Before he became president of MF Global, the bankrupt brokerage firm that lost $1.2 billion in client money, Bradley Abelow spent time as New Jersey’s treasurer and former Gov. Jon Corzine’s chief of staff. In those roles, Abelow served alongside Lisa Jackson, who led the state environmental protection department and eventually succeeded Abelow as Corzine’s chief of staff. Jackson now directs the Environmental Protection Agency in the Obama administration, and Abelow, despite a full-time job at MF Global, is still serving alongside her. The former Goldman Sachs executive holds the title …
The Fitch ratings agency announced on Wednesday that it has downgraded New Jersey’s bond rating to AA- from AA. A press release from the ratings agency placed the blame for the downgrade squarely on the state’s massive unfunded pension liabilities – estimated at about $55 billion. The release notes recent efforts by the governor and legislature to reduce those liabilities, but maintains, “meeting the requisite increases in pension contributions will be challenging and is likely to conflict with other long term challenges, such as property tax relief, school funding, and …
Education reform is taking shape across the nation, and for many states, the next wave of change is coming as state leaders push for teacher tenure reform. Florida, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Nevada, and New Jersey have proposed to eliminate or dramatically restructure the current form of teacher tenure. Additionally, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg “has campaigned aggressively for the state to end ‘last in, first out’ protections for teachers.” At present, public school teachers receive tenure after a few years of teaching, at which point they can be fired only …
The Obama Administration’s original stimulus package includes $5 billion for a weatherization program (an early version of cash for caulkers). Perhaps because it involves spending huge sums of money, the Administration seems quite proud of the policy. Energy Secretary Steven Chu called it “one of our signature programs.” In this case, however, “signature program” appears to mean signing blank checks. State Auditor Stephen Eells recently reported to law makers in New Jersey on the Garden State’s $119 million portion of this federal program. Though he only audited a $613,600 portion, …
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) announced today that he is standing by his decision to cancel the under-construction ARC (Access to the Regional Core) rail tunnel under the Hudson River from New Jersey to New York. According to the AP, Christie was given four financial options for salvaging the project, but said no agreement could guarantee that New Jersey taxpayers would not pay more than $2.7 billion for the completed project. Earlier this month when Christie first voiced concern for the project, Wendell Cox defended his decision at Newgeography.com: …
Would you like a $14-billion taxpayer-funded tunnel in your town? How about a $500 million light rail train to nowhere? As state and local governments are under crushing budget constraints, mega-sized infrastructure boondoggles are cropping up all over the country. With the promise of “free money” from the federal government, these projects are proving too tempting for state governments to turn down. In the City of Detroit, a $500 million light rail train is being built to connect the downtown area with outlying suburbs. Critics say that the train is …
Funding for public education amid budget cuts and a tight economy is creating a political pressure cooker in New Jersey, as Gov. Chris Christie (R) and the New Jersey Education Association butt heads over education spending. In this must-watch video, the plain spoken Christie stands his ground when a local teacher complains about the governor’s budget decisions. Christie says teachers’ jobs could have been spared if the state’s teachers unions would have come to the table and made some small sacrifices. Watch the video and tell us what you think …
Does Sharia law allow a husband to rape his wife, even in America? A New Jersey trial judge thought so. In a recently overturned case, a “trial judge found as a fact that defendant committed conduct that constituted a sexual assault” but did not hold the defendant liable because the defendant believed he was exercising his rights over the victim. Fortunately, a New Jersey appellate court reversed the trial judge. But make no mistake about it: this is no isolated incident. We will see more cases here in the United …
When Education Secretary Arne Duncan first unveiled his Race to the Top (RttT) program in July of last year, he admitted that “when I was superintendent of the Chicago Public Schools, I did not always welcome calls from the U.S. Department of Education. That’s because the department, from its inception in 1980, has traditionally been a compliance-driven agency.” But, he continued, that was all about to change because his RttT program, funded by $4.35 billion of economic stimulus cash, would be a “competition” that scrutinized “state applications for a coordinated …
The fact is that New Jersey lied and got caught, but taxpayers everywhere may benefit. Yesterday, the State of New Jersey settled with the SEC on charges that the state committed securities fraud by failing to disclose the true state of its state employees pension funds. This admission is an important step toward ending accounting policies that allow states to claim that the state teachers and employees’ pension funds are fully funded, when they really have billions of dollars of deficits. By using accounting tricks, New Jersey claimed to have …
