How Many Trucks/Men Does It Take To Change A Light Bulb?

I counted six trucks and eleven men at Rt. 36 and Broadway in the Leonardo section of Middletown this morning.

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Must Read: The Court That Broke New Jersey

If you want to understand what rule by liberal judges looks like on the state level, you need only look at New Jersey, which is teetering on bankruptcy though it remains one of America’s wealthiest states.  ~ Steven Malanga, writing in City Journal

If you want to understand how, despite being one of the wealthiest states in the country, New Jersey is teetering on the brink of fiscal disaster, read Steven Malanga’s The Court That Broke New Jersey.

If you want to know why no governor or state legislature can reduce New Jersey’s oppressive property taxes, read Steven Malanga’s The Court That Broke New Jersey.

Malanga traces the roots of New Jersey’s tyranical Supreme Court all the way back to Arthur Vanderbilt, the first Chief Justice under the 1947 state constitution.  In his opinion in Winberry v. Salisbury, Vanderbilt layed the foundation for judicial tyrnany by ruling that the court, not the legislature, has the power to make rules for the state judiciary.

That ruling set New Jersey’s judiciary apart from the court systems in most other states—as well as from the federal judiciary, which ultimately derives its authority from Congress. Some critics have even argued that Winberry violates the U.S. Constitution’s guarantee that every state must have a republican form of government. “Under the doctrine of Winberry v. Salisbury,” wrote New Jersey lawyer Anthony Kearns in a 1955 ABA Journal article, “we can only conclude that laws of practice and procedure are exclusively in the hands of men who are not elected.”

Malanga clearly lays out how New Jersey’s Supreme Court has taken over the state’s education policy and funding with no improvement in urban education to show for the $40 billion that has been wasted as a result of the Abbott decisions.  He lays out the history of how the court usurped local zoning power with the Mt. Laurel decisions and COAH.   He connects the dots in explaining how those two extra-constitutional power grabs have resulted in massive wealth redistribution, with no societal benefit, and an oppressive system of goverments.

Malanga stressed the importance of Christie’s promise to reshape the court with judges who will interpret the constitution rather than relating to it as a “living document.”  However, he is not optimistic because of “…a Democrat-controlled legislature that’s often happy to dodge responsibility for heavy spending by letting the court mandate it.”

Hat tip to InTheLobby for bring this important article to our attention.

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Monmouth Poll: Voters Like Christie, They Don’t Like Property Taxes

Patrick Murray has a new poll out this morning.

55% of New Jersey registered voters approve of Governor Chris Christie’s job performance. 37% disapprove.  Among men Christie has a 17% net positive rating.  Among women, net positive 6%

While still upside down, the state legislature’s ratings have improved.  39% disapprove of the legislature, the best rating they have had since 2007.  56% disapproved in April of 2010.  The legislature’s approval rating remained steady at 35%.  Murray didn’t say so, but it would stand to reason that voters feel better about the legislature due to Christie promoting how they have compromised with him.

Property taxes remain the most pressing concern of New Jersey residents.  Murray asked respondents to rank Trenton’s priorties on a 1-10 scale:

New Jersey‘s Pressing Issues

(rated on a 10 point scale)

Tier 1:

8.9 Reducing property taxes

Tier 2:

7.7 Reducing income taxes

7.6 Increasing minimum wage

7.4 Reforming teacher tenure

7.3 Raising millionaires tax

Tier 3:

7.0 Reforming drug sentencing laws

6.7 Restructuring higher education

Tier 4:

5.8 Expanding charter schools

5.1 Same sex marriage

While same sex marriage  is a low priority for New Jersey residents, 52% now favor allowing same sex couples to marry compared to 34% who oppose. For the first time since the question has been polled, residents who strongly favor same sex marriage exceed residents who strongly oppose by a 32% to 25% margin.

The poll, including data tables and Murray’s write up can be found here.

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Super Celebration at MetLife Stadium, Tuesday at 3PM

Following the Canyon of Heroes parade in lower Manhattan, the New Jersey Super Bowl Champion Giants and Governor Chris Christie will rally at MetLife Stadium.  Admission and parking are free.

MetLife gates will open to the public at 2:15 PM.  The rally is scheduled to start at 3PM and last until 3:30. PM

Christie was a guest of Boomer and Carton on WFAN radio this morning.

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Sweeney Calls Rutgers-Camden Students and Faculty Protesters A “Lynch Mob”

Senate President Steve Sweeney called Rutgers-Camden students and faculty members who were protesting the proposed merger of their school into Rowan University a “lynch mob,” according to a post at Blue Jersey.

I wonder if Congressman John Lewis will be coming back to Trenton to slam Sweeney.  Lewis came to Trenton last week to denounce Governor Chris Christie’s “in-artful” comments about the 1960’s civil rights movement in the South when calling for a referendum on same sex marriage.

I wonder if Assembly Speaker Shelia Oliver will give Sweeney a history lesson about language that African Americans find offensive and then go on the Al Sharpton Show to talk about it.

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West New York Mayor, a Democrat, Endorses Kyrillos Over Menendez

West New York Mayor Felix Roque is endorsing Republican U.S. Senate candidate Joe Kyrillos over his fellow Hudson County Democrat, Senator Robert Menendez, in this November’s election, according to a report at Politickernj.

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No Impropriety Found With Gabrielan’s County Job

Freeholder Director John Curley said that county administrators have reviewed Randall Gabrielan’s financial records with the Monmouth County Historical Commission and that “everything was found to be in compliance.”  Curley had requested the review last week upon learning of the news that Gabrielan had been signing purchase orders as an official of the Middletown Library for sales of books that he made to the library.

Gabrielan submitted his letter of resignation as president and trustee of the Middletown Library, dated tomorrow, to Mayor Tony Fiore this morning.

Gabrielan is paid $34.75 per hour for his county job as Executive Director of the Monmouth County Historical Society, earning over $36,000 and pension credits in 2011, according to Curley.

“That’s a good question,” Curley said when asked why the Historical Commission has a paid executive director, “That will be a topic of discussion at the upcoming budget meetings.”

The Freeholder Director noted that Gabrielan’s predecessor at the Historical Commission, the late George Moss of Rumson, peformed the executive director duties of the commission as a volunteer.

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Middletown Library President Resigns

Randall Gabrielan. Photo Credit: visitmonouth.com

Randall Gabrielan’s tenure as president and trustee of the Middletown Library is over.

Gabrielan submitted his resignation to Mayor Tony Fiore this morning, almost three weeks after Fiore asked him to step down.   Fiore asked for the resignation on January 25 upon discovering that Gabrielan, an author of history books about local area towns, had been signing purchase orders as an officer of the library for sales of his own books.

“In his letter of resignation Gabrielan admitted that he was wrong and that he understood my position in asking for his resignation,” said Fiore, “I appreciate that he did the right thing for the Middletown Library and taxpayers by stepping down.   I also appreciate his many years of service to the library.”

Gabrielan, who earns $36,000 per year as the Executive Director of the Monmouth County Historical Commission, could not be reached for comment.

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Higher Education Restructuring

Last month Governor Chris Christie announce a complex restructuring of New Jersey’s medical schools.

Under the proposal,  Newark’s UMDNJ would be replaced by New Jersey Health Sciences University, University Hospital would be placed under non-profit management and Rutgers-Camden and its law school would become part of Rowan University.  Cooper Medical School in Camden would become part of Rowan.

Mark Magyar has an excellent piece on the proposed restructuring at NJSpotlight.

Alarmed by the prospect of losing the prestige that comes with the Rutgers name, many at Rutgers Camden, including our friend Brian McGovern of Save Jersey are fighting the move to Rowan.  Save Jersey has become Save Rutgers Camden today with a lengthy post about how to legally block the merger.

Magyar in his NJSpotlight piece noted that the name of the South Jersey institution is important to advocates of the merger as well:

The absorption of Rutgers-Camden, with its 6,000-plus students, into Rowan, with more than 11,000 students, was not so much a matter of numbers as of name. Sources said that the family of Henry Rowan, who donated $100 million to expand his alma mater, Glassboro State College, into Rowan University, balked at the idea of the Rutgers name displacing Rowan.

Furthermore, Norcross, as head of Cooper University Medical Center, had been heavily involved in the creation of the new Cooper Medical School at Rowan University, and both he and Sweeney have talked about the importance of a South Jersey university that would not be a stepchild to the much larger Rutgers University in New Brunswick, as the Camden campus was sometimes perceived to be.

The South Jersey merger with Rowan has also gotten some push back from Rutgers-Camden faculty,  Rutgers retiring president Richard McCormick.  Colleen O’Dea outlines reports both sides of the controversy in a  NJSpotlight piece today.

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photo/graphic: NYPost.com

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