Real Cuts

[Guest John Leadbeater]

Well, here we go again. I know as soon as I post this there will be alot of negative responses towards me. But I am man enough to take it. The problem is too many people get to hide here behind "guest" and then take pot shots.

The town budget woes go way back to when Governor Whitman allowed municipalities to not pay into the pension system for police and fireman. The towns were to put the money in an account and pay later, thus reducing the amount of money towns had to come up with. Unfortunately most towns did not do this and used the pension money to offset tax increases. Still with that in mind Mayor Santos and the council have raised taxes every year. Where did the money go. When I ran last year for Mayor, he told everyone there was a $9 then 7 then eventually 5 million dollar surplus. What happened?

Blaming the increase on Governor Christie is nonsense. If Kearny elected officials had been paying attention to his campaign they would have realize he was going to do away with many of the unneeded programs. For example,every year the town gets grants for safe police, sooner or later it was going to stop which meant the town would bare the burden of the costs.{That is just 1 example of what I am trying to show you} The government puts programs in place but then expects us to pay for them, just like the early child care programs. Let parents who have small children pay for their own preschool or afterschool programs as opposed to all of us baring that burden.

Blaming the police, fire and CS11 employees is nonsense! The municipal portion of our taxes is about 36% of the actual budget. So laying them off will save you pennies. Meaning even if Kearny lays off the employees they are discussing, taxes will still go up, and there will be less protection, because of the Board Of Education or the County. Oh and by the way why is it in CS11 employees that have been there for years are laid off when there are people with less senority keeping their jobs? Could it be they are friends of this administration? You bet, thats the reason

I urge all elected officials in Kearny to sit and come up with better solutions

The school board continues to hire at wasteful expenses. Just look at the recent rehire of RETIRED Assistant Superintendant Bob Sprague. He left the school district with a hefty pension over $150k and they bring him back at $700 a day to do the same job. Naturally the only people at the meeting are the teachers and union people. Don't they get it? How many teachers or aides could be retained had they not budgeted for his position.

I believe it is time for the Mayor to appoint the Board of Education individuals and hold him solely accountable.This way he cannot say he has nothing to do with the Board of Ed raising our taxes. For years we are told the council has nothing to do with the BOE yet everytime there is something of importance on the agaenda who shows up?

We must start to make tough decisions on essential service personnel before we reward our cronies. This is not the time to be neglecting Kearny families.

I urge the mayor and council to sit with the BOE and come up with reasonible cuts. Do we really need all the vice principles we have? How about ridding the town of all the out of towners that come here for education? Think of the savings to that alone. But I would venture to say noone will do that because the state gives money for every child in your system.

Edited November 21, 2010 by KOTW
The information on Mr. Sprague has not been confirmed. Mr. Leadbeater please register your name. Registering will stop these edit comments.

[Guest Real World Guy]

Well, here we go again. I know as soon as I post this there will be alot of negative responses towards me. But I am man enough to take it. The problem is too many people get to hide here behind "guest" and then take pot shots.

The town budget woes go way back to when Governor Whitman allowed municipalities to not pay into the pension system for police and fireman. The towns were to put the money in an account and pay later, thus reducing the amount of money towns had to come up with. Unfortunately most towns did not do this and used the pension money to offset tax increases. Still with that in mind Mayor Santos and the council have raised taxes every year. Where did the money go. When I ran last year for Mayor, he told everyone there was a $9 then 7 then eventually 5 million dollar surplus. What happened?

Blaming the increase on Governor Christie is nonsense. If Kearny elected officials had been paying attention to his campaign they would have realize he was going to do away with many of the unneeded programs. For example,every year the town gets grants for safe police, sooner or later it was going to stop which meant the town would bare the burden of the costs.{That is just 1 example of what I am trying to show you} The government puts programs in place but then expects us to pay for them, just like the early child care programs. Let parents who have small children pay for their own preschool or afterschool programs as opposed to all of us baring that burden.

Blaming the police, fire and CS11 employees is nonsense! The municipal portion of our taxes is about 36% of the actual budget. So laying them off will save you pennies. Meaning even if Kearny lays off the employees they are discussing, taxes will still go up, and there will be less protection, because of the Board Of Education or the County. Oh and by the way why is it in CS11 employees that have been there for years are laid off when there are people with less senority keeping their jobs? Could it be they are friends of this administration? You bet, thats the reason

I urge all elected officials in Kearny to sit and come up with better solutions

The school board continues to hire at wasteful expenses. Just look at the recent rehire of RETIRED Assistant Superintendant Bob Sprague. He left the school district with a hefty pension over $150k and they bring him back at $700 a day to do the same job. Naturally the only people at the meeting are the teachers and union people. Don't they get it? How many teachers or aides could be retained had they not budgeted for his position.

I believe it is time for the Mayor to appoint the Board of Education individuals and hold him solely accountable.This way he cannot say he has nothing to do with the Board of Ed raising our taxes. For years we are told the council has nothing to do with the BOE yet everytime there is something of importance on the agaenda who shows up?

We must start to make tough decisions on essential service personnel before we reward our cronies. This is not the time to be neglecting Kearny families.

I urge the mayor and council to sit with the BOE and come up with reasonible cuts. Do we really need all the vice principles we have? How about ridding the town of all the out of towners that come here for education? Think of the savings to that alone. But I would venture to say noone will do that because the state gives money for every child in your system.

Your points about BOE expenses are definitely worth investigating. Half our tax bill is for Kearny schools. Why didn't you make that argument when you ran for Mayor last year or earlier this year during the BOE election?

[Guest Call first John]

Well, here we go again. I know as soon as I post this there will be alot of negative responses towards me. But I am man enough to take it. The problem is too many people get to hide here behind "guest" and then take pot shots.

The town budget woes go way back to when Governor Whitman allowed municipalities to not pay into the pension system for police and fireman. The towns were to put the money in an account and pay later, thus reducing the amount of money towns had to come up with. Unfortunately most towns did not do this and used the pension money to offset tax increases. Still with that in mind Mayor Santos and the council have raised taxes every year. Where did the money go. When I ran last year for Mayor, he told everyone there was a $9 then 7 then eventually 5 million dollar surplus. What happened?

Blaming the increase on Governor Christie is nonsense. If Kearny elected officials had been paying attention to his campaign they would have realize he was going to do away with many of the unneeded programs. For example,every year the town gets grants for safe police, sooner or later it was going to stop which meant the town would bare the burden of the costs.{That is just 1 example of what I am trying to show you} The government puts programs in place but then expects us to pay for them, just like the early child care programs. Let parents who have small children pay for their own preschool or afterschool programs as opposed to all of us baring that burden.

Blaming the police, fire and CS11 employees is nonsense! The municipal portion of our taxes is about 36% of the actual budget. So laying them off will save you pennies. Meaning even if Kearny lays off the employees they are discussing, taxes will still go up, and there will be less protection, because of the Board Of Education or the County. Oh and by the way why is it in CS11 employees that have been there for years are laid off when there are people with less senority keeping their jobs? Could it be they are friends of this administration? You bet, thats the reason

I urge all elected officials in Kearny to sit and come up with better solutions

The school board continues to hire at wasteful expenses. Just look at the recent rehire of RETIRED Assistant Superintendant Bob Sprague. He left the school district with a hefty pension over $150k and they bring him back at $700 a day to do the same job. Naturally the only people at the meeting are the teachers and union people. Don't they get it? How many teachers or aides could be retained had they not budgeted for his position.

I believe it is time for the Mayor to appoint the Board of Education individuals and hold him solely accountable.This way he cannot say he has nothing to do with the Board of Ed raising our taxes. For years we are told the council has nothing to do with the BOE yet everytime there is something of importance on the agaenda who shows up?

We must start to make tough decisions on essential service personnel before we reward our cronies. This is not the time to be neglecting Kearny families.

I urge the mayor and council to sit with the BOE and come up with reasonible cuts. Do we really need all the vice principles we have? How about ridding the town of all the out of towners that come here for education? Think of the savings to that alone. But I would venture to say noone will do that because the state gives money for every child in your system.

John,

Call some of your friends first before you post something that you do not have FACTS on. You are so close to becoming mayor but you go and screw up all the time. If you are not dead sure on something get the facts first. hint: BOE issues. The Mayor should never appoint the BOE, are you nuts, they should be and are elected officials. You are, however right on with certain Council members attending very specific BOE meetings! The BOE is changing and for the better, and it will continue to get better, but like your situation, people have to get rid of dead wood and get new people in.

[Guest 8.5 % Pension Payer]

Whitman Facts

Over the past 25 years the State of New Jersey has struggled, under a succession of Democratic and Republican governors, to reverse a social and economic decline that, by the 1960's, had hit many Northeastern

industrial areas.

Difficult budget decisions were made, often at significant political cost. But the benefits for New Jersey residents were many. A vastly improved higher education system was developed and state aid to local public

schools surged. The environment was cleaned up. Mass transit was improved. The state's budget was balanced without gimmicks and its credit rating was triple-A.

There is a strong link between those developments and the fact that New Jersey residents today are among the best educated in the country, and rank near the top in per-capita income.

Now many of the gains made over a quarter of a century are in danger of slipping away because the current Governor, Christine Todd Whitman, has chosen to finance her political ambitions with a popular buy-now,

pay-later economic policy that will place a financial stranglehold on future generations of New Jerseyans.

This is best illustrated by Mrs. Whitman's decision to withhold billions of dollars that should be going into the public employee pension funds over the next few years, and using the bulk of that money to balance the

state budget. Then, with an audacity that dazzles her supporters and even draws grudging admiration from opponents, Mrs. Whitman smiles and characterizes the withheld funds as savings.

Of course, they are not "savings" -- not in any sense of the word. The pension obligations at some point will come due and future generations will have to meet them.

Not only will the money have to be made up, but future taxpayers will be deprived of the income that the money -- if properly invested now -- would be expected to generate.

Mrs. Whitman's pension maneuvers have not gotten a lot of publicity -- in part because the eyes of reporters and readers alike tend to glaze over when confronted with complex budget details. The changes that she

has made have been drastic. According to the New Jersey Education Association, which has filed suit against the state, the employer contributions to the pension system this year will be as much as 96 percent below

the amounts contributed in the early 1990's.

By all accounts, the employer contributions have been reduced by nearly $1 billion a year. The Whitman administration insists that this is not a problem. Needless to say, others disagree.

"There is no question but that this is creating future debt," said Richard C. Leone, a former New Jersey State Treasurer who is now the president of the Twentieth Century Fund. "This is just another way of getting

around the balanced-budget requirement, a kind of deficit spending. It is the sort of thing that comes back to haunt you."

Until the changes adopted by Mrs. Whitman, New Jersey had been very conservative in its approach to its pension obligations. For example, the state had started to pre-fund the health care benefits of its retirees,

building up reserves against post-retirement liabilities. As one state official said: "That was prudent. Health-care costs are a big problem."

Prudent or not, Mrs. Whitman scrapped the pre-funding. She used the reserves that had already built up to help balance her budget. For Christine Todd Whitman, the pension funds have become a budget-balancing

machine.

Mrs. Whitman and the long-term interests of New Jersey appear to be at odds. The Governor won election by promising tax cuts, and any further advances in her career will be powered by her ability to "deliver" on

that promise. Like most politicians, her eyes are on the short term: today's budget, tomorrow's election. It requires courage to look beyond Election Day to the long-term interests of constituents.

Young men and women who were children in New Jersey 20 or 25 years ago are benefiting from the vision and courage of the politicians in power then, politicians who were not afraid to lead. They weren't perfect

but they had a sense of responsibility toward the generations growing up behind them. It's a quality that nowadays is in extremely short supply. And not just in New Jersey.

Well, here we go again. I know as soon as I post this there will be alot of negative responses towards me. But I am man enough to take it. The problem is too many people get to hide here behind "guest" and then take pot shots.

The town budget woes go way back to when Governor Whitman allowed municipalities to not pay into the pension system for police and fireman. The towns were to put the money in an account and pay later, thus reducing the amount of money towns had to come up with. Unfortunately most towns did not do this and used the pension money to offset tax increases. Still with that in mind Mayor Santos and the council have raised taxes every year. Where did the money go. When I ran last year for Mayor, he told everyone there was a $9 then 7 then eventually 5 million dollar surplus. What happened?

[Guest Real World Guy]

John,

Call some of your friends first before you post something that you do not have FACTS on. You are so close to becoming mayor but you go and screw up all the time. If you are not dead sure on something get the facts first. hint: BOE issues. The Mayor should never appoint the BOE, are you nuts, they should be and are elected officials. You are, however right on with certain Council members attending very specific BOE meetings! The BOE is changing and for the better, and it will continue to get better, but like your situation, people have to get rid of dead wood and get new people in.

Why should a Board of Education be elected officials? State law allows for both appointed and elected boards of education. Education achievement has improved significantly in New York City since it went to a Mayor-appointed Board. If the goal is better schools and higher test scores, then I would say the past ten years of elected boards of education in Kearny have not worked.

[Guest guest]

Why should a Board of Education be elected officials? State law allows for both appointed and elected boards of education. Education achievement has improved significantly in New York City since it went to a Mayor-appointed Board. If the goal is better schools and higher test scores, then I would say the past ten years of elected boards of education in Kearny have not worked.

Everyone of our board members have someone related one way or another to someone working at the BOE.

Just saying

[Guest Guest]

Your points about BOE expenses are definitely worth investigating. Half our tax bill is for Kearny schools. Why didn't you make that argument when you ran for Mayor last year or earlier this year during the BOE election?

As for the out-of-towners, many of the townspeople are aware that there are people attending schools that don't live here. But, many people think, "Oh, that's Mrs. So and So's granddaughter; her daughter is using her mother's address so that she doesn't have to go to school in _______." Or "That's none of my business." or something similar. As soon as a teacher (who has 25+ kids in a class) finds out that a child either has moved out of district or never lived in district, that information is given to residency. Believe me, teachers don't benefit from any extra money (which is determined in the October 15th report) the district may receive for each pupil - they are reporting as soon as they have credible information. Tax payers, landlords, neighbors need to do the same thing.