Nick Acocella of Politifax, Terrance Dopp from Bloomberg News, Matt Friedman with PolitickerNJ.com and now the Star ledger, and Charles Stile for The Record of Bergen County.
You can click on the images to watch the stream of each show.
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Sun Mar 14, 2010 at 09:45:42 AM EDT
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Warmies for the trees
In West Cape May a Mystery Knitter is sneaking up to trees and outfitting their trunks with knitwear. I thought you should know.
Still raining? Take it out on the peeps
There's a contest to Primp your Peeps, which I of course read as Pimp your peeps. Create a diorama, using marshmallow peeps. I would suggest perhaps a diorama of the governor's budget address, or maybe the governor-peep about to eat the rest of a package of peeps. Here's some from Washington Post's contest, totally worth sitting through the brief ad up front. If you do political peeps, we want the pictures.
We get more detail on the "tools" Christie promised for towns to hold down local property taxes
Gov. Chris Christie will propose a constitutional amendment limiting annual property tax increases to 2.5%, but for municipal, school & county property tax levies it would be a "hard" cap, without exceptions for rising health insurance costs or debt payments. Local voter approval would be needed to raise taxes higher than that. Plan is based on Massachusetts Proposition 2.5 (adopted 1980's), which critics say "resulted in cuts to valued services rather than simply calling forth greater efficiency from local governments." Of course, this has to get by the legislature.
Meet the "greedy" "bloodsuckers"
Not too many people say these things to their faces, but NJ pensioners feeling the harsh backlash going on in public forums.
Rutgers is cleaning house of old professors
I don't know any other way to put it.
N.J. tax revenue collections fall short by nearly $500M through last month
The state took in about $41.5 million less than expected for the state budget in February, keeping revenues 2.8% below target for the year.
Sen. Ray Lesniak's bill to replace COAH
Star Ledger calls it "deeply flawed" and urges that tomorrow's scheduled vote on it in Senate committee be postponed.
On time
NJ tax return checks won't be delayed.
The war on marijuana
Tom Moran on the expensive, and pointless drug war on a substance creating less havoc than alcohol does.
Joe Cryan kept out of key talks
The Auditor on an effort to make the Assembly Majority Leader the "black sheep" for his position on the "millionaire's tax," which by the way is the right onw.
A military mom's duty to her son, brain-injured by a roadside bomb in Iraq
Here's the article. And here's where you can donate to the Wounded Warrior Project.
Newark politics and message t-shirts
T-shirt FAIL.
Perth Amboy's non-partisan elections
Moving from May to November.
Harvesting wind
Sen. Steve Sweeney sees the $300 million marine terminal under construction in Paulsboro as a key to regional economic development and a place to manufacture wind turbines, which are big and heavy enough that it's hard to move them by road or rail. If they were made on the waterfront, they could be moved by barge and new jobs opened up for South Jersey workers.
E-mail invite sounded like offer you can't refuse
Charlie Stile on that "Godfather" political planning strategy session.
Open Space
Tough economic times means cutting back on county land preservation programs, to balance budgets and prevent tax hikes.
For Newark schools
A coalition of charter & district school educators, meeting regularly.
To earmark, or not to earmark
"Pork?" Or "member-directed spending"? Which view is better for New Jersey?
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Sat Mar 13, 2010 at 07:28:07 PM EST
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Zack Fink has a story about Lou Manzo, who has announced he will hold a press conference next week to accuse federal prosecutors of misconduct in building a case against him.
Toward the end of Fink's story, which he titled "Jack Shaw's last words," he has this exchange that occured after Manzo and Jersey City Political consultant were waiting in jail: When asked about the nature of the interrogation Manzo says Shaw told him "Guantanamo's got nothin' on these guys." Shaw died a week later,...an apparent drug overdose which Manzo believes was not intentional. According to Fink, Shaw told Manzo he had been interrogated for "several hours" the night before at a hotel room in Secaucus trying to get him to implicate Joe Doria, who still hasn't been charged. Even if you believe what Manzo is saying, I don't know how he will ever prove what he's saying because Shaw isn't around to corroborate the story. And it's not like Manzo will be able to clear his name in the court of public opinion, past a correction on the inside pages of a paper.
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Sat Mar 13, 2010 at 06:43:48 PM EST
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In the leaked DCCC (Chris Van Hollen) memo I posted earlier today there's a mention of Slide #14. Time's Swampland Blog has posted the PowerPoint in question (link to .ppt file), a 14-slide presentation of "Talking Points on Health Reform. Here's Slide #14 on immediate benefits of reform:
I've taken enough shots here at how the new health insurance exchanges don't start until years from now that I felt I should post on these benefits. Frank Pallone gave us a similar list last year. The main points are the temporary high-risk pool until the exchanges go into effect, thereby helping those who can't get insurance now, and a number of insurance reforms that protect people who already have insurance. Also, relief on the "Donut Hole" for seniors in the Medicare drug plans. In summary, there are significant benefits that John Adler should vote for even though major portions of the reform are not implemented immediately.
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Sat Mar 13, 2010 at 01:10:37 PM EST
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Youtube user ctrimarchi has just posted a fragment of John Adler townhall which is labeled as being from March 13 in Toms River. He is facing a crowd that sounds hostile to health care reform.
An audience member asks him about the Senate health care reform bill, correctly pointing out that if the bill is approved by the House it can be signed by the President and become law. There's no need for reconcilation or any other votes. So, he asks, will you vote for the Senate Bill?
Adler's answer sounds like a no and gets cheers, but I actually think it was evasive. (It may be that he said more, but the video "conveniently" cuts off and indeed may be deliberately misleading if he said more.) He says he would not vote for the Senate bill "if that were the final bill." But of course it is not the final bill, the point of having a second bill pushed through reconcilation is that some provisions will be changed. So Adler implicitly left open the chance of voting for the Senate bill, because he knows it will be changed in reconciliation. Needless to say, such positive votes would be welcomed at Blue Jersey and by most of the people who voted for Adler and Obama, and are opposed largely by people who will not vote for Adler anyway. I've expressed my skepticism that Adler will vote the right way but he has not closed the door. In his recent interviews he has insisted on seeing the actual reconcilation bill before deciding on his vote. We expect to see this bill this weekend, or Monday at the latest. The right wing is spreading some absurd propaganda that the bill will be passed without a vote, and I suppose if you think Saddam had nuclear weapons and W. was a good President you might be dumb enough to believe it.
Politico has posted a memo from Chris Van Hollen which went to Adler's district director amongst others laying out the timelime this week and giving some advice.:
I continue to encourage all of you not to get into debates about process and to try and persuade your Member not to get into process arguments either. At this point, we have to just rip the band-aid off and have a vote -- up or down; yes or no? Things like reconciliation and what the rules committee does is INSIDE BASEBALL. People who try and start arguments about process on this are almost always against the actual policy substance too, often times for purely political reasons.
The rest of the memo is below the fold
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Sat Mar 13, 2010 at 12:34:01 PM EST
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Redistricting is increasingly in the news. Next week we should begin receiving the 2010 Census forms that ultimately may lead to New Jersey dropping to only 12 seats in the House of Representatives. 2010 elections of governors and legislatures in many states will decide who controls redistricting, and as Blue Jersey usertabbycat31 just reminded us, "He who controls redistricting can control Congress. Here in New Jersey, current Senate President Sweeney removed Codey's pick to next year's bipartisan redistricting commission. (I understand Codey did not appoint anyone to the 2021 or 2031 commissions.) Last year, the Supreme Court allowed the recently-renewed Voting Rights Act to stand, which in part requires minority-majority districts such as New Jersey's 10th district.
Nowadays with computers it's much easier to compute district boundaries and consider different systems, even gerrymanders. Over at Swing State Project, user possumtracker1991 made his own "theoretical, improbable majority-minority districts, including a gerrymandered New Jersey district that includes Trenton, Camden, Vineland, and Atantic City to be only 39% white. Here's his map:
Obviously this map is for fun -- it's not going to happen -- and there's not enough people south of the district, so the southern district (with me in it!) would have to extend along the Atlantic City beach to get to Ocean County. Such districts actually help Republicans since they pack so many Democrats together.
The point, though, is that he did this using Dave's Redistricting App which you can run as a web app once you install Silverlight 2.0 for Windows or Mac. It's pretty amazing, you can assign each district in the state to 12 or 13 Congressional districts, and it has best estimates of the 2010 population, although it's doesn't seem to have partisan voting info for our state. A more likely New Jersey map was made by Swing State User andgarden.
Now you can redistrict New Jersey yourself.
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