As one friend of the Carlstadt Blog puts it: “Punish the people of Ridgefield, as if they are supporting the mayor and don’t want him to quit and throw Carlstadt in purely for partisan spite.”

Let’s recap:

• 1999: After repeated attempts to engage the County prosecutor, the mayor takes it upon himself to expose a prostitution ring operating in Carlstadt.
• 2002: Skip ahead three years, after the  prosecutor’s office embarrassing role in the affair has died down, the prosecutor cenures Mayor Roseman for interfering in “police matters” for his actions in exposing the ring.
• 2001: The mayor gets divorced and the town clerk doesn’t change his wife’s marital status on insurance forms.  [The clerk is inundated with paperwork.  It's an honest mistake.]

The mayor makes no money from this error and because of HIPPA privacy laws is in no position to know this is going on.  His ex-wife, btw, is a corporate executive, has her own health insurance, and has no reason to steal.

• His ex whose place of work has the same health insurance as the town’s doesn’t notice the error. (it only applies to filled prescriptions and the bills are paid under the same carrier as her work insurance).
• After seven years, the error is brought to Will’s attention and he immediately pays back all the money ($7000), money he never received, and notifies the town council.
• The only Democrat on the council, Dave Hollenbeck, runs to the county prosecutor’s office and asks them to start an investigation.
• 2009: The mayor is indicted on corruption charges.
• August: Governor Corzine, in a fit of political opportunism, imposes his executive order on the people of Carlstadt.

The Governor’s action is Unfair, unwarranted, and unacceptable .  The mayor and people of Carlstadt shouldn’t be pawns in his political games.

Will Roseman must not resign!

You see, our sales tax is a flat tax and no one seems to mind.  No one calls it an unfair burden on the poor (although lately it’s become a burden on all of us).  No one calls for a graduated sales tax.  Why is that?  Well, until recently, the sales tax has always been a low percentage tax.  A few cents on the dollar and, at least in this state, necessities aren’t even taxed.  People don’t mind sharing the burden if the burden isn’t too great.  Now think what would happen if the sales tax was raised to 25 or even 50% and extended to all purchases, even food items.  It really would be an unfair burden on the poor and a graduated sales tax would probably be called for.  It’s a ridiculous scenario and one that would never be allowed to happen to the sales tax.

But, this in effect is what has already happened to the state income tax.  The state spends so much money and taxes so heavily that the ridiculous scenario is operating in full swing.  A flat tax is a sensible plan that doesn’t work in the senseless economics of NJ.  Before the flat tax can work, NJ’s whole gone-nuts spending mentality has to change.

Think what would happen if New Jersey were instituting an income tax for the first time and based it on a flat rate.  The tax implemented would have to be very low to keep it from hurting the poor.  And it would always remain low for the same reason.  The tax could never become an engine for runaway spending because any spending would lead to an increase in the tax rate which would hit everyone equally.  On the other hand, a graduated income tax drives spending increases because the increases can always be passed onto those paying in the higher brackets ––at least for a little while, as were seeing now in Jersey.   The whole idea that you can fund your state government by passing the financial burden onto people making more money than you is fundamentally flawed, besides being basically unfair.  In a free country, people with money can just move somewhere else.  And this is just what we’re seeing in Jersey as businesses are leaving the state at a record rate.  Who does that leave to pay for our expensive government?  The very people the graduated income tax is supposed to protect.

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What prompted the resolution was a decision by the governor’s office to cut all funding for training EMTs.  On the surface, it seems like a simple cost cutting move on the state’s part as cutting training will save 4 million a year in spending.  However, in the NJ legislature, nothing is ever done for motives as simple as these.  Let’s examine the issue.

The training fund was established in 1995 to cover mandatory training for emergency services personnel.  This includes initial training and continuing education (also mandatory).  The money comes from a 50 cent surcharge on all traffic tickets.  Without the training, a volunteer cannot join a rescue or ambulance squad.  In effect, by eliminating free training you will be eliminating the volunteer EMT system (unless the volunteers pay out of their own pockets or local municipalities raise property taxes, not likely).  

This is the point of the governor’s decision.  It is not to save money.  The legislature typically wastes more than 4 million dollars before lunch each day.  The purpose of the decision is to hand the lucrative emergency services business over to hospitals.  There is a lot of money to be made in emergency services, especially ambulance calls.  Right now, volunteers are doing that work for free. By eliminating the volunteer EMT system, only hospitals will be able to provide this service and it won’t be for free.  Today, if you need an ambulance in Carlstadt due to an emergency, you don’t get a bill.  When the hospitals takes over EMT services, all the emergency calls which are now free will be billed.  You will be charged for every ambulance call, every emergency visit.  It’s a big cash cow the hospitals want in on.  The governor needs to keep the hospitals happy so as  to continue all the free social programs run through hospitals in the cities.  Eliminating the volunteer EMT system is his quid pro quo.

BTW, where are most of your volunteer squads?  In suburban towns, the heart of the middle class.  So in the end, you can see that it is not about saving 4 million a year.  It’s about putting another costly burden on the backs of the middle class in suburbia to continue funding the governor’s and the democrat’s pet projects in urban areas.