Gov. Murphy’s Budget: The Special Interests Win, NJ Loses
Posted On02/24/2021 byGov. Murphy is out with his FY2022 budget. Four facts stand out: Murphy is increasing spending to $44.8 billion, a 10% increase over last year. Murphy is devoting over 14% of this budget – $6.4 billion – to shore up NJ’s worst-in-the-nation public pension system. While making the full payment may seem like the right…Read More
NJ Education Aid: The Data Show that NJ Has a Serious Outmigration Problem; NJ Policy Perspective Is Wrong to Assert Otherwise.
Posted On02/22/2021 byNJ Education Aid published some of its excellent, data-driven work in NJ Education Report, this time focusing on the hard numbers about NJ’s outmigration problem. These facts are important in and of themselves because NJ policy-makers should recognize that NJ is losing the competition with other states for people, wealth and businesses. But these facts…Read More
Mayor Spiller: Do You Stand by Your Statement that Teachers Must Be Vaccinated before Schools Reopen?
Posted On02/19/2021 byRather than leading, NJEA VP/Mayor Sean Spiller is playing a double game in Montclair’s dispute over reopening schools. In totally predictable fashion, Spiller’s conflict of interest appears to be dictating his contradictory public positions. On the one hand, Spiller unequivocally told the New York Times that schools should only reopen when it’s safe and that “vaccination…Read More
Court Ruling Keeps Montclair Schools Closed. NJEA VP Spiller Agrees but Where Is Mayor Spiller?
Posted On02/15/2021 byThe Montclair Local reports that a Chancery Court has denied a preliminary injunction that would have forced Montclair teachers to end their boycott of the Montclair school district’s reopening plan. This means that Montclair schools will remain all-remote at least until March 9, when the court will hold its next hearing. Too bad for Superintendent…Read More
In Montclair, with the “Teachers Union on Three Sides of the Table,” Schools Remain Closed
Posted On02/11/2021 byDerrell Bradford captures the situation in Montclair perfectly in his excellent piece for Eduction Next, “A Rolling Teacher Strike Is Why Schools Are Closed.” With NJEA VP Sean Spiller as a mayor who can appoint the school board, the teacher union’s influence does indeed reach three sides of the bargaining table. The real-world impact…Read More
Jersey Jazzman Provides Sound Research for Fordham Institute. Why Not for NJ Policy Perspective?
Posted On02/10/2021 byMark Weber (a.k.a., Jersey Jazzman) authored a recent report for the Fordham Institute that showed that, contrary to what is commonly assumed, charter schools do not drain money away from traditional school districts. This is quite a surprise coming from Weber, given that he and his usual employer, New Jersey Policy Perspective (NJPP), have consistently…Read More
Under Gov. Murphy: Property Taxes UP, Income Taxes UP, Corporate Taxes UP, Gas Taxes UP
Posted On02/09/2021 byNJ Spotlight reports that NJ property taxes were up 1.8% from 2019 to 2020. BuryPensions calculates that they actually rose 2.4%. In any event, they are up. But so were income taxes on the wealthy, corporate taxes and gas taxes. The bottom line is that under Gov. Murphy, taxes are UP, UP, UP and UP….Read More
What a Shame! It’s Final: Mondelez Is Leaving NJ and 600 Jobs Are Gone
Posted On02/05/2021 byCredit to BuryPensions for catching this. The Mondelez (owner of Nabisco) plant in Fair Lawn is shutting down. That’s 600 jobs that disappear with it. What a shame. NJ citizens must remember that NJ has had the worst tax climate for businesses in the nation FOR SEVEN STRAIGHT YEARS, and that Gov. Murphy just raised…Read More
Where do you stand on vaccinations for Montclair teachers, VP/Mayor Spiller?
Posted On02/04/2021 byThere has been a lot of reporting on the Montclair schools re-opening dispute, but that the press has neglected to ask NJEA Vice president/Montclair Mayor Sean Spiller a very important question: where does he stand on vaccinations for teachers? As Sunlight detailed in its recent report “CONFLICT OF INTEREST: Mayor Spiller Sides with His Union…Read More
Rather than Address His Conflicts of Interest, Spiller Hurls Mud and Falsehoods (Again).
Posted On02/02/2021 bySunlight is able to use the same headline as it did last May during the mayoral election because NJEA Vice President/Montclair Mayor Sean Spiller is once again resorting to hurling mud and falsehoods in order to deflect attention away from his all-too-real, ongoing conflict of interest. Recall that last May, after Sunlight’s report detailed candidate…Read More