We who have lived in New Jersey for many years do find it hard to understand where all the negative thoughts have come from, which has become more prevalent. Can it be that we are a fractured state controlled by separate (Tammany Halls) mentality and leadership with their extreme home rule mentality and it is also the same thinking of the general public that their selfishness overtakes the greater need of the state?
We are either cursed or blessed also by having so many groups and diversified organizations who are at loggerhead with one another. May I give a few illustrations in order to elucidate?
+ We are paying a dollar or more over a normal price for a gallon of gas, but we will not bend and we will beat our chests when we are asked to pay a few pennies as a tax in order to fix the Transportation Trust Fund. Why? Because we do not trust our legislators and elected officials to play fair and then we put the same clowns into the same office.
+ We want and need reusable energy which is available all around us but we then hear stupid excuses or selfish ones – “not here,” “go elsewhere” (Not In My Back Yard).
+ We can have much needed heating gas (possibly available) from the continental shelf. Not only would it keep the spiraling cost level or down, but it also would be a tremendous source of tax revenue as in the Gulf states and Alaska have and it also will be helping to keep a lower property tax base.
+ We have an island in the Delaware River which can be used for all sorts of energy producing projects, but now there is infighting for its use.
+ There is more than talk about putting in a tunnel at a tremendous cost, and I doubt if one will see it before 2020. They don’t even want to hear about putting up a bridge, which can be one-quarter the cost, one-quarter the time and have more uses than the tunnel. Which one has deeper pockets?
I think you have an idea why New Jersey, with its cumbersome overburdened home rule mentality, is the way it is. How many years has the property tax situation been before the public and politicians to resolve? Many. Results? A big zero.
Milton Itell
Lakewood