WILL DUPLICITOUS POLITICIANS HELP TURN NEW JERSEY TURN RED?

By Rose Ann Scotti

The Trump administration is suing the state to block its rules that limit law enforcement cooperation with ICE and allow criminal aliens to escape into our communities. According to Attorney General William Barr, these policies are textbook examples of misguided ideology triumphing over common sense law enforcement and are created by “idealistic”public officials who have offered “misleading rhetoric” to justify them. I believe the attorney general is being kind when he views these actions as those of “idealistic public officials”. I believe they are more the work of disingenuous politicians that will do everything to fool citizens into thinking they are working in their best interest, when they are really counting a vote here, and a vote there, as they march toward their next election victory. The Murphy administration’s policies put the interests of illegal aliens above all legal residents. Granting illegal aliens taxpayer funded legal aid and granting them college tuition assistance are two of the most egregious, and a slap in the face to beleaguered New Jersey taxpayers.

The march toward a sanctuary state was actually commenced back in 2017 as reported in a February 14th article: “In light of President Trump’s recent crackdown on sanctuary cities the state Senate planned a vote Monday on a bill that would reimburse municipalities if they lose any federal funding because they shield undocumented residents from U.S immigration authorities.” The author of the bill was Senate President Stephen Sweeney, at that time, a Murphy ally, who was calling for a boycott of the President’s executive order ordering local law enforcement to cooperate with ICE in the apprehension of criminal illegal aliens. Sweeney vowed to post the bill again when all Democrat senators were present. “It’ll pass”, he said. I guess taxpayers’ pockets were not picked on that one because Democrats had to put on sheepskins to face the electorate in November.

In another example of disingenuous duplicity, Sweeney has spent time travelling around the state pontificating about how he was going to finally reign in property taxes with a plan to regionalize the administrative functions of K-8 districts and give us relief from our school tax burden. Sounds like a good idea to me. However, it was announced recently that legislative action on the plan was postponed until after the November elections. Why? Probably because the Democrats had been pushing legislation that would allow certain school districts to exceed the 2% cap on property tax increases without going to voters! I guess we’ll have to hold our breadths a bit more so we don’t drown. Or, at least hold them until we turn New Jersey Red.

Rose Ann Scotti is a former mayor of Colts Neck and a former president of the Colts Neck Board of Education