The Ridge Nightfly

The Bernards Democrat website has finally reawakened after a long 3-month slumber.¹

In keeping with the current Democrat trend nation-wide of embracing style rather than content, the BerDems are also setting up a “social networking site”, currently empty except for the updates from the admin Jonathan “Bondage and Discipline” Cloud, he of the fondness for fedoras and the thrill of being tied up (by his own admission). And a FaceBook page and yadda yadda…

So much for current techno fads. What will they actually say? Change! Hope! Working hard! And, at least on the local level, not much else. In fact, Allan, who allegedly decided to run based on the issues surrounding Millington Quarry, was quoted in this week’s Bernardsville News as being pleased with the progress the (all-Republican) township committee is making on the problem.

In short, Allan and his running mate, Whatzizname, are running strictly on the hope (appropriate!) that an Obama tsunami and a successful, well-funded, county-wide Freeholder effort will sweep them along into office.²

1. The site admin does not have dates enabled on postings — hmn — but Bill Allan, stuck in the mud but honest, dated his most recent post as “April 13″ in the body of the text.
2. The GOP has problems on the county level. Same old, same old candidates and a long-in-the-tooth power structure could see at least one Dem get onto the board.

The cost so far to keep you from learning the contents of the Corzine-Katz emails: $54,000.

But that’s not all! (As they say on TV.) The account doesn’t include anything generated by the A-G’s Law Division, and the tally only runs up to June 3rd. So keep sending in those state tax returns and paying that sales tax.

Trenton’s answer to the missing $8 billion in school construction money? Borrow $3.9 million more.

True, in most places not a penny would be added until the frauds, cheats and scammers who absconded with the original largess were tracked down and prosecuted, but this is New Jersey. We know that the money disappeared into the pockets of friends and contributors to the urban Democrat politicians who run things. Government of the bribees, for the bribers.

The fact that this is corruption on the level of a Third World country means nothing to a Democrat majority who are running the state into bankruptcy. They are banking (and we mean banking) on the fact that US Attorney Chris Christie can only prosecute so many crooks a year. The odds are in their favor. Besides, if Obama wins in November, Christie will be out of a job next year. Menendez and Lautenberg will see to that.

The only good news about that is, he’ll have time to run for Governor.

The new third round COAH affordable housing quotas are already going down as one of the most ill-conceived and coercive acts of state planning in NJ history (and that’s saying something!) but it now seems to have even more hidden consequences.

Towns adjacent to the new Xanadu development in the Meadowlands may be in line to have their COAH numbers increased by 1,600 units, despite the fact that the development is on state land and was exempt from any local regulation under their individual Planning Boards.

The fall-out is even more wide-spread. In Florham Park (Morris County) the locals cut a deal with developers to re-purpose the old Exxon Research corporate site with a mixture of residential and commercial use.¹ Little did they know that this would trigger major COAH obligations, including the land used as a new training facility for the NY Jets football team.

Senate President Codey, whose home turf of West Orange has also been hammered by COAH, has vowed to introduce legislation to exempt state land development from COAH quotas. It will be interesting to see if that makes it through the Assembly, where Speaker Roberts is a COAH fanatic.

1. Florham Park has an adversarial relationship with its neighbors, as it is prone to placing intensive development at its town border, where the traffic and other ill effects will be borne primarily by the surrounding towns, while it gets the ratables. In this case, the property borders Madison.

Speaking of environmental hypocrisy, NJ residents need look no further than the Highlands Council and its on-going snafu. They have been deliberating for almost four years on a plan to preserve the only large-scale source of drinking water in the northern half of the state. They still have not voted on a final plan.

Granted, they have been under-funded and under-staffed, as well as being subjected to a level of political interference that is high even for New Jersey. So far they have been sued by a group of farmers as well as Hunterdon County itself.

Now a developer, Anthony Pio Costa, wants to throw off the two members of the 15-person Council who work for environmental groups, because they are “biased.”

Mr. Pio Costa has no problem with Kurt Alstede, who, as the only professional farmer on the Council, brings a particular point of view to the proceedings. Nor does he worry about the myriad political officials who make up the majority of the seats and who bring their own bias to the table.

In fact, the Highlands Coalition (a separate non-profit group) has filed a report with the state Ethics Board about the fact that several Council members who hold elected office accepted campaign contributions from groups with real estate interests in the Highlands region that are up for possible exemptions from the new rules (whenever they are done). The matter, as with all things Highlands-related, is pending.

New Jersey has a government that will pass meaningless statements in support of unproven environmental efforts such as global warming, but when it comes to actually enforcing rules that could make a difference at the local level, it drops the ball.

Xanadu design is less than eco-friendly

No solar — active or passive — no wind, no proven stormwater remediation, no gray water irrigation, no nothing.

No protest from the government.

In New Jersey a “lean” budget includes unauthorized borrowing of $3.9 billion as opposed to $690 million for “debt control”.

It includes increasing the retirement age from 60 to 62, but only for new hires (and that’s not 100% certain yet).

BTW, that $3.9 billion is for school construction, to augment the $8 billion that diappeared during the last round of construction. “School construction” is the new Christmas tree.

After all the hoop-de-do, the Dems running the state cut the budget by $600 million.

No small sum to us peasants, but a less than 2% reduction overall. And given the state’s history of funky accounting practises, we doubt that the figure would hold up under scrutiny.

And they didn’t really cut money to their contituencies. Other than a $90 million cut to hospitals (which will impact inner cities to some extent) they cut $170 million in municipal aid, the main brunt of which falls on small suburban and rural towns. State property tax relief was reduced; affecting home owners but not renters.

Corzine claims to have eliminated so-called “Christmas tree items” (”earmarks” to you out of staters). We are dubious, since the budget still contains massive amounts of pork.

The good news is that the mostly beneficial Department of Agriculture has been spared while the graft-ridden Department of Commerce has been eliminated.

All of the above is contingent to some extent on state revenues remaining as projected. Keep in mind that the budget sets aside a pool of almost $700 milllion for debt reduction, which will dangle tantalizingly in front of the politicians, just waiting for an excuse to grab some or all of it.

Whatever plans septagenarian Dem candidate Bill Allen might have in his campaign for Bernards Committee, they currently do not include sprucing up the Bernards Democrat website.

The most recent entry is for a forum on global warming dated April 13. Its author is… Bill Allen.

Allen is, for all intents and purposes, the only Democrat in Bernards: the only one to have won a campaign, the only one to have maintained a voice in public. The local Democrat Municipal Committee is Allen and whoever else he can convince to show up. Interestingly, the average age of the DMC appears to be well above retirement.¹

Whoever is moving into Bernards to take advantage of the convenient commuting and the excellent schools, they aren’t participating Democrats.

1. The previous Dem candidate, Larry Nault, was also well into his 70s.

Perhaps overlooked in the flood of political news last Tuesday, was the spanking of Kate Whitman in the Republican primary for Congressional District 7. Whitman, who has never held elected or appointed office, ran for Somerset County Freeholder last year. She lost to Patricia Walsh, despite waving around fistfuls of cash.

This year she ran for Congress (still without ever holding office) in a zoo of a race that at one point had over a dozen contenders. The final field narrowed down to seven, of which three had any chance: Whitman, state Senator Leonard Lance and anti-abortion candidate Martin Marks.

Once again Whitman downplayed her lack of experience and trumpeted her ability to dip into deep pockets. She also ran a campaign that was, for lack of a better term, a parody of a conservative candidate. When the rank and file did not respond she went negative, attacking Lance for a few minor peccadilloes that were easily explained. Towards the end of the campaign she released polls indicating she was running “neck and neck” with Lance.

Imagine her chagrin to watch herself beaten 2-1 by the veteran Lance. Even women voters seemed turned off by her lack of experience and her negative attacks. In passing, she burned through whatever good will she may have had in Somerset County where she lives, but whose delegates endorsed Lance.

The obvious thing to do at this point would be to go back to rural Peapack-Gladstone and spend a few years raising her kids, serving on a board or committee and maybe run for school board or other local office. It should be clear that the Whitman name holds no special magic for voters.

Somehow, however, we doubt that will happen. Be prepared to see her make another run at freeholder next year, or possibly go up against Denise Coyle or Pete Biondi in the Assembly. Hubris is a funny thing.