Will Serve Veterans & Their Families in Monmouth, Ocean, Burlington, Middlesex Counties Who Are at Risk of Homelessness
Washington, Jul 17 – A $1 million federal grant has been awarded to a non-profit organization to assist low income veterans in Central New Jersey who are at risk of losing their homes, Congressman Chris Smith (NJ-04) announced today.
“This funding will provide much needed housing assistance and stability to veterans in Central New Jersey so that they can remain in their homes even when times are difficult,” said Smith, who worked with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) in support of the grant application.
The grant was awarded this morning to Soldier On, a leader for community-based homeless and at-risk veterans’ housing and services. Soldier On has 15 years of experience developing transitional and permanent housing and successfully creating innovative homeownership opportunities in underserved areas—addressing both the urban and rural needs of local communities. The funding will be provided by through the VA’s Supportive Services for Veteran Families (SSVF) grant program.
“Unfortunately, right now, the concentration of veterans and their families in Central New Jersey are without access to prevention and rapid re-housing resources,” said Smith. “With the VA’s green light, Soldier On will now be able to provide very specialized services to address the needs of a very specific population in Middlesex, Monmouth, Ocean and Burlington Counties thereby enabling a federal-private partnership that will truly help our veterans.”
Anna Little’s congressional campaign account is overdrawn $11,321.08, according to the FEC Form 3 Record of Receipts and Disbursements, that her campaign submitted to the Federal Election Commission yesterday.
$22,188.28 seems to have disappeared overnight, between May 16 and May 17, from Little’s meager coffers. In the pre-primary report of activity for the April 1 through May 16 period, “Friends of Anna Little” had $13,806.95 cash on hand on May 16. The next day, her campaign’s beginning balance was negative $8,381, according to the report submitted yesterday.
Monmouth County GOP Chairman John Bennett, Middlesex County GOP Chairman Sam Thomspon and the Bayshore Tea Party Group need to step in and right the Little campaign before it does damage to the rest of the party. Thompson thought his judgment was better than that of the Monmouth GOP screening committee when he awarded his county’s party line to Little when her home county leaders thought better. Bennett, while not yet chairman, supported Little in the primary against Ernesto Cullari. Bennett and Thompson headlined a fundraiser for Little.
When MMM questioned Thompson about Little’s FEC reports in May he said, “I have a hard enough time keeping my own campaign reports straight.” That flippant attitude is no longer acceptable.
Bennett relied on Little’s support to win the chairmanship by three votes. Little has been taking credit for Bennett’s victory at her weekly campaign meetings at the Keyport IHOP.
The Bayshore Tea Party Group’s leadership, despite having well earned reservations about Little, chose to support her over Cullari as an act of defiance towards the Monmouth GOP.
Thompson, Bennett and BTPG gave us this mess. They need to clean it up. Fast.
In a Quinnipac University poll released this morning, New Jersey voters indicate that they approve of the job the governor is doing by 54%-39%, the same margin the Christie scored in the university’s May poll.
Christie’s situation on the Seaside Heights boardwalk does not seem to have cost him likability points. Asked if they liked or didn’t like Christie, regardless of his policies, 55% of voters like him, to 35% who don’t. In May 57% said they liked him to 31% who said they didn’t.
Despite liking and approving of the governor, and not liking or approving of the legislature, more voters agree with the Democratic legislature that New Jersey should wait until state revenue figures improve before a tax cut is approved. 49% say to wait for the revenues. 43% say cut taxes now.
While New Jersey likes Christie and approves of the job he is doing, 53% think he would be a bad choice to be Mitt Romney’s running mate. 40% think he would be a good Veep choice.
In honor of Senator Bob Menendez crying, “twice choking back sobs” today as Poltickernj put it, because Joe Kyrillos is distinguishing himself as the pro-women candidate in New Jersey’s U.S Senate race, MMM is announcing a song parody contest with the theme being “Joe Kyrillos is the pro-woman candidate in the New Jersey U.S. Senate race.”
The contest is open to all readers of MoreMonmouthMusings. Submissions will be accepted until midnight on July 31st, or whatever time Art Gallagher wakes up on August 1. There is no limit on the number a submissions any one person or team of people can submit. Submissions can be made in the comments of this post or by sending a message to Art Gallagher on facebook. Submissions can be made in your real name or with a pseudonym. By submitting a parody you give up any copyright or right to profit monetarily from the parody.
The winning song will be made into a professional quality video produced by our friend and professional videographer Joe Schilp. MMM readers will be stars of the video. The video will be launched on YouTube the week after Labor Day
To get things started, MMM publisher Art Gallagher reached deep into the MMM archives to find Lightshines, a prolific parody writer for MMM and other sites in the late 2000’s. Art asked Lightshines to write a parody entitled “Don’t cry for me Bob Menendez” to the tune of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s “Don’t cry for me Argentina.” This is Lightshines’ first entry in the contest:
After witnessing the sad spectacle of Bob Menendez breakdown when addressing a Union County Day Care Center (he didn’t get his nap?) we channeled Eva Peron who, feeling Senator Bob was a little too corrupt even for her, had this to say:
Don’t cry for me, Bob Menendez The truth is we never liked you All through your Hudson days your dirty politics You kept no promise Now keep your distance
And as for fortune, and as for fame That didn’t do much for us Cause it seemed to the world that was all you desired
You’re an illusion You are not the solution you promised to be The answer was here all the time Defeat you and all of your grime
Don’t cry for me, Bob Menendez The truth is we never liked you All through your Hudson days your dirty politics You kept no promise Now keep your distance
Pick any song you like to write your parody. You can use “Don’t cry for me..” or any other song.
MMM is assembling a panel of judges who will select the final four parodies.
MMM readers will select the winner in early August.
Politickernj is reporting that U.S. Senator Bob Menendez cried emotionally, “twice choking back sobs,” at a Union City daycare center earlier today.
State Senator Joe Kyrillos’ claim that he is the “women’s candidate” in New Jersey the U.S. Senate race is reportedly what brought Menendez to tears.
Menendez and a cohort of Democratic women were at the Union City daycare center to take a page out of the Obama playbook by accusing Kyrillos of being anti-woman, according to a report on NJ.com
“That fact of the matter is, on all of the issues that matter most to the women of New Jersey, state Sen. Joe Kyrillos has been on the wrong side,” state Sen. Barbara Buono said at a campaign rally held in a Union City daycare center. “For every stride Sen. Menendez has made to uplift and support women in New Jersey and across the nation, Sen. Kyrillos and his allies took a step — a leap — backward.”
The Kyrillos campaign fired back with a statement from Communications Director Meaghan Cronin:
“Sadly, aided by some partisan politicians, Bob Menendez today tried to deflect from his record of failing women by attacking Joe Kyrillos. The truth is women have been hurt by Bob Menendez’s votes and policies. In fact, there are 780,000 more women unemployed today than there were three and a half years ago. What does Menendez’s record show: increased debt, reduced jobs and cuts to Medicare. No wonder he wants to draw focus away from that. While Menendez continues to play politics, a ticking time bomb awaits New Jersey families. While he continues to talk and not act, the threat of a massive tax increase that will hurt women and all taxpayers continues to grow. Bob Menendez promised us better, but gave us so much worse.”
Since a 1992 U.S. Supreme Court ruling (Quill v North Dakota) online sales have largely been exempt for state sales taxes. In Quill, SCOTUS ruled that sellers did not have to collect sales taxes unless they had a physical presence in the home state of the buyer.
Consumers in many states, including New Jersey, are required to pay the sales taxes on online purchases themselves. Few do and few states do anything to enforce the tax.
In 1992 online sales were not such a big deal. However 20 years later, America makes $200 billion per year in online retail purchases and states are losing out on $23 billion in sales tax revenue, according to a Washington Post report.
Large “brick and motar” retailers complain that the online exemption creates a pricing disadvantage for them and a cost, as consumers shop for items in their show rooms but then purchase items online at the lower price, often from smart phones while still in the retail show room.
Local retailer Vic Scudiery, owner Hazlet electronics seller IEI and the former Chairman of the Monmouth County Democratic Party, has long held that the state is losing out by not taxing online sales. Scudiery told MMM that IEI’s monthly sales tax paid to New Jersey was over $20 thousand before the majority of its sales shifted from store visits to the Internet. Now, Scudiery says his store generates less than $8000 per month in sales tax for New Jersey while overall revenues continue to grow.
Mega online retailer Amazon had long been opposed to collecting sales taxes, in part because the process of collecting and reporting sales taxes for thousand of jurisdictions is too cumbersome and confusing. But Amazon has abandoned that argument as it has changed its business model. As the company aggressively opening new distribution centers in many states, including New Jersey, to reduce the time and cost of its shipping of consumer products, it is cutting deals with states that would allow it avoid collecting sales tax for a year or two and get state income tax credits if they build and hire. In New Jersey, Amazon will build two huge distribution centers, create 1500 jobs. The company will start collecting New Jersey’s 7% sales tax from Jersey residents in July of next year under a voluntary agreement with the Christie administration.
NetChoice, a trade association lobbyist, who’s members clients include eBay, facebook, Overstock.com and Internet wine sellers, are continuing to fight sales taxes based on the complicated and cumbersome argument.
Bi-partisan federal legislation, The Marketplace Equality Act, would authorize states to collect sales tax from online retailers shipping products into their jurisdictions and require, that if the states choice to impose that tax collection on retailers, that they simplify the process and, in some circumstances, provide software to the sellers that would calculate the appropriate tax.
Republican governors, lead by Gov. Chris Christie, have dropped their long term opposition to taxing online sales and endorsed the Marketplace Equality Act, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Assemblyman Declan O’Scanlon called for fiscal accountability in Newark this week. You wouldn’t have known that unless you read The Star Ledger. The Asbury Park Press, the newspaper/pay site that covers O’Scanlon’s Monmouth County district missed it.
At issue is the $24 million in state aid that Newark is “due” this year, after the state taxpayers kicked in $32 million to Newark’s budget last year, in the face of blatant waste on the part of Mayor Cory Booker and the city council.
Booker squandered $3.7 million in legal and consulting fees in a fight with the New Jersey Devils hockey team over revenue sharing. Booker lost the fight, which even The Star Ledger says was a waste and should have been settled, and vowed to spend more—O’Scanlon says $1 million more, The Ledger says $100 thousand more—in appealing the ruling that favored The Devils. As the ruling stands, Newark owes the Devils $600 thousand.
Newark’s city council is disgrace. A “gaggle of blowhards,” Ledger editor Tom Moran calls them, who “awards itself the highest salaries in the state, along with a free car.” Newark’s city council is paid six times more than Jersey City’s city council, according to Moran. $3.45 million in salaries paid to the Newark city council in 2011.
Also at issue is that the overpaid council has yet to pass their budget that was due in February. Yet, they want the $24 million from Jersey taxpayers.
According to The Ledger, O’Scanlon said,
“Cory Booker is fighting an expensive personal vendetta with one hand while he has the other hand out expecting state aid”
and
“As the ranking Republican member of the Assembly Budget Committee, I cannot, in good conscience, imagine handing Newark another $24 million when the mayor is continuing to rack up legal fees and costs for litigation that could have been settled months ago,” O’Scanlon said. “The state should not be in the habit of bailing out towns and cities that are unwilling to help themselves.”
Oceanport Councilman Joe Irace sat down with William Richards, Director of New Media at The Hall Institute for Public Policy as part of the institute’s Hometown Solutions series.
William and Joe discuss Monmouth Park racetrack, Fort Monmouth, the challenges Oceanport has faced in recent years with uncertainty for both institutions, and what looks like a promising comeback for Monmouth Park.
