The Hoboken Tax Reform Coalition
Paralysis of the State [and the City of Hoboken]
This op-ed piece by David Brooks discusses the imbalance between the funding of infrastructure vs. public employee salaries and benefits. While focused on the state and federal levels, it also holds true for Hoboken. For decades, city government has done little to maintain, repair, and improve our infrastructure, preferring instead to fritter away local tax dollars on no-show, no-work, little-work, and overpaid jobs. This imbalance, along with increased attention to our streets, utilities, parks, and waterfront, will need to be addressed sooner rather than later.
The Paralysis of the State
By DAVID BROOKS
Published: October 12, 2010
Sometimes a local issue perfectly illuminates a larger national problem. Such is the case with the opposition of the New Jersey governor, Chris Christie, to construction of a new tunnel between his state and New York...
Why are important projects now unaffordable? Decades ago, when the federal and state governments were much smaller, they had the means to undertake gigantic new projects, like the Interstate Highway System and the space program. But now, when governments are bigger, they don’t.
The answer is what Jonathan Rauch of the National Journal once called demosclerosis. Over the past few decades, governments have become entwined in a series of arrangements that drain money from productive uses and direct it toward unproductive ones.
New Jersey can’t afford to build its tunnel, but benefits packages for the state’s employees are 41 percent more expensive than those offered by the average Fortune 500 company. These benefits costs are rising by 16 percent a year.
New York City has to strain to finance its schools but must support 10,000 former cops who have retired before age 50. California can’t afford new water projects, but state cops often receive 90 percent of their salaries when they retire at 50. The average corrections officer there makes $70,000 a year in base salary and $100,000 with overtime (California spends more on its prison system than on its schools).
States across the nation will be paralyzed for the rest of our lives because they face unfunded pension obligations that, if counted accurately, amount to $2 trillion — or $87,000 per plan participant. All in all, governments can’t promote future prosperity because they are strangling on their own self-indulgence...
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Permalink Reply by scott m siegel on
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John: Please refer to this link to review the documents cited:
http://www.businessinsider.com/uncovered-tarp-docs-reveal-how-pauls...
Documents Reveal How Paulson Forced Banks To Take TARP Cash
Joe Weisenthal May 13, 2009, 8:25 PM
Remember the infamous meeting when then Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson had the heads of 9 major banks come down to Washington? It was then that he made them the offer they couldn't refuse. Take TARP cash, or else!
Now Judicial Watch -- the conservative watchdog organization which was famous for giving the Clinton administration fits -- has uncovered secret documents from that meeting via the Freedom of Information Act. A few of them are really quite stunning.
The first 1-pager is Paulson's talking points for the bank. It basically confirms that he put a gun to all their heads. It says they must agree to take their cash, and that if they protested, then each bank's regulator would force them to take it anyway.
Treasury CEO Talking Points
Publish at Scribd or explore others:
Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/uncovered-tarp-docs-reveal-how-pauls...
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