At this point in the election season, I am stumped. I cannot tell you at this moment if I am going to vote for Democrat Jon Corzine, Republican Chris Christie or independent candidate Chris Daggett to lead New Jersey’s ship of state for the next four years.
Right now I don’t know enough about Daggett to make an informed decision about him, but what he certainly has going for him is that he is neither Corzine nor Christie.
Of course I know Daggett has no chance to win as an independent candidate and that anyone who votes for him will be making a symbolic gesture that lets the world at large know we think that the Republican candidate and the Democratic candidate are just too lame to vote for.
I have been reading the state’s newspapers and following the campaign for governor as it has begun to take shape. As Corzine and Christie have come out of the starting gate, neither has taken the lead in my mind and my vote today would be for “Undecided.”
In trying to make an honest assessment of the candidates, I am left with the following conclusions thus far:
Corzine, I believe, understands that property taxes are crushing many New Jersey residents. I think he has implemented policies that have helped to slow the rate of growth in our property taxes, although he has not done enough to cause the annual increases in property taxes to cease.
Now, the governor does not control what the elected officials in an individual municipality can do. Local elected officials are the people who decide how much to pay police officers, township professionals and municipal employees.
Local elected school board officials determine how much to pay teachers and administrators. The consequences of the decisions that are made by local officials hit the taxpayer right in the pocket.
In some ways, they, too, need to be held accountable on Election Day.
In my opinion, for whatever reason, neither Corzine nor his Department of Education has done enough to address the inequities that exist in New Jersey’s school funding formula.
Please explain to me, Gov. Corzine, why it costs more than $22,000 to educate a student in the Asbury Park school district compared to $10,000 to $12,000 per pupil in many suburban school districts.
Gov. Corzine, do you consider the fact that a school district such as Asbury Park spends more than double per pupil compared to what other school districts spend to be a positive achievement of your first term? How do you allow this situation to continue?
Gov. Corzine, do you have a plan to reduce the amount of money being spent per pupil in Asbury Park and other school districts that have shown no bottom to the educational well?
Gov. Corzine, why should I, as a resident of a suburban community that gets a limited return on the money its residents pay to the state, vote for you? What have you done for me in the past four years? By my account, not much.
And then there is Chris Christie, who was the U.S. attorney for New Jersey during the administration of President George W. Bush.
Christie made a name for himself by convicting more than 100 public officials on corruption charges. As far as I can tell in this campaign, he should have stuck with his strong suit – the legal system.
Christie has offered no plan to address the serious issues our state faces, including the intolerable school funding inequities and the morass of the New Jersey Council on Affordable Housing, whose changing rules and regulations are so hard to comprehend they guarantee that little, if any, affordable housing is actually built.
During a recent appearance in Middletown, Christie vowed that if he were elected governor, he would not raise taxes to close a projected deficit in the state’s budget.
“I’m not going to raise taxes on people who can’t afford them,” our Middletown newspaper, the Independent, quoted the candidate as saying.
Mr. Christie, does that mean you are planning to raise taxes on people who can afford them? And just who would that be? Here’s a hint, no one can afford the taxes in New Jersey anymore and there should not be any need to raise them.
We are sending Trenton plenty of money. Use it more efficiently!
Christie or Corzine, Corzine or Christie, Huey and Dewey, or Dewey and Louie, or Huey and Louie, take your pick and pick your poison. Neither one of these guys is setting the world on fire.
Mark Rosman is a managing editor with Greater Media Newspapers. He may be reached at [email protected].