Well, tax-and-spend Phil Murphy, our wonderful governor, is at it again. In the record state budget, he’s taxing businesses that make over $10 million in profits annuallyan extra 2.5%, so the state can to spend it on such wasteful things as helping ex-convicts re-enter society, using tennis to teach life lessons and wonderful arts programs.
Also, in 2026,all our legislators will get a 67% salary increase, their first since 2002. That 67% will help them keep up with President Joe Biden’s inflation.
Guess what the cost-of-living percentage raise for retired state employees’ pension benefits has been since 2011? A big, fat zero.
I hope all you taxpayers out there, especially you retired state employees, remember Murphy and the tax-and-spend Democrats come November 2025, the next time these state posts will be filled at an election.
J. R. Adubato, Hamilton
Editor’s note: The corporate tax boost is intended to help fund NJ Transit, but these funds are not specifically dedicated for this purpose in the Fiscal 2025 budget.
Feds have money for mass transit
Don’t blame Washington for NJ Transit’s 15% fare increase — which took effect Monday — and its ongoing financial crises.
On Jan. 27, Federal Transit Administration announced in the Federal Register that it has $21 billion available to transit agencies and communities to support public transportation in federal fiscal year 2024. Based on the formula, NJ Transit’s share is over $1 billion.
Also, the Federal Highway Administration has funding under several programs that can be transferred to the FTA to finance transit projects. This is another potential source for NJ Transit funding.
Many cities and counties have adopted a local dedicated sales tax or transportation bond issue to finance transit. Perhaps NJ Transit needs to consider one of these alternatives for future funding.
Larry Penner, Great Neck, N.Y.
Editor’s note: The writer previously served as a director for the Federal Transit Administration’s Region 2 (New York) Office of Operations and Program Management.
In the fast lane
The print headline read, “Rush to pass $56.6B (N.J. state) budget called obstacle to scrutiny.”
The story goes on about the process of officially introducing, passing and signing final budget legislation just before the fiscal-year deadline, July 1, often resulting in late-night action.
So, what else is new!
The time has come for the two branches of our government involved with this process, the Legislature and the governor’s office, to come up with a better way of approving state budgets.
Remember, this is taxpayers’ money and not meant to fund the political ambitions of the governor, or every senator and Assembly member.
How can this be done, you ask?
Well it can be done, if the political and public will is there.
What about saying, “Get your act together, or ship out”?
John G. O’Sullivan, Monmouth Junction
Will $56.6B buy peace and quiet?
Years ago, Route 21 was extended north of Route 3 to become a vital artery linking to Route 46 and Interstate 80.
This extension turned a sleepy road to nowhere into a busy highway. The extension was replete with noise barriers. However, “old” stretches of Route 21 got the noise — but not the noise barriers.
Now over a decade later, some of us in Passaic and Clifton still cannot sit on our front porches without constant traffic noise.
Perhaps the new $56.6 billion state budget might include funding for earplugs, or, better yet, those noise barriers.
Carl Singer, Passaic
Preference for a felon over Biden is baffling
A recent letter writer expressed his doubts about President Joe Biden’s honesty. These doubts were justified mainly because of a speech Biden made in 1988 where he failed to properly attribute some quotes from a speech made by a British politician.
Somehow this lapse that occurred nearly 40 years ago made Biden forever untrustworthy in this reader’s opinion. Another reader refers to Biden as “Plagiarizing Joe.”
If they are Donald Trump supporters, it appears that these writers prefer a presidential candidate who was convicted of 34 felonies by a jury of ordinary citizens, and is facing multiple trials for crimes he allegedly committed after the 2020 election. I fail to understand why, nor do I expect an explanation.
It is just another example of the political divisions our country is facing these days. These divisions may not be resolved in the upcoming election, no matter who wins.
Charles Repka, East Windsor
GOP plans to use the Wayback Machine
If you think your access to birth control pills or IUDs is safe, think again. Republicans are after every form of birth control.
The Project 2025 Presidential Transition Project, a conservative Heritage Foundation blueprint for the next GOP administration, is a frightening screed of over 900 pages that, if implemented, would take our country back to 1950 or even 1850, when women had few rights.
The “Dobbs decision,” the plan states, “is just the beginning,” referring to the U.S. Supreme Court ruling that overturned Roe v. Wade and left to individual states the decision whether to allow abortion. Many Republican-controlled states have implemented new abortion restrictions, some of which have led to women in crisis having to be airlifted out of their state to get life-saving care.
Also, conservative groups want a new GOP administration to begin strictly enforcing the Comstock Act, still on the books from 1873. The law outlawed distribution of “obscene” materials, a list that can include contraception products.
Republican presidents put Supreme Court justices in place who have overturned precedent-setting rulings, although they swore at their confirmation hearings hearings that “precedent” was important. They’ve overturned not just Roe v. Wade, but many other past rulings thatimpact the environment, voting rights, safe water and clean air.
The America that lies ahead if Republicans take control of the Senate and the presidency, and keep control of the House, is too frightening to contemplate.
If we want a functioning government where women have the right to make their own health care decisions, where we can pass laws for clean water and air, we must vote for Democrats up and down the ballot in November.
Bonnie Tillery, Hamilton
Give the electronic edition a try
To a letter writer who was critical about delivery and printing quality issues with the Times of Trenton, and many others:
I, too, was a creature of habit and resisted reading newspapers on anything digital for many years. I sat on the train to New York City every day, reading this paper, and the New York Times, until my fingers were blackened with ink. Then I read some more on my way home.
It was a gradual transition, with the unreliability of paper delivery, that I resorted to reading electronically. Home delivery for years has come with a digital subscription anyway. One day during the pandemic, I decided to save some money and invested in the cheapest iPad, and now access the paper wherever I want: desktop, smartphone and the tablet. I travel out of the country and still can read “Pickles” every day.
If someone can write an email letter to the editor about their gripes, they probably have access to a computer. Try going digital. The print is cleaner and brighter, and you can zoom in and out, which makes for easier reading.
Most of all, no more aggravation of missed deliveries. Once you go digital, you’ll never go back.
Angelo Buencamino, Ewing
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