In an editorial last week the New York Post called it the ‘worst spending bill ever’.
The American Rescue Plan (ARP) was the most expensive spending bill in half a century. It takes remarkable economic illiteracy and incompetence to apply $1.9 trillion in “stimulus” in a manner that actually worsens the economy, and (with few small exceptions) fails to address any significant policy challenges.
The main points are hit including this on the multiemployer plan bailout:
(49) NEW JERSEY taxpayers are on the hook for $58,300 as of fiscal year 2020. The beginning of the pandemic and subsequent downturn in the market hurt New Jersey’s pension plans. The state’s major pension plans expected a 7.0 percent return on investment when in reality they received 1.4 percent. The state remains in abysmal fiscal health and had no money set aside to weather the current or any future crisis.(page 11)
The Garden State Initiative released a report on the state of New Jersey finances. You have heard it all before but what keeps being left out of these ivory tower pronouncements is the systemic corruption at all levels and in all corners of officialdom here that makes even the slightest improvement in our general fiscal situation a pipe dream.
Here are some excerpts along with a few charts on the pension system, the last of which makes my point.
What that means is that, according to the grading system, New Jersey’s A3 rating is now 2 notches above Illinois’ Baa2 while still being three notches below the Aa3 states (Alaska, Connecticut, Kentucky, Louisiana, and Pennsylvania).
One was from the federal government warning broke states not to use covid money for debt repayments and the other was from a task force releasing a report on “recommended strategies to improve health outcomes and manage costs for members of the State Health Benefits Program (SHBP) and School Employees’ Health Benefits Program (SEHBP).”
Both designed as propaganda for the masses to provide the appearance that we have representative, competent governance that respects the rule of law while ignoring the underlying perversions within the system.
According to the EMMA website New Jersey borrowed another $400 million last week for which they had to provide an Official Statement which included 20 pages on the situation with public pensions and benefits. Excerpts follow.
The New Jersey FY-2022 one-year band-aid to get from election to election, otherwise know as the state budget, was introduced by Governor Phil Murphy today:
When asked what MV Strategies did and who else they did it for, we got this response: So these are supposed to be the clients of MV Strategies in New Jersey: Union County Hudson County Camden County Gloucester County Burlington County Middlesex County City of West New York State of New Jersey If googling is […]
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