When Will The Pig Lie Down With The Horse?

When confronted by critics saying that his recent increase in bridge and tunnel tolls and PATH fares is a tax increase, Governor Christie argued that people have it all wrong, it is simply an increase in user fees. Pointing out how stupid people can be sometimes, he explained, "If you look at a pig and call it a horse, and if lots of people call it a horse, maybe a lot of people start saying, 'Is it a horse?' No, it's a pig."

I agree with Gov Christie: his increase in our commuting costs, much like his reduction in state aid to NJ Transit last year that made my monthly train fare go through the roof, seems more like a pig than a horse.

Let's hope that one day the pig will lie down with the horse and the people of New Jersey can live in peace again.

Christie's Bully Image Tarnished; Tagged As Mean Spirited

Governor Christie spent the week trying to smooth over his mean-spirited image after making retaliatory budget cuts and leaving town, according to an analysis in today's APP.  His generous budget givebacks and targeted visits were geared to calm the political frenzy he left behind and restore his more tolerable bully status, according to Patrick Murray, a political scientist at Monmouth University. "You can be a bully and still do good things, but mean-spirited means you're simply out to get somebody, regardless of what the impact would be on anybody else," Murray told the paper.

Christie Hedges His Bets

I got a slick ad in the mail recently from Better Education for Kids, Inc with headlines like "It's time to reject the narrow interests of the teacher's union." and "Reforming New Jersey's public schools begins with you." NJ Spotlight provides a nice rundown on this new 501(c)4 political organization. The organizer is a school choice activist. The organization is sponsored by a couple of NJ hedge fund managers who live in Christie's neighborhood and support Christie's wife's local charity, according to HedgeFund.net.

Brace yourselves -- the political nonsense is only going to get worse as these so-called independent organizations get rolling. American democracy is up for bid. Christie is certainly hedging his bets.

NJ Transit Gets Poor Grades in Recent Survey

The results of a recent NJ Transit passenger satisfaction survey are online. You can look at the overall results or drill down to particular train or bus lines to see how they fared.

The regional papers are all saying that passengers gave NJT a "C" grade. Blah blah blah. I don't know about your school, but at mine, 70-79% was the range of a C. 44% was a failing grade requiring a note home and maybe a visit by your parents to the school. 30% was time for the County Board of Education or Department of Youth and Family Services to intervene in the school or family, respectively. I doubt anyone is coming to the rescue of my commute. The Department of Transportation? Yeah, right...

North Jersey Coast train passengers who took the survey were outraged at high fares (30%), poor handling of service disruptions (33%), unreliable equipment (39%), poor announcements during service disruptions (39%), and poor on-time performance (41%). They gave the NJ Coast train a 37% score for "value for your money" and an overall score of 44%.

All levels of government should be encouraging mass transit by lowering fares, increasing schedules, and making it easier for people to get to and from train stations. Instead funding and services are being reduced. Stimulus funds and work programs should be more focused on mass transit and less on road construction. Christie cuts in aid to NJ Transit directly increased commuter fares. His dismissal of the federal rail project into New York City was amazingly short-sighted. Congressional efforts to kill funding for everything but their own salaries will also negatively affect mass transit.

Local planners should be looking to synchronize their transit assets. These assets should not be competing with one another. Some buses serve Metropark, but you won't see any buses at the Aberdeen-Matawan rail station (except the popular evening bus to the PNC Arts Center). In the Maryland suburbs of Washington, DC, the bus lines serve the Metro system. In general, buses here compete with trains.

On a somewhat unrelated note, I sometimes take the train into the city from Metropark. The fare is a little less than at Aberdeen-Matawan, so I can show my monthly there and pay nothing additional. I dread the train ride from there, though. It is often standing room only during rush hour. In contrast, I usually can get a seat at Matawan.

Christie's Bad Karma

I remember just shaking my head and sighing when Governor Christie rejected funding for the Access to the Region's Core (ARC) project last fall. I didn't even comment on it here, frustrated that New Jerseyans could be so penny wise and pound foolish. The Asbury Park Press was boasting that Christie had made his mark with his abrupt decision to reject this $9.7 billion federal-state transportation project, but I thought he had lost his mind. Our quality of life was heading down the toilet, revenues from the largest transportation project ever were being tossed away, and the struggle between Federal and state interests was reaching a new low.

But now things aren't going the Governor's way. The Federal Transit Administration (FTA) wants $271 million back that they directed to NJ Transit in anticipation of New Jersey's participation in ARC, according to press reports. If Trenton doesn't give it back, the Feds will simply withhold it from future payments on other transportation projects. Our two US Senators tried to mitigate the cost to NJ taxpayers, but Christie's legal team never pursued the arrangement and the FTA has since withdrawn the offer.

Trenton is pondering its options. So far it's arguing that the $271 million in improvements should be looked at more broadly. The FTA is hearing none of it. A bit of backlash for the Governor's boorishness, I imagine. Or maybe it is just bad karma? I mean, how many bad things can you say about teachers before you get a ruler square across your knuckles?

Christie Mails Aberdeen-Matawan Voters His Obnoxious Two Cents on School Budget

The Independent wrote about the Aberdeen-Matawan School Board candidates today. To be clear, Mr Evangelista was filling Joey Warren's 2009-2012 position, but for personal reasons is leaving the board and no one has stepped up to fill the unexpired term. That is the vacancy The Independent is referring to. The three 2008-2011 positions -- those of Mr Kenny, Mr Ruprecht, and Ms Rubino -- have 2 new candidates (Mr Daniels and Mr Larchuk) and an incumbent (Mr Kenny), all running unopposed. I wrote about the candidates in this space back on March 11th and expressed my opinion about the 2011-12 MARSD school budget a few days ago.

By the way, I received my sample ballot yesterday. I was surprised to see the budget amount ($44.8 million) split to show the respective amounts owed by the Township ($30.3 million) vs the Borough ($14.5 million). Is that a new thing? I don't recall it being that way in the past, but my memory isn't what it used to be. At least not that I can recall. I imagine that some portion of Township residents will vote against the budget simply because they are paying over 2/3rds of the schools bill. I understand that the bill is apportioned based on relative property assessments.  Keep in mind that Aberdeen represented 2/3rds of the district's population in the previous census, so the breakout is reasonable.

I was quite annoyed to see the State of NJ adding its two cents to our local ballot, suggesting in bureaucratic language that our district is spending too much money on our kids and savvy residents should ask questions. It's like a warning label on a pack of cigarettes: "Your school district has proposed programs and services in addition to the core curriculum content standards adopted by the State Board of Education." Coming from the Christie Administration, this is no innocent statement. It is a repugnant intrusion in local politics.

You can find some of our local sample ballots below. For a full list, check the Monmouth County Clerk's website (see Duties of the County Clerk, then select Sample Ballots):

• Aberdeen
• Hazlet
• Holmdel
• Keyport
• Matawan

Be sure to vote next week Tuesday.

My Vote Is For the 2011-2012 Matawan-Aberdeen School Budget

The Matawan-Aberdeen Regional School District has posted an online presentation containing its argument for the district's proposed 2011-2012 budget. The justification for funding the district at the proposed level is contained in the superintendent's statement of objectives, which I have touched up a bit: the district seeks to achieve instructional and administrative excellence in order to provide students with a well-rounded education in a safe, secure, and educationally-conducive environment.

The presentation begins by setting out what's on everyone's minds: The district must teach our children but contain the costs of doing so. The superintendent argues that we can't keep cutting school budgets, even in economic times like these. Since Trenton has deigned to restore only half a million dollars of the multiple millions of aid withheld last year, a small tax increase is required to maintain last year's levels and restore some basics that had to be cut last year. The district's proposed budget responsibly contains administrative costs well below state and regional averages, and per pupil costs are below state averages.

The proposed budget calls for a restoration of the Aberdeen Township Police Resource Officer and late buses, strong gestures towards school safety, an inexcusable gap that's existed all year to Christie's shame. In-house special education and the arts would be funded in the proposed budget, as would full-day kindergarten, quality of life programs that belong in a well-rounded education. All advanced placement classes and athletics would be preserved.

The budget presentation stresses the need for appropriate class size. If there is a problem there, it isn't due to a growing student population, which has risen a mere 3.7% in five years. More likely, last year's state aid cuts dramatically changed the teacher-student ratio. (That's a nice way of saying the schools had to shed nearly 50 teachers last year, so more students are packed into each classroom.)

As for the bottom line, if you're the average Aberdeen resident, you'll be paying about $5/mo more in school taxes. And if you live in Matawan, you're looking at a roughly $20/mo reduction in your school taxes.

I hope you'll vote in favor of this year's proposed school budget on Wednesday 27 April.

This Week in the Media: Gov Christie and Teachers

I occasionally go to Google News and search Christie to see what the world thinks of our governor. I was looking today to see what was being written about Christie's teacher-tenure reforms. Here are a few excerpts from articles, most about education reform. It seems no articles about teachers or unions can be written without at least a nod to Christie. The articles below give you a flavor of what's being said this week:

NJ.com - Governor Christie Continues Assault on Teachers Unions at Town Hall Meeting in Cape May County

Virginia Gowen, a nurse at Lower Township Elementary School, was one of those applauding. She walked out halfway through the town hall meeting, she said, because she was upset at how Christie portrayed teachers.

In her district, where 54 percent of the elementary school students receive free lunches, Gowen said Christie is oversimplifying the jobs of teachers, who often have to deal with troubled, ill children.

"He’s just totally demeaning what I do at work,’’ Gowen said.

Businessweek - NJ Gov Sends Education Proposal to Legislature

Christie announced seven new bills that include basing teacher evaluations equally on student performance and twice-yearly classroom observations, granting tenure after three years of effective reviews, and creating a system of merit pay that rewards teachers who work in failing districts, specialize in hard-to-staff subjects or whose students demonstrate measurable improvement. . . .

Other bills in the package would protect young, accomplished teachers from layoffs by eliminating seniority protections for veteran teachers; allow districts to strip tenure protection from teachers rated ineffective; and make it quicker and less expensive to fire ineffective teachers. . . .

New Jersey Teachers Union spokesman Steve Wollmer said research shows that it's not effective or fair to judge teachers based on student test scores, in part because there are many factors that contribute to student achievement that teachers can't control. He also objected to the idea of merit pay, saying that it would create competition among teachers rather than foster a collegial environment that makes a school community thrive.

The merit pay proposal, he said, "is a classic case of the governor and his staff not understanding how a school works."

Wollmer said the idea of eliminating seniority protection for veteran teachers during layoffs is a thinly veiled attempt to decrease a district's bottom line by replacing experienced teachers with less expensive novice educators.

"Why is experience a liability in education -- it's not," he said.

The only proposal on which the governor and the union agree is speeding up the administrative process for firing a teacher. The union favors a quicker approach in part because it pays the legal bills while the case is pending.

Courier-Post Online - School Boards Confront Great Uncertainty

In 2010, there were 2,055 candidates running for 1,619 available school board seats, the New Jersey School Boards Association reported -- 60 percent of them incumbents seeking re-election.

This year, 2,222 candidates hope to fill 1,612 seats -- the first increase in candidates since 2006. But only 49 percent are incumbents.

The Christian Science Monitor - Why NJ Teacher-Tenure Reform Plan Matters to the Rest of America

Moves to weaken traditional job protections for teachers are gaining momentum around the country. Tenure reform bills were recently signed into law in Florida and Tennessee, and are being considered in Illinois, New Hampshire, Minnesota, and several other states. Delaware and Colorado passed such laws last year. . . .

Tenured teachers have due-process protections when a school district wants to fire them; districts can more easily remove untenured teachers.

NJ.com - Meet the "Anti-Christie" - CT Gov Dannell Malloy

Connecticut Governor Dannell Malloy is seeking givebacks from the unions on the same scale as Christie, but he doesn’t blame public workers for those cushy contracts. He blames the politicians in both parties who signed them.

“Do I think the unions have made mistakes? Yes,” he says. “But every mistake they’ve made has been in concert with the governor and the Legislature. So let’s be honest. I don’t see the unions as the bad guys here. I’m not trying to scapegoat anybody, or blame anybody.”

Union leaders, who backed Malloy against Republican Tom Foley in November’s election, say Malloy’s respectful tone will make it easier for them to sell concessions to their members.

“With Tom Foley, we would have been the menu,” says Lori Pelletier, secretary general of the state’s AFL-CIO. “With Dan Malloy, we’re at the table.”

Compare that with the hissing and snarling that passes for conversation between Christie and, as he calls them, the “union thugs” he constantly denounces. . .

Will Malloy’s liberal approach to the crisis succeed? That depends a lot on the unions.

Malloy needs $1 billion in givebacks to make this work, a staggering sum that the union says works out to about $20,000 per worker.

If the unions don’t budge, Malloy vows massive layoffs and program cuts.
“I’d prefer to downsize over time,” he says. “But if I have to do it overnight, I will.”

The New York Times - Christie Takes Conservatism Beyond Fiscal Issues

Mr. Christie had little political experience to define him when he ran for governor in 2009; . .. During the campaign, the state’s deep financial trouble took center stage. Mr. Christie focused on the state’s high taxes, played down his opposition to abortion, and aligned himself with President Obama on subjects like education reform and promoting wind and solar energy. And the new governor was a blank slate on some issues, like global warming.

In office, he eliminated the state’s Office of Climate Change, cut funding for clean energy programs and eliminated New Jersey’s share of financing for a 10-state greenhouse gas cap-and-trade program that is anathema to many conservatives.

. . . In November, Mr. Christie went further: He revealed that he was skeptical that human activity was responsible for climate change. . . . On March 11, he pulled New Jersey out of a multistate lawsuit aimed at curbing greenhouse emissions from power plants, and on March 24, he said he might also withdraw entirely from the cap-and-trade program.

in January, the governor addressed a large anti-abortion rally in Trenton, saying, “This is an issue whose time has come.” . . . In September, he vetoed state support for family planning clinics, a move strongly backed by anti-abortion groups because some of the clinics performed abortions. Last month, after the Democratic-controlled Legislature approved a much smaller appropriation for family planning, backed mostly by federal dollars, he vetoed that, too. Mr. Christie also applied for federal money for abstinence-only education . . ..

Christie Uses Human Shields Against Supreme Court Actions

Governor Christie is growing increasingly uncomfortable as the Supreme Court prepares to suggest expensive remedies for Trenton's violation of its constitutional requirement to provide a thorough and efficient system of education to all public schools. The Sunday Asbury Park Press says Governor Christie is pushing back, saying he is prepared to "cut out all reimbursements to hospitals for poor patients without insurance, or eliminate state aid to municipalities." Christie says he would prefer judges who would let him set budgets as he sees fit, without interference or oversight, but fortunately for us the courts recognize the need for a balance of powers in the state.

All I can say is it doesn't surprise me how quickly Christie's leadership turns to ugliness.

Golden Budget May Undercut Sheriff's 9-1-1 Empire

The Monmouth County Sheriff's Department plans to postpone the hiring of ten 9-1-1 dispatchers and a systems analyst for its Communications Center in order to trim their portion of the county budget, based on statements provided by a spokesman for Sheriff Shaun Golden on 8 March and published the next day in APP.

Consider the growing obligations of the Center and ask yourself why the sheriff was once seeking 11 new staffers and now suddenly can afford to forgo them. The Center thought they needed more staff to handle emergency calls, and now they don't? Looks like they still do. The Center handles 9-1-1 calls for 44 out of 53 (83%) of our county's municipalities, as well as dispatches for 9 police departments, 32 fire departments, and 24 first aid squads, according to an Oct 2010 news release.  Plus the sheriff recently took control of the county's Office of Emergency Management (OEM), which he himself says relies heavily on 9-1-1 reports to coordinate regional disasters, according to a Feb 2011 news release.

The sheriff says that revenue from shared service agreements with local municipalities, such as centralized 9-1-1 services,  increased this past year and he plans to seek even more deals this year to raise still more revenue, according to APP. This may be good for the county budget, but it will lead to an ever increasing workload on the Center's static number of personnel.  And what of municipalities that are putting their trust in the county 9-1-1 system? Places like Freehold and Fair Haven have cut municipal costs by paying the county to answer the phone when an emergency arises. Will the Center effectively handle their calls without adequate staffing?

These are only the latest negative changes to New Jersey's quality of life to trickle down to us from Governor Christie's cuts in state aid.

Piegari Sees Local Tax Relief Resulting from Governor's Token Increase in School Aid

Trenton is promising to restore 20% of the state aid we lost last year, leaving our school district only $2 million short of the annual state aid level we were receiving two years ago and earlier. Acting MARSD School Superintendent Patrick Piegari foresees the preservation of programs as well as considerable tax relief to local residents as a result of this -$4.5 million benevolence we'll have enjoyed over the past two years from Governor Christie.

What utter nonsense.

I'm not sure what to think of The Independent's coverage of this. Their article's highly ambiguous perspective protects their equities in a county where many residents subscribe to libertarianism. "School Districts React" isn't exactly a bold statement. I was pleased to see Holmdel's dubious response to the unexpected aid, but then Piegari's comments come along to suggest that happy days are here again. Maybe I'm missing the subtleties?

Trenton Attempts to Herd Cats; Amazed When They Do What They Want

Governor Christie's effort to use wage controls to manage administrative salaries in NJ schools looks to be causing an unanticipated spate of  personnel shifts among superintendents, principals, and other school administrators. APP quizzed a number of such personnel about their job moves and few of them thought the Governor's salary caps had prompted them to take their new job. But they're school administrators, not economists. What do they know about the underlying economic motivations for their job switch?

Maybe APP (and Christie) should consult an economist and become acquainted with what's going on? Or a historian? I'm old enough to remember when Nixon made a mess of the economy with his wage and price controls forty years ago. Just about everybody was up in arms -- more angry than they were about Vietnam, if you can believe it. You should read about the mess they were in back in 1971. They were blaming unions back then, too, and they did something about it, dammit. And things got really bad.

All in all, 1971 makes controlling superintendents' salaries through wage controls today seem like -- what's the expression I'm reaching for? Oh, yeah. Herding cats.

Monmouth County Budget in the Works; Are You Being Served?

These are extraordinary times for making ends meet. We and our governments are all having to make tough choices in this awful economy. But be mindful that the cuts we choose to make are a short term relief to the wallet but may cost us in the long term. There's never a good time to replace that old roof that isn't leaking yet or to pay for long-term care insurance, at least not until the roof is leaking or your spouse needs to enter a nursing home. The same holds true for government.  Short term cuts to social welfare can resolve the balance sheet but promote the growth of gangs, reduce public safety, and lead to the deterioration of public infrastructure and eventually our society itself.

Based on a press release and reporting in APP, Monmouth County plans to adopt its 2011 budget on 24 March. Public hearings are underway. The budget is austere, as it should be given the circumstances. Note that the freeholders will have drawn $83 million from the county's surplus to meet their budget goals over the past two years. For this they blame plummeting state and local revenues. Ratables are down $7 billion in the past year alone due to the economy. The county's portion of property taxes is necessarily creeping up; it will soon be 24 cents per $100 of assessed value.

Experts say that the glossier the cover on a corporation's annual report, the warier the investor should be. There are a lot of holes in the county's press release about the budget, and the APP article only "explains" what the county has already outlined in its public statements. I see no research and lots of gaps. Here are some of the things I noticed.

While the county freeholders claim to be such budget wizards that no services will be cut this year, a protracted municipal hiring freeze has left 90 vacancies at the county level that are now being eliminated. I wonder what services those folks provided? What services were we supposed to receive from the Health Department's forsworn $335,000 allocation? Surely a $10.8 million cut across the board on county department budget lines will mean a loss of services to the average citizen. Who are they kidding?

What about the educational services our children are meant to receive at Brookdale Community College. The county is cutting $6 million in their funding, yet neither article explains what percentage of funding that would be. The county made cuts last year, too, as did the state. What is the freeholders position on supporting Brookdale? The county's press release doesn't emphasize the $6 M cut's effect on students, staffing, facilities, and community programs. No one apparently wants to interfere with Governor Christie's little vendetta against unions and educators. Let there be no doubt that state and county cuts are making the low-cost alternative education route considerably less so. If you thought your children could do two years at Brookdale and save money before they head off to a 4-year school, that reality is passing you by.

The Newark Star Ledger reported last August that Brookdale tuition cost would rise 4.4% to $118.50 per credit hour, the highest in the state and one of the highest in the country. The school explained at the time that a 10% reduction in state aid and a 12% increase in student enrollment were the primary causes of the increase. Keep in mind that NJ community colleges were founded on the premise that the state, county, and students would each fund a third of the costs, but as of August students were footing nearly 60% of the bill with no ceiling imposed on future hikes. Brace yourself for even higher tuition costs in the fall.

The freeholders want our county library system for the first time to pay them $2.4 million annually to fund indirect costs previously paid for by the county.  Since libraries are purchasing fewer books and magazine subscriptions lately anyway, this cost shift will inevitably translate into fewer computer terminals and reduced access to expensive online databases for your middle and high school students doing research projects. And reduced staffing of teen services. Keep in mind that everyone doesn't have Internet at home, so the jobless visiting a county library to file an online application and poor school kids doing after school research will have to vie for limited resources. (To read more about indirect costs, read Recommendation #2 in A Study of Public Library Development in Texas, Himmel & Wilson, Library Consultants, 15 July 2003,  (pp 44-45/90).)

The Monmouth County Park System is tapping the Open Space Trust Fund for an "additional contribution" of $1.3 million to aid the 2011 county budget crisis. That word "additional" suggests that this was done last year as well, seemingly institutionalizing this contribution to the state against the spirit of the public's will. Whatever they spend it on, the county will effectively be expending monies that would otherwise have gone to half a dozen grants to local municipalities for parks and land preservation, such as the Freneau monies Aberdeen won in 2010. The fund's policy manual makes it pretty clear that the county is not to use these dedicated monies to pay for general  budget line items related to park administration, so presumably the county's bean counters have devised a way to tap the Open Space Fund and make this redirection of monies fit the rules.

I hope everyone will take a moment and consider the county budget process this year. Some of you might even want to attend the public hearing set for later next month. It is more than a pocketbook issue.

UPDATE: The Monmouth County Board of Chosen Freeholders have lashed out at the President of Brookdale because he dared to criticize their decision to slash his school's county funding again this year. APP put the salacious accusations on the first couple of pages of its article, only including the explanations and justifications towards the end.

The man has headed the school for twenty years and is paid a salary only slightly higher than our schools superintendent. He is a highly desirable commodity and other campuses have tried to recruit him away from BCC, so the trustees increased his perquisites to keep him in place when he planned to relocate. So now that the school is world class, the board trashes him for his excessive perqs. It's like an episode of Entertainment Tonight. What a sleazy bit of political drama. This is just another example of short sightedness on our leaders' part. We're definitely not being served.

County and State Aid Cuts Bring Steep Tuition Increase at Brookdale

Monmouth County has cut its aid to Brookdale Community College by more than 20% ($6 million), according to The Asbury Park Press. And Governor Christie is reducing state aid to Brookdale by more than half a million dollars. The recently released Brookdale budget taps the school's reserves and raises tuition costs 8.2% this fall to make up the loss. Also, the school has instituted a hiring freeze and will leave 21 job vacancies unfilled.

The paper says, "It is understandable that county and state aid fluctuate from year to year depending on the relative health of the economy. But a $6 million cut is not 'fluctuation.' It's a dive off a cliff. The freeholders need to restore at least some of that money in their budget."

The overall strategy of Governor Christie and like-minded politicians is to cut aid so dramatically that the resultant bickering over budgets squeezes every penny of reserves out from frugal local and regional institutions and threatens untold wage and benefit concessions out of unfairly demonized employees. Evidence of the failure of this approach at Brookdale will come soon enough in the form of overcrowded classrooms, a poorly maintained infrastructure, plummeting student performance levels, less skilled instructors and frustrated and angry students and their parents.

UPDATE: Under all this intense scrutiny, BCC's Board of Trustees decided to dig back in their financial records and match up the benefits they've been paying Peter Burnham to the benefits they were allowed to offer him by school policy, per APP. They already knew they had a public relations problem, but they needed to see if they had other problems. So they are conducting an audit and have suspended Mr Burnham and the finance guy who'd been paying him.  The whole thing makes the Freeholders look good, like they are saving us all sorts of money, but now we have a former policeman with an education degree but no prior association with BCC running the place instead of a man with 20 years experience, as well as God knows who running the business and finance department. We'll certainly save some money and run a couple of guys' reputations through the mud, but will we continue to have a top notch community college?

Route 35 To Memorialize Battle of Chosin Reservoir, Aberdeen to Brielle

US 1st Marine Division breaks out from Chosin Reservoir. (Wikimedia)

Route 35 in Monmouth County is to be named Chosin Few Memorial Highway to honor those who fought 70 years ago at the Battle of Chosin Reservoir, according to a press release by US Senator Joe Kyrillos. The bill, signed by Governor Christie, was co-sponsored by State Senator Sean Kean, Assemblyman Dave Rible, and Senator Kyrillos. NJ DOT will begin erecting appropriate signage soon.

Leatherneck magazine has a series of articles online related to the 70th anniversary of the Battle of Chosin Reservoir, considered the Iwo Jima of the Korean War.

Matawan's Damned Dam Repairs

The Independent provides some important clarifications and additional details to the story about the upcoming dam renovations in Matawan.

In my recent blog article, prompted by an APP article about plans to renovate Lake Matawan and Lake Lefferts dams, I asked about the huge line of credit set aside by the state for these repairs. It seems the state established a line of credit based on the Borough's original application, but the current estimated cost is considerably lower. The Borough Attorney says interest will only accrue on the amount actually borrowed.

The Independent makes reference to the need for replacement of the spill weight in the Ravine Drive bridge. I wonder if that is some variation of the term spillway? You can read more about the Ravine Drive bridge in 5 August 1927 edition of The Matawan Journal. The front page article is called Plans Are Ready for Bridge on Ravine Drive.

The APP article made no mention of calls by some residents to drain the lakes rather than fix the dams, something The Independent reported in some detail. This is only the latest in a series of short-sighted efforts by those weary of high property taxes in New Jersey to save a buck at untold cost to the public good. I'm as upset as the next guy at high property taxes and the state of the economy, but use some sense and think about something besides your pocket book for a change. Luckily, the destruction of these two wonderful community assets is not on the agenda, not only because it wouldn't actually save any money to drain the lakes, but it would hurt revenues from lakefront ratables. Oh, and they provide community values.

Those who are truly tired of high taxes should press for municipal consolidation, which would save oodles more money than Governor Christie's goal of whacking away at the salaries and pensions of state workers and teachers. At the very least, a merger with Aberdeen could result in shared coverage of the costs of Matawan's dam(ned) repairs. Of course you'd have to convince our councils to merge and one of the Parties to step down from municipal control. That's probably the true obstacle to consolidation and lowered taxes.

Well, in any event, I recommend reading up on the dams renovation project. Repairs look to begin in mid- to late 2012, after assorted preliminaries are completed.

Christie Abruptly Dismisses One-Third of County School Execs

The media need to set up a new antenna array if they want to detect incoming barrages from Trenton's executive. With no warning, Gorvernor Christie has let lapse the appointments of one-third of the state's county executive school superintendents, including our own Carole Morris of Monmouth County, according to APP. The Governor's spokesman says Thursday's emails not to come to work in 2011 should have been no surprise because the county executive superintendents are all Gov Corzine appointees and their three-year terms are up. Patrick Diegnan, Jr, chairman of the NJ Assembly education committee, said the actions came "out of the blue." Richard O'Malley joined other local school superintendents in Monmouth County in submitting a letter to the Governor protesting Morris' replacement. (The NJSBA is only concerned that the vacancies are filled quickly to avoid any disruptions. Ho hum.)

The Newark Star-Ledger says Christie had this brainstorm while vacationing in Florida. Maybe he came up with the idea on the Dumbo ride at Disney World? Isn't it wonderful for Ms Morris and company to be notified on New Year's eve that they're losing their jobs immediately? Isn't it great that the local school districts now must rely on county executive superintendents from neighboring counties to assist them with the pending budget process? Christie's contempt for education shows no bounds.

Christie Campaign Against Public Unions Prompts Anger, Challenge

A Freehold teacher has written an open letter to the Governor of New Jersey, available at The News Transcript, urging him to discontinue the "constant negative bombardment" of teachers that comes from his office in Trenton.  She complains that "the negative light that is being cast on teachers is both demoralizing and upsetting to all of us. . . . How does that promote a good educational environment across the state when the governor’s office consistently tries to pit parents and children against their teachers?"

She is particularly angry at Christie's comments to a student group about the annual teachers convention, saying he risks upsetting the student-teacher bond by drawing them into his caustic campaign against public unions.

She invites the Governor to visit her classroom.

O'Malley Updates

The Star-Ledger has a full write up on Richard O'Malley and his move to schools superintendent at Edison. I didn't realize that while he was MARSD superintendent, he was simultaneously serving as mayor of Raritan Township; he is currently serving as deputy mayor.  (Each of those jobs pays more than $500/mo, according to NJ.com.)

The Asbury Park Press applauded O'Malley's schools budget achievements in Matawan. But a few years of his style of fiscal conservatism combined with an ax wielding Governor Christie have gotten Raritan Township into a fiscal mess. Of course they blame the unions for excessive pension costs and salary increases, but hundreds of thousands of dollars in cuts in state aid ordered by Governor Christie combined with several years of squeaky tight municipal budgeting are the true proximate cause of their troubles. O'Malley and the Raritan Township Committee repeatedly voted for budgets lower than the 2% cap allowed by the state, so with no flexibility in their bare bones budget they had to raise taxes by 9%. And next year they anticipate cutting staff. They've requested an exception to the state cap and are like totally upset about having to raise taxes so sharply. Check out this Star Ledger article for more information.

O The Humanities! How Long Before Rutgers Follows SUNY Albany's Lead?

Sharp cuts in state aid have caused the State University of New York at Albany to outright cut many of its humanities programs, according to The Huffington Post. Surely it won't be long before Rutgers University suffers the same fate, given the harsh budget cutting going on in Trenton. Maybe there will be no need for art, language, music, and the classics at the college level after Governor Christie's cuts to state aid ravage the public high schools?

New Jerseyans ought to think long and hard about the sort of society they want. See what Stanley Fish has to say about the battle to preserve the humanities in his NY Times opinion piece The Crisis of the Humanities Officially Arrives.