Here’s a gem from yesterday’s arbitration cap flap, Save Jerseyans, courtesy of NorthJersey.com:
The four Democratic appointees of the task force said in a joint statement that the information released violates the law and that they would seek judicial relief. They said that “much work is needed to prepare a complete and accurate final report.” There are seven points that were brought up at a previous meeting that are considered “vital” to the report but were missing or lacked detail in Thursday’s release, said Ed Donnelly, president of the New Jersey State Firefighters Mutual Benevolent Association. He said that there “no impasse” and that the two sides “need to get back to the table and work this stuff out together.”
The other Democratic appointees are: Ronald Bakley of the NJ State Fraternal Order of Police; Dominick Marino of the Professional Firefighters Association of New Jersey and the International Association of Fire Fighters; and George O’Brien of the New Jersey State Policemen’s Benevolent Association.
Democrats are howling over the report’s release. They say it’s a “political stunt” (Phil Murphy’s words, after months of refusing to take a position one way or the other). And now they want to… sue???
But back to the point at hand: what are those mysterious “points” referenced by Donnelly & Co.?
And how would they impact the report’s unambiguous conclusion that capping arbitration rewards helped control rate of property tax increases?
The four aforementioned union chieftains aren’t providing much in the way of additional details.
I suppose that’s sort of the point, right?
Union bosses have a perverse incentive to keep property taxes moving in a northward direction. More money = bigger government = more union members = more political power. This is all about CONTROL, and there won’t be too much left to control if property tax rates ever normalize and the taxpayers’ utters run dry. No one manipulates this game quite like the NJEA but the other labor organizations are expert players in their own right. So is it really any wonder that they’re huffing and puffing over a report that documents $2.9 billion in savings and many, many billions more in the years ahead assuming, of course, Democrats don’t allow the reforms to sunset on December 31st?
We should all be troubled that a report advocating for LOWER property taxes gives Democrats — and their patrons in the world of Big Labor — so much agita.
Their interests are diametrically opposed to our own, so much so that they’re willing to sue us for the right to keep raising our taxes to fund their largess. Remember that in November, folks.
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