Opinion: Heads They Win, Tails You Lose
Andrew Sidamon-Eristoff In 1866, Surrogate Gideon J. Tucker wrote that “[n]o man’s life, liberty or property are safe while the Legislature is in session.” Over a hundred years later, the New Jersey Legislature is doing its very best to keep Surrogate Tucker’s warning pertinent by once again advancing special-interest legislation that reaches for a new low…
Great article from someone who digs into the details
“Similarly, the board will bear none of the risk that its investment performance might fall short of expectations. In both instances, employers – meaning local taxpayers – will be on the hook”
Clearly the government empl0yees are smarter than our pols and the rest of us. Reward without risk. The Senate’s unanimous decision to support this means the pols and union have lined up against the rest of us.
This reminds me of the gas tax which I thought was not the worst idea as it would relieve taxes on pensions and eliminate the insane estate tax threshold. Then we find out they can automatically increase the tax again if they overspend the budget or people stop driving and the gas tax doesn’t cover the principal and interest of the bonds.
Last count we 550,000 public workers at all levels of state, county, school and local towns and authorities.
There are some solutions to avoid the coming fiscal death spiral which we may already be in but not know it.
1. Massive consolidation of the 565 towns and 599 school boards.
2. Across the board headcount reductions. Eliminating 50,000 public employees at an average cost of $60K per year will save $3 billion a year.
3. Pensions change to 401K for each employee – self directed in mutual funds
4. Voucher for health insurance along with health saving accounts.
5. Root out and tax the underground economy
Great information from Andrew Sidamon-Eristoff about how government in NJ is dysfunctional. Government is created for the people, not the special interests. It’s time decisions were based on the interests “of the people”.