School Budget Votes in New Jersey

The war of words in New Jersey became a war of votes yesterday as voters went to the polls and considered the school budget proposals for next year.

Basically Governor Christie called for the budgets to be defeated while blaming the teacher’s union for much of the financial crunch.

Unfortunately most Americans are idiots and many appeared to have listened. 54% of the plans, 260 out of 479, appear to have been defeated. This would be the largest percentage since 1976 when 56% failed.

But here is an interesting point to ponder. In Bergen County, arguably the most affluent county in the state, 74%, 55 out of 74, school budgets passed. How come?

In my home town of River Vale the budget was narrowly approved by a vote of 1,077-1,060. The Pascack Valley Regional Budget, which River Vale Shares with Woodcliff Lake and Hillsdale, also passed by a vote of 3,823-3,702.

The obvious conclusion here is that the most affluent people aren’t feeling the economic crunch as badly as everyone else. This should not be a surprise. These are the same people that have gotten the lion’s share of the benefit from the economic growth over the past 30 years.

However, trying to undo negotiated contracts and attacking the quality of education in a state ranked in the top 5 in education are not the ways to resolve budget issues. Certainly there should be some give on the teacher’s union side but Christie’s ham handed approach to “negotiation” is a crock.

In the meantime Christie doesn’t appear to have any problem spending millions on additional staff including two, not one, but two, administrative assistants for his wife.

This is another example of Republicans providing a scapegoat for the working and middle classes to blame for difficulties which in fact are the result of the typical Republican policy of taking care of the rich while screwing everyone else.

Blame illegal immigrants, blame minorities, blame the teacher’s union, blame big government, the Republicans always find someone for the gullible electorate to blame. By the time the dupes realize they’ve been lied to, if they ever figure that out, they’ve invested too much emotion into the lie to back away from it.

It’s a great strategy that has worked many times. All it takes to implement is a total lack of integrity. This is why I will never vote for a Republican.

As for fats, he could probably resolve the state’s budget deficit simply by going on a diet.