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“A Joyful Pounding” …….Of The Taxpayers

“A joyful pounding” reads the Asbury Park Press print edition headline about the first boardwalk piling being set here in Belmar.

I was out of town yesterday so I was unable to witness Christie and Doherty celebrate the great joy derived from the pounding.  Of the American taxpayer that is.  And the fact that the money is coming mostly from people who aren’t even their own constituents (voters) must have made it a real rush!

Even if I was home I probably wouldn’t have attended, lest my presence be mistaken as a sign of support.  I support building a new boardwalk.  I don’t support the way they’re going about it.

First of all, not that any of these guys give a flying hoot about the Constitution but using federal money to rebuild storm damage is unconstitutional (except on federal property, of course.)  The framers put nothing in the Constitution authorizing it.  And some of you may not know this, but they did have storms and hurricanes back then even before capitalism created all this “climate change”.  But the founders left this sort of thing up to the states and, of course, the people themselves through self-reliance and private charity.

Secondly, the Sandy Relief bill that Democrats Christie and Doherty so enthusiastically support is loaded up with pork.  Lots of it.  What does Alaskan fisheries or remodeling the Smithsonian Institution have to do with the hurricane?  Am I the only one unhappy about this?

Thirdly, in case you haven’t heard this, the federal government is broke.

And fourthly, it’s immoral.  Call me old-fashioned, but taking other people’s money because you think you need it more than them is wrong.  It’s wrong whether you brandish the gun yourself or vote in a politician to do it for you.  And just because we in New Jersey have been the victims of politicians from other states taking our money to lavish on their constituents, doing it back to them is still nothing to be proud of.  Of course Christie and Doherty are proud.  Damn proud.  But me, I feel a little ashamed, even though I opposed all of this.

Obviously I’m not opposed to building a new boardwalk.  I’m not even opposed to state aid as a last resort.  But we never even considered any alternatives to using tax money.

Now I have suggested at borough council meetings allowing private companies to develop and operate the beachfront, or at least selling naming rights to offset the cost.  I wrote about it here.  But getting the boardwalk built any other way but their way violates the first lesson of politics 101.  Make sure that people think that all good things come from you, and that without you these good things wouldn’t happen.  This is why Matt ignored the state’s strong recommendation not to get involved in distributing charitable donations like the gift cards and instead insisted on doing it himself.  You see he’s even better than Saint Vincent de Paul.  He’s Saint Matthew de Belmar!

2 Comments

  1. Ted Ehmann wrote:

    Thank You Dave:
    The Barclay contribution- is but another
    nail in the Administrations coffin.

    Pork- I’ll show you pork. Just go onto Belmar’s website for bills paid Decmber 12
    and 31. The borough bought over 1/4 of a million in new vehicles charge to Sandy.

    The borough spent 1 million 286 thousand to 5 different debris removers and haulers. Maggie Moran’s client got 100,000. Ferreira who gave 2,500 to the mayors election got 630,521.58 but it was an emergency

    Then there is my favorite: hotel bill for residents of 405 14th Ave., Belmar to stay at the luxurios Halari Hotel- Neptune on our dime. Hope they enjoyed the hot tub.

    Regarding the Entire Belmar Rehabilitation- I was wrong about Eminent domain. I was right to question. Even the NJ State Comptroller in 2010 said that an abundance of tax abatements short or long term- are unfair since the towns expenses and school taxes remain the same but folks like us in Western Belmar with no abatements will have to pay the difference in increases.

    Sunday, January 20, 2013 at 8:13 pm | Permalink
  2. admin wrote:

    Thanks, Ted. I guess this really was the “perfect storm”.

    I should mention that while I have no reason to doubt the accuracy of Mr. Ehmann’s information, I have not personally verified it and recommend the readers check for themselves.

    On the tax abatements, what you’re saying would be true if the government worked the way it’s supposed to. They should have some specific tasks to do, figure out how much it would cost to do that, and then try to work out some fair tax plan that will raise that amount. But these days, what they do is try to raise as much money as possible and then spend 10 to 40 percent more than that. The less money they can get their hands on the better.

    Monday, January 21, 2013 at 4:02 am | Permalink

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