I hear that No none is looking to stop confiscatory property taxes, or so it would seem.

Senator O'Toole - I commend you for taking up this fight which seemed to have been settled a decade ago. However, I'd be even more thrilled to see some balance and intellectual honesty on important issues in Trenton. The Abbott school funding system is a joke - schools systems in the inner cities spend more, often MUCH more, per child than in suburbia - and still have NO results to show for it. To me, this says more about the conditions of the cities than it does about the school systems. Nevertheless, it is wasted money on the backs of property owners. Property taxes are killing us as a direct results of sending far more money to Trenton than ever comes back. Income taxes are several percentage points too high. How about taking a high-profile position on these two issues? Let's get the state out of local education. Wayne is probably the biggest loser in the state on this most expensive of issues. Also, how about an initiative to reduce regulation? I heard recently NYC has embarked on an effort to reduce its redundant, outmoded and overly cumbersome regulations. I have read and worked with parts of NJ Statutes and administrative code. There is no question the U.S., at all levels, is stifled with over-regulation and bureaucracy. It took 3-4 years for the stimulus money to have any effect in Passaic Cty. - and that was just to repave roads! How about commissioning some of those bureaucrats to reduce regulation and bureaucracy! What a concept!

Thomas - That's just it. I lived in Hoboken for years and the school system got worse and worse. Hard to blame the schools when they were in the top 10 in the state in spending per student. Truthfully, there are plenty of parents who DO NOT care about their kids, or are too busy ekeing out a living to raise them, or who simply do not place a premium on discipline and education. THAT has been my point about all school systems. Too much blame is placed on schools for the failure of students. But it's a societal problem. Everyone is outsourcing their parenting to the schools. It's the perfect example of why throwing money at a problem doesn't work despite the best of intentions and the myriad of approaches. It shows that government cannot, and should not, take care of every last aspect of our lives. The financial cost of this big brother type society ensures that everyone has to work at full steam just to pay the bills. Meanwhile, few people have the ability or care enough to raise their own children properly. It's a vicious cycle and it's all connected. I submit that many parents don't care enough, or aren't well-enough equipped, to produce adequate-caliber students. This is certainly the case in Hoboken where the youth is totally out of control. 7 charter schools have begun in the past decade because white people don't want to be in that school system. Abbott is a failure and nothing more than expensive day care until the justice system eventually gets them.

If the schools in Hoboken, Newark, Paterson, Trenton, JC, AC, New Brunswick, Passaic, etc. were a business, they'd have been closed when the mills closed down 30 years ago. It's an utterly failing proposition. Let me give an example. 10 yrs ago I was helping an organization give out scholarships to Newark students to help them with college. The salutatorian at one of the main high schools had a 3.2, the valedectorian a 3.6! The top two kids in the entire class in a school where nothing was expected. This has been going on since the 1960s! How do we continue to fund this kind of failure? Maybe we don't have a choice, maybe it's the only way to keep the peace. It's a terrible, colossal, waste of money. I resent it coming on the backs of the taxpayers of a handful of communities, Wayne being one of them. Viewed another way, we are essentially paying for the problem to stay where it is. But what a cost! These are huge social issues that may have solutions that no one dare suggest, much less try. Until we collapse from this false view, "compassionate" society and white guilt will continue to pay and pay and pay until the system collapses. Social security and medicaid collapse are looming. Unemployment in the future is likely to be 8-12%, more if Americans don't gain more relevant skills in the next decade. It's all going in the wrong direction and the nation does not have the will to fix it. And NJ taxpayers will continue to pay until the able ones have all gone.

The MTA is not mismanaged. It is misfunded. A lot of commuters to NYC use the bus or subway, I'm among those people, even though I drive to work. At lunch I use the subway. You can't blame NYC for trying to fund it's transportation systems. I recently came back from a trip to London and I have to say, their subway is much better, in terms of efficiency and cleanliness. You know why? It costs around 4 dollars one way. Here, every person complains when they raise the fare by ten cents.

People have no clue what it costs to maintain the MTA.. They will spend $5 for a cup of coffee then complain about the cost of the bus fare.
Maybe parents should stop pushing "Sports" Put that energy into studies.Little john and jane are not going to pro sports. .