August 6, 2008 - 9:46am
Opinion

Jon's plan to save the Star-Ledger

Rob Tornoe can be reached via email at rob.tornoe@politicker.com.

Related topics: Star-Ledger, JON CORZINE

Comments

Classic


So simple but so true - this is a great one, Corzine will forever be known as the guy who can fix anything by raising tolls.

08/06/08 10:07 am

Its actually off the mark


The assest monitization plan was far more complex (and if the GOP had any other issue to lach onto in 07 would have worked). The point is this Corzine offered budgets cuts, both parties in the State Leg wouldnt take them. Corzine has repeatidly defined the state and its problems accuratly and has offered aggressive measures to solve them. If the state leg wont allow for deep drastic cuts (like agriculture, commerce, and personell) Corzine still has to balance the budget. How else can he do that without increasing revenue? Assest monitization? taxes? tolls. The money has to come from somewhere. Furthermore, Corzine was one of the most celebrated and popular men in NJ when he was a Senator. The GOP was content to let him be there without a formal challenge, but they attempt to win the Gov races and they have done a remarkable job at cutting him down. Corzine is a terrible politician in the back slapping is an art form definition. But as a policy guy he is solid and has been NJ's most active and bold governor in decades. Corzine didnt politic Codey enough, and he embarresed the State Leg by shutting down the government (a move that declared that illustrated he was not playing the usual Trenton parlor games). Ever since, Codey and the rest of the corrupt bunch of vanity-driven media sellouts in Trenton have done their best to halt Corzine's adgenda. Corzine will hopefully run and get re-elected. I cant imagine what will happen if Sweeny, Andrews, or Codey gets in. Just wait and see how many more people get added to the state payroll. Corzine has been a good governor, and a terrible politician. I will however concede that he has made some absolutley terrible personell choices. I would say that a good 40% of his staff is just terrible.

08/06/08 10:21 am

Tough Stands


The true tough stand would have been made in taking on the Unions - I pay $30 copay for a Docter and have a $2000 deductable and pay for a portion of the cost - last time i checked the teachers and state workers were still paying $1 or $5 copay and not contributing anything to their healthcare costs - when we start allowing tiered contracts we may make some headway - we force a low wage employee to take healthcare at 11 or 12k which he may not need to satisfy the retired employee who costs us millions in healthcare.

08/06/08 11:29 am

Increasing revenue has never solved one issue in Trenton


SJ Blue falls into the typical Democratic Party mindset.
What Corzine needed to do was line-item veto and cut the budget, not come up with new ways to raise revenue. Corzine has taken several good steps such as paying a small share of the State obligation to PERS.
He should match the 5.5% that the employees have taken out of their pay for the pension system.
But he is a failure as a Leader for good government when he promotes increasing bond debt without voter approval.
Although, I was never a believer in dedicated funding, Corzine could gain voters support by dedicating all motor vehicle fees to the Transportation Trust Fund and costs of running MVC and for the cost of State Police.
This would cause a hole in the general fund, but voters want to know exactly what their money is paying for and co-mingling user fees into a general fund leads the public to be dissatified and suspicious that their monies are not going where they want them to be spent.

The same goes for the lottery. The public never wanted monies from the lottery to go to pay for criminal in state prisons. They wanted the lobbery and casino monies to go to education and senior citizens.

08/06/08 11:40 am

VinCognito - that's silly


I guess if all you do is absorb Republican talking points, that could be true.

But Corzine has proposed and sometimes implemented closing public parks, buyouts and early retirement packages, shuttering state departments, reducing the state auto fleet, massively cutting electric use in state buildings, making towns pay for using state police for their local police force, making it easier for municipalities to merge and share services, putting a half-cent saleand many other solutions to problems in the state.

He is also the first governor in a long line to reduce the state budget and to balance it without raising taxes.

But, of course, the only thing he wants to do is raise tolls. Becaue that's easier to bumpersticker.

And the copay for state workers is $15 or more.  But, again, why let facts get in the way.

This is not to say that Corzine is a great or even good Governor.  It is to say that you don't know what you are talking about.

08/06/08 11:44 am

VinCognito Misinformed


VinCognito Misinformed statements are not accurate.

State Employees pay 1.5 percent of their gross salaries to Health Benefits and $15-$25 co-pay depending on health plan. Employee also pays all amounts over the "normal and approved fees as set up by the insurance plan deductable.

08/06/08 11:46 am

VinCognito Misinformed


VinCognito Misinformed statements are not accurate.

State Employees pay 1.5 percent of their gross salaries to Health Benefits and $15-$25 co-pay depending on health plan. Employee also pays all amounts over the "normal and approved fees as set up by the insurance plan deductable.

08/06/08 11:47 am

VinCognito Misinformed


VinCognito Misinformed statements are not accurate. State Employees pay 1.5 percent of their gross salaries to Health Benefits and $15-$25 co-pay depending on health plan. Employee also pays all amounts over the "normal and approved fees as set up by the insurance plan deductable.

08/06/08 11:47 am

Line of the year!


"He is also the first governor in a long line to reduce the state budget and to balance it without raising taxes." I cannot stop laughing.

08/06/08 11:59 am

If you read what I said


I did not advocate fixing problems with increased revenue. I stated the fact that as governor he has a constitutional responsibility to sign a balanced budget. If the State Leg wont send a budget with cuts than he has to increase revenue or he is in violation of the state constitution. Yes VinCon is a bit misinformed, but he does make a good point. Corzine could go after the unions as sternly as he has the state leg. However, we should be looking for ways to increase pension and medical benifts to all workers in all sectors. Police, Teachers, and Fireman should be afforded good benefits and pensions they perform a vital service and their work and professionalism should be rewarded. State workers (the majority that are essential) should also get solid retirement and medical coverage. Corzine has quitely taken on state workers without going through the union. A dark secret of the asset monitization plan was that if you leased the highways you could eliminate the SJ and NJ Transportation Authorities. These quasi-state agencies have been the dumping ground for political cronies for ages. Yet another reason the plan should have been endorsed

08/06/08 1:26 pm

SJBlue....What Jon Corzine Should Have Done


......is go over the effing heads of all the entrenched interests and appeal DIRECTLY to the people!!!

That's called leadership.  That's called leading a revolution.  That's what he had the power to do....and he didn't.   Instead he let these bastards push him around.

Corzine has all the money he could ever need.   He had nothing to loose and nothing to fear from the corrupt establishments.

We routinely send the flower of our youth to suffer, be maimed and DIE in the hell hole of Iraq in "service" to the profits of big oil.   The effing least we can expect is a governor who deos the right thing without fear or favor.

If Corzine really wanted to forcefully push a progressive agenda down the throats of the legislature he could have done that by recruiting THOUSANDS of reform minded New Jerseyans to take over both parties from the bottom up.   He had the bully pulpit and the cash to make such a dream real.

Sure the banks, insurance companies, real estate interests, petrochemical interests, big pharma etc etc etc would have fought it tooth and nail and would have spent a billion bucks trying to destroy him.....but he was already the GOVERNOR and he has a few hundred mil to fight back with!!!

Sorry, SJBlue, Jon Corzine is a major disappointment.  I'll still vote for him in a general as he would likely still be the lessor of the two evils; but I'll be holding my nose.

What's needed is a serious primary challenge from a real progressive with the chops to run and govern and the guts to take the shot.

My sense is that many people in NJ are afraid to stand up to the corruption.   They're afraid on many different levels and in many different ways, and that's a shame.

Again, think about who we send to Iraq and what they're fighting and dying for.   Why, in the name of God, would anyone here in NJ hesitate to take whatever risks are required and to pay whatever it costs to clean up our own state?   WTF are we afraid of?

And don't feed me the line that says "no one cares"; I don't buy it.   Behind the apparent apathy, there's fear and loathing.   It doesn't have to be this way folks.

From Frederick Douglass

If there is no struggle there is no progress......Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will.

08/08/08 12:34 pm

Nick's got it Right


I could not have said it better. It wasn't the asset monetization, taxes or tolls in and of themselves. It is, THAT IS WHERE HE STARTED!

If Mr. Corzine is so fond of tolls how about some tolls on the miles and miles of brand spanking new roads in and around Trenton. Just a thought.

08/11/08 12:11 am