18th District Assemblyman Patrick Diegnan feels that the Assembly position is his job for life.

 

He doesn't believe in the election process and is outraged that someone would dare challenge him for his seat.

The New Citizen Bill

By Joe Sinagra | The Save Jersey Blog

The current bill before the House of Representatives is not an immigration bill, Save Jerseyans. Let’s call it what it is . . . a ‘Citizenship Bill.’

 

 

Roughly 5.5 million illegals came to America via legal work or vacation visas and overstayed their welcome. That makes them illegal, a form of backdoor fraud. If this bill is passed in the House, it would bring in 33 million immigrants over the next 10 years; anyone who is not a citizen and granted amnesty without earning citizenship should lose their right to sponsorship.

 

 

There are about 40 million immigrants living in the United States. A little less than 28 percent, or 10.5 million, have crossed the border illegally and are violating U.S. law. Illegals are 3.5% of the US population . . . 28 percent of all immigrants is here illegally.

 

 

Of the 11.7 million Mexican immigrants that live in the United States, about 5.85 million are here illegally. There is no shortage of workers; it is about what companies are willing to pay to get the job done.

 

Teenagers and minorities are already struggling to find work and with 22.5 million Americans out of work, the passing of this bill will only enforce low wages. Unemployment and non-work is already significant among less-educated Americans. The low-education level of many immigrants not only means that they compete with less-educated American citizens, but it is the primary reason so many immigrants live in or near poverty, lack health insurance and use the welfare system. It’s also another reason wages and benefits have generally stagnated or declined in recent years.

 

 

Contrary to what the media leads us to believe with the mantra that “immigrants’ only do jobs Americans don’t want” the overwhelming majority of low-wage jobs are done by less-educated native-born Americans, not immigrants.

 

 

Illegal aliens are largely poor and uneducated, draining the welfare and public education systems. Immigrant use of social services might not be a problem if they generally paid more in taxes than native-born Americans. However the median income of immigrant households is 21 percent lower than that of native households, and immigrant households are 36 percent larger on average. Immigrants tend to pay less in taxes than natives, but tend to use more in services. Not to say that immigrants do not pay taxes; even illegal immigrants pay some taxes. However, it is a fiscal drain as more goes out in the form of benefits than what actually comes in.

 

 

Illegal low-skilled immigrants paid less in taxes than they took in benefits, leaving the US with a shortfall over $2 trillion.

 

 

Many illegals do not carry health insurance. About 62 percent of illegals, or about 6.5 million, lack health insurance.

 

 

Illegals bank-wired over $15 billion outside the U.S. through Wal-Mart alone. Legalizing 12 million uneducated low earning workers will cost an additional $48.6 billion in healthcare from 2014-2019.

Illegals break immigration and employment laws and often involved in ID theft to get a Social Security number.

 

 

Illegal aliens file Individual Tax Identification Number (ITIN) reporting multiple children as dependents and get additional Child Tax Credits for children “back home,” fraud which is currently over $4 billion.

 

 

This will have an effect on all of America, including but not limited to the less-educated, public schools, health care providers and taxpayers who will definitely feel the long term consequences. They always do every time Washington puts political expediency ahead of common sense and  justice.

Tags: amnesty, House, Illegal, immigration, mexican, public school, social security, Taxes

- See more at: http://savejersey.com/2013/07/the-new-citizen-bill/#sthash.T7nFqC1c.dpuf

Buono’s Hypocrisy By the Numbers, Part 2

Years of Failed Trenton Democrat Policies Destroyed New Jersey’s Public Pension System

By Joe Sinagra | The Save Jersey Blog

 

In 1990 we were in a recession, Save Jerseyans, and Governor James Florio responded with a $2.8 billion income and sales tax increase to balance the budget. Facing a budget shortfall, he also turned to the state pension system. With just about unanimous support in the legislature, he pushed through the Pension Revaluation Act of 1992, lifting the projected rate of return on the fund’s investments to 8.75% from 7%.

 

 

Yes, Christine Todd Whitman invested the pensions into the stock market, but no one was complaining when the funds were making money. She left in 2000 and the funds continued to do well with annual investment returns of 8.75 percent until the dot.com bust of 2001 when the markets took a massive dive.

 

Pension underfunding and budget shortfalls were also caused by decisions made, and actions taken, well after the GOP governor left office. In 2002, James McGreevey had hoped that professional money managers would improve the plan’s returns. He was wrong…

 

Florio was the first to use the pension fund as a fallback in a time of crisis, but the combo of the Florio and Whitman pension policies were both led to the downfall of the pension system.

Even with decisions made after Whitman, the fund’s returns had pretty much tracked the broad stock markets. The real problem can be traced to 20 years of underfunding.

 

Look at the history: in 2001, benefits for the NJ’s government employees and teachers were increased by 9%, creating an additional $4.2 billion in underfunded liabilities. In 1999, the state approved a “20 and out” measure that allowed firefighters and local police to collect pensions equal to 50% of their pay after 20 years of service. A perk that was previously available only to the state police. Benefits added since 1999 have increased liabilities by more than $6.8 billion alone!

 

Even if the pension payments owed were made, as long as double dipping, pay-for-play, no show jobs, paid for life benefits are permitted to mushroom, New Jersey taxpayers will always be stuck playing a cruel (and unaffordable) game of catch up. Is it any wonder why we continue to run deficits heading into every budgeting cycle?

 

The problem isn’t so much the pensions themselves. For the real problem, look to the escalating number of people receiving pensions and the actual amount of their increases since only 2003. The number of public employees receiving annual government pensions of at least $75,000 or earning government salaries of at least $100,000 or more with above average benefits is staggering. Double and triple dipping pensioners subsist at the expense of the average government worker and NJ taxpayer; throughout that entire period of time, not one legislator made tackling this problem a priority.

 

That includes Chris Christie’s 2013 gubernatorial election opponent, Barbara Buono.

 

Many of the positions are not worth the salaries paid, and they’re only used as a catalyst to boost salaries for higher retirement pay.

 

Retirees paid 80% of their former salaries with health and other perks included… who thought THAT was a good idea?

 

And you think your taxes are high now, Save Jerseyans? By 2018, state taxpayers will begin paying more than $5 billion a year for pensions, about 10 times higher than the current payments being made. Matt Rooney recently said “the pension bomb is still ticking.” Are Trenton Democrats deaf to it? Or is this just one giant game of chicken where the taxpayers are the only ones with skin to lose?

 

You can place the blame anywhere you want, but before Chris Christie arrived in Trenton, not a soul took affirmative steps to address the core problem. 

 

Tags: Buono, Christie, employee, liability, new jersey, NJ, pension, public, salary

- See more at: http://savejersey.com/2013/06/buonos-hypocrisy-by-the-numbers-pt2/#more-109041

Buono’s Hypocrisy by the Numbers

A Detailed History of How Democrat Governors (and Their Legislative Allies) Destroyed New Jersey’s Fiscal Health

By Joe Sinagra | The Save Jersey Blog

A screenshot from Governor Chris Christie’s first 2013 attack ad aimed at Barbara Buono’s voting record.

Yes, we have the highest taxes due to the last two previous administrations. Have you ever wondered why?

Barbara Buono can spin all she likes! Let’s take our time to examine how we got here, figure by figure, just in case there’s any confusion:

 Corzine and McGreevey combined added over 154 tax increases. A budget that was in the toilet, the state was going broke, and Corzine was writing checks knowing the well was running dry. On July 15, 2006, the sales tax was raised from 6% to 7% that was supposed to fund our rebates and the following year there was no rebate. So we funded our own rebate and, the following year, there wasn’t any money as a result.

Tax and spend, spend and tax with Barbara Buono supporting the tax increases all along the way. Now she is running on a platform of. . . cutting taxes?

 In July of 2009, Corzine boasted that “13,000 private sector jobs were added last month because of our business-friendly policies,” when in actuality the state lost 3,100 jobs in June of 2009. Jon Corzine claimed he created 13,000 jobs, but his actions after his inauguration proved that facts often speak differently than rhetoric. Faced with an unemployment toll that rose to 9.2 percent, the Corzine administration spin was that the loss of jobs in June was the smallest since the recession began. Yet there were thousands of unemployed who were already standing in line, long before Chris Christie was even thinking of running for Governor.

Corzine extended the 4% corporate tax surcharge and raised taxes by 25 % on liquor. His Lt. Governor pick, Loretta Weinberg, had voted for every tax increase that ex-Governor Jim McGreevey wished for and every tax increase that Jon Corzine proposed; she was never interested in cutting government expenditures or standing up to government unions. Instead, she has consistently supported ever-increasing government expansions.

With the beginning of the recession in December 2007, New Jersey already lost 150,100 jobs…


With the passing of a $29 billion budget, taxes increased by $1 billion while eliminating property-tax deductions for the wealthiest residents and shaveing billions from health care, higher education and other programs.
 When New Jersey Treasurer David Rousseau was asked the question “In your observation, do you feel New Jerseyans are overtaxed?” Rousseau incredulously answered “No.”


Under Corzine, New Jersey’s state/local tax-burden percentage has gone from the third-highest in the country to the highest in the country.

 Corzine condoned the state’s wasteful spending, the union pandering, giving public employees benefits the taxpayers can’t afford and refusing to take the necessary steps to end the hidden tax of public corruption even before the recession. Corzine broke his promise to cut property taxes by 40% over 4 years. His 2010 budget irrefutably increased property taxes another 20%.

Those tax increases destroyed New Jersey’s economic and business environment, having driven thousands of residents and businesses out of New Jersey and making our state one of the most unaffordable in which to live. It happened long before Chris Christie was elected and, not coincidentally, is a primary reason why Chris Christie is now governor.

In August 2009, Garden State foreclosures increased 30%. The average median household income in New Jersey dropped $7,214 between 2006 and 2008. The percentage of New Jersey residents subsisting below the federal poverty level was 9.2 percent and growing. The economy remained so poor that despite the claim of 13,000 ‘new’ jobs created by Governor Corzine, the people of New Jersey still lost over 12,000 jobs June 2009, and another 47,000 ran out of unemployment benefits by December 2009.


A combined total of eight years of taxes, fees, and regulations under McGreevey and Corzine not only chased many businesses out of New Jersey but also succeeded in chasing 100,000 residents to escape as well.

 As of August 2009, when Jon Corzine was Governor:

• More than 230,000 people already had left New Jersey since 2002
• Property taxes, on average, had risen almost 55 percent statewide just from the prior seven years, and by 20 percent when Corzine took office.
• The budget increased taxes on payroll, income, cigarettes, alcohol, lottery winnings and increasing DMV fees, for a total of $1 billion.• His budget did nothing to balance the following year’s obligations, and only went toward the prior year’s debt.

 

Unemployment increased by more than double from 4.8% to 9.7% during Corzine’s single term in office. His few newly created jobs didn’t even come close to paying the salaries and benefits of those jobs that had vanished. Teenagers, minorities, and less-educated workers were already losing out to employees who were still working but for less money. 1 in 20 people employed at that time lost their job. African American unemployment had risen to 13.6%, and Hispanic unemployment in the state had risen to 11.5%, above the state average of 9.7%. Indicators pointed to a weakening of the recession, taking several years for families who lost their homes and income to realize it is over, probably never again to achieve past levels.

Those figures demonstrated how New Jerseyans were losing their jobs and homes due to the failed policies instituted by the Corzine Administration that had been continued from the previous administration. Instead of making life more affordable, both administration’s had simply created more financial hardships for those trying to stay afloat.


Taxes increased for the citizens of New Jersey by over $10 billion dollars even in the face of a deteriorating economy.

 Democrats voted in favor of a $400 million payroll tax hike; furthermore, they eliminated $100 million in property tax deductions, increased Real Estate Commission Fees by $68.9 million in, and supported an income tax increase to the tune of $903 million.


The Realty Transfer Tax was increased by $62 million on the state level, and another $22 million on the county level, and another $8 million tax on your lottery winnings, meaning even winning the lottery might not be enough to get you back on your feet!

 For over eight years, the people of New Jersey had seen their property taxes increase over 55%, their tax dollars wasted, jobs leaving our state and their property tax relief eliminated, but Jon Corzine and a Democratic controlled State Assembly never learned their lesson. They continued to do everything in their power to cement our state’s dubious honor of having the highest property taxes in the nation.


Tax upon tax, bill upon bill, regulation over regulation… a strategy that’s not conducive to growing New Jersey’s economy. Our recent history (which I’ve gone through above in painstaking detail) bears that out.


Governor Corzine’s answer on the campaign trail for inquisitive reporters and taxpayers? Pack up and move to North Dakota if they didn’t like it! Of course that’s not a solution at all, and for the majority of citizens in this state, relocating across the country wasn’t a realistic option.
 
It’s not hard to understand why tax rates were spiraling out of control. State spending and tax revenues climbed more than twice the rate of inflation from 1980 to 1990. State-government employment had outpaced population growth. The U.S. population grew in the 1980′s by 10 percent, and NJ state employment grew by almost 30 percent. For every dollar increase in compensation received by private-sector workers, state-government workers received $6.30.

Both 1990 and 1991 were record tax increase years for New Jersey; expenditures surged with no reduction in spending. In 1991, state spending rose by 10 percent and in 1992 it grew by 12 percent. In 1992 alone, spending rose 26.0 percent in New Jersey.
 
Florio pledged to skip takes hikes but nevertheless shoved and ram-rodded through the legislature a “bilk the rich” $2.8-billion tax hike designed to bestow a massive infusion of funds to inner-city school districts. All this hike really accomplished is to immediately sink our state economy into a deeper recession. Business bankruptcies jumped by 150 percent, 300,000 jobs were lost, and the unemployment rate rocketed up to 9.1 percent–the highest in the nation at that time. Governor Florio declared that his tax hike was an unavoidable dose of bitter medicine to balance the budget. The truth of the matter is that Florio was among the three biggest spending governors in the nation. In 1991, the budget grew by 8.4 percent; that increase was followed by a 1992 budget expansion of 26.1 percent (the third largest in the nation). In his first two years in office, the budget grew by more than $3,000 per family.

 
In short, Florio made his own fiscal bed. We all had to lay in it!
 
Buono can’t ignore history this campaign cycle. Governor Christie won’t let her. Florio, McGreevy, and Corzine were governors who tried to fight budget deficits solely with major tax increases. Their lack of imagination and courage only served to further weaken the state’s economy and did little to put on cork on the flowing bottle of red ink.
 Florio and Corzine lied when they said they wouldn’t raise taxes, and now a Democrat legislature full of alumni from those reckless years is doing whatever it can to force Christie to renege on his own promise of not raising taxes.

Had Corzine been serious about putting the state’s finances in order, he would have phased out the pension system, raised the retirement age for state employees to the same as their counterparts in the private sector (no retiring before the age of 62), stop the borrowing without voter approval, and eliminate the corporate business tax which would’ve allowed the business community some breathing room to grow again.

 
What did he do instead? Again, Corzine raised taxes over 55% on just about everything imaginable. The 1% sales tax increase did nothing to aid the taxpayers of this state; taking rebates away was insult to injury. He tried getting the taxpayers to vote for ½% dedicated strictly to property tax on the ballot, thereby ending any chance of property tax reform in the future. We know his history on dedicated funds, such as taking the $4 million from the EMT fund to balance the deficit. Corzine had proposed the closure of 9 state parks to save $4.5 million, then changed his mind and decided to build an $87 million park by using money from the Corporate Fund Tax.
 Now, unbelievably, Barbara Buono and many of her Democrat colleagues want to point the finger at our current governor and ignore the mess that they created, one which Governor Christie inherited upon taking office on January 19, 2010.
Barbara BWOH’-noh needs to come up with a reason why she is going to be better for New Jersey. Inventing an alternative ‘tax and spend’ history than what we all know to be the truth (see above) won’t cut it at the ballot box this November.

Tags: budget, Buono, Campaign, Christie, Corzine, democrat, florio, Governor, mcgreevey, new jersey, NJ, property, Spending, Taxes

 

Lawmakers Just Can't Do Their Jobs

It is a shame that we the people of the United States of America, the greatest country in the world, have legislators on both sides of the aisle (and let’s not forget about our president, too) who seem unable to reach an agreement and find a way to ease the pain that many Americans are feeling due to these antics.

They’ll continue to feel them for many months and possibly years to come.

While our government shuts down, federal legislators continue to collect a substantial salary along with their many perks, millions of Americans are out of work and lacking benefits. Many folks who are still trying to recover from the recession or a natural disaster suffer even longer as government assistance is on hold.

This is not a game of cards where one can bluff and see who has the better hand with no regard to the repercussions that will be inflicted upon the American public. The lives of individuals and families are something the government seems to want to gamble with in order to prove who holds the winning hand between them.

Our economy was recovering, however anemically, even with the lower paying jobs that were being created. The housing market seemed like it was stabilizing, too, but these gains may all disappear and we may find ourselves back in another hole. The dollar becomes weaker every day the federal government is closed, the yen and euro become stronger, and the markets drop faster than a rock without a parachute. If we lose our current credit rating, the dollar will be worth nothing and it will take years to recover … if at all.

Congress is hardly the only problem. We have a president who is already planning a trip to Asia, probably bringing his kin along for the taxpayer-financed ride, all at an astronomical cost while our military is looking for food as the commissaries are empty, having to go elsewhere and paying upwards of 30 percent or more to feed their families on or off base.

It seems the priorities of our elected officials are their egos, something that they view as more important than the constituents whom they’re supposed to represent. It is a shame that as much as the American people are getting a bad hand in this shutdown poker game, they will nevertheless elect the same bunch of bureaucrats that engendered this predicament.

Unless we, as voters, clean house to show the world how tired we’ve become of the two major parties’ antics, the games will continue and we will continue on a course destined to negatively redefine our futures and, in the process, permanently changing the face of America.

Joseph Sinagra, Sr.
HELMETTA

http://savejersey.com/2013/10/election-democrat-republican-congress-obama-president-shutdown/#more-113259