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It would be nice but he will be butting heads with Supreme Court rulings on this Abbott fiasco. Link provided doesn't go into enough detail but you can get the jist:
A humorous quote from this article has to be posted: "The union's president, Barbara Keshishian, said in a statement that Christie was rewarding the wealthy with tax breaks while slashing spending for public education."
To what tax breaks are this woman talking about exactly? There are no tax breaks, whatsoever. Christie's budget merely seeks to prevent additional income tax increases on the despised 'wealthy' that the Democratic legislature already counter-proposed.
Last I checked teachers,doctors,lawyers and pharmacist are not in the same tax bracket. Try spending 1 day in a classroom before you judge what is challenging it or not. Just a little side note I was a pharmacist tech in college and lets not act as if pharmacist are geniuses. I filled all of the rx and the pharmacist just checked them. Hardly genius work if you ask me. How much do they start at? 124k? Wow, Nice.
I guess the only difference is that my tax dollars don't pay for the pharmacist. My overpriced perscriptions and health plan do, but that's another debate.
I am firmly on the side of Christie when it comes to what he is proposing and IMO it is about damn time. It's nice to see a Republican act like a Republican for a change.
I think the thing that most people need to realize is that he isn't attacking the teachers. He's cutting funding. The people who decide to fire the teachers and stop buying textbooks are the administrators and superintendents that are the ones who have been suckling at the teet of tax payers in this state for a long time. I personally don't want to see a single good teacher get fired, but that isn't up to me, or the Governor. It's up to the local school districts and the superintendents.
There is a lot of bloat in our public school systems that can be cut, but those cuts don't have to start with teachers and services for the kids. I doubt we are going to see a single curriculum administrator get fired, but we will see 3-4 teachers on the chopping block that would equal that one persons salary. This is a battle that needs to be fought locally. The governor is doing what he HAS to do for the state. It's up to each of us to make sure that our local government does what they have to do as well.
With all of that said, I think the teachers (and all NJEA members) can endure a little pain along with the rest of us. I personally see no problem in making them chip in for their health care or have to fund a 401(k) in lieu of a government pension, just like the rest of us.
The union has the teachers in a tizzy, but they are attacking the wrong people. They won't fight the local school boards as it is far easier to throw your anger at the governor, who really has nothing to do with what gets cut. They need to wake up and realize that the money isn't there. If they want to find where it went, all they have to do is drive to the local school board office.
The letters have already started coming home from school asking parents to oppose the governors plans. If we don't the NJEA informs us that we will lose teachers, so class sizes will increase. We'll also be losing gym, art, music and after school activities. What none of them say is we are going to have to get rid of the superintendent, the assistant superintender, either of their secretaries, the cuuriculum director or his assitant, any one of the 6 principals or 3 vice principals nor do they mention anything about the 2 dozen department heads. Want to cut? Start at the top and leave my kids teacher alone, because she is just about the only one who earns her paycheck IMO.
As far as the millionaire tax, good job too by the new governor ,the more you keep taxing the wealthy the more we will leave. My Dad is already making plans to get out of this state. We need to get the wealthy to spend. Buy goods, cars, stay in business. If they keep getting taxed and leave which is easy to do,who is gonna buy, who is gonna start a business much less stay and pay for it??? And they are leaving!!!! We need to keep the wealthy spending and creating and starting business!!!!! This will help everyone and every class.
As far as the millionaire tax, good job too by the new governor ,the more you keep taxing the wealthy the more we will leave. My Dad is already making plans to get out of this state. We need to get the wealthy to spend. Buy goods, cars, stay in business. If they keep getting taxed and leave which is easy to do,who is gonna buy, who is gonna start a business much less stay and pay for it??? And they are leaving!!!! We need to keep the wealthy spending and creating and starting business!!!!! This will help everyone and every class.
I was about to leave but hell I figured if the big man is going to cut everyone but me why not stay.
As far as the millionaire tax, good job too by the new governor ,the more you keep taxing the wealthy the more we will leave. My Dad is already making plans to get out of this state. We need to get the wealthy to spend. Buy goods, cars, stay in business. If they keep getting taxed and leave which is easy to do,who is gonna buy, who is gonna start a business much less stay and pay for it??? And they are leaving!!!! We need to keep the wealthy spending and creating and starting business!!!!! This will help everyone and every class.
I agree!! I am by no means wealthy but of the attitude why should the wealthy be hit with a special tax just because they succeeded big time or inherited ( and taxed up the wazoo) and can mange their finances
Do you see all the resistance to this budget!! Its amazing that people know the State is sinking and the truth but are fighting it tooth and nail. Why is this??? Whats wrong with giving up pay raises or getting only 2.5 percent instead of getting laid off?? Why all the resistance knowing things may one day totally collapse and get nothing. Help me out??????
Less state aid for any school district= higher property taxes from town= Towns have to keep RE tax low=cuts in school budgets= less of everything for schools...its a domino effect!
Only way around this..towns increase RE taxes to pay for higher school budgets..which are already hitting 65% of total RE tax in all towns ( even those with less students).
83% of my town is senior citizens..RE taxes is 100% collected..65% of the RE tax is school tax..now we might have to pay even more...is this fair?
Last edited by carlo2009; 03-16-2010 at 12:57 PM..
Less state aid for any school district= higher property taxes from town= Towns have to keep RE tax low=cuts in school budgets= less of everything for schools...its a domino effect!
Only way around this..towns increase RE taxes to pay for higher school budgets..which are already hitting 65% of total RE tax in all towns ( even those with less students).
You're absolutely right that it's a domino effect. However, you are wrong that it needs to mean less of everything for schools. There is plenty of fat that can be trimmed. The Governor is sending the message that cuts need to happen. He knows the money is there. We all know the money is there and there are many cuts that could be made that would have little to no impact on the kids.
Did you know that there isn't a single superintendent in the state that makes less than the Governor? One person runs the entire state, one runs their own personal little kingdom, who should get a higher salary?
Everyone needs to wake up and realize that we need to hold the towns and school boards responsible for making the necessary cuts. The Governor is doing all he can to try and force a change. We need to follow through on the opportunity he is giving us and force our local governments to make the cuts that need to be made, while preserving what is actually needed to run our towns and educate our kids.
I think the next thing you are going to see in most towns is legislation to increase property taxes (the Governor is capping them to only 2.5% a year and I am sure they will raise it as much as they can). After that, the next thing down the pike will be issueing municipal bonds to cover budget deficits and keep the cash spigots on. If you let that happen in your town, the powers that be get to keep milking us dry and they'll just pass on the problem to the next generation and the next until we can't finance our way out of it anymore and then be faced with the dilemna of needing drastic action to save our towns, just as we need drastic action to save our states.
Take the fight to your mayor and your school board, they are the ones who need to stop the bleeding, all the Governor is doing is taking away the states yearly transfusion to keep them going.
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