The Jaffe Briefing - September 23, 2019

TRENTON – A dollar fifty? Really? In this state, where we pay thousands and thousands of dollars a year in property taxes, sales taxes, income taxes and many, many other taxes, the Motor Vehicle Commission wants $1.50 for an “online convenience fee” for basic transactions. Puh-leeze. The state put an end to this dumb fee in 2016 to help speed up wait times at MVC offices, but then this $1.50 charge was reinstated, quietly, earlier this year, NJ 101.5 reports.  Now, Assemblyman Kevin Rooney is trying to kill this pesky fee, again, wanting to ensure people go online, as opposed to trying their luck at a long-lined MVC office. It’s silly to think a $1.50 fee will change anyone’s behavior to do anything, especially when we are drowning in so many other taxes.

NEW BRUNSWICK - Rarely is Rutgers football worthy of national headlines, until this weekend. That's when all the top sports channels and even CNN reported on an interesting touchdown celebration in Saturday's game.  When RU quarterback Art Sitkowski connected on a 74-yard TD pass, his giddy center picked him up and for some strange reason slugged him right in the face. Sitkowski's head snapped back, but he seemed perfectly ok, miraculously.  This infamous punch was the top video, all day, and the highlight of the game, in which RU lost yet again.  Silver lining: A Rutgers football player can hit someone. 

ON THE BIG SCREEN – Lights, camera and more action is coming to the Garden State with Gov. Phil Murphy’s new deal to bring flashy Bollywood film productions back from his trip to India. The governor agreed to let the Mumbai-based Film & Television Producers Guild take full advantage of our lucrative tax credits for shooting more movies in New Jersey, home to 390,000 Indian-Americans. NJ Advance Media says this comes a week after those tax credits helped lure a ginormous Astoria, NY-based development firm to announce it’s turning a dilapidated Jersey City warehouse into the East Coast’s biggest movie studio. Suck on that, LA.

PATERSON – Council members are squabbling over plans to hire nine part-time aides for themselves. And, that’s holding up action on Mayor Andre Sayegh’s new budget. Three council members say they need extra staff to do their jobs. Three other don’t, saying it's unfair to spend $25,000 apiece for nine assistants when some full-time secretaries at City Hall only make $30,000. And, a few council members don’t want to appear incapable of handling their duties without help … at least not before May’s election when six seats are up. A top city official tells the Paterson Times this bickering puts City Hall “in a very challenging position,” because budget approval is needed very soon to apply for $25 million in new state aid. Maybe all the new aides can help with the impasse.

TRENTON – Always eager to write about Council President Kathy McBride, who famously used the term “Jew Down” in a closed-door council meeting on Sept. 5. When she finally apologized for uttering such a hateful stereotype, after all 12 members of the state’s Congressional delegation urged her to do so or resign, she is now taking lumps for not filing her state-mandated personal financial disclosures over the last two years. She tells New Jersey Globe: “Sometimes I’m not on top of everything. I thought that I had filled out all the paperwork.” Nope.

AT THE PARK - Major League Baseball’s playoffs are within sight and include those guys in pinstripes from the Bronx. As for the Mets’ wild-card hopes, let’s not go there. No shots will be heard around New Jersey in any case; we all know that no big-league team calls the Garden State home. It’s good to remember, then, as NJ Spotlight does today, that New Jersey played an important role in the development of the national pastime and the remnants of that history are all over the state; you just need to look for them. Learn the history at NJ Spotlight and prepare for many seventh inning stretches in your recliner. Pass the chips.

IN OTHER IMPORTANT NEWS

FARMINGTON HILLS, MI – Uh... congrats? A company called Dryer Vent Wizard had been collecting lint from all its locations in the country beginning last year. For that effort, it has been able to assemble the world’s largest lint ball, weighing in at 690 pounds. The effort wasn’t completely worthless, as the company set the Guinness World Record, before setting the great big ball on fire. The company had hoped for a ball that would top 1,000 pounds, yet still easily surpassed the previous record created by some losers who could only amass 99 pounds of lint.

THIS DAY IN HISTORY

It was this day in 1992 that Bradlees purchased all the Alexander’s department stores in New York City. We're curious if it was, in true discount store style, “Buy One Store, Get the Second Half-Off.”

WORD OF THE DAY

WIT OF THE DAY

WEATHER IN A WORD

Summer?

THE NEW 60
A Jaffe Briefing Exclusive
by Andy Landorf & John Colquhoun