The New Jersey Reckoning

New Jersey Governor Jon Corzine has unveiled a budget that would actually reduce state expenditures by a modest amount over the prior year budget (something accomplished only 3 times in the past 40+ years).

Among the proposals is the elimination of three state departments/agencies, and other workforce cuts.

That, of course, has got the state unions in a tizzy. That also has Carla Katz on the warpath (and she happens to be Corzine's former girlfriend).

Accepting the Oscar for his leading role in the budget adaptation of "There Will Be Blood" is Governor Jon Corzine. This was a budget speech that reached out and stabbed nearly every constituency and hacked at countless services that the public holds dear. As intended, the Governor's speech was grim, sobering and gory. It was also dead wrong.

Slashing thousands of jobs of middle class workers, who had nothing to do with getting the state in this fiscal fix, is grossly unfair. More to the point, it doesn't save money, it doesn't attack patronage and it ultimately hurts all families in New Jersey. My local union, representing thousands of public workers, vehemently opposes these cuts and we intend to vigorously fight against them.

We've seen this movie before starring Governors past. As horror films go, each sequel gets bloodier. This year's version, seemingly written with a chainsaw, proposes to eliminate between 4,000 and 5,000 hard-working middle class workers while failing to present any real solution to state's ongoing fiscal problems. These cuts will be devastating to the critical services that our members provide to the public and which the public values.

To make matters worse, the proposed job cuts follow on the heels of a severe two-year hiring freeze which has left many essential programs at bare bones levels already. The Governor's proposal, which eliminates thousands of important jobs without realistic backfilling, will dramatically cut services across all departments and will degrade the ability of the workers who remain to perform their jobs well.

The unions have done quite well for themselves, but have screwed taxpayers for years. The state workforce grew exponentially even as the state population decreased. We're still not going to see workforce levels below those in 2000, and the state can ill afford even that level.

It's Katz's job to bitch, moan, whine and complain about budget cuts since her union is among the biggest in the state and she's doing what she has to protect her members. However, her interests are not the same as the state taxpayers.

If anything, Corzine needs a bigger axe, or else the legislature will undermine his modest expenditure reductions. The Legislature will be sure to restore many of the jobs because they see the expediency of listening to the unions and their lobbyists. Also, watch for more taxes and fees to pay for existing programs at a time when the state and its citizens can ill afford them.

The state is also pushing small municipalities to merge services, and will use the carrot and stick approach to make it happen.