Opinion article by John Bendel,  App.com,  May 25, 2013

John Bendel is a councilman in Island Heights and the Democratic candidate for the state Senate in the 10th District.

It’s time to roll back last year’s Garden State Parkway toll increase for Ocean County residents. It was unfair when imposed on New Year’s Day 2012, and since superstorm Sandy washed away $4.6 billion worth of taxable property in the county, it has become a burden —in effect, a state tax on many Ocean County residents of $500 a year or more.

 A rollback for most Ocean County E-ZPass users is entirely possible; it would not be the first time a New Jersey toll authority provided toll relief because of geography.

 Since 2008, the New Jersey Turnpike Authority has given a break to residents of Florence and Roebling in Burlington County who use Turnpike Exit 6 and the Turnpike extension there that links with the Pennsylvania Turnpike. But they don’t use the Delaware River bridge that the higher Exit 6 toll helps pay for. So residents of those two ZIP codes who have toll tags issued by New Jersey E-ZPass pay less than everyone else at that interchange. They don’t have to apply for the discount; it happens automatically by virtue of their address.

 The Turnpike Authority, which operates the Garden State Parkway, should do the same for the residents of Ocean County.

 Virtually every toll authority in the region is extracting much more money from motorists now than at the start of the Great Recession. Even as unemployment soared and household income sank, Delaware River tolls jumped 25 percent, Hudson River tolls oozed up by $1 in December after doubling from 2001, Turnpike tolls spiked 53 percent last year and Parkway tolls roared up by 50 percent.

 Commuting is expensive, and those Parkway toll increases added a particularly heavy burden for Ocean County families. Mass transit barely exists in the county. The same can be said for good-paying jobs. If you have a good, year-round job, chances are it isn’t here. And if that job is north of Ocean County, as is also likely, you probably use the Garden State Parkway to get there.

 How many Ocean County commuters use the Parkway every day? How much do they pay in tolls?

Read the full post »

BobJordan  APP,  March 15, 2013,

TRENTON —A sharp hike in net property taxes at the start of Gov. Chris Christie’s term has been softened, but New Jersey homeowners on average pay nearly $1,200 more than when Democratic Gov. Jon S. Corzine left office.

 Christie, who is up for re-election in November, currently stars in a new television campaign ad that includes the headline “Christie’s plan offers hope on property taxes.”APP.comHis plan has included overhauls of pensions and health benefits for public employees and a cap on local government taxes, but average net property taxes have risen 19 percent under Christie during his first three years in office. Corzine’s first three years showed an 11 percent increase, according to new data from the state Department of Community Affairs.

 The data do not include the expected impact on property taxes to offset millions of dollars in lost tax revenue in beachfront towns hit by superstorm Sandy.

Local municipalities (with populations of 4,000 or greater) with the highest net property tax hikes since Gov. Chris Christie took office in January 2010:

Monmouth County

Neptune City: 29.2 percent increase

Keansburg: 25.8 percent

Aberdeen: 22.2 percent

Ocean County

Manchester: 49.1 percent

Toms River: 36.8 percent

Berkeley: 30 percent

Source: state Department of Community Affairs

 The trend creates an opening for Christie’s likely November opponent, Democrat Barbara Buono. A Monmouth University poll released last month said 59 percent of registered voters think Christie deserves a second term. Read the full post »

Asbury Park Press Editorial (APP.com), April 21, 2013

Why are towns on their own?

 Seaside Heights Mayor Bill Akers announced last week that he has enlisted the aid of the Rutgers University Institute of Marine and Coastal Science to help answer questions about how to best protect his town from future storms.

 While this news is undoubtedly welcome, six months after superstorm Sandy battered the Jersey Shore, it raises at least two questions:

 1. Why is it that towns up and down the Jersey Shore are left to find their own experts and answers, rather than being able to rely on some central state or federal clearinghouse where expert advice and best practices are readily available?

 We thought that was the job of the New Jersey storm czar, Marc Ferzan, hired by Gov. Chris Christie at an annual salary of $141,000 to coordinate efforts on all levels of government to help with the recovery.

 If Ferzan was hired to be the point person for the recovery, to be the public face for the efforts to help towns come back from Sandy better prepared and better protected, the mayor should not have had to go somewhere else for the answers and advice he sought. If Ferzan’s job description doesn’t include overseeing efforts for coastal preparedness against future storms, someone else in the Christie administration should be responsible.

 And if the state of New Jersey does not have the expertise to handle it on its own, it needs to go to the federal government. It is critical that storm protection efforts be coordinated. While every beach town is unique, the beaches do not end at the boundaries of those towns. Left on their own, well-meaning municipal leaders could find themselves working at cross-purposes, the result of which would be less storm protection for many, not more.

 2. Why have so many Shore towns adopted a “build first, ask questions later” modus operandi?

 Many towns, citing the importance of tourism to their local economy, have felt pressure to rebuild before the summer season gets under way. But again, without clear guidance from the state or federal government on the best ways to protect the shoreline from future storms of similar magnitude, all the pre-Memorial Day hustle and bustle could wind up being for naught.

 Akers, in addition to citing the need to rebuild quickly to accommodate the tens of thousands of summer guests that support the borough’s businesses, also says he wants to take time to find the most effective option for storm protection.

 Rutgers has agreed to assist the borough by sharing what its scientists know about coastal protection, and it also hopes to establish a university-run science facility on the boardwalk. It’s a good thing that Rutgers has agreed to lend its expertise to a community in recovery. And Akers is to be commended for reaching out for answers.

 What is not so admirable is that no one in the Christie administration or in the federal government seems able to provide Akers with the answers he and Seaside Heights are seeking.

Highlighting and Following comment by JA Coan

 Editor’s Comment:  Doesn’t this appear that the Governor, after the initial reactions and press briefings (great for a national run) has let towns struggle by themselves,  Where is his “Sandy Czar”, who was supposed to oversee coastal preparedness against future storms?

Editorial, AP Press (APP.com), April 17, 2013

It’s springtime in election year New Jersey. And once again Gov. Chris Christie has come down with a case of tax cut fever.

 Or rather a relapse.

 This week he gave a conditional veto to a bill that would have raised the Earned Income Tax Credit to $550 for the working poor. Conditionally vetoed is the delicate way of putting it; held the EITC hostage is more like it.

 Christie said he would let the Earned Income Tax Credit increase if lawmakers in Trenton would give him his tax cut, albeit in the form of an income tax credit equal to 10 percent of property tax bills, phased in over four years and capped at $10,000.

 That’s just a modified version of a plan Senate President Stephen Sweeney offered last year to counter Christie’s proposal for an across-the-board income tax cut.

 Given the shaky foundation on which New Jersey’s economy still rests, the state can ill afford such a large tax cut. As Sweeney himself said, “In my mind, nothing has changed since I was part of passing the budget last June. …. We said if the revenues work out, we’d do a tax cut. …. Up to this point, the revenues have not worked out.”

 Revenues are still $302 million short. How can one justify a substantial tax cut now?

 Not only is Christie’s use of the Earned Income Tax Credit as a bargaining chip cruel, but a property tax credit of any sort, whether promoted by Democrats or Republicans, even if welcomed by many in a better economy, misses what most New Jerseyans desire most: real and permanent property tax relief. This will be accomplished when serious people work at shifting the tax structure away from property taxes once and for all.

 Highlighting  by JA Coan

Press Release : Charles Wowkanech, President of the New Jersey State AFL-CIO
Politicker NJ, April 19, 2013

TRENTON – Charles Wowkanech, President of the New Jersey State AFL-CIO, issued the following statement regarding Governor Christie being named one of TIME Magazine’s 100 most influential people in the world:

Governor Chris Christie has been recognized as one of Time Magazine’s 100 most influential people in the world for the second time, but the question remains: what impact has the Governor’s influence had?

– Christie’s influence has not helped to reduce New Jersey’s nine percent unemployment, which is the worst unemployment rate in the region and significantly higher than the national unemployment rate of 7.6 percent.

– Christie’s influence has not helped to reduce the percentage of New Jersey families living in poverty, which has risen for four years in-a-row to record levels.

– Christie’s influence has not brought down property taxes, which have risen approximately 20 percent on his watch due to the reduction of rebates.

So what has Christie influenced?

– He has used his influence to conditionally veto the minimum wage bill, denying low-wage workers a long overdue raise, even as more New Jersey families continue to fall into poverty and income inequality rises.

– Christie used his influence to pursue one of the nation’s most aggressive packages of corporate tax breaks and subsidies. However, both history and our state’s persistent high unemployment rate have proven that trickledown economics is not a solution for New Jersey’s jobs crisis.

– Christie used his influence to cancel the ARC Tunnel project which would have created 6,000 new construction jobs, created 45,000 permanent jobs, increased real estate values, and spurred economic activity.

– Christie used his influence to cut property tax rebates for seniors, to slash education funding to our schools, to reduce tuition assistance for college students, to erode collective bargaining rights for public workers, to veto pay equity legislation, to cut funding for women’s health care/family planning, to pick fights with teachers, and to gut the Earned Income Tax Credit.

There is no denying that Governor Chris Christie is influential. But for unemployed families, low wage workers, and our state’s middle class, Christie’s influence has been a disaster