In no particular order:
Why, simply because I live here, does the state force me to be an investor in Atlantic City, horse racing tracks, the Xanadu development in the Meadowlands, and various other expensive boondoggles? I don’t even like casinos. I’ve been to Atlantic City twice in my life. I only gambled there once. But Governor Christie is forcing me to have an interest in the success of the casinos there. Ditto horse racing and whatever is supposed to be going on at Xanadu.
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I would also prefer not to be an investor in the Belmar marina. The town has borrowed several million dollars over the years and spent it over there. Marina projects are responsible for most of Belmar’s debt. (That may not be the case for long as we borrow more and more for other projects.) Does anyone in Belmar know what our return is on all this investment? I asked the mayor about that last year and was told the profit is around $200,000/year. Even if that’s accurate it seems like a paltry reward for so much investment. It’s enough to make you seasick.
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Speaking of Belmar, the town has hired an assistant to help our boro administrator spend money. It is a no-bid six month contract for $30,000. We are told that coordinating all these new projects is too much work for our new full-time administrator. I opposed probably about $1.5 million of our recent spending and without it we could have saved that thirty grand too.
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Small government conservative Chris Christie has strongly endorsed turning the red light cameras back on. This is despite the fact that about 80% of the population opposes them. Too bad we don’t have an Initiative & Referendum law in NJ. At least I don’t think we do.
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Christie did veto the proposed law to allow the state the state to buy up foreclosed houses in our neighborhoods and use them to house ex-cons, drug addicts, sex offenders and other miscreants. When I called the governor’s office they told me that they had taken thousands of calls urging the veto. I guess many people were worried that small government conservative Chris Christie might actually sign the bill.
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It is reported by the Star Ledger that disgraced state trooper Nadir Nassry, who escorted the sports car “death race” down the Parkway last March pleaded to keep his pension yesterday:
In submitting his request to retire, Nassry said he intended to seek his pension.
“As my career has otherwise been described as exemplary, I don’t believe this one time lapse should preclude me from being granted a long earned benefit,” he wrote.
Sciarra said that although he had not been told Nassry would lose his pension, he expected to “have this fight.” Pension decisions are made by the State Police Retirement Board, which is overseen by the state Treasury’s Division of Pensions and Benefits
As a member of the real world, toiling away in the private sector, I have only one thing to ask: What’s a pension?
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