Birthday Wishes for the Governor's Schools

It is – for the next five minutes or so, anyway – my birthday. So, as is the tradition among the Little People, I employ the anniversary of that event to bestow a gift. Of course, I bestow this gift upon our esteemed Governor.

While the national economic news looks increasingly good, New Jersey’s continues to look tepid, if not downright dreary. This can be explained in two simple words: taxes and spending. (If one wishes to add another, "regulation" comes in a close third). As I recollect, New Jersey taxes its people more than any other state, being particularly vicious when it comes to business and the "rich".

I spent the anniversary of my mother’s agony (and – liberal Democrat that she once was and sometimes still purports to be – subsequent consternation) bopping around Bucks County, PA, looking at sites for a relatively inexpensive relocation, when the time is right. Development there defies belief (apparently, PA residents don’t consider building homes for themselves to be a fundamental threat to the environment), and the prices match. Not long ago, one could purchase a substantial tract and construct a substantial house for a fraction of the price of New Jersey realty. Now, the prices often roughly compare. Significantly, PA residents – curiously unconcerned, apparently, about the quality of their drinking water – have refrained from any draconian Highlands-like building moratoria (see "regulation", above), so, likely, the high end homes which might once have been built in Hunterdon County will be built in Bucks. And the millionaires who might have moved here – despite our insane tax and spend policies – will move there instead.

For those folks who believe that ANY new construction represents little more than the continuing spread of the human pox across nature’s landscape, shooing people off to PA probably seems a good idea. But to rational folks, it should be a cause for great concern.

The Governor, over the course of the past few weeks – and even the past few days – has made some very encouraging noises. His apparent opposition to any income tax hikes displays a remarkable degree of Republican economic literacy (if, alas, betrayed elsewhere in the budget). That is, if one absolutely, positively MUST impose a tax, sales taxes are far preferable to income taxes. By definition, they don’t target one particular group and, hence, they don’t provide anyone (in particular) with either an incentive to vamoose or with no incentive whatsoever to restrain governmental spending. The best taxes – indeed, the only responsible taxes – are those which are flat and uniform. Time will tell if he can maintain some modicum of tax sanity against the envycrats who dominate his Party. (Up until a few weeks ago, he seemed a charter member of that wing. Battlefield conversion, perhaps.)

And his statement to our black robed masters – the Supreme Court – to the effect that we can’t afford more spending on the obscenely expensive Abbott districts, merits special note. Over the course of the past three years or so, something like $4 out of $5 in increased state school spending went exclusively to the Abbott district, as gross an injustice as it’s possible to imagine. Of course, the self-appointed advocates "for the children" oppose any effort to curtail spending – or even to insist that the district pay some portion of their own way. Their motto: ABBOTT DISTRICTS TO STATE TAXPAYERS: DROP DEAD.

It’s probably too much to expect of a Dem Governor that he write a brief note to the Court as follows:

Dear Members of an Equal, not Superior, Coordinate Branch of Government:

I have reviewed my copy of the State Constitution and seem to have missed the section which permits you to dictate spending on ANYTHING. Should you, in the future, see fit to opine on the subject, I will happily consider your views, as I do that of every other constituent, and shall, then, act in the manner I, and the Legislature, think most appropriate.
However, as, in my view, you lack the authority to compel the state to spend a single nickel, should you purport to Order us to do so, I will politely by firmly decline, and will, further, politely but firmly direct the Officers of the Executive Branch to ignore any enforcement Orders you might be inclined to issue. I might even suggest to the Legislature that Judicial Officers so profoundly ignorant of fundamental constitutional doctrines – such as separation of powers and that elected officials make spending decisions – might be encouraged to seek another line of work for which they are qualified.
If you wish to effect education or tax policy, you are invited to seek election to an office constitutionally entitled to make such policy.

Anyway, back to the point.

The Guv simply hasn’t imposed the kind of pain on the tax consuming class necessary to bring New Jersey back from the brink. To begin, spend not one nickel more this year than last (an already obscenely bloated state budget). Make your list of priorities, and act accordingly. And, next year, spend even less.

But, now, my gift of (even more) gratuitous advice:

Take $1.5 million otherwise allocated to Newark or Camden, and use the money to preserve the Governor’s Schools.

As I recollect, the administrative costs of the Governor’s schools seemed somewhat bloated, but these (relatively) inexpensive exercises provide challenging experiences for the Best and the Brightest students here in NJ. We spend a bloody fortune on the worst performing students – without, apparently, much in the way of appreciable results (about "vouchers", more in the future). We skimp on our brightest kids. That’s bass ackwards.

I don’t know whether parents pay some modest tuition for the Governor’s Schools; perhaps, if they don’t, they should be asked to do so, to contribute to the reduction of the budget mess. But it’s simply folly to slash one of the only programs which actually reaches out to the best students and brings them onto NJ college campuses at which, hopefully, some of them will choose to matriculate.

The Guv talks about making NJ a center for high tech, knowledge based industries (even if he picked a foolish vehicle and inappropriate means). Here’s a slam dunk opportunity to prove it.

Indeed, if he can’t find the money in the budget, he’s one of the few guys in the state with the private wherewithal to keep a magnificent program running. Instead of spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on campaign contributions to Democrats running for office, spend it here. In short, get one’s priorities straight. If he wants to spare the taxpayers this small burden, put his own money where his mouth is.