Posted on 03/30/2010 8:47:22 PM PDT by Libloather
N.J. plays the board game 'Sorry!'
By Letters to the Editor/Gloucester County ...
March 28, 2010, 3:00AM
To the Editor:
Is anyone familiar with the game called “Sorry!”? If you live in New Jersey, you’ve been playing it.
In the game, players move around the board making progress toward their goal, until a card is drawn that says, “Sorry!” — and then the player must start all over again.
Twenty years ago, we had an amazing child nutrition program that funded meals for children enrolled in child care. Then came the Welfare Reform Act, which passed quickly because everyone wants welfare reform. But hidden inside this legislation was a cut in the child nutrition program. Next, funding for family child care networks, which provided training and certification for providers, was eliminated. Sorry again.
Meanwhile, Trenton had budget issues and the teacher pension fund was thriving. Politicians then raided the fund to correct their own mistakes and promised to pay it back. Sorry. They neither paid the money back, nor continued to make promised state payments into the fund — although the teachers continued to make their payments.
Now, since Trenton is in disarray financially, the decision was made to gut the funding to education, police, state employees, etc.
How are those in charge justifying this?
First, they’re vilifying public employees by appealing to the private sector: “How dare those people have pensions when the rest of you do not?” Never mind that citizens who are public-sector workers paid into the pension system and selected their jobs because there was a pension system. Then their money was basically stolen.
Having served six years on a school board...
(Excerpt) Read more at nj.com ...
What the article doesn’t mention is what the average teacher puts into the system versus what they get out of it.
Gotta love it when a bunch of liberals discover they are not immune to the laws of economics.
“One day, G-d made a jackass, for practice. The next day, he made a school board.” — Mark Twain
Gov. Chris Christie ratcheted up his fight against the state’s largest teachers union today, criticizing its director’s half-million-dollar payday and saying districts could get cash back if teachers give up raises.
Christie said the pay package for the New Jersey Education Association’s Vince Giordano was “shocking” — more than $421,000 in salary and $128,500 in benefits in 2007 — and called the union part of the state’s “shadow government.”
“Everybody has a right to make a living, but $550,000 for the executive director of the NJEA? It’s outrageous,” Christie said. . .
http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2010/03/nj_gov_chris_christie_gears_up.html
In other words: an idiot.
yeah, i got an old (ex) friend who is a hardcore lefty ~ she was actually the straw that pushed me over to the right ~ and a government school teacher these last 20 years; always very smug and self-righteous about the unions and how she would retire with a fortune,...
I wonder how that is working for her now!
Shedlock issued a piece today detailing all the states. The States have $5.17 trillion total pension obligations. They only have $1.94 trillion set aside. There is a GAP of $3.23 trillion. The pensions can never be paid.
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com/2010/03/states-have-517-trillion-in-pension.html
“Then their money was basically stolen.”
Like they coerce exorbitant taxes from us?
Only one state in the country spent more per resident on el-hi than New Jersey.
yitbos
Ya know the new tact will be to blame Christie for the last 30 years of irresponsible spending.
I’m hoping if they were smart enough to elect him they’ll be smart enough to see through Democrat/news media bullsh*t.
UNLESS YOU TIE OUR HANDS WE WILL CONTINUE TO STEAL YOUR MONEY!
And how much will he make in pension and benefits? California makes public the salary of its employees. You can also find a list of those with a pension over $100,000/year.
Does anyone know if NJ has made such information available? I would bet they are in line with CA.
Union thugs don’t realize that nobody in the private sector gets 100K per year pensions for life. If the lucky enough to get a pension at all. It costs TRILLIONS from the taxpayers to “maintain” these exorbitant pensions.
There should be a tax on the putrid stench of government paid directly to the taxpayers. We would all be millionaires.
The contributions that were not made into the state pension funds in NJ were part of the match that the state contributes, not the payroll deductions withheld from employees paychecks. The employee contributions were invested in the funds. You would be surprised how many teachers/administrators don't know this. They also don't realize that the states contribution is alot more than the employees contribution. I have heard that it is roughly a 4 to 1 match (that's $4 from the state for every $1 the employees contribute) but I have not been able to confirm this.
By the way Mr. and Mrs. NJ teacher/administrator state matching funds into your pension are nothing but wealth transfers from NJ taxpayers to you you bunch of greedy, ungrateful pigs.
Look for this to be the theme when they come for our 401k's. (yes, I know pension is different than 401k - the issue is using envy, like libs always do).
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