An article in tomorrow's Washington Post entitled:
Governor Focuses on Fiscal Health of N.J.
is written with all the objectivity of a Corzine for Governor press release. It attempts to paint Governor Jon Corzine's popularity problems as being linked to him trying to "do the right thing" about the dreadful financial condition of the State of New Jersey. Of course, anyone familiar with what's going on in New Jersey knows that nothing could be further from the truth - the only thing Jon Corzine has done about the terrible fiscal condition of the State of New Jersey is to make it worse than ever.
A case in point is the budget he is currently trying to ram through the N.J. Legislature. His budget does not address the cause of our financial problems in any meaningful way, instead, he continues to plunder the State’s treasury and borrow against our children’s future to benefit the political cronies that allowed him to buy the Democratic nomination for Governor in 2005.
Apparently, the reporter for the Post made the same mistake that we, the voters of New Jersey, made in 2005 - he listened to what Jon Corzine says. The problem is that Jon Corzine usually says one thing, then does another.
Jon Corzine says he wants to attack wasteful municipal spending but what does he do? - he cuts the aid to Municipalities that are well-run instead. The reason is simple enough - virtually all of the worst-run, graft-ridden cities in the state are run by his cronies, so he can’t cut there!
Jon Corzine says he wants to bring wasteful school spending under control, then what does he do? He pours billions of dollars into school districts that spend money hand-over-fist on everything but education. Corzine and his cohorts need the votes that money will deliver – so while these school districts cheat children of their futures - Jon Corzine and his Department of Education look the other way.
Jon Corzine says he wants N.J. to stop borrowing money, but what does he do? He tries to push through the biggest bonding scheme ever attempted by any state ever.
Jon Corzine says that the N.J. State Constitution requirement that voters approve all bonding should be followed, but what does he do? He pushes a $3.9 billion dollar bonding scheme through the legislature to fund additional School Construction without voter approval - in spite of the fact that the last School Funding Bond resulted in billions of dollars of waste and fraud, and pennies on the dollar actually spent on school construction.
Jon Corzine is not unpopular because he’s doing the right thing, he’s unpopular because the citizens of New Jersey have come to realize that he may on occasion say the right thing - but do the right thing?
Apparently, Jon Corzine doesn’t even know how.