Ten Days Left

I must point out this excellent editorial at the Trenton Times supporting Gov. Corzine's long-term fixes but questioning his words to the unions earlier this week, as well as discussing the motivations of the legislators:

Also driving their angst is the re-appearance of the "T" word. It's been dusted off, by people who should know better, to be used against anyone who dares vote for a tax increase, even if it means correcting years of bad fiscal policy and rescuing state government from draconian cuts in services. The truth of the matter is that New Jersey got to this crisis in a bipartisan way. Governors from both parties have tapped pension funds as a way to balance budgets or have increased the state's bond debt rather than pay as they go for programs deemed too important to cut. And legislators, for their part, have been more than accommodating to the powerful public workers' unions, pumping up retirement benefits without contributing enough to the pension fund to pay for the largess later on.

In a discussion about whether or not to pare down state workers' benefits, it's often brought up that private sector workers don't get anything near the benefits of private sector employees. State workers sometimes comment that the ideal would be to raise private sector benefits, not lower state workers'.

They're right. However, in an ideal situation, I would've had a pony when I was growing up. Of course I didn't, because I lived in a family on a budget. New Jersey is a family on a budget- or has to begin living like one. We can no longer afford extrordinary benefit packages like the state workers have been recieving for years.

Corzine did say something very accurate at the Trenton union rally; he said that the budget negotiations were not the place to re-negotiate union contracts. We may not even be able to rework them, for established workers anyway. No matter what, we do need to revisit this issue in the future. We simply can't afford all these ponies.

So, I've written my legislators to tell them my opinon on the budget. I've yet to hear back from any of them as to what they plan to do or vote for in these budget negotiations (which bothers me, since they usually respond rather quickly, but I digress.) Everyone in Trenton is doing what they feel like they have to do- some arguing to look good for reelection, some arguing based on polls, some fighting for the most responsible budget proposed in years.

Maybe Corzine will hold tough and the government will shut down. Maybe the Dems in the legislature will stand up for what needs to be done and we'll get a new budget short on one-time gimmicks and long on responsible cuts and revenue increasers. Maybe free ponies will come from the sky.

More likely, the budget proposal will get hacked to bits by politicians who focus more on polls and re-election than the long term financial health of Our Fair State.

I've said it before and I'll say it again- write your legislators and tell them how you feel, what's important to you in this process and ask them to tell you what they will do about it. They've only got ten more days of budget fighting.

(Cross-posted at bluejersey.net)