The Morning Briefing - June 28, 2016
TRENTON - Taxpayers continually hear how the state is drowning in debt and teetering on bankruptcy, yet the Assembly is pushing a horse trade that would raise the gas tax by 23 cents a gallon, but roll the sales tax back to 6 percent. It was all hashed out in a midnight deal last night between Gov. Chris Christie and Assembly leadership. A great solution to our transportation woes, but at what cost? Hopefully, the bean counters will crunch all the numbers before this gets to the state Senate. Out-of-the-box solutions are good; so is reality.
PERTH AMBOY - Speaking of horses: If you missed a big job interview or maybe your wedding yesterday, feel free to blame the 80-year-old guy on horseback who clip-clopped over the Outerbridge Crossing. Cars were snarled both ways at 11:15 a.m., when the bandanna-wearing cowboy on horseback led another packhorse across the three-mile span. Perhaps thinking he was in, say, Wyoming, as opposed to crossing one of the planet's busiest bridges with 82,000 vehicles whizzing by, the weathered geezer took his time galloping toward Staten Island, with perhaps an E-ZPass strapped between his horse's eyeballs. Fuming motorists, who apparently had nothing better to do, watched him pass; some took video. Luckily, no one heaved Ol' Paint and Bessie into the Arthur Kill.
ON THE ROADS - Do we really need a study to tell us our roads stink? Or that we sit in traffic too much and pay too much for car repairs? Apparently so. Here it is, in black-and-white, from CarInsurance.com, ranking New Jersey the 10th worst state for driving, with our wealth of washboard roads and crumbling bridges. The 50-state survey confirms New Jerseyans pay the nation's highest repair costs and we sit in the second-longest traffic delays, wasting nearly 75 hours each year. There is a silver lining, at least currently: We have the nation's sixth lowest gas prices. A spokeswoman for New Jersey AAA tells the Record that data like this makes a good case for a new gas tax to replace our decrepit roads that appear right out of rural Afghanistan.
WALL - Absurd to think Gov. Chris Christie will get pelted with tomatoes today when he shows up at the local library to hype his wildly outrageous "Fairness Formula" for the state's school districts. Wall is one of those towns that stands to gain big-time from Christie's flat $6,599 per pupil plan. It's sprawling suburbia where Christie's idea of fairness would drastically drop tax bills, while pulling state aid from, say, Newark. This year, Wall's public schools got $3.74 million in state aid, or $1,038 for each of its 3,600 pupils. Under his plan to rob the poor to give to the rich, Christie would hand this district $23.7 million toward its $67.6 million budget. WOW! Now doesn't that sound fair? If you want to witness what's likely to be a 3:30 p.m. Christie love fest, details are available here. No buses from Asbury Park, please.
DUMONT - Amazing where your tax money goes - especially if you live in this postage-sized stamp town of less than two miles. Taxpayers are forking over cash to pay their share of a $275,000 settlement to a police sergeant. The cop, who has been on the Dumont force for nearly 30 years, is protecting while serving a lawsuit against his employer, claiming he was passed over for a promotion because he is involved in the police union. Apparently, sarge was not promoted because he is "antagonistic," the Record reports. But he certainly knows the court system.
NEW BRUNSWICK - There's plenty of beer available for any legal-aged Rutgers student seeking the crisp and clear joys of hops and suds. But that's not stopping university researchers in their quest to make New Jersey a hub for craft breweries. And, that is why you will find them on a research farm in Pittstown this summer: Improving the science of beer, analyzing the hand-harvested production of hops (a really time-consuming process) and how to make hops a bigger cash crop for Garden State farmers. NJ.com says Rutgers is neck-deep in this two-year study, capitalizing on the craft brewery boom and advances in farming technology, to make hops big potential in New Jersey. And, for RU, plenty of more locally-crafted options at a future tailgate.
IN OTHER IMPORTANT NEWS
BLUE HILL, Maine - The Morning Briefing has been humming along for five years now. And every once in awhile we like to check in on the 40-year-old chemistry experiment still going strong at a private school in Maine. That's where an old Twinkie sits in a glass box, closely monitored. It all started in 1976, when the teacher was talking about food additives and shelf life. That prompted a run to the Kwik-E-Mart. The teacher ate one Twinkie, and left the other as a lasting gift for the school, which has survived long after that teacher and may outlive every graduate.
THIS DAY IN HISTORY
It was this day in 1982 that all of Britain was gripped by the royal decision to name the new prince, "William." Not Bill or Billy or Mac or Buddy.
WORD OF THE DAY
Jactitation - (jak-tuh-TAY-shun) - noun
Definition: A tossing to and fro or jerking and twitching of the body
Example: When you hail a cab at Newark International Airport, expect plenty of jactitation.
WEATHER IN A WORD
Thunder.