It's a New Dawn, It's a New Day for NJ, and I Feel Good!

If you don't know Nina Simone, you don't have a pulse. Listen to the lyrics. Feel the passion. What an incredible talent, gone too soon.

As I sat here this morning, reading my newspaper (yes, I do still read the paper every day. If you're not sure what it is, google it.), and scrolling my Twitter feed, this song popped into my head because my new governor, Phil Murphy, was all over both, doing good things for New Jersey. 

The long, dark reign of Emperor Christie is over. I wrote about all the ways he screwed us in my farewell to him (and in many other posts along the way). There's a new kid in town: Phil Murphy. What a breath of fresh air! In the scant four weeks he has been in office, he has done all this (in no particular order):

• Signed an executive order giving equal pay to women (his first official act after being sworn in)
• Re-entered NJ in the multi-state Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI)
• Supported undocumented immigrants who were given sanctuary at a local church after others were arrested by ICE agents as they dropped their children off at school. 
• Appointed a real, live educator with decades of experience as the next Commissioner of Education. One of his campaign promises was to ditch PARCC. Too late to make that happen this year, but every reason to expect this year will be its swan song.
• Signed an executive order to protect Net Neutrality in NJ
• Ordered the expansion of medical marijuana—something that Christie signed into law, but made almost impossible to access
• Joined 14 other states in the fight against Trump's transgender military ban
• Ditched right-leaning, public-employee-bashing NJ101.5 in favor of News 12 New Jersey and public broadcasting for monthly 'Ask the Governor' broadcasts*
• Joined the governors of Pennsylvania, New York and Delaware to ban fracking on the Delaware River
• Signed an executive order to bring off-shore wind industry to the state
• Ordered an audit of the beleagured NJ Transit
• Joined 19 other states in fighting the Koch Brothers-backed Janus case that threatens public sector labor unions
• Joined 15 other states in a federal lawsuit to support Dreamers
• Vowed to roll back Christie's concealed carry regulations that made it easier for people to carry a handgun
• Joined with Connecticut and New York to challenge Trump's unfair tax law
• Signed an executive order aimed at saving the Affordable Care Act in NJ
• Ordered an audit of the NJ Tax Incentive Program Christie Corporate Welfare Program that gave over $8 billion in corporate tax breaks over the past eight years
• Supports a 'clean' $15/hour minimum wage bill
• Joined nine other states in suing Trump's EPA roll-back of Obama-era clean water regulations

No doubt Phil Murphy will make mistakes. He's human. No doubt he will not be able to make good on every, single campaign promise. No politician does. But so far, he is a breath of fresh air for a battle-weary state.

Yes, indeed, it's a new dawn, it's a new day and I feel good!

Adding... I think it's pretty safe to say we won't be seeing anything like this...

Public beach closed to all but Christie & family

Or this...

Using a state helicopter to attend son's baseball game

from Governor Murphy. 

* This article goes on to say:

Murphy rejected a different offer that would have broadcast the program free to all television sets in New Jersey. A spokesman for Murphy declined to comment. 

News 12 does not reach all New Jerseyans, but neither did New Jersey 101.5, whose signal is either spotty or non-existent in the state’s southern and northern extremities — including some of the most populous areas of North Jersey. News 12 is available only to cable subscribers and Verizon Fios customers do not receive its broadcasts. But, like New Jersey 101.5 did with Christie, the program will be streamed free online, according to the source.

The Real Truth About Fixing NJ

Former GOP Assemblyman (LD16) and 2017 Gubernatorial Candidate, Jack Ciattarelli, closed his recent op-ed in the Star Ledger with this:

New Jersey can be fixed. But first we need some truth-telling.

I agree. But, as the saying goes, "Position determines perspective"—and in this case, the truth. 

While it's true that the state is "facing a fiscal precipice", it's not true that the only outcome of "progressive rhetoric" would be "a culture of dependence," or worse: "socialism"! If that's the alternative to eight years of Chris Christie's disastrous version of trickle-down economics that left this state in a shambles, I say, "Bring it on!" (Good thing I'm not running for office. I can just see the oppo mailers: 'Corfield is a Marxist!')

He says:

• We cannot afford, nor do we need to fully fund pre-K - we simply need means-testing and fairer distribution of current funding.
• We cannot afford, nor do we need to fully fund public pensions - we simply need fair benefits reform. 
• We cannot afford, nor do we need to make community college free - we simply need to fairly subsidize tuition.
• The truth is our most taxed citizens cannot afford, nor do we need to raise taxes on the most taxed people in America - we simply need to reform our tax code to benefit all New Jerseyans.
• Our small business economy cannot afford, nor do we need a $15 minimum wage - we simply need to adjust the current minimum wage.

Ciattarelli tries to speak in a unifying voice, using "We" over and over. But who exactly are the "We" of which he speaks? The "We" of the 'Healthy, Wealthy and White' suburbs? The "We" of the solid middle class? Or the "We" of our low-income urban centers? All three groups fared far differently under Christie. And all three will fare very differently under the Trump/GOP tax scam: the rich will win, and the poor and middle class will lose. Ciattarelli offers no solutions except those that hurt the largest number of "We" in the state: children, young adults, seniors, the working poor and the middle class. Christie 2.0.

When reviewing the quality of life indices in the top ranking countries in the world (here, here, here), it's important to note that a) the US is not in the top 10, and b) what Ciattarelli decries as "socialism" (including quality, affordable education and a live-able minimum wage) is in part what makes the quality of life in these other countries so high. But putting the needs of the people first isn't as profitable in the "Corporations Are People" era.  

The truth is that greatest investment in socialist programs this country ever made pulled us up out of the Great Depression and built the middle class. If we want to pull New Jersey out of its tailspin, we must invest in our people, not continue to give huge corporate tax breaks that yield few jobs. We must invest in infrastructure and education. We must pay workers a living wage so that they have a real chance of getting out of poverty. We must have a tax system where everyone pays their fare share. And the state must uphold its contract with its public employees to fully fund our pensions. We have kept our end of the bargain while both Republican and Democratic state leaders reneged on their promises. We have made concessions. We now work longer, pay more and get less in return. While the wealthiest 1% in this state have seen their net worth skyrocket, many public employees (along with countless others in the private sector) have seen their paychecks decrease every year since Christie took office. That's the "We" in my circle. And that is not a recipe for recovery.

Take a look at that counter on the upper right side of this page. That's how long the state teachers pension has to live. That's the biggest fiscal precipice facing this state. Nothing—including tax revenues from legalized marijuana— should be off the table when it comes to creative solutions for this mess. 

Ciattarelli blames his party's lack of "direction" or "solutions" for Guadagno's defeat. But the larger truth is that the GOP allowed itself to be bullied from the get-go. Bills to spur job creation, Port Authority reform, funding for women's health care, and so many more issues that would have helped the state get back on its feet— and shown that the GOP had a heart—fell by the wayside as electeds cowered in fear of the "Wrath of Christie" for daring to override one of his vetoes. A party so beholden to a man who chewed us up and spit us out, who left this state for greener—albeit unattainable—pastures to advance his own political agenda was never going to win that race. 

Ultimately, fixing what's wrong in any system comes down to priorities. Phil Murphy can affect many of the changes he ran on as long as those who govern with him hold those same values, and the people of this state hold them all accountable. 

And that is the truth.

PS: Also contained in Ciattarelli's piece was a cheap shot at NJEAs decision to endorse Sen. President Steve Sweeney's opponent in November. While I don't always agree 100% with what my union does, I can count on the fact that we will hold accountable those who break promises to our members. Maybe if Ciattarelli's pension was about to fall off a cliff, he'd think differently.

Greetings from Atlantic City: A Farewell to Christie

This post comes to you from the NJEA Convention in Atlantic City.

The winter of our discontent is over. With the election of Phil Murphy on November 7th, the countdown to the end of Chris Christie's reign of error has begun. It's been a long eight years for New Jersey—especially for the poor and middle class—with an extra special kind of awful for public employees.

Early yesterday morning I took a long walk on the boardwalk. It felt like the set of some post-apocalyptic movie. Granted, it was too early for most souvenir shops, massage parlors, and psychics to be open, but still, pop music and carnival barker-style announcements blared non-stop from speakers to no one. Litter, like tumbleweeds vacationing from Las Vegas, floated across the ancient boards desperately trying to get back home. Malls stood half empty. Boarded up casinos, lined up one after another like ghost ships run aground, while workers dismantled the phallic spires and onion domes atop the closed Trump Taj Mahal, the garish, gaudy, penultimate 80's version of his out of control ego.

Death Row: R to L: The Revel, Showboat and Trump Taj Mahal

This town is a fitting metaphor for the Christie administration and how he left this state: full of promise, but ultimately all smoke and mirrors and... nothing. I wrote about  Christie's takeover of Atlantic City last year. Whether school districts or entire cities, he doesn't lead; he controls—badly. Plowing through Tony Soprano style, gobbling up everything and everyone in his path to feed his cavernous, deflated ego.

This empty lot is right next door to The Revel 

Gambling came to this city almost 40 years ago with a lot of hope and promise. Shiny, gleaming, glizty pizzazz! The city will be transformed! Poverty erased! Money for everyone! But all these years later, almost 40% of the city's population still lives in poverty and almost half the casinos are shuttered. Like those pioneers of casino gambling, Christie has failed miserably at making life better for the majority of people in this state. For him, it's only ever been about power, control and his path to political immortality.   


While the rest of America was continually shocked and appalled at Trump's "Insult Everyone" tour campaign, Jerseyans were all too used to that kind of behavior. You see, we had Chris Christie long before America had Donald Trump:

• Before Trump boasted about grabbing women by the you-know-what, Christie made a vulgar remark to a woman at a Mitt Romney rally about performing a certain sex act on... who? Him? 
• Before Trump promised to put coal miners back to work, Christie promised public employees nothing about our pensions would change 
• Before Trump accused Sen. John McCain of not being a war hero, Christie called a Navy Seal an idiot
• Before Trump incited anti-Hillary crowds to chant, "Lock her up", Christie told the press to "take a bat out" on then-76-year old Senate Majority Leader Loretta Weinberg
• Before Trump mocked and ridiculed minorities of just about every race, creed, color and sexual orientation, Christie labeled public schools in high-poverty, high-minority districts "failure factories", and called Reed Gusciora, an openly gay assemblyman who was fighting for marriage equality, "numbnuts". He's insulted many an elected official along with countless reporters, teachers and average citizens. Too many to list here.
• Before Trump spent almost every weekend golfing at one of his resorts, Christie used taxpayer money to fly to his son's baseball game in a state-owned helicopter, and took a taxpayer-funded security detail with him on his presidential campaign
• Before there was Betsy DeVos, there was Chris Cerf, Christie's education hit-man commissioner who left those of us who actually know a thing or two about education burning up the blog-o-sphere debunking his ignorant posturings and idiotic policies
• Before Trump's plan to waste tax dollars on the wall, there was Christie's waste of public employee pension funds to bail out the then still-under-construction and now bankrupt Revel Casino at the height of the recession. The hotel was open less than two years because hey, everybody wants to gamble during the greatest economic downturn since the Great Depression, right?

Billion dollar bust: The stunning Revel Casino sits empty

It took Christie eight years to sink this state. How he got re-elected, I will never know. His list of failures includes much more than what's written here, but I leave you with this one that just about sums it all up: a record 11 credit downgrades. But what does that matter when you're sitting in the owner's box at a Dallas Cowboy's game?

Hopefully Robert Mueller's investigation won't take much longer, and Trump will be (burnt) toast pretty soon. As for Christie? With poll numbers around 15% he's irrelevant. He will slink out of Trenton in the dead of night with a mirror to his face claiming to be the greatest governor ever to the adoring crowd of one looking back at him. My bet is Fox News has an anchor chair waiting for him.

Hey Chris, don't let the door hit you on the way out.