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How are our state legislators going to fix our economy, yes I said legislators not the Governor! They are the ones that make the laws and what legislation they pass on to the Governor then becomes law if he deems to sign it. The Governor does not make laws. Thus Chris Christie does not really have the influence on the state economy that a great number of you think he has.

The big problem as I see it is that the Supreme Court of New Jersey thinks that if you throw enough money at a problem, it will be fixed. Not true at all! My theory is that this concept comes from the Manhattan Project, the one that developed the Atomic Bomb during World War II. It was make a bomb or have one used on us at the time and money was no object. Well that was a special case that certainly does not apply here. Unfortunately the court listened to the fools at the Education Law Center who are trying to fix a very real problem do not seem to understand that throwing money at a problem does not always fix it. But, I digress from the subject at hand.

And the other problem is how the state legislator handles the business of this state. They are for want of a better word are abysmal at it. They view the people who they work for, you John Q. Public, as a never ending source of funding. That is they see you as a piggy bank that is bottomless. Always wasting money on projects placed before them by special interest groups. Whether they make sense or not. And because there is so much nonsensical legislation a lawmaker even proposed a bill to limit the number of bills each legislator can submit.

Such is the state of this crazy state. After all what’s so bad if they spend money they do not have! Well the states ability to borrow money becomes more costly because of this non fiscal way of thinking by our lawmakers. Why don’t they address the important issues of high property taxes, the unfriendly business climate and how to fairly fund repair of our abysmal highway system. This directly affects every resident of this state, we just seem to sit there and take it. Not caring or just ignoring a system that is very broken.

OK, so now what can be done you ask? Well for starters lets fix the property tax system. Maybe it is time for a constitutional convention that just addresses this broken system of collecting monies primarily to pay for our school systems.

Secondly we must end or at least limit the influence of special interest groups. If we do not, then this wasteful spending of monies will go on. One of these groups is a public workers union and I propose that these unions should be banned from all political activity including the giving of money to candidates for political office. This will end their undue influence and bring back some level of attention to the voting public’s needs, not those of a particular union.

I know that these things will probably not happen because of public apathy, so if you what change get up and do what has to be done!

That is my opinion – Jumpin Jersey Mike