Murphy giveth and taketh away. This New Jersey governor has twice in recent history said no to granting the Turnpike Authority a toll hike and then a few months after the elections in November he decided to change his mind. Giving the authority it’s requested rate hike. Also in the last week Murphy’s administration has announced the school funding plan and oh my how bad it is! Too much take away and way too much is being handed to school districts that just waste the money given to them.
On October 25th 2023 the governor announced that he would not allow any tolls hikes by the Turnpike Authority. Per the Monitor, “I am not satisfied with the justification provided for the toll increases reflected in the budget and need more information for why the board is taking this step,” Murphy said in a statement. Both Senate President Nicholas Scutari and Assembly Speaker Craig Coughlin stated that “We want to thank Governor Murphy for heeding our call to prevent this toll increase from taking effect, and we commend him for working with us on making the lives of New Jersey families more affordable. From cutting property taxes to lowering the costs of prescription drugs, affordability is our number one priority.” What hypocrisy! The tax and spend duo speak platitudes about saving taxpayers money and then turn their backs on their constituents to raise any revenue they can to waste on their pet projects.
Murphy did this toll hike increase denial only to make the Democrats look good just before the November election. And it worked! And yet on February 30th of this year the Turnpike Authority again passed a carbon copy of the previous budget that had been rejected by the Governor. Guess what Murphy did? Give up? Well he did an about face and will not veto the budget of the authority. So the tolls will increase by three percent on the NJ Turnpike and Parkway. How nice of him to change his mind only a short number of months later. Methinks that political shenanigans are afoot! Taxpayers who use either or both of these tolls roads now will have to shell out more for tolls starting March 1st.
Now onto the school funding debacle. Per NJ 101.5 New Jersey has 575 school districts that receive funding from the state. And 50 of those districts are receiving more than two-thirds of the available state aid. To matters even worse is that a terrible, as in both educating and spending, school district will receive $1.25 billion. Newark has a very bad problem with how they are using the funds allocated to them and there has been no real improvement.
For shame on Murphy and his cohorts! Big deal that this year will be the first fully funded school formula. Per NJ.Gov Kevin Dehmer, the Acting Commissioner of the Department of Education stated that “For the first time since the School Funding Reform Act began in 2009, our school funding formula will be fully funded. Governor Murphy has never wavered from his promise to support our schools and he has ensured that our students and educators will have the resources they need heading into the next school year.”
What both Murphy and the acting commissioner seem to conveniently forget is the fact that many school districts will be losing funding. Want to guess how that will be made up by? Local property taxes being raised is how. So much for the concerns of the taxpaying citizens of New Jersey. Your property tax bills are onerous now and New Jerseyans pay the highest taxes in the nation. They are absolutely not being concerned about how people are being crushed by taxes at all. Murphy may as well have said “Let them eat cake.” Oh, wait didn’t someone in France way back say that and they lost something very important. Not that I want something like that to happen to Murphy or his cohorts in the legislature.
In conclusion a very good case can be made that neither Murphy or most of the legislature really care about the New Jersey taxpayer. It is well past the time to sit on one’s rear. Now is the time to act! How? Write, phone or physically approach (if possible) your elected state office holders and tell them this nonsense needs to end now. Your vote counts, so be very careful who you vote for. It can and will backfire on you if you vote in people who support the above idiocy.
That is my opinion- Jumpin Jersey Mike
