The Jaffe Briefing - September 24, 2021

TRENTON – New Jersey reaped billions in COVID funds, so what now? Rather than go on another spending spree, two level-headed economists say it’s the ideal time to use our flowing resources as a down payment on all the fiscal problems ignored for decades. Yeah, that isn’t fun. But in an op-ed appearing on NJ.com, they note that people earning more than $100,000 here comprise 24% of tax returns, yet pay about 86% of all income taxes. So, we need to control taxes if we want to keep wealthier people here. And they talk about the underfunded pension system and these needs for $50 billion or so for infrastructure investment. And, of course, the economists ask the state to stop spending on stuff that it doesn’t need or shouldn’t be paying for. So, in the end, all of these extra billions just aren't a lot of money.

LAKEWOOD – Yes, we all know about the school bus shortage and the desperate need to find people to drive our most important treasures to school and back. But, we can’t have bus drivers drag racing other motorists with kids on the bus. That sorta crosses the line. The driver tried to illegally pass a car, after “racing and tailgating” it for blocks, cops say. That resulted in a five-car crash, with the school bus crushing another vehicle beneath its wheels, the Asbury Park Press reports. The bus driver was then sent for a drug test and has had four accidents since 2018. He’s now charged with reckless driving. Is that it?

ELIZABETH – Steal one credit card out of the mail, no red flags. But a postal worker got a bit greedy, admitting that she kept stealing the credit cards on her route in Elizabeth and Roselle Park and then selling them for $100 apiece. State authorities are not pleased, noting the 33-year-old woman is looking at up to five years in jail for swiping the cards in 2019. More than $2,000 in fraudulent charges were then run up, NJ.com reports, creating an enormous headache for someone to unravel. 

BRIEFING BREATHER

Roller coasters were invented to distract Americans from sin.

CLIFTON – Buy stuff online to lower your property taxes? OK, that may be a real stretch, but there’s some logic. In Clifton, the town expected to reap about $40,000 a year in recycling revenue, the Record reports. But it is now seeing that much cash flow per month. Why? Because residents keep buying tons of stuff online and then recycle the cardboard packaging. And because there is such a high demand for cardboard from all the online retailers, and limited supply, the price has skyrocketed. Plastic and aluminum have also fared nicely, as people keep buying more and more. So, Clifton residents, get back on Walmart.com.

IN OTHER IMPORTANT NEWS

LAKE CITY, Fla. — A Florida man was apparently not happy with his “purchase.” And that’s why he tried to trade in a vehicle from the same dealership he stole it from. Employees told cops that a man came into the showroom to trade in his vehicle for a new one. But upon quickly checking the VIN number, they found that the vehicle was stolen from the dealership’s lot a few days earlier, WTLV-TV reports. Yeah, the man said, he stole the car, his crime also captured on video, like everything else. Not only was he arrested for grand theft, but he also still remains an unhappy customer.

THIS DAY IN HISTORY

Did you retire at 26? No, but tennis great Bjorn Borg did on this day in 1982.

WORD OF THE DAY

Suborn – [suh-BORN] – verb

Definition: To persuade (someone) to do something illegal (such as to lie in a court of law).

Example: I sound like a fancy lawyer when I drop such terms as “suborning perjury.”

WIT OF THE DAY

“Two quiet people are not very fun together.” 

― Kelly Blatz

BIDEN BLURB

"Why don’t you say something nice instead of being a smartass all the time?"

– Joe Biden, to a worker at a frozen custard shop in Milwaukee in 2010 when he offered him a free dessert if Biden cut taxes.

WEATHER IN A WORD

Clearing