Tuesday, February 16, 2010
Government Solution to the Cost of Complying with the Open Public Records Act?
0 comments Posted by Todd Mickey at 8:15 AMWhy of course.... we should just change the law!!!!!
Every year, state senators and assemblymen propose laws that would diminish OPRA’s powers. None has been passed, but they keep popping up.
Meanwhile, pressure is coming from the local level: West Milford, after losing a costly OPRA lawsuit, has become the latest in a string of towns that want to repeal a provision that forces municipalities to pay plaintiffs’ legal fees. Two other towns want to rewrite OPRA so they can decide what information to release or not.
And one of the governor’s transition team reports recently suggested that the price of providing documents to citizens should include the cost of labor. In other words, after already paying the salary of the municipal clerk, and after buying the copier and the paper, taxpayers should pay again for the clerk to make a copy of a meeting agenda. That extra cost will discourage healthy inquisitiveness.
I guess putting records online for everyone to see at their leisure is just crazy talk! This is why we need to take back the country at the local level. Gotta love New Jersey.
Labels: chris christie, new jersey, tea party
Sunday, February 14, 2010
Christie Forcing Teachers to Choose Different Career Paths
0 comments Posted by Todd Mickey at 12:30 PMOr so Steve Baker, spokesman for the New Jersey Education Association, says in today's Star Ledger:
Steve Baker, spokesman for the New Jersey Education Association, which represents almost 120,000 teachers, said he’s worried new people will be discouraged from teaching careers."Everything that’s done changes the calculation for whether this is a good career choice," he said. "At some point, people cross the line and say, I can’t afford to do this.
Give me a break! Here's what the average salary of a teacher in Bergen county makes according to Salary.com.....$84,072 per year! And this doesn't take into account retirement benefits such as generous pension benefits (from the Press of Atlantic City):
The median pension payment for teachers in 2008 was $43,200.
Or generous health care benefits that most teachers pay nothing toward.
I'm not against teachers making as much money as they can but at what point do I, as a taxpayer have a right to say how are tax dollars are spent. When do I get the right to say that good teachers should be rewarded and bad teachers should be let go. When do I get the right to say that those in the public sector benefits should at parity with the private sector?
Labels: chris christie, new jersey, NJEA, tea party
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