Weekly Update – Stockton College email to 9,000 students– Vote ‘YES” for 20 years of higher taxes, tuitions!

LIBERTYandPROSPERITY.org Update

1. ? ? ? ? ?We need two volunteers two host our Regular Breakfast Discussion this Saturday, October 13, 2012 from 9:30AM to 10:30AM at the Shore Diner. Tilton and Fire Roads in Egg Harbor Township.? by Parkway Exit 36.??? Seth Grossman will be on vacation (which is why this Update is going out 4 days early), and many of our members will be at the Americans for Prosperity Summit in Parsippany.???? We need someone to welcome and introduce guests and moderate the discussion.? We also need someone to write down the names and contact information of any new people who attend so we can put them on our email list.??? If you can help, ?please contact Seth Grossman at sethgrossman49@gmail.com or Dennis Mahon at dmahon1@yahoo.com.

2.? Regular live, two way talk radio on 92.1 FM (Vineland) heard in most of South Jersey, Philadelphia, and Wilmington, Saturday from 8AM to 9AM. Seth Grossman will be away on vacation, and retired judge Paul Porreca of Millville First will be the guest host.

3.? Defending the American Dream Summit at the Sheraton Parsippany Hotel in Parsippany.?? This Saturday, October 13.?? Sponsored by Steve Lonegan?s Americans for Prosperity. Speakers include Michelle Malkin Jonah Goldberg James O’Keefe Dinesh D’Souza.

 

  General Admission (9:00 AM – 4:00 PM)…..$20.?? VIP Reception and Dinner with Michelle Malkin (Beginning 5:00 PM) and All-Day Pass (9:00 AM – 4:00PM)…..$150.? ??For more information go to http://americansforprosperity.org/new-jersey/.? For transportation from Atlantic County, contact Dennis Mahon at dmahon1@yahoo.com.? Also see

http://www.facebook.com/events/527345160626038/

4.? Just five days to get everyone you know registered to vote.? The deadline is October 16.? You can get voter registration forms at any county building, City Hall or Township Hall, Motor Vehicles office, or online at? http://www.state.nj.us/state/elections/voting-information-voter-registration-forms.html.

5.? State DEP (Department of Environmental Protection) still out of control under Republican Governor Chris Christie.? In 2010,? the DEP found a trace amount of a chemical called PCE in a private well.??? The DEP then demanded that Sue?s Clothes Hanger, the owner of a dry cleaning store pay for the full clean-up costs of hundreds of thousands of dollars.??? The DEP claimed that the small business should pay even though there was no evidence that it caused the problem.?? The DEP said that the business admitted using that chemical 12 years earlier.? After Sues Clothes Hanger spent thousands of dollars for legal fees,? the NJ Supreme Court finally ruled that a property owner can?t be forced to pay for an environmental clean-up without some evidence that he or she caused the contamination.?? The mere fact someone once used a similar chemical is not enough.??? Why didn’t Governor Christie have the?DEP follow? that sensible rule in the first place, without putting that small business owner through three years of hell?

6.? Obama?s U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) just ruled that any employer who uses criminal records in making employment decisions may violate Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.?? That is because since more blacks have criminal records than whites, using criminal records to make employment decisions discriminates against blacks.????? If a business is sued, it usually settles, because if it loses, it has to pay the ?victim?s? legal fees as well as any damages.??? Why do?American businesses outsource and move?overseas?? It’s not just high taxes and unions in the U.S.?? These fee-shifting lawsuits are also killing American business.

7.? New Jersey law seems to guarantee that certain insiders can get government jobs through politics–but then can never lose them.???In August 2003, Trevor Weigle got a job as “Director of Health and Human Services, Health Officer, and Department Head for Bloomfield Board of Health”.???Four years later, Civil Service found that Weigle?s job was ?improperly classified?.?? To comply with Civil Service, the city government then abolished his?$114,000 position and divided his job into two positions.?? He was then hired for one of those positions at $93,500 per year.?? But Weigle wanted his full original salary, and?sued the Township for “retaliation”.?? Last week,? the N.J. Law Journal reported that the Township paid him an additional $220,000 to settle the case.

8.?? How is the Port of Authority of New York and New Jersey spending its money???? Why did they raise Holland and Lincoln Tunnel tolls to $12???? Why do they want to take over the Atlantic City Airport.??? We will never know.??? The New Jersey Appellate Divison of the Superior Court just ruled that the Port Authority was set up as an independent interstate agency between New York and New Jersey that was approved by Congress in 1921.??? Therefore, neither the Open Public Records Act (OPRA) ?of New Jersey nor the similar Freedom of Information Law (FOIL) law of New York applies.

9.? Last Sunday, Venezuela lost the?election— and its liberty.??? Chavez was elected President of ?Venezuela in 1999.? At that time, ?Venezuela was a modern, prosperous country with a Constitution similar to ours.?? Chavez promised to end corruption and act ?for the people?.?? To do this, he ignored the constitution.? He fired judges who ruled against him.?? He had government hire hundreds of thousands of his supporters for do-nothing government jobs to ?stimulate? the economy.???? He took over the banks, the oil companies, and the TV stations.?? There are now shortages of food, milk, and oil.?? The roads and bridges are collapsing.??? The currency is nearly worthless, and inflation is running at 20%.??? ?There have been 155,788 murders in Venezuela, a country with only 29 million people, ?since 1999. The Chinese government loaned the Venezuela $12 billion in the past 15 months, which Chavez used to buy votes.?? Now, Chavez has to use a big chunk of the nation’s oil productionto pay that money back.?? ? Chavez bought new electronic voting machines to replace the old paper ballots.??? Government employees were told that the government knew how they voted.?? Although the opposition unified behind a capable and articulate candidate, the government said Chavez was re-elected by 54% to 45%.??? After the election, Chavez announced he would have the government take over more businesses from the people who opposed him.

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11.?????????? Bring a friend or family member to the next Breakfast.?? Liberty and Prosperity will pick up the check for one of the three Liberty specials for the first time any South Jersey high school or college student attends one of our breakfasts.?? We don?t expect you to attend every breakfast meeting, but you should attend one meeting every month or two to learn the news that never makes the TV networks or daily newspapers.? Forward this email to friends and family and ask them to sign up for our email updates at http://www.libertyandprosperity.org.

12.? Become a full voting member of LibertyAndProsperity.org! Dues are $60 per year, attend 3 business meetings each year, and work on at least one volunteer project each year. Or be a non-voting supporting member for just $30 per year, with no other commitment.??? Forward this email to friends and family, and ask them to sign up for our weekly update at http://www.libertyandprosperity.org.

13.? Volunteers needed to distribute LibertyAndProsperity.org literature at the New Jersey Cranberry Festival in Chatsworth, New Jersey during the weekend of October 20 and 21.? If you can help, please contact Dennis Mahon at dmahon1@yahoo.com.

14.?? Yesterday, Stockton College sent this email roughly 9,000 emails to all of it students.? You can view it at http://intraweb.stockton.edu/eyos/page.cfm?siteID=197&pageID=95.? It tells students to to ??support Stockton?s future? by going the website of? political action website.?? That website urged them to ?Vote YES? to have the state borrow $1.5 billion.

Please review Seth Grossman?s draft column discussing this issue, and let him know your suggestions, corrections, and comments for improvement.?? His email is sethgrossman49@gmail.com.?? Also, please use this information to send in your own letters to the editor, and to call your local talk shows.?? Thanks.

Public Question ? ?Building Our Future Bond Act?

?Do you approve the “Building Our Future Bond Act”? This bond act authorizes the State to issue bonds in the aggregate principal amount of $750 million to provide matching grants to New Jersey’s colleges and universities. Money from the grants will be used to build, equip and expand higher education facilities for the purpose of increasing academic capacity.
Yes____?? No_____?.

Last summer, Chris Christie Republicans including Atlantic County State Assemblymen Chris Brown and John Amodeo voted with Steve Sweeney Democrats like Atlantic and Cape May Senators Jim Whelan and Jeff? VanDrew to borrow $1.5 billion.??? Half will be borrowed directly by state government and paid back with higher taxes.?? The other half will be borrowed by the state ?colleges and paid back with higher tuition and student fees.

Running up debt and expenses in a bad economy when most people who pay taxes and tuition are struggling is stupid and cruel.

Fortunately, Article 8, Section 2 of the NJ Constitution does not let our state legislators borrow money unless voters approve.?? And so they were forced to put their borrowing plan on the November 6 ballot as a public question.

How you vote on that ballot question is as important to your future as how you vote for candidate for President, U.S. Senate, or Congress.
Back in January of 2008, Democrat Governor Jon Corzine said that when unfunded pensions were included, our state government was $117 billion in debt.? He warned that if we did sell our toll roads and hike tolls by 800% to pay down that debt, it would crush our economy.

But we stopped his toll hike scheme.??? Since then, the economy crashed, lots of public employees and school teachers retired and tapped into the pension fund early?and the usual state budget gimmicks continued.

As a result, ?www.StateBudgetSolutions.org reports that New Jersey state government debt is? now $258 billion?the fifth? highest state government debt in the nation, after California, New York, Texas, and Illinois.??? That comes to more than $30,000 for every man, woman, and child in New Jersey.??? $120,000 for a family of four.???? Most New Jersey families owe more on our state government debt than they owe on their home mortgages.

It would be nice if? Stockton College taught this stuff to its students.????? At some point, they must deal with the mess we created for them.

But last week, Thomasa Gonzalez, Stockton?s Vice President for Student Affairs, ?sent out thousands of official emails urging all current and former students to?Support Stockton?s future!? ???The email steered them to the ?Building Our Future? official web site where they were all urged to ?Vote? YES? on the Public Question.?? To view that email, go to http://intraweb.stockton.edu/eyos/page.cfm?siteID=197&pageID=95.

?Building Our Future? is a Political Committee registered with the NJ Election Law Enforcement Commission.
It was set up by Maggie Moran, the Campaign Manager and Chief of Management and Operations for former Democratic Governor Jon Corzine.???? It is now headed by William T. Mullen, President of the Building and Construction Trades Council of the NJ State AFL-CIO.

Its website claims that the ?Building our Future Bond Act will invest in higher education for the first time in a quarter of a century? and get ?the brightest students, innovators, and entrepreneurs to live and work in New Jersey?.

What lies!? The website never even mentions the words ??borrow? or ?debt? .? ?And it doesn?t say how even higher taxes and tuitions will be needed to pay the money back with interest over the next 20 years.??? Or how high taxes, tuitions, and ?pay to play? politics in New Jersey is what is driving the best and the brightest out of New Jersey in record numbers.
No investment in higher education in 25 years???? What about the $65 million Stockton just spent on its ?wow? student center??? Or $50 million for the science building??? $49 million for new dorms to house 380 students??? Or $36 million for the Seaview Country Club Resort, with , $1.5 just to spruce up the golf course?

Meanwhile, ten fully accredited colleges in Texas are moving in the opposite direction.??? Last week, they announced new programs that would award degrees to students for less than $10,000 total.

The best and brightest flocked to New Jersey when I and almost any student could pay for one year of a state college with one summer of work.? As a former underpaid adjunct professor willing to teach again, we can easily do that again.

 

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