Corzine defends budget

"While he boasted that this "very tough and painful" budget contains no new taxes and pays down $650 million in debt, his critics cite reductions in state aid for smaller towns as a tax inducer at the local level." Here's the truth everyone expected Corzine to be a wizard and when he presented solutions (that were unfortunatly painful) he got nothing but pushback...if the state has to do more with less so too do the municipalities. Thats it and thats all. Everyone thinks cuts are great until they have to start doing some work on their own. Consolidate the schools, towns and everything else.

Corzine is not forcing the towns to raise taxes, he is promoting consolidation. New Jersey has too much local government and its way past due to consolidate at the local level. First get rid of the school districts without schools. Then merge certain services into county government. Then merge small towns into larger towns. These towns can retain an identity as neighborhoods but there is too much government in New Jersey.

Unfortunatly there are too many local officials who would lose their power fiefdoms if they merged that they don't want to entertain it. And others who are afraid of their political party being out of power in a larger entity that they oppose it.

the Corzine administration's vow, early on, to tame the tax. Now, they are setting a whole new standard in terms of degree of hurt. Every dollar [cut from municipal aid] is going to have to be made up with property-tax increases, or reductions in service. It's clear property increases are out of the question ...laying off union municipal workers are the only solution ,right Jon ?

While Corzine pats himself on the back, he's still borrowing nearly $4 billion to build more schools. If Corzine would just get the Urban Schools Scholarship Act passed, some of those new schools wouldn't be necessary and the quality of education would improve.

Instead, 14 Catholic elementary schools in Camden, Gloucester and Atlantic County will close this summer and the public school rolls will increase. That creates an even greater demand for education money in just 3 counties as more kids will be forced to enroll in failing schools that spend over $20,000 per student.

Despite campaigning on a platform of running the state "like a business" because he's a " political outsider," Corzine's a typical Democrat who would rather add more teachers to the state payroll than keep these kids in (and get more kids into) good schools with graduation rates 95% or higher. He just doesn't care if kids get shoved into failing schools and the state continues to mortgage its future away. Not so long as his party benefits. UGH!

"I figure people drift toward liberalism at a young age, and I always hope that they change when they see how the world really is.”
- Johnny Ramone

SJ, Catholic Schools in urban areas have a graduation rate of over 90%, and of those who graduate over 90% go on to college.  That record absoultely destroys the record of pubic schools in those very same urban areas. 

Oh, and you're wrong in your assertion that Catholic schools "dont even require teachers to be certified."  Dead wrong.

School choice is competition and competition will improve the quality of education. 

Handing out scholarships funded from private donations will save taxpayers tons of money, put kids in better schools and prevent the School Construction Corp., or whatever they call it now, from blowing through another $4 billion the way with little to show for it.

 "I figure people drift toward liberalism at a young age, and I always hope that they change when they see how the world really is.”
- Johnny Ramone

The government telling us it costs more to provide services is baseless as it is a monopoly and collects taxes under the threat of property confiscation or jail. The only way to determine what it costs will be based on free market-I mean free market.
Government lacks accountability. There is no consequence for poor performance but only a guarantee to pile more taxes.
WE must cap the spending by making it a constitutional amendment so that any vision of override on the part of future politicians for increased revenue will require 80% majority in a referendum.
Tell me again why we are spending upwards of $27,000 per student per year (highest in the world) and finishing below average in math, science and reading among 56 countries that take the OECD sponsored testing for 15-year olds? All we see on the ballot is cry for more $$.

That many districts in the country forbid the teaching of science...education in this country is a pure mess...in NJ we need to consolidate the to county wide school districts.