Chris Christie, or Evil Incarnate

[jasonf]

Posted: 3/20/10 at 1:43pm

Is there a difference?

[DottieD'Luscia]

Posted: 3/20/10 at 4:55pm

The first thing I think of whenever I see his picture or hear is name is: vile.

[madbrian]

Posted: 3/20/10 at 8:04pm

As much as I loathe him, he is pretty much doing exactly what he promised. It's destroying the state, but that's what people voted for.

[Mr Roxy]

Posted: 3/20/10 at 8:43pm

So the alternative would have been to pile on more taxes thereby driving more business & people out of NJ.

Take your pick. NYS is heading down the same road. It may run out of cash in early June. So as not to offend public employee unions, they have piled on one tax after another thereby killing chances of new business setting up shop in NY & driving others out.

Unfortunatly, in both NY & NJ (& other states) political pandering has reached epidemic proportions & the spending increases have become unsustainable. A case in point is the soda tax. It has nothing to do with health. Listen to the ads which state "stop devastating health care cuts" etc. The bottom line is public employee unions feel they should not have to experience any pain or suffering & it should be business as usual. Others in the general population have either lost their job or had pay freezes or cuts.They feel they should continue to get raises no matter what. A NY union official basically said the hell with anyone but his members. It is a war & unfortunately, there will be casualties on both sides. The unions want a war with no caualties on their side.

Tough times mean painful sacrifices by many & not excluding certain segments of society.

Try cutting 9 Billion dollars from the NYS budget without inflicting pain.

Updated On: 3/20/10 at 08:43 PM

[madbrian]

Posted: 3/20/10 at 9:40pm

NJ needs fundamental changes, not the either/or of tax increases vs budget cuts. NJ needs more regional school boards and administrations, rather than most towns having their own. It also needs to find a person of character in a leadership position, something that's been lacking for decades. That person should be Corey Booker.

[Leia947]

Posted: 3/20/10 at 9:46pm

I liken him to Jabba the Hutt.

[Plum]

Posted: 3/20/10 at 9:56pm

And it's just a coincidence that Christie's tax and budget policies completely screw over public schools, the poor, and NJ's already-screwed inner-city population and pretty much do nothing to (or even benefit) businesses and the rich, right, Roxy? Because Christie is totally about spreading the pain! It just happens that the people with the least pain are the ones who look the most like Chris Chistie.

Please excuse my immaturity, but sometimes I really just want to punch a Republican in the nose.

[jasonf]

Posted: 3/21/10 at 12:16pm

Roxy,
Explain to me how this is the TEACHERS fault? Union leaders? Maybe. Overly bloated administration? Yes. But the teachers?

The fact is, these budget cuts are going to hurt teachers more than anyone else. The cuts were made and then left to the towns to figure it out. The administrators are going to protect themselves, and to hell with the teachers.

According to the latest reports from my district, of the 1200 or so employees, over 300 people may need to get cut. There a lot of problems with my district, but how in the world can a district function with that many people cut? Will admin suffer? Possibly, but we know the cuts are coming to teachers. Teachers all over the state are feeling it already. In the end, the kids will suffer as much as the families this is affecting.

I'm so sick of hearing Republicans trying to compare teaching to the private sector. When things were good economically, and you were making money and getting bonuses, did you give a damn that the teachers were still making their same pitiful salary and not sharing in ANY of the wealth? When you sign up for teaching you know you're signing up for a job with low salary but at least you're getting the benefits. There is simply NO comparison to the private sector in terms of salary/benefits. I think any teacher would be more than happy to pay for their benefits if our salaries were matched. Add in the fact that most of us are in places where we can never earn more than a comfortable living - there's no advancement and an eventual salary cap. Teachers take that because, and here's the thing Republican don't get, THEY DON'T GO INTO IT FOR THE MONEY. They go into it because they love teaching, they love helping kids, and they want to make a difference. That DOESN'T mean they go in with the expectation of being abused, disrespected, and being sniped at. They expect to make at least a living, and now even that is being threatened to be taken away -- all this for easily one of the most important job sin our society (go ahead and argue it if you want, but anything you say will be BS) that SHOULD be trying to attract the best.

Christie is laying the blame where he can and to hell with all the hard working teachers in the state. When we drop way down from third in the nation in public education, lets see how many people will want to live here any more.

Oh, and your property taxes? Going up. Deal with it. Embrace it. Love it.

[adamgreer]

Posted: 3/21/10 at 1:33pm

I absolutely loathe this man. Fortunately, he's a heart attack waiting to happen.

We got word on Friday that in our district, 15% of our staff is getting laid off. I'm in my 3rd year with the district, which means I get tenure after this year, and I have a master's degree, which means they would have to pay me more. Those two factors make me prime for dismissal at the end of the year- they could hire some inexperienced kid out of college with a bachelor's degree to do my job and pay them a lot less.

The only losers in this fat f*ck's idiotic plan are the children.

[violet72]

Posted: 3/23/10 at 8:26am

Our district is in a full blown panic...all non tenures are gone...alot of our programs are gone and now if our budget doesn't pass the tenured teachers will start getting riffed and I am one of the low man on the totem pole.

It is scarey times we live in and what pisses me off is how teachers are being vilified...and how is it that people who make over $400,000 get a tax break....wtf is that
He said in his speech we all need to make sacrafices...well maybe he should not take a limo to work everyday or take a pay cut or cut his health care or his pension or not pay someone $60,000 to twitter for him

Updated On: 3/23/10 at 08:26 AM

[ErikJ972]

Posted: 3/23/10 at 1:06pm

And I love when Roxy and other idiot Republicans say things like "but you can't tax people making over $400,000 a year. The poor things might leave the State!"
So instead the answer is to ONLY make cuts to the poor and middle class. Public schools, public transportation, daycare, pre-school, and unemployment.
My district just lost 45 million dollars. Massive layoffs are on the way. My sister is the business adminstrator of another distrcit that just lost 100% of their state funding. She's not even sure how they are going to open the high school next year.
Yes Christie is a evil fat slob. But that's what the people voted for.

[WestVillage]

Posted: 3/23/10 at 1:23pm

I loathe this man and am proud to say I did NOT vote for him. Corzine was no saint, but Christie is the devil.

[RobbO]

Posted: 3/23/10 at 1:53pm

Updated On: 8/23/13 at 01:53 PM

[ErikJ972]

Posted: 3/23/10 at 2:12pm

"teachers, while certainly underpaid and disrespected"

So you're saying teachers are underpaid but should take a pay cut?

"hire educated teachers, empower them, get rid of tenure, and have merit raises for teachers that benefit the students and the system. "

They already do hire educated teachers. Which is why NJ public schools consistently rank as the top in the nation.

Of course there needs to be reform. But doing such drastic cuts in one shot is going to be a disaster for schools and the kids in them.

[RobbO]

Posted: 3/23/10 at 2:17pm

yes, teachers SHOULD be paid more but not in 2010 when NJ unemployment is hovering around 10%, property taxes are through the roof, etc.

right now, there should be no salary increases for ANY state employee (including teachers) until we can get matters under control. once this crisis passes, we can then institute merit pay raises and other incentives for teachers who are deserving.

Updated On: 3/23/10 at 02:17 PM

[ErikJ972]

Posted: 3/23/10 at 2:21pm

I would agree...and even many of those "greedy unions" have agreed to not take raises during the current crisis. But with a ONE BILLION DOLLAR cut to education thousands of teachers across the State are going to loose jobs with or without a raise.

[RobbO]

Posted: 3/23/10 at 2:33pm

but have they cut redundant union positions? and what about school administrators? there are 21 counties in NJ, yet how many hundreds of school superintendents does NJ have in total for the school districts? how many assistant superindendents does each of those superindendents have?

there is so much waste and redundancy that if the school districts were really willing to address the problem instead of passing new budgets to suck residents dry, real change can occur.

and not one teacher would be affected, in the future, once the balance is restored. while teacher layoffs are unfortunate, they are inevitable, and hardly the armageddon predicted by the njea.

again, though, NJ residents need to go to their school boards and fight to have the waste addressed and demand that teachers not be cut (or at least not the first ones on the chopping block).



stopping school corruption: a manual for taxpayers

Updated On: 3/23/10 at 02:33 PM

[ErikJ972]

Posted: 3/23/10 at 2:38pm

I'll agree with you 110% about the administrators. My school has THREE assistant vice principals. And over 10 associate superintendents all making close to $200,000. That has nothing to do with the NJEA. And they won't be the one that go when cuts are made.
But I guess it's ok. Everyone has to suck it up and buckle down..except for the richest residents of the State.

[violet72]

Posted: 3/23/10 at 2:41pm

They won't...don't you realize when budgets are cut teachers and programs are cut...not administration...teachers have nothing to do with anything we have no say in the matter...we are the victims and now the Governor is asking us to freeze our salary for the year so people won't get laid off and programs can be saved...he is doing this so he won't look like the bad guy...we will....unbelieveable..

Christie today said those consequences could be minimized if local teachers' unions return to the bargaining table, and agree to forgo scheduled salary increases and make larger contributions to their health benefits.

If we take a freeze by the time I retire I would lose $250,000....the reason we get 2% raises each year is for cost of living....if we take a pay freeze we will never get that step back



urh

[ErikJ972]

Posted: 3/23/10 at 2:44pm

Violet...I don't think Christie is talking about freezing the cost of living increment. I think he's talking about freezing raises to the base salary.

[RobbO]

Posted: 3/23/10 at 2:57pm

Updated On: 8/23/13 at 02:57 PM

[jasonf]

Posted: 3/23/10 at 4:57pm

Robb - you're 100% right about there being too many districts and too much administration. Here's the thing though. Christie made the cuts and said to the districts "Deal with it." How is that going to happen? Think they're going to combine and eliminate from the top? Think they're going to get rid of all those administrators (and, even if they get rid of the positions, it still means thousands out of work because they're not going to let those people go - they're going to get bumped down knocking people "lower on the totem pole" out of the system.

The superintendents, each with their six figure salary (mine makes 194 grand, not to mention the hundreds of thousands from his pension in his PREVIOUS job), are not going to combine districts unless instructed to do so, not going to cut from the top, not going to do anything to hurt them. So - teachers, secretaries, custodians, counselors, and programs for kids are all getting sliced.

Christie took a hacksaw to the school budget, and it's succeeding in destroying our education system.

Do not compare teachers to the private sector. When the economy was good, were we rewarded? I didn't see anyone giving me a bonus then. Now that things have gone bad, we're nothing more than scapegoats. It is NOT teachers' faults.

We have conferences this week. Of the fourteen parents I saw today, two came to me with tears in their eyes thanking me for all that I did for their child the two years I taught them. I now have to worry that I'm going to lose my job. I teach English, not math, but I know that 2+2 SHOULD equal 4. Something doesn't add up here.

[violet72]

Posted: 3/23/10 at 5:07pm

I completely agree but we will not redistrict until someone says to. If the governor wanted that we wouldn't have a problem,. But right now it is the teachers and students that are going to suffer....now I wonder who is gonna be his next scapegoat

[ErikJ972]

Posted: 3/23/10 at 6:47pm

I don't know how you do that Rob. It seems the obvious answer to me. I alone have three highly paid supervisors. But when it comes down to cuts...they are always done at school level. Sports, special ed, arts and music, social workers...that's what goes. Oh, or the custodians and lunch staff. You know how those greedy money hungry bastards can be.
Maybe it's because parents aren't involed. Maybe it's because the people who make these decisions...are themselves administrators.
It's funny...you never read about the overpaid adminstrators in the paper. It's always the greedy teachers.

[RobbO]

Posted: 3/23/10 at 6:54pm

Updated On: 8/23/13 at 06:54 PM