Send your Property Tax Bills to Steve Sweeney!

In the New Jersey Supreme Court’s 21st decision on school funding, the only surprise is that they only want us

In the New Jersey Supreme Court’s 21st decision on school funding, the only surprise is that they only want us to cough up another $500 million instead of $1.7 billion. The fact that we will be paying more for failing schools was never in doubt, only the amount.

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The die was cast early on with the appointment of the Special Master.  It was obvious that Judge Doyne, who had the same role in the previous school funding decision, would bend over backwards to justify his prior work.  This observation was validated when Judge Doyne refused to accept any amicus briefs. While he may have wanted to focus on the “facts of the case,” he also did not want to know any facts about education, particularly about to lack of correlation between money and academic achievement. 

 

When the case returned to the high court bizarre things began to happen.  The Chief Justice and one Associate Justice immediately recused themselves. Justice Albin openly speculated whether the McGreevey/Corzine “Millionaires’ Tax” ( actually 40% of a Millionaires’ Tax) could resolve the problem.  Judge Stern was assigned to fill in for a vacancy and Justice Rivera-Soto decided to end his self-imposed exile and sit in on the case. 

 

So, despite have an elected Governor and 120 elected Legislators,  the votes of three (3) appointees were all that was needed to decide a matter worth up to $1.7 billion!

 

How did New Jersey get to this sorry state of affairs?

 

Ironically, the Court’s latest “rob from the middle class, give to the poor” edict is totally to fault of Senate President Steve Sweeney (D-3).

 

Let’s look at the facts:

 

1. Sweeney was part of the Senate that allowed Corzine to use two years worth of stimulus money in one year to over fund the education formula in a blatant re-election stunt.

 

2. Sweeney played a leading role in letting the “Millionaires’ Tax” sunset.  This was a very transparent  political stunt to try to force Governor Christie to renege on his “no tax increase” pledge. 

 

3. Sweeney refused to hold confirmation hearings on Governor Christie’s nominee to the Supreme Court.  Sweeney’s political pandering to the African-American community over the Governor’s constitutional right to replace Justice Wallace caused the appointment on Judge Stern as a substitute.

 

Had Anne Patterson been appointed to the Court, as originally intended, it is almost certain that she would have followed the Governor’s agenda. The vote would have been 3-2  in favor of the taxpayer.

 

Something has to change!  New Jersey has become too expensive for the average person. Over 190,000 people left New Jersey since 2009, and that number will continue to increase.

 

The property tax problem cannot be solved until the Abbott school funding system is permanently scrapped.  That will not happen until the makeup of the Supreme Court is changed.  That will take too long under the current system.

 

The New Jersey Supreme Court’s has a history of over-stepping its authority and legislating from the bench.  It is held as a national example to other states for “what not to do.” New Jersey needs to change the appointment process for the Supreme Court.  We are not ready for directly electing judges, but we should consider retention elections.  In this way, Governor’s will get the initial appointment, but the public gets to vote on whether they deserve a second term.

 

In the meantime, until real change comes to the New Jersey Supreme Court, send your tax bills to Senator Sweeney. 

Send your Property Tax  Bills to Steve Sweeney!