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Happy fiscal New Year! Well, the deed is done.
State, County and most Municipal Budgets in
New Jersey
are now adopted. Another fiscal bullet has been
dodged! Or has it?
Full disclosure: from the rearview mirror vantage
point of any Mayor with the modifier Emeritus
in front of his or her title, the view is always
20:20.
So any “former” anything can always poke holes and
criticize what’s going on now. This is particularly
true for finding fault with State, County and
Municipal Budgets. It’s easy to compare year over
year totals and jump up and down at the unconscionable
per cent of increase this year. That’s because most
people don’t have the inclination to go back and make
similar computations for the years when it was our
turn to endure all the “fun” that’s always a part of
coming up with a new budget. I am, of course, being
as facetious as I possibly can. I would rather have
had a root canal without nova cane each year than to
have had to sit through all those meetings for the
eleven years budgets were part of my
responsibilities. And I’m quite sure, my
year-over-year budget increases on occasion were
unconscionable too! The only real difference between
then and now is that the former totals were much
smaller numbers.
And now, just to be different, in my twenty five years
or so as a contributing author to NJCM and other
publications, permit me to quote a Bible verse –
something I have never done so far. Matthew 10:26 –
Everything that is hidden will be found out, and
every secret will be known. By now you’re
asking, “what on earth does the preceding quote have
to do with government budgets?” Good question!
Fortunately, the answer is very simple. Annual budget
totals for every subdivision of government – whether
it’s the State, County or some Municipality – provide
inquisitive minds with a wonderful snapshot of the
goods and services each offers to its constituents,
and a wonderful basis for comparison with other
States, Counties and Municipalities. In short, in
this Internet Age that we find ourselves in at
present, everything that can be expressed in numbers
is being compiled, compared, analyzed and judged
by an increasingly large body of academicians
and corporations who, in turn, are shouting these
statistics from the housetops. Budgets expressed as
per-capita expenditures, unfortunately, reveal the
unvarnished truth about such things as public safety,
education and transportation – to name just three
public policy areas much in the news of late.
New Jersey,
when judged strictly by its budget numbers fares very
poorly when compared with just about every other state
in the nation. We’re spending more each year than
practically everyone else across the board at the
State, County and Municipal levels. Unfortunately for
New Jersey and the other big spending states, it’s now
very easy to also quantify the results of all this
spending and constituent satisfaction
therewith.
Doing so honestly sets off an amazing array of alarm
bells. We’re spending more and more each year and our
citizens are less and less satisfied with the result.
This is a recipe for disaster.
New Jersey
used to be called “The Headquarters of Headquarters”
because the State could proudly boast that more
Fortune 500 Companies had their headquarters located
in the Garden State than anywhere else. The reasons
most often cited were our exemplary quality of life,
superior schools, vibrant economy and wonderful
transportation infrastructure. Recall that back in
the 1960’s such things as the New Jersey Turnpike and
Garden State Parkway were a big deal. Plus, we had
all those commuter railroads so getting into
New York
or Philadelphia was no sweat. Unfortunately these
advantages are not nearly as significant as they once
were as demonstrated by the ease with which
corporations now pick up stakes and move, sometimes
all the way across the country.
Then there is the ultimate downside to government
budgets: the tax burden to pay them! Here again
things look bleak for New Jersey. As 73 million baby
boomers get ready to retire over the next 5 – 10
years, such things as relative tax burden, housing
costs, insurance costs, congestion, and a host of
other quality of life criteria are frequently and
widely being circulated, much more so than was even
possible in the past, which could account for the
unabated housing boom taking place in the south and
southwestern United States. Boomers are doing their
homework on the Internet and are literally fleeing to
lower cost states than
New Jersey.
Lawyers across the country are up in arms over
Websites that provide quantitative comparisons, a
report card if you will, on their legal skills.
Websites also rate the patient mortality rates of
hospitals and Doctors which is causing untold angst in
the healthcare filed. Consumer Reports rates cars and
consumer goods on the same basis. I’ve even seen
Report Cards on education that show
New Jersey
spending the most and getting the worst results. None
of this paints a pretty picture.
In order to begin to fix things, I recommend a
thorough review on a policy-by-policy basis of what
everyone else is doing around the country to control
costs and a priority effort to emulate their approach,
no matter how distasteful this may be to the status
quo. There is simply no other way to deal with this.
The numbers and the Internet are about to do us
in!
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