A radical idea

For awhile, I have been trying to think of ways that all levels of government in New Jersey could reduce the cost of government.  It has not been easy, but I do believe I have a solution that should greatly reduce costs.  The idea is what I call, “The Duplicity in Government Act”.  The idea is really simple, if a department, division, service or group is duplicated at any level of government, the ones that provide the least coverage are eliminated.  I will be posting some of the different groups that I fell should go over the next few weeks, so here is the first one I think we should deal with.

I live in Bergen County, New Jersey.  Bergen County, along with Union County are the only two counties with there own police departments.  Now, don’t get this confused with Sheriff’s departments, which each county has and are responsible for the county courts and jails.  No, these police departments are in addition to the Sheriff’s department.  I now I do know a fair amount about the Bergen County Police department, so I will give you some facts about them.  I am sure that the Union County department is organized along the same lines.

The Bergen County Police Department Headquarters is located in Hackensack.  It’s defined everyday responsibilities are patrolling Rts. 4 and 17.  They will on occasion set up truck checkpoints and might assist when a utility truck is working in the street, but what I have described is about all they do on a daily basis.  Now to be fair, they do have a K-9 unit and SWAT unit, but that is about it folks.

The reason I started here is because every thing they do is duplicated by another police department.  Let’s take the everyday items, patrolling the two major highways in Bergen County, truck checkpoints and utility truck protection (I will have more on this subject at a later date).  Every town that both Route 4 and Route 17 goes through has a police department.  Each town patrols them and responds to any emergencycalls.  Therefore, they are able to react quicker and with more knowledge due to their proximity to the area.  The Bergen County Police Department might react to an emergency call, but will almost always be the last one at the scene.  As far as truck checkpoints, the New Jersey State Police have mobile units, along with the Department of Motor Vehicle to carry out on the spot checkpoints.  Again, not a real reason to have the county police.  Finally, I really call into question this whole idea of having a police car and officer standing around while a utility crew is working on a pole or digging a hole.  All of these crews have cones, barriers and trucks with emergency lights, why do they also need a $100,000+ county police officer standing around?  I should have also warned you, yes, this police officers average more than $100,000 per year, along with all of the benefits like full medical, retirement after 20 years, etc.

One last thing to consider about the Bergen County Police Department, they have convinced the freeholders that they need a new headquarters.  This headquarters has been budgeted at about $60,000,000  and will located on River Road about a block away from the courthouse. 

So what am I trying to prove here?  Well, all of the “responsibilities” that the Bergen County Police Department say they have, are duplicated at other levels.  Street or highway patrol is also done, more effectively by the local town police.  Truck inspection is done by the State Police, why should Bergen County also do it?  SWAT team?  The State Police has multiple SWAT teams around the state that can respond very quickly.  K-9 police?  I don’t know about you, but to save a couple of million dollars, Fido can go.

A True Judas, Mike Halfacre

Mayor Mike Halfacre of Fair Haven, NJ, a small piss ant community in Monmouth County, today came out and endorsed Chris “Cupcake” Christie for the Republican nominationfor governor.  This in spite of his claim to be a Steve Lonegan supporter.  His excuse is that Steve is not “electable”.  Most likely this change of position has more to do with his rumored run for the US House of Representatives in 2010, than any true belief that the Cupcake is deserving of the nomination.  The following is my response to Halfacre’s endorsement statement:

 

Mike Halfacre, paraphrasing a line made famous by Lloyd Bentsen, “I knew Ronald Reagan, and sir, Chris Christie is no Ronald Reagan”.  Ronald Reagan was a man of principle, which you have proven, in this statement to be devoid of.  Conservatives might disagree on execution, but never do they compromise on principle.

 

Let’s set a few facts straight, the Republican Party in New Jerseyis infested with RINOs.  One only has to look at the past three republican governors of this state to see what the leadership of the party considers “worthy” candidates.  But, when the first time in forty (40) year the party could have tried to elect a true conservative, we saw exactly how the leadership of the party responded in 2001.  Rather than closing around and devoting all possible resources to insuring the election of Bret D. Schundler, the leadership chooses to take their ball and go home.  What an outstanding example of “rallying the party”.

 

Chris Christie’s positions in 1994 very much have to be considered in determining if he is worthy of being the candidate for governor, of the Republican Party.  What should we judge his character on sir?  His history of be a candidate in this state is in the time period of 1994 in which case his party affiliation was one of convenience not principle. Judging him based on his past history, instead of trying to compare him to Ronald Reagan, a comparison to New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg would be more appropriate.

 

A fair amount of your endorsement statement covers the “positions” that Chris Christie has taken on the issues.  The common word on all of the issues is promise.  Sir, my I ask a question, where is the word accomplished? Except for his accomplishments in the area of corruption, he does not have any accomplishments in the areas you mention.

 

In the one area that he has accomplishments, corruption, he is a very qualified prosecutor, but sir, how does this qualify him for governor?  Unless he plans to directly control the Office of the Attorney General of the state, it does not really matter. As far as crime fighting, since he was a federal prosecutor, we have to evaluate his enforcement of the laws at a federal level.  Let’s start with illegal immigration.  Christie had one of the poorest records on prosecution of illegal immigrants; between 2002 and 2007, Mr. Christie’s office caught and deported all of 13 illegal immigrants.  This record can only be called abysmal.  In a state where it has been conservatively estimated that 500,000 illegal immigrants reside (6% of the current population of the state), he could only find 13?   In a state were we have cities declaring that they are “sanctuary” cities.     

 

How about his record on the civil rights?  How about his record on the first amendment?  How about defending citizens who are peacefully protesting their governments’ proposals as the constitution of this great country guarantees?  I think you know where I am heading with this, so I will go no further except to say Christie’s silence spoke volumes on the subject.

 

One thing that a person can never have enough of sir is principles.  Once one starts to compromise on them, one will always find it very easy to just say; “Just this one time”.  Soon this attitude becomes, “we had to do it this way”.  Finally we wind up with the classic, “it was all we could do”.  No, this is why one can never steer from the true path of ones convictions.  The argument that “it is the reality of winning elections” is not just lame, but shows how the Republican Party is not raising to the challenge of this election in the belief it can offer the citizens a better government, but lowering itself to the level of the opposition in the hopes it can at least meet the mediocrity of the Democratic Party.  What a sorry excuse for favoring one candidate over another.

 

Steve Lonegan has been the only voice in the New Jersey Republican Party that has over the last eight years maintained the high principles of conservative reason that Ronald Reagan and Barry Goldwater held so dear.  He never compromised on those principles in his many confrontations with those politicians who wished to impose their “ideals” on the citizens of this state.  It was also very convenient for most of the elected leadership of the Republican Party in the state to coattail themselves to his leadership.  His victories against the current governor of this state reflect the fact that people will back him.  This is obviously a fact that both you and leadership of the party have either overlooked or are afraid of.  The old, “damn he was right, and we were wrong”!

 

In conclusion, winning with Chris Christie will not be winning; it will be nothing more than another compromise.  As far as you being a “Lonegan Shill”, don’t worry about it, we won’t pin that label on you anymore, promise.  Of course, in reflection, the name Judas does have a nice ring.

Should Muslims Be Allowed To Pray In Public Schools?

Three Top Spots for New Jersey

I have been meaning to get this up on the site for a few days.  In the March 2nd. issue of Forbes Magazine, I found out that New Jersey is now number one in a very interesting category, Property Taxes!  Yes guys, three New Jersey counties lead the list of counties in the United States with the highest property taxes.  The winners are as a percentage of homeowner income:

Passaic County:  8.5%

Union County:    8.1%

Essex County:    8.1%

Just so you also know who rounds out the top five, the fourth and fifth place go to:

Nassau County, NY:  8.0%

Westchester County, NY: 7.8%

So once again, when it comes to taxes, New Jersey is NUMBER 1!

To all of the idiots in Trenton, the citizens in New Jersey like to be number one, but not in this category.  We will be number come November though, when we become the number one state for throwing bums out of office.  Until then, just remember, “IT’S TAXES, STUPID!”

New Jersey number one again!

An article in the Wall Street on Monday discussed property tax rates.  In the article, was a small chart that listed the states with the highest property taxes as a share of income.  Guess which state was number one?  Give up?  Well, once again the State of New Jersey leads the nation!  With a median property tax of $6,082.00, taxes as a percentage of income are 7.1%!  Now get this, the next state on the list is New Hampshire at 6.0% ($4,390.00 median property tax).  Well, the good people of New Hampshire are almost in revolution state over this, even though they do not have any income tax, sales tax, and their total tax burden on a state level rates them as the fifth lowest in the country.  Heck, if they are mad in New Hampshire over their property taxes, the citizens of New Jersey should be ballistic at their property tax load!  It’s about time that the citizens of New Jersey start to get out the torches, get the tar nice and hot, load up on plenty of feathers and show these tax and spend idiots that we will not take it any more!

For all the idiots at every level of government in New Jersey, “IT’S TAXES, STUPID!”

What a deal!

Recently, the Star Ledger published a review of the overtime records of the Port Authority Police Department.  It seems that in 2007 the overtime pay was $48.9 million, or an increase of 12 percent.  This in spite of the fact that the agency paid KPMG $435,000 to study the problem of overtime and get it under control.  If you would like to read the full article, follow this link: http://www.nj.com/news/ledger/topstories/index.ssf/2008/04/port_authority_officials_fail.html

One officer, Morris Cofield, with 14 years on the force was paid $263,468 for averaging 80.75 hours per week.  Now consider the fact that there are 168 hours per week, he was spending almost half his time on the job!  What kind of efficiency can we expect from this man?   How much illegal activity (he is assigned to JFK airport) was not detected by him because of exhaustion?  Besides padding his weekly take home pay, the total of his earnings will be used for his retirement benefits, another insult to anyone who works in the private sector and knows that this practice never accords there.

Only a few months ago, all of the tolls and fares on PA bridges, tunnels and trains were raised by 50%.  The reasoning was that the money was needed to pay for improvements.  I suggest the money was reallly needed to provide officer Cofield and his fellow officers a nicer place to sleep while on duty.

When is Governor Stupidhead Corzine going to put a stop to this abuse of our money?  When is he going to deliver on his promise to clean up the waste of our money?

To the idiots in Trenton, and at the Port of Authority, IT’S TAXES (and TOLLS) STUPID!”