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Posts Tagged ‘New Jersey’
April 22nd, 2010 at 4:46 pm
Could Private-Sector and Public-Sector Unions Begin Squaring Off Soon?
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Republican New Jersey Governor Chris Christie has earned high praise from conservatives by making good so far on his promise to clean up the state’s fiscal debacle using established conservative principles.  Christie inherited a $2.2 billion deficit this year and a projected $10.7 billion deficit for next year (over 1/3 of the total budget size), but has managed to cut $13 billion in spending in just eight weeks.  In so doing, he has naturally enraged the usual leftist entitlement class and unionized public employees.

Notably, however, Governor Christie has attracted some support from state Senate President Stephen Sweeney, who is a Democrat and leader of a local private-sector union.  The reason?  Perhaps Mr. Sweeney has recognized that the same public-sector unions whose exorbitant wages and benefits busted New Jersey’s budget also eat into the wages and livelihoods of private-sector union members who pay taxes to subsidize those public sector employees.

Now that the number of public-sector union members exceeds the number of private -sector union members, could we be witnessing the first signs of an intra-labor deathmatch?  This could be interesting…

March 31st, 2010 at 1:21 pm
Governor Chris Christie Nudging New Jersey in the Right Direction

In their widely read book Nudge, authors Cass Sunstein and Richard Thaler discuss the benefits of setting up policies in order to prod people towards making a certain decision.  For example, instead of installing an employee retirement program that requires workers to opt-in for contributions, make it so that they must opt-out.  Most people won’t know the difference until they get ready to retire and see each paycheck’s contribution matured into a nice nest egg thanks to the rule of 72.

Perhaps the lesson is emanating from New Jersey Governor Chris Christie’s new budget proposal.  The Manhattan Institute’s Josh Barro describes one of its pillars as capping local property taxes, but allowing local citizens to override the cap through targeted referendums.  Basically, if local officials can make a case for why they need more money, the people can give it to them.  The default option, though, is a hard cap.  Measures like Christie’s get the flow of political power right because it ensures We the People get the first and final say on tax rates.   If this is nudging, let’s push for more of it!

November 2nd, 2009 at 11:55 am
Obama Unveils Re-Election Strategy

During his closing argument for New Jersey Governor Jon Corzine’s re-election campaign, President Barack Obama moved back the goalposts on when elected leaders should be held accountable for their actions:

Listening to Jon’s opponent, you’d think New Jersey was the only state going through a tough time right now,” Obama told almost 19,000 gathered inside the Prudential Center in Newark. “I have something to report: We have the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression. By the way, that didn’t start under Jon’s watch, that didn’t start under my watch. I wasn’t sworn in yet.”

Obama quipped there was a little revisionist history or selective memory on the part of Republicans and other critics who seek to hold Corzine responsible for New Jersey’s economic woes.

“A little amnesia about how we got into this mess,” Obama explained. “This crisis we are living . . . came about because of the same theories, the same laxed regulation, the same trickle-down economics that the other guy’s party has been peddling for years. And you know, look, we’re not interested in relitigating the past, and I’m more than happy to go and do the work that’s required to get this economy moving again. I think about it every day. Jon Corzine thinks about it every day.”

One problem with Obama’s remarks; Corzine was sworn in before the economic recession hit – by two years. And it’s not like Corzine can say he’s just a community organizer with scant business experience. As head of Goldman Sachs during part of its “master of universe” phase, Corzine – along with former colleague and successor, Hank Paulson – knows how to make money under a lax regulatory system.

In fact, Corzine apparently knows how to “spread the money around” to take care of his former corporation while serving in government.

As for the president, apparently he thinks a re-election campaign is not the right forum to “re-litigate” the past four years of the current administration. Good to know. I guess that means a politician can only be criticized when he’s termed out of office. Thank goodness for Jon Corzine!