Cape Issues: Things Aren’t As They Used To Be

Almost two years ago, a group of Cape May County citizens began to meet monthly to consider the important issues facing the people of Cape May County. We sought input and determined that, far and away, the biggest issue in people’s minds is that taxes are becoming evermore unaffordable.
While this is a national issue, New Jersey is one of a couple of states where it is most pressing. It is this fact that brought about the dramatic election of conservative Gov. Chris Christie in a dyed-in-the-wool liberal state. What brought this about? People no longer trusted Gov. Corzine to address what is now a $10.7 billion gap on a total state budget of $29.3 billion.
Mr. Christie is forced to take a no-nonsense approach, due to the magnitude of the gap. He is facing his opponents eyeball-to-eyeball. Addressing the charge, The children will be the ones to suffer from your education cuts, he states, “The real question is, who’s for kids, and who’s for their raises? This isn’t about the kids. Let’s dispense with that portion of the argument. Don’t let them tell you that ever again while they are reaching into your pockets.”
To the charge that Budget cuts are unfair, he said that is the same thing his 9-year-old son says when made to do something which he doesn’t want to do: that’s “unfair!”
In explaining what is unfair, the governor told of a 49-year-old state retiree who had paid in $124,000 toward his pension and health benefits and who will receive $3.8 million in return.
It would be great if economics worked that way, but they don’t, not at the state level and not at our county and municipal level. We at Cape Issues are trying to unpeel some of the “onions” impacting us locally. One of these “onions” is central dispatch of public safety officers. Currently our municipalities each have people manning the phones 24/7; if this were handled centrally, it would save us millions of dollars annually.
Consolidation of the school districts is another area where we would save a small fortune; some of us are focusing on that issue. Others work to collect the governmental budgets for posting to the Herald website.
Some monitor police compensation negotiations, freeze proposals, and other issues while continuing to gather and find opportunities to publish facts and comparisons.
If anyone reading this wants to dig into other areas which would help our community spend our tax dollars more efficiently, please contact any one of us.