Monday, May 28, 2012
Assembly debate on minimum wage increase another example of the polarization of the parties, columnist says.
Imagine yourself a minimum-wage worker. You earn $7.25 an hour. You work full-time, eight hours a day, maybe flipping burgers, maybe scanning groceries, maybe taking tickets at a movie theater. You make $290 a week, $15,080 a year. You’re renting an apartment in Morris or Somerset counties, clearly, you can’t afford to buy a home. Rent is $1,233 a month. After you pay that rent–hopefully it includes utilities–you’ve got $284 to spend. For the entire year. It’s probably best to take a job in food service, where you might be able to snatch a handful of fries or fistful of popcorn for free, because the $5.40 you have left over each week won’t even buy one day’s worth of healthy meals. Given all this, how is it possible that any Assembly …
Thursday, June 23, 2011
Opponents of the reforms, which were approved by the Senate on Monday, have called the legislation an attack on the middle class.
Proposed legislation to increase contributions by public employees to their health care and pension costs is expected to be approved by the state Assembly Thursday, clearing its final hurdle before heading to Gov. Chris Christie to be signed into law. The state Senate adopted the pension and health care reform bill on Monday by a margin of 24-15, with 16 Republican Senators and eight Democrats voting in favor of bill S-2937. The bill would require teachers, state and local government workers to pay an additional 1 percent of their salaries toward their pensions as of July 1, and an additional 1 percent phased in over the next seven years for a total of 7.5 percent. Police and firefighters would pay an additional 1.5 percent of their …
Monday, June 6, 2011
In Morris County, there's usually not much of a contest in the fall.
Tuesday is the primary, and in Morris County, this is usually the most important election for state legislative and county races because of the Republican party’s domination. This year’s decennial redistricting of legislative district boundaries isn’t likely to change that. The most recent voter registration figures from the New Jersey Secretary of State’s office show that Democrats made only very slight gains in just the 25th and 26th districts, but both remain solidly GOP-leaning. Meanwhile, the 27th District, which only recently was redrawn to include some Morris communities, gained almost 15,000 Republicans while losing 5,000 Democrats—registered Democrats still outnumber Republicans, though. Since lopsided legislative makeups tend to …
Gadfly
8:33 pm on Thursday, May 31, 2012
How about this one? Give a man a fish, he'll eat for a day. Sell your fish for as much as you can, pay your workers as little as possible and retire early....and who gives a @&$& if the man eats for a day or not. That's his problem. more ›