Good Lord! Hell must have frozen over!
Corzine Seeks to Cut NJ Budget and Workforce...
TRENTON — Declaring that New Jersey had reached an irrevocable “turning point” because of years of bad fiscal habits, Gov. Jon S. Corzine proposed a budget on Tuesday that would reduce the state’s work force by 3,000 people, close three departments and prune expenses for services including colleges and hospitals.
If enacted as proposed, the overall state budget would shrink by $500 million to $33 billion, marking only the fifth time in the last 50 years that New Jersey would spend less money than it did the previous year. Assuming inflation this year at around 3 percent, as it has been since 2004, the cut would be equivalent to roughly $1.5 billion, or 4.4 percent of last year’s budget, in real terms.
OMFG! Jon Corzine is proposing a budget that Kid Various can actually support? This is
way better than anything we proposed when we were in power!
He proposed cutting state aid to colleges and universities by $76 million, or 4 percent.
Yes!
Grants to towns? Down $190 million (about 10 percent).
Yes!
Hospitals? Less $144 million (14 percent).
Yes!
His plan would shut down the Departments of Personnel, Agriculture and Commerce, and trim jobs across the board, largely through buyouts.
Yes! Yes! OH GOD, YES!!!
Residents would face longer lines and shorter hours at motor vehicle registries, and limited hours at public parks.
OK no walk in the park - but we get to actually *shut down* State Departments? SOOO worth it!
The reaction from the spendthrift Dem majority was telling:
“Frankly, New Jersey has a government its people cannot afford,” a somber Governor Corzine told a stone-silent group of legislators, lobbyists and local officials in his annual budget address.
...In a 25-minute speech, the governor used some variation of the word "cut" at least 28 times and elicited applause just twice: when he entered the Assembly chamber, and when he left.
Governor Corzine delivering an explanation on fiscal sanity,
shortly before he was lynched by torch wielding Democratic legislators.
But labor unions, and their supporters, were furious.
“Clearly the governor’s attack on public employees — hard-working, nonpolitical state employees — as a way to balance this budget is wrong,” said Senator Bill Baroni, a Republican from Mercer County.
Oh, Billy - we know you're from LD-14 and you got a lot of public employees in your constituency - but let's not go overboard here!
It's that old Vulcan proverb:
Only Nixon could go to China...
