Chris Christie, new Governor of NJ (Hoboken: apartments, high school, salaries)

[Trucker7]

Originally Posted by mike0421

If it's any consolation, New Jersey is not alone in this regard. Illinois is 13 billion in the hole, New York is 21 billion in the crapper. California is 46 billion in the red. There is a commonality within all these budgets: State worker pensions and medical benefits. That, in tandem with state medicaid allocations. They average about 20% of state's budgets. (so in effect, welfare, and 'white collar' welfare)

Add to that list that they are all tax & spend liberal states.

Originally Posted by oneone10

I understand the call for responsible spending but then I question how many people know what responsible spending is and how spending is beneficial for growth.

If you look at the census internal migration data, you'll see that people are leaving tax & spend states in droves. Mainly from Democrat controlled tax & spend states to Southern Republican controlled low tax states. Businesses and jobs are following suit.

[Obrero]

This election was more a referendum on the job Corzine was doing as governor than how great Christie is. We will see how Christie will fare. But for now I am proud of the people of NJ that they said enough is enough and voted Corzine out, even if it meant turning to the Republican candidate to do it.

[NatasNJ]

Originally Posted by Obrero

This election was more a referendum on the job Corzine was doing as governor than how great Christie is. We will see how Christie will fare. But for now I am proud of the people of NJ that they said enough is enough and voted Corzine out, even if it meant turning to the Republican candidate to do it.

Agreed. Just got to hope it isn't just more years of the same thing we just had. Hopefully he can do something to move us in the right direction.

[solibs]

Originally Posted by VeradoDan

You can, as long as you're distributing state funding equally. Right now only the urban machine-controlled areas get state funds, meaning local property taxes must totally fund municipal school districts. Distribute state funding like income and sales taxes equally and you will lower the property taxes.

It works in all of the other states.

Urban machines? I'm from Monmouth Co. and I would never think of Neptune or Keansburg as urban or machine dominated. Nor would I apply that to most of the Abbott Districts - Pleasantville? Pemberton Township? (as I assume that's what you mean about distributing funding equally.)

So let's just say that you apportioned all of the Abbott money equally - you'd come up with about $2 million per school. That would be about 25% of the total school budget for the town I grew up in. That would translate to a savings of 12% or about $840/year. $70/month off of your mortgage bill is nice but it doesn't solve any problems.

You're not paying fewer taxes - you're just paying them at different times of the month.

It also won't improve anything - what you'll have is more and more education decisions being made in Trenton and a level playing field in terms of school spending - and seeing how many people come on CD looking for the "best school districts" that says to me that the towns with the money will be raising taxes to pay for new facilities and better teachers.

[solibs]

Originally Posted by Trucker7

If you look at the census internal migration data, you'll see that people are leaving tax & spend states in droves. Mainly from Democrat controlled tax & spend states to Southern Republican controlled low tax states. Businesses and jobs are following suit.

You might want to look at the census data yourself . . .

New Jersey population:
1990 - 7,730,188
2000 - 8,414,350
2008 - 8,682,661

New York population:
1990 - 17,990,778
2000 - 18,976,457
2008 - 19,490,297

Massachusetts population
1990 - 6,016,425
2000 - 6,349,113
2008 - 6,497,967

Your southern "republican controlled" states keep taxes low for their own people and then rely on federal taxes collected in those wealthy "tax and spend states" to balance their budgets.

[blackandproud]

Originally Posted by Obrero

This election was more a referendum on the job Corzine was doing as governor than how great Christie is. We will see how Christie will fare. But for now I am proud of the people of NJ that they said enough is enough and voted Corzine out, even if it meant turning to the Republican candidate to do it.

This is not the first time or the last time that NJ will Fire incompotence. Florio's loss to Whitman was another case of Dems & Republicans stepping up to give walking papers.

[Farmerkd1]

You might want to look at the census data yourself . . .

New Jersey population:
1990 - 7,730,188
2000 - 8,414,350
2008 - 8,682,661

You're right! Went directly to your source and our population indeed went UP 8.1%, so nobody is leaving in droves!

BTW, these figures are also there at your source;
Demographic makeup change 1990-2000:

High School Graduates -22.6%
College Graduates -22.2%
No Diploma +2.3%
Native Born Residents -5.0%

Yep, nobody leaving. Everything's just peachy.

[BobKovacs]

Originally Posted by Farmerkd1

You're right! Went directly to your source and our population indeed went UP 8.1%, so nobody is leaving in droves!

BTW, these figures are also there at your source;
Demographic makeup change 1990-2000:

High School Graduates -22.6%
College Graduates -22.2%
No Diploma +2.3%
Native Born Residents -5.0%

Yep, nobody leaving. Everything's just peachy.

Precisely. The overall population of the state is increasing, but its mostly immigrants and lower-income folks, as the middle class walks out the door. The report that Rutgers did a few years back spells it out pretty clearly- population is increasing, but total income is decreasing, which decreases the state tax revenues by billions of dollars. But no one wants to accept the facts in the report- they think everything is wonderful.

[shorebaby]

Originally Posted by BobKovacs

Precisely. The overall population of the state is increasing, but its mostly immigrants and lower-income folks, as the middle class walks out the door. The report that Rutgers did a few years back spells it out pretty clearly- population is increasing, but total income is decreasing, which decreases the state tax revenues by billions of dollars. But no one wants to accept the facts in the report- they think everything is wonderful.

Yup the wealthy are moving out, at this point NYC is heading the way of Detroit.

Tax refugees staging escape from New York

[Delray Patty]

Well all I can say is give the guy (Christie) a chance, and if he doesn't deliver vote him out...He's got
a lot to contend with and the disciples of Obama in Washington are willing to give him a chance, so why
not the Governor of N.J.? N.J's been corrupt a long time and it's not going to change overnight if ever.
The Unions seem to have an awful lot to say...too much as far as I'm concerned...