NEW JERSEY SAYS
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Home Nuts and Bolts THE PLATFORM YOUR INPUT HOW ARE WE DOING
The voters want reform. You can concoct your version of a reform platform that the candidates will support. Below is a sample platform, with the issues listed in random order, some less critical issues following the main list. The issues are numbered and in the adjoining column is a brief explanation of the issue. Use this or make up your own. If it accomplishes the needed reform, one is as good as another.

PLATFORM

1.. END PAY TO PLAY AT ALL LEVELS
2.. ALL GOVERNMENT CONTRACTS UP FOR BID
3.. AUDIT/SURVEY
4.. NEPOTISM
5.. PUBLISH LIST OF NON CLASSIFIED JOBS
6.. FREEZE/SPEND HALF
7.. INCREASED PENALTIES FOR CORRUPTION
8.. PENSION REFORM
9.. THE LEGISLATURE MUST DO ITS JOB
10. ONLY QUALIFIED PEOPLE IN KEY JOBS
11. BRING BACK RESPECT FOR THE LAW
12. EDUCATIONAL RESPONSIBILITY
13. INITIATIVE AND REFERENDUM
14. PAINT OVER GOVERNOR'S NAME ON SIGNS
15. MOVE THE BATTLESHIP
16. WHY FAST TRACK?
17. DUAL OFFICEHOLDING

ADDRESS THE WEDGE ISSUES

Not everyone will agree with all planks of this platform. Some will have additional issues. We can't make everything perfect but we can do our best.

Most of these planks can apply equally well to County and local elections. History shows that freeholders, mayors and councilmen/women can be as corrupt and inefficient as any state politician. A full slate of every slot from Governor to Council member would be our ideal.
WHAT IT MEANS

ISSUE#1... If you follow politics at all, you know that trading campaign contributions for contracts, no-show jobs and other favors and "wheeling" contributions through other counties to avoid legal limits is the classic example of New Jersey government at its unethical worst. Current and past legislators have been avoiding this issue because, as a few of them have been bold enough to say publicly, this is how they get most of their campaign money. Without pay-to-play, there would be a problem. But it would be THIER problem, not ours. Once we elect a majority of legislators who are not obligated to big contributors and bosses, buying government influence is reduced and reform is advanced.

ISSUE # 2...Putting all contracts over a certain limit out for bids goes hand-in-hand with pay-to-play reform. Some people think that having BOTH pay-to-play reform and contract bidding is a duplication, that either one is sufficient. Is this correct? Anyway, the politicians hate both ideas, which make them very attractive to us.

ISSUE #3...AUDIT every dollar that the State spends, using an outside forensic accountant. Expensive, yes. But it would expose those hundreds or thousands of $90,000 no-show jobs, waste and mismanagement that are hidden in official reports of expenditure published by the same people who are hiding and wasting the money. SURVEY every State job, agency, commission, authority, trust fund, division and department. Be prepared to find duplication and unnecessary expenditures that were created to pay off campaign support over the last hundred years that are still costing us tax money today. Among the various Authorities with bonding rights, expect to find more of the same hidden from even the limited scrutiny available in the regular State budget.

ISSUE #4...Nepotism. It is understandable that a public official who has an opening for a secretary in his office would prefer to give the job to his daughter rather than a stranger, if the daughter is qualified. But that is not what generally happens. The State bureaucracy is jammed with incompetent relatives filling unnecessary jobs while their elected benefactors demand more tax money to pay for "essential services".

ISSUE #5...Just publishing a list of the innumerable overpaid "paper clip inspectors" on the State payroll would eliminate forever any question of whether or not reform is needed. This could be done within days of a reform administration and legislature coming into office.

ISSUE #6...FREEZE/SPEND HALF could be the goal of a new reform government. It may not be legally possible to freeze every expenditure until a thorough audit shows where the waste and duplication is and it it may not be possible to get the get the State government to the point of efficiency and non-corruption where the same services can be provided to the citizens while spending only half of what is being spent now, but with these goals we announce to all that the taxpayers' pockets are not an endless treasure chest able to supply every grasping hand with all the public money they want, forever.

ISSUE #7...Corrupt oficials would never willingly expose themselves to harsh penalties for illegal actions. Beyond the legalized pay-to-play bribery, we continually see outright criminal corruption. Those who consider taking a few thousand dollars in cash in exchange for a zoning change or government contract as just "part of the job" have little to fear as it stands today. With the widespread accepance of corruption in New Jersey, with so many judges, prosecutors and police officials who are part of the network that allows it to flourish, there is little likelyhood of any significant penalty to be paid if anyone is caught. In some cases, these people refuse to leave their government jobs even after being caught. Of course, they expect that they are still qualified for the pension that they have "earned" over the years of criminal activity. The only way to discourage such a mindset is to severely punish the guilty.

ISSUE #8... Pensions for retired officials and workers have recently become an issue because they are gobbling up an increasing percentage of current operating funds and will in the next few years become a multi-billion dollar burden on the state taxpayer. If this issue is not addressed, the current do-nothings in Trenton will allow this obligation to expand until it gobbles up everything. Of course, people who have worked most of their lives providing essential services for the State deserve whatever pensions their contract or working agreement calls for. However, the concept of a Civil Service that was low-paying but provided security and a small pension upon retirement, payable from current funds, has been overtaken by events. It is not possible for the taxpayers to carry the burden of an ever-expanding group of retirees paid out of this year's taxes for work done decades ago. Some form of retirement plan that ends the State contribution when the employee retires is probably the logical solution. Industry uses the 401K type plan wherein the employee and the employer each contribute to a fund that will provide a pension after retirement, but the employer is finished paying when the employee is finished working. The State has obligations which it must fulfill but it cannot continue indefinitely creating open-ended commitments that it cannot afford.

ISSUE #9...Many if not most of the big problems of legislative dysfunction are the result of elected officials refusing to address issues that they feel may cost them votes. A favorite method of escape is to divert a hot issue to the courts or other remote location like a Constitutional Convention. Then they can claim that they are forced to obey and it's not really their choice if they do anything that offends some interest group. Currently they have taxed almost everything and are eyeing an increase in the gasoline tax but are afraid of the public reaction so they are lining up for a rigged convention that will look at only additional sources of revenue to be used to (temporarily) reduce property taxes. A responsible legialature would look at this issue as a whole and stand by their decision. School taxes governed by a court decision, of course, (See Issue #12) and pensions (See Issue # 8) are untouchable in the legislature but are piling up obligations and future debt that may be ruinous. A reform legislature elected without obligations to special interest groups should address these issues.

ISSUE #10...Qualified people in key positions. Why is it necessary to list this in a platform? Without naming individuals, everybody knows of instances where a politician has appointed his girlfriend (or boyfriend) to a position that is beyond that person's competence. It seems each day exposes another incompetent bureaucrat. It's all corruption. But the people approving these appointments are usually doing so because of the campaign obligation they owe to contributors, bosses and special interest groups that keep them in office. If you dump the politician who has all these IOUs to pay back, then you dump the obligations too, and have a chance to start fresh.


ISSUE #11..There is a saying that the law will protect you. In New Jersey the law is in the hands of people such as the recent director of the State Police whose only qualification was his association with a big city political boss and who committed so many outrageous acts immediately upon assuming office that he was too much for even the corruption-friendly State government to tolerate. The office of Attorney General is currently occupied by a person so ineffctive that a special committee of investigation has been created to do his job while he disgraces the office taking freebies from the casinos. A State Supreme Court should be composed of qualified judges, not campaign aides, fundraisers, cronies and other persons not familiar with the the concept of the separation of powers. In at least two instances recently, the substitution of a candidate after the deadline allowed by law, and the legislature's decision to use long-term bonds to pay it's current debts, The court issued rullings that said in effect "It's against the law, but go ahead". With such guardians, the law is meaningless and we are not protected by the law. Scary.

Issue # 12...Educational Responsibility. Too much influence. Too much money. Too much involvement by the courts in the job that legislators are afraid to do. And probably, based on what we see in reports of academic accomplishment, too little education. It needs a hard look at what has been allowed to slide for decades. The primary purpose of an educational system is education, not lining the pockets of anyone who can figure a way to claim that rational spending and academic accountability is "harmful to the children."



ISSUE #13...I & R. Okay, so it gets abused in places like California where seemingly hundreds of items show up on the ballot each year for the voters to sort out. But that has to be better than being ignored by legislators who KNOW we want something and refuse to consider it. We can throw them out and put responsive people in their place, that's what this site is all about, but inevitably they will shy away from issues that are a priority among the voters, and which deserve to be considered.

There is room for less urgent issues that will show our commitment to making the government the servant rather than the master of the people.

ISSUE #14... Paint over the governor's name on all those "Welcome to New Jersey" signs. Everybody here knows who the Governor is, and people passing through on the way to Florida don't care which politician has the job. So instead of wasting money repainting the signs every time we change governors, paint over the name and leave it that way. It may only save thousands of dollars per election, but it is a sign that we should not be wasting tax money to feed the ego of some guy in Trenton. Small savings add up too.

ISSUE #15...Move the battleship New Jersey to Liberty State Park where it belongs. How many of the proud citizens who contributed to the fund for bringing the ship back here would have given their money if they knew that it would be tied up in Camden among the rotting docks and oil spills where, after an initial surge of the curious, the number of people willing to travel to Camden to see it would drop considerably. This is not taking something away from Camden. The city doesn't need warships, it needs jobs. And less corruption. A State government that actually was working for the welfare of all it's citizens instead of local bosses grabbing for themselves would make depressed areas a priority for improvement, if not out of idealism then to eliminate a drain on the pocketbooks of the rest.

ISSUE #16... WHY FAST TRACK? Like a lot that goes on in this state, fast track has a lot to recommend against it. By generously preserving the most remote areas from development (we'll see how long that lasts when some big-money contributor asks for an exemption) the state strips other areas of their right to consider development in an orderly and legal manner. It's probably not legal, but don't bother going to the State Supreme Court to oppose it because that gang will, based on their recent history, say "Sure it's illegal, but go ahead."

ISSUE # 17... Dual officeholding. Needs discussion. State, County and Local jobs are often involved. Is an outright ban satewide appropriate?







The section above expands on the items in the platform. A delicate item in the platform is "Address the wedge issues". These are the first line of defense for the entrenched special-interest incumbents. If anything comes of this effort to field a slate of reform candidates, the wedge issues will be their first response. Expect charges of racism, extremeism and every other kind of ism that they can manufacture. Expect their special-interest supporters to pour huge amounts of money into attack ads and commercials painting reformers as destroyers. Issues that divide us like abortion, immigration reform, national security, Social Security and others are items that must be handled at the federal level and will only be introduced in a State election campaign in order to divert attention away from the corruption issue. It takes a strong stomach to deal with these people, but just putting forth a reform slate that gives the citizens of New Jersey the opportunity to vote against corruption is a great achievement. Actually getting some or all of those reformers elected would be historic. We deserve the chance.