President Obama could learn a lot about fiscal responsibility from New Jersey Republican Gov. Chris Christie. The governor is making hard choices to close a $2.2 billion state budget deficit by freezing spending and erasing surpluses to meet current needs.

Mr. Christie is cutting money for schools, colleges, hospitals and the New Jersey Transit system - 375 line items total. He is removing noncitizens from the state health care system and canceling a jobs program that mainly created jobs for government bureaucrats. His cuts are intended to impose efficiency and accountability on government spending, concepts people generally do not associate with New Jersey politics.

Last week, the state Local Finance Board put Hoboken under "supervision," a polite term that sounds better than a limited takeover. This comes two months after the city failed to approve a balanced municipal budget.

While the mayor and the City Council will be able to propose and vote on municipal business, Susan Jacobucci, director of the state Division of Local Government services, will have final approval on all fiscal matters (expenditures above $4,500), union contracts and the hiring and firing of employees.

Last week, Hoboken Mayor David Roberts came up with his proposals for a spending plan for the new fiscal year that begins July 1, one that faces a $10.5 million deficit.

Of course, any fiscal blueprint for Hoboken will have to be approved by the state Department of Community Affairs, which is actually running the show in the Mile Square City. The state has assumed control of the city's finances after the municipal government failed to approve the last budget. This newspaper believes the failure was a combination of inept administration and City Council political grandstanding, a fatal combination for local taxpayers.

The U.S. Senate campaign pitting Thomas Kean Jr. against Sen. Robert Menendez hasn't been pretty. But it has succeeded in getting people's attention and delineating the candidates' differences.

Kean's priorities have been clear from the outset of his bid for a Senate seat: restoring government integrity and reducing taxes. While we haven't been enamored with his campaign, which has hammered away incessantly at Menendez's shortcomings in those two areas, Kean clearly felt a need to contrast their candidacies on the two issues he believes matter most.

Until Gov. Jon Corzine raised the subject, talk in New Jersey of selling off or leasing the turnpike and some of the state’s other assets was not going anywhere. After all, the state’s privatization of its auto inspection system and its early experience with E-ZPass were hardly smashing successes. But Mr. Corzine, with his background in the business world, gave the idea immediate credibility.

At the Corzine administration’s behest, a financial services company is studying the situation and is expected to make recommendations next month. A State Treasury spokesman, Thomas Vincz, said last week that just about everything is on the table, including the sale, partial sale and management of numerous highways in addition to the turnpike and of other state assets as well.

TRENTION, N.J. (AP) — The Philadelphia Inquirer on Sunday endorsed Democrat Robert Menendez for the U.S. Senate, praising him for having "the superior experience, intellect and grasp of the issues."

Noting that both Menendez and Republican challenger Tom Kean Jr. are better than the negative ads they have run during the campaign, the newspaper chose the 52-year-old Hudson County Democrat in what it termed a close call between two good choices.

Menendez "has fought successfully for prescription drug coverage, port security, and transportation and Amtrak funding. He has the leadership to get legislation passed," it wrote.

The screaming headlines of political corruption, using public office for private gain and campaign mudslinging that plays the ethics card for political gain make plain yet again that real ethics reform must remain the cornerstone of any hope for restoring the public trust.

The legislative hearings in Trenton on public employee benefits reforms have provided absolutely no reason for optimism that lawmakers are prepared to do what is necessary to bring health care and pension costs under control.

Unfortunately, neither has the opening of contract talks between the Corzine administration and state employee unions, whose contracts expire in June. Those unions, along with the New Jersey Education Association, have made it clear they will resist any changes that would reduce the health and pension benefits of their members — present and future.

Encourage shared services
StarLedger Editorial
Monday, April 10, 2006

With money tight in the Statehouse and in town halls across the state, elected officials at all levels of government are looking for ways to economize. An obvious one is to share services.

But let's be realistic: In a state where mayors and town council members consider home rule as distinctly New Jersey as the Turnpike and the Pine Barrens, convincing them to relinquish control over anything won't be easy.

Better late then never?  Two years after the New Jersey State Commission of Investigation (SCI) published "The Changing Face of  ORGANIZED CRIME IN NEW JERSEY" May 2004, the New Jersey State Attorney General's Office recently announced that the number of investigators and prosecutors assigned to combat three pressing threats to public safety — gangs, organized crime and public corruption — will increase significantly under a criminal justice reorganization plan.

While Hoboken certainly has had its share of problems related to gangs, organized crime activity, and public corruption, reallocating State criminal justice resources to address the findings of the State of New Jersey Commission of Investigation is a step in the right direction.