Fallacy: The taxes we pay this year, pay for the services we use this year.
Taxes will continue to rise because we need to pay for services consumed in earlier years. The amount of taxes paid in a single year does not pay for the services consumed in that year, because municipal and state governments can borrow money beyond your ability to pay it back. Now, to balance the spending, we need to both consume fewer services than in those previous years, while simultaneously paying higher taxes to cover the previously borrowed debt. When you are paying higher taxes for reduced services this year, thank the old guy down the street, and the politicians he voted for, because they didn’t pay their fair share. What you don’t understand Mr. Mintz, is that it’s you who are the problem.
Rant off.
From the Daily Journal:
Christie’s Cuts – Higher property taxes, fewer cops, rising crime rates in some areas
First, the good news: Property tax increases have slowed in many New Jersey towns.
But the bad news is that many residents have seen municipal services cut as their taxes continue to climb.
Cities and suburbs all over New Jersey have laid off police officers and other public employees in the past 12 months as a drop in state aid and lingering economic doldrums have put the squeeze on municipal finances.
While many towns were able to keep property tax increases at or below a newly imposed 2 percent cap, municipal officials have been forced to cut jobs and slash services to keep from raising taxes even more.
The average property tax bill in New Jersey rose $167 this year, to $7,754, according to a New Jersey Press Media analysis of certified property tax rates in 545 of the state’s 566 municipalities. (The 21 other municipalities, including some of the state’s largest cities, have not yet set their rates.) New Jersey has been home to the highest average property tax in the nation for a number of years.
From 2010 to 2011, the average property tax bill rose 2.2 percent, slightly more than half of the 4.1 percent increase seen a year earlier.
The smaller increase is little consolation to people like Ocean County resident Barry Mintz. Property taxes on his home in Brick Township are now $8,500, up from about $5,000 when he moved in just 12 years ago. As taxes rose, municipal services declined, he said.
“We used to have twice-a-week garbage collection and now it’s down to once a week,” Mintz, 71, said. “When you downsize the public works department and cut services, what am I paying for?”
…
New Jersey government payrolls, including local, school, county and state workers, dropped by 29,000 at the end of last year, down to 622,000 jobs, according to the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics.
…
Gov. Chris Christie pledged to shrink the size of government during his 2009 campaign.His spokesman Michael Drewniak last week said New Jersey has experienced “a remarkable turnaround, when you look at the skyward trajectory of state and local spending and resulting property tax hikes year after year in the decade before this administration arrived in Trenton.”
…
In Camden, the average property tax bill rose 10 percent, to $1,363.In Newark, it rose 5.9 percent, to $6,063.
In Paterson, where 125 police officers were laid off, property tax bills jumped 17.4 percent, to an average of $8,833.
“Anyone who is honest and realistic with themselves knows that New Jersey and its municipalities were living beyond their means for way too long,” Drewniak said.
Good Morning New Jersey
From CNBC:
Obama Refi Plan is Not Housing Stimulus
“President Obama is taking action.”
At least that’s what the blog on the WhiteHouse.gov says today in describing the president’s trip to Las Vegas.
“We can’t wait to help homeowners,” it goes.
That action consists of revamping an existing government refinance program through Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac for borrowers who owe more on their mortgages than their homes are worth, so-called “underwater” borrowers. There are an estimated 11 million of those nationwide according to CoreLogic.
The original program, which started in 2009 and has helped about 900,000 borrowers get lower interest rates, was capped. You couldn’t owe more than 25 percent more than your home was worth.
That cap is now gone, so you can be eligible no matter how underwater you are. Fees have been waived or lowered, banks have been largely let off the hook for reps and warrants on the loans (when they are forced to buy back bad loans), second liens can be transferred and mortgage insurers will move their coverage to the new loan.
…
The Obama refi program enhancements do nothing about those numbers. This plan is for current borrowers who want to get a lower monthly payment through a lower mortgage rate. Yes, it’s the first plan that “rewards positive behavior,” says Florida attorney and mortgage expert Shari Olefson, but it doesn’t do anything for the now 6 million plus borrowers who are either behind on their mortgage payments or already in the foreclosure process. It also does nothing about all those foreclosed properties sitting on the books of Fannie, Freddie, the FHA and the big banks that still need to be sold and right now can only be sold at below-market prices. This plan does nothing to stop the bleeding in home prices.
Don’t get me wrong, it may make about a million and a half borrowers feel better about making monthly payments on an investment that will never show any return. It may stop some from walking away from their homes and mortgages. “It takes the sting out of it,” one underwater borrower told me today, but it doesn’t change the value of his home.
“Unless we fix the negative equity problem, we’re going to refinance all folks into lower rate mortgage, but fast forward a year or so from now and they’re going to sit back at their dining room table and say, look I’m still underwater, and we may see defaults again,” says Olefson.
Make no mistake, this refi plan is an economic stimulus at best, a political play at worst. It will give some relief to a very limited number of borrowers who may have been on the edge of trouble; it does not stimulate home sales, save delinquent borrowers from foreclosure, stop the bleeding in home prices or rid the market of a suffocating number of distressed properties.
From Bloomberg:
Home Prices in 20 U.S. Cities Probably Dropped at a Slower Pace
Home prices in 20 U.S. cities probably fell at a slower pace and consumer confidence hovered near a two-year low, highlighting the obstacles facing the recovery in its third year, economists said before reports today.
The S&P/Case-Shiller index of property values in 20 cities dropped 3.5 percent in August from the same month in 2010 after decreasing 4.1 percent in the year ended July, according to the median forecast of 29 economists surveyed by Bloomberg News. Confidence rose to 46 this month from 45.4 in September, separate figures may show.
Recovering the 31 percent plunge in home prices from their 2006 peak will probably be years in the making as foreclosures throw more properties on the market and sales flag. Federal Reserve policy makers like William Dudley are among those that believe bolstering housing is among the “most pressing issues” facing the central bank.
“The small improvement in home prices is a positive, though it hardly changes the story that the housing market will take years to clean up,” said Jennifer Lee, an economist at BMO Capital Markets in Toronto. “Consumer confidence will remain quite fragile as there are still many negatives out there.”
The S&P/Case-Shiller index, based on a three-month average, is due at 9 a.m. New York time. Survey estimates ranged from declines of 3 percent to 4.3 percent.
Like I said, fair share. Too much self interest and political/legal wrangling to protect “me and mine”.
From the AP:
NJ appeals ruling on judges pensions and benefits
Governor Christie’s administration is preparing an appeal of a New Jersey judge’s ruling that judges shouldn’t be required to pay more for their pensions or health insurance.
The state officially notified the court of its intent to appeal on Monday, just days after Christie publicly condemned Judge Linda Feinberg for the ruling.
…
In June, the Republican governor and Democrat-controlled Legislature agreed to the benefit changes, which will require workers to pay more and get sparer benefits. Christie says the savings could save pension and health insurance systems that are underfunded.
…
But the first case to be ruled on so far was filed by Paul DePascale, a Superior Court Judge in Hudson County.
His argument: increased contributions amount to reducing judges’ salaries. And that’s contrary to the state constitution, which forbids reducing judges’ salaries during their terms as a means of maintaining judges’ independence and not subjecting them to lawmakers’ whims for their finances. There’s a similar provision protecting the salaries of the governor and lieutenant governor.
…
A day later, Christie lashed out, saying the judge “made a decision that is on its face self-interested and outrageous and contrary to the interpretation of the constitution.”
…
Most judges are paid $165,000 per year and, under Christie’s pension changes, will see their contributions rise gradually from 3 percent of their pay to 12 percent by 2017. A 4.28 percent contribution went into effect Oct. 1 and has only been taken out of one paycheck so far, costing most judges about $80.
Sorta frist
Oops, didn’t see mike there.
Currently marketing a property in Paterson listed for $59,900. Double lot (50 x 125), 2 family, about 1500 square feet, vandalized and a total wreck. Taxes? About $11,000 per year.
When employees make up 65% of budget, and salaries are increasing 3% annually, employee health care increasing 10%, pensions increasing 13%, meanwhile the revenue growth is limited by caps and the economy, and mgmnt nor unions unwilling to lay off staff, or take pay cuts, then services need to be slashed and taxpayers need to pony up to max allowable. Its for the kids… police, administration, and. DPW. Don’t be cheap now.
30 year (7)-
Such a bargain.
Not everyone is suitable to live in prestigious…Paterson?
Look for that HUD program to buy a house for $1 to hit Paterson.
What happened to “public service” actually being so?
$165k for a judge? Sounds awfully generous to me, given the other associated perks. I bet most of these guys have made small fortunes in their own practices before appointment (which is probably more political than anything).
I don’t buy the argument that a high salary is necessary to attract “talent” from the private sector. We are talking about serving the public good. Don’t want to give back to the community? Don’t take the job.
My local town judge was a drunk. Worked weekends at the local Italian joint as a kid, and he would be sloshed by 1pm. We had the numbers of the local cops, who would serve as his personal taxi service. On the stand he was a bastard. He was a king in town.
#2 Unless we fix the negative equity problem.
It is coming debt forgiveness!!! Ha ha to all the scmucks who are paying fulll price. These people are going to get gifts of 25k, 50k, 100K or more. The fool next door get nothing!!!
“$165k for a judge? Sounds awfully generous to me”
Not really. I don’t know a single private-sector attorney that I deal with who would take the job for that amount. Well, at least not before retiring from private practice. And, let us not confuse town judges with the State judges, either at the county or appellate level, or with federal judges or magistrates.
Like tires on a car, judges do important work, are usually overlooked, and a bad one can cause enormous damage to lives and property.
cheaper than buying a Long-Term Care policy…..just go to jail…
Indiana man, 87, nabbed with 228 pounds of cocaine, police say
By James B. Kelleher and Cynthia Johnston
(Reuters) – An 87-year-old Indiana man was arraigned on drug charges in federal court in Detroit on Monday after police found 228 pounds of cocaine worth an estimated $2.9 million in his pickup following a routine traffic stop.
A state trooper patrolling Interstate 94 near Ann Arbor pulled over Leo Earl Sharp on Friday for following too closely and executing an improper lane change, according to a complaint filed in U.S. District Court.
When the trooper asked Sharp if he could search the truck, the octogenarian refused. So the trooper requested a backup unit with a dog trained to detect bombs and illegal drugs.
As the animal walked around the rear of Sharp’s truck, it alerted to the possible presence of narcotics, the complaint said. During a subsequent search of the truck bed, troopers found 104 bricks of cocaine stashed in five bags.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Mark Randon released Sharp, of Michigan City, Indiana, on $10,000 bond on Monday and scheduled a next hearing in the case for November.
Sharp was charged with conspiracy and possession with intent to distribute cocaine. If convicted, he faces at least 10 years in prison.
Shore – in 10 years on the bench, the average Superior Court Judge contributes less than $60k towards the cost of their pension. The average judicial pension is $107k/year. By the time they’ve collected for 7 months of retirement, the state is already in the red. The average judicial pension payout is over $2M.
http://www.njassemblyrepublicans.com/?tag=pension-reform
Re the Municipal Court judges who cobble together a few part time patronage gigs to make over $200k in public salaries while maintaining their private law practice, IMHO they should’t be able to collect at all. Any meaningful pension reform in NJ should make eligibility contingent on FT employment period.
re # 1 6- WOW! Judge let him off on only $10,000 bond WOW! He said he was forced at gunpoint.
All kidding aside, he should start building his defense through a strong Twitter campaign and Facebook, now.
#8 Neanderthal
” Its for the kids… police, administration, and. DPW. Don’t be cheap now.”
As the saying goes in Sparta if you can’t afford the taxes move.
re: Pension & Medical contribution increases.
A teacher I know also calls this a pay cut. They all do. You can bet that the government tics are going to bleed us all dry. Christie should cut the benefits instead, not the pay. How about changing the Major Medical deductibles to 15k, and extending the retirement age by 10 years. That does not need a constitutional amendment now does it?
FYI- Bank switch day is Nov. 5th according to a bankrate article. Pull your money out of DoA and put it into a credit union. Did not work for the Spanish soccer guy but what the hell.
An economist said at a conference I was at that is not true for majority of people receiving debt forgiveness. For instance you paid 400K for a home put down 100K had good credit and got 5% mortgage back in 2004. When program takes place in 2012 you would have only paid interest for 8 years at 15K a year or 120K. Bringing your purchase price to 520.
Mr subprime financed on zero down at 9% whole 400K for 8 years at 36K or 288K, Bringing his purchase price to 788K.
Lets say we foregive him 100K he is not at 688K and you are at 520K. Bottom line peak era 2003-2007 homes bought with nothing down and no doc loans the interest paid due to inability to refinance is staggering and is way more than the loan foregiveness.
Now lets pretend you are a banker. Would you rather make 120K off person A and forgive nothing. Or would you rather make 288K off person B and have to return 100K? Person B makes you an extra 68K
3B says:
October 25, 2011 at 8:43 am
#2 Unless we fix the negative equity problem.
It is coming debt forgiveness!!! Ha ha to all the scmucks who are paying fulll price. These people are going to get gifts of 25k, 50k, 100K or more. The fool next door get nothing!!!
debt forgiveness! – Isn’t that what OWS wants? Did Chairman O not say something about student loans as well?
“Unless we fix the negative equity problem, we’re going to refinance all folks into lower rate mortgage, but fast forward a year or so from now and they’re going to sit back at their dining room table and say, look I’m still underwater, and we may see defaults again,” says Olefson.
Please refer all questions to Gary.
Hey, can you do a cash-out refi of your underwater home? That way you could use the cash to buy another home at market rate and then default on the first home. Or maybe use the cash and a straw buyer to buy your own home back on the courthouse steps?
Seriously, is there any possible way that the people who enter this program could be hoodwinked into swapping their non-recourse loan for a recourse loan?
I was just reading about the new state health benefits program where people pay according to their salary. Someone making under $25,000 per year pays 3/4 of one percent of the premium while someone making $110,00 p0ays 8.75%. The premium for the best family policy offered is $20,215.56 per year. (That premium seems high to me). So the clerk pays $12.63 per month and the accountant pays $147.41 per month for the exact same policy. Why? Why not extend the socialism to car dealerships and cruise lines and grocery stores too? Oh and never mind that a family medical plan in the private sector costs every employee about $550/month.
…second liens can be transferred and mortgage insurers will move their coverage to the new loan.
Oh I get it now, the big banks get all made good on their worthless seconds.
15
You’re right, but to grim’s comment – there’s no guarantee that any amount of money will attract honorable people to the bench (especially when these are mostly political appointees).
I’m not sure what incentives are necessary to attract people with integrity to such an important position, but judging from our state’s own history… money/benefits isn’t getting it done.
Why are we putting al the blame to the homeowner that was allowed to do this exotic loans?I will put the blame on the leaders first for keeping the interest rates low for so long.Second,the bankers that cooked up the exotic loans.Third,the govt for letting this all happen under their watch.The consumer is just the adddict.They gave him a poison candy that made him coming back for more.
The banker is holding the title on the secured loan,Foreclose on the collateral or do whatever it can to minimize losses.
The banker is not doing them a favor if they foreclose.They want to minimize losses.They even pay you cash to clean the house before you hand the keys
Re the Municipal Court judges who cobble together a few part time patronage gigs to make over $200k in public salaries while maintaining their private law practice, IMHO they should’t be able to collect at all. Any meaningful pension reform in NJ should make eligibility contingent on FT employment period.
When I was in my 20’s I was constantly amassing moving violations all over Northern NJ, even spent a couple hours in the Glen Ridge lock-up before my girlfriend bailed me out. My best friend was clerking at a respected Morristown Law firm. Whenever I got in trouble my lawyer there would look up what firm that town’s municipal judge worked at and have his boss call whoever he knew at that firm. Still cost me the same out-of-pocket as the fine would be, but saved a lot of points and surcharges on my license.
Meat 9 – 11 – Wasn’t going to bother putting up a sign on this property due to the need for a cash sale. Figured the locals were not the likely buyer profile. Little did I know that there is a strong Bangladeshi community in that neighborhood and many of them have the cash to purchase such properties. Currently have 4 offers at or above ask and 3 of them are from people in the neighborhood.
Ten days on the market and 4 offers. Not bad for a piece of crap with $11,000 in taxes. Gonna collect offers for a few more days and then hit them all with highest & best.
30
Yup, municipal court / traffic court should be renamed cash-register court
17 and 28, I do not disagree. My comment was focused on the salary.
This sounds like something John would come up with, were he a dictator:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/10/21/gaddafi-women-bodyguards_n_1024236.html#s424774
30 year (31)-
Real dose of reality to see that a trashed POS shack in Paterson with a 5-figure tax bill represents value to a Bangladeshi.
Hope they don’t use the place to make suicide vests.
What about realtors and home appraisers?
yo says:
October 25, 2011 at 10:40 am
Why are we putting al the blame to the homeowner that was allowed to do this exotic loans?I will put the blame on the leaders first for keeping the interest rates low for so long.Second,the bankers that cooked up the exotic loans.Third,the govt for letting this all happen under their watch.The consumer is just the adddict.They gave him a poison candy that made him coming back for more.
The banker is holding the title on the secured loan,Foreclose on the collateral or do whatever it can to minimize losses.
The banker is not doing them a favor if they foreclose.They want to minimize losses.They even pay you cash to clean the house before you hand the keys
NJ in general is getting very Indian. I say 90% of indian resumes have some place around Edision or New Bruinswick with a degree from Rutgers. Pretty much they land in Newark smell the stench and say smells like home to me.
There Went Meat says:
October 25, 2011 at 11:10 am
30 year (31)-
Real dose of reality to see that a trashed POS shack in Paterson with a 5-figure tax bill represents value to a Bangladeshi.
Hope they don’t use the place to make suicide vests.
John,
The blog’s own Dice Clay.
any body know about roofing credits for a new roof ? how it works ? Residential
Missing Capt. Morgan found
http://www.keysnet.com/2011/10/22/389596/cops-searching-for-capt-morgan.html
Just noticed this line in a Trulia “for sale” listing last night.
This property may be overassessed. Find Out Now »
When I clicked through, they didn’t have the service live yet for Woodbridge Township.
By the way, I found that because last night, my cousin posted a link on Facebook. They sold my uncle’s house in August 2009 as part of his estate for $580,000 – low for the Estates section of Colonia. The house had a great exterior – redone in brick, good windows, roof, and great landscaping. My uncle’s whole thing in retirement was gardening. But the inside was old and some of it was eclectic, going back to the original owner in the late 1940’s. Clear it needed serious work, but my uncle had also done a major addition to expand it to four BDs, 3 baths.
We always assumed someone would buy it on the cheap and renovate – and they did.
Fabulous job on the interior – completely redone. But now they’re looking to flip for $695,000, and we’re wondering about that one.
Eric Schmidt tells ’em to go suck it…
“So we get hauled in front of the Congress for developing a product that’s free, that serves a billion people. OK? I mean, I don’t know how to say it any clearer,” Mr. Schmidt told the Post. “It’s not like we raised prices. We could lower prices from free to . . . lower than free? You see what I’m saying?”
WSJ
INFORMATION AGE
OCTOBER 24, 2011
Google Speaks Truth to Power
About the growing regulatory state, even Google’s Eric Schmidt—a big supporter of the Obama administration—now feels the need to tell it like it is.
By L. GORDON CROVITZ
Eric Schmidt, executive chairman of Google, gave a remarkable interview this month to the Washington Post. So remarkable that Post editors preceded the transcript with this disclosure: “He had just come from the dentist. And he had a toothache.”
Perhaps it was the Novocain talking, but Mr. Schmidt has done us a service. He said in public what most technologists will say only in private. Whatever caused him to speak forthrightly about the disconnects between Silicon Valley and Washington, his comments deserve wider attention.
Mr. Schmidt had just given his first congressional testimony. He was called before the Senate Judiciary Antitrust Subcommittee to answer allegations that Google is a monopolist, a charge the Federal Trade Commission is also investigating.
“So we get hauled in front of the Congress for developing a product that’s free, that serves a billion people. OK? I mean, I don’t know how to say it any clearer,” Mr. Schmidt told the Post. “It’s not like we raised prices. We could lower prices from free to . . . lower than free? You see what I’m saying?”
An absence of consumer harm didn’t stop senators from offering some improbable recommendations. Among them: that Google replace its algorithm with a panel of experts to ensure “fair” search results. As Google tries to improve the relevancy of its search results for consumers, some sites inevitably come up higher and some lower in the results. The losers now lobby Washington.
“Regulation prohibits real innovation, because the regulation essentially defines a path to follow,” Mr. Schmidt said. This “by definition has a bias to the current outcome, because it’s a path for the current outcome.”
Meanwhile, Google has new competition, including from social media. During the first generation of the Web, Google and other search engines were the most common way to find information. Now people increasingly discover what they want to know through Facebook and Twitter.
Washington is always slow to recognize technological change, which is why in their time IBM and Microsoft were also investigated after competing technologies had emerged.
Mr. Schmidt recounted a dinner in 1995 featuring a talk by Andy Grove, a founder of Intel: “He says, ‘This is easy to understand. High tech runs three times faster than normal businesses. And the government runs three times slower than normal businesses. So we have a nine-times gap.’ All of my experiences are consistent with Andy Grove’s observation.”
Mr. Schmidt explained there was only one way to deal with this nine-times gap, which this column hereby christens “Grove’s Law of Government.” That is “to make sure that the government does not get in the way and slow things down.”
Mr. Schmidt recounted that when Silicon Valley first started playing a large role in the economy in the 1990s, “all of a sudden the politicians showed up. We thought the politicians showed up because they loved us. It’s fair to say they loved us for our money.”
He contrasted innovation in Silicon Valley with innovation in Washington. “Now there are startups in Washington,” he said, “founded by people who were policy makers. . . . They’re very clever people, and they’ve figured out a way in regulation to discriminate, to find a new satellite spectrum or a new frequency or whatever. They immediately hired a whole bunch of lobbyists. They raised some money to do that. And they’re trying to innovate through regulation. So that’s what passes for innovation in Washington.”
Perhaps coached by Washington advisers, Mr. Schmidt a few days after his interview offered a kowtow in a talk hosted in Washington by the Atlantic and the Aspen Institute. “The government has a role here,” he said. “This is their job to do, so we have to respect that.”
Still, Mr. Schmidt’s comments are notable because, like others at Google, he’s been a big supporter of the Obama administration, despite its big-government leanings. Perhaps time in the regulatory hot seat has been educational. Jerry Brito, a George Mason University fellow, posted an item on his blog titled “Eric Schmidt, public choice scholar.” (Mr. Schmidt declined through a spokesman to comment on whether his dentist visit contributed to the candor of his interview.)
Earlier high-profile anti-Washington statements are so rare in Silicon Valley that they are easily recalled. One was a speech by Milton Friedman in 1998 titled “The Business Community’s Suicidal Impulse.” It asked, presciently, “Is it really in the self interest of Silicon Valley to set the government on Microsoft?” Another was a speech by Cypress Semiconductor CEO T.J. Rodgers in 2000, “Why Silicon Valley Should Not Normalize Relations With Washington.” Among his points: antitrust laws “in effect make it illegal for a company to be conspicuously successful.”
Mr. Schmidt is not going to be confused with Milton Friedman or the libertarian Mr. Rodgers. But it’s a sign of the discontent with Washington that even a mainstream Silicon Valley executive feels he needs to tell it like it is.
Okay, whose ready to see these people in charge.
http://video.cnbc.com/gallery/?video=3000053009
Fab, schab? Anyone?
[43] redux
Gotta sit thru a 12 second courtyard ad, but I can watch this OWS protestor again and again.
Something tells me that years from now, we will see two things: Folks that claimed to be at Zuccotti when they weren’t (like Woodstock, and yes, JJ, I know you were there getting laid), and those who were there but may not want their prospective employer(s) to know that, so they deny it.
There are like 300 people in Zuccotti park at max on any given night. One million people went to woodstock.
Comrade Nom Deplume says:
October 25, 2011 at 12:50 pm
[43] redux
Gotta sit thru a 12 second courtyard ad, but I can watch this OWS protestor again and again.
Something tells me that years from now, we will see two things: Folks that claimed to be at Zuccotti when they weren’t (like Woodstock, and yes, JJ, I know you were there getting laid), and those who werethere but may not want their prospective employer(s) to know that, so they deny it.
grim/30 year Can one of you guys tell me what 675 Center in River Edge closed for? Thanks.
Yea, but I bet they don’t have unicorns:
http://online.wsj.com/video/yeti-discovered-in-siberia-maybe/0CE71FED-037B-4C99-9F31-5E465FADE6C3.html?mod=WSJ_hpp_mpvidcar_3
#46 3b – $315,000
A sure sign that their 15 minutes are almost up. . . .
http://news.yahoo.com/occupy-wall-street-fund-distribution-causes-strain-among-152228634.html
#48 30 Year: Thanks far cry from it’s original list price of 599K!!! Although I would not pay 315K either needs a ton of work. And you have to go outside to get to the upstairs.
[51] “And you have to go outside to get to the upstairs.”
That’s worth extra because it’s conducive to catching glimpses of the unicorn herds flying gracefully above the sweet waters of the mystical Hackensack River.
#51 Happy: I am serious, you have to go outside to get to the upstairs bedrooms. It also had an annual tax bill of 16K, as the previous owner (disabled Vet never paid attention to the taxes as disabled Vets in NJ do not pay property taxes). The family apparently did a tax appeal, before it sold, but do not know what the new taxes are.
But you re right there in no more beautiful sight than watching Unicorns at sunset fly over the majestic Hackensack River; I can see why somebody would pay for that opportunity.
Last Bank of America Bond paying above 9%. Dang, I was getting 10.5-9.3% last four weeks.
Amazing when two weeks ago their long term bonds were paying 10% interest while they were making long term loans at 4%. Bigger spread than a hooker convention. .
MBNA CAP A CAP SECS-A 8.27800% 12/01/2026
Basic Analytics
Price (Ask) 93.500
Yield to Worst (Ask) 9.077%
Good comment to start the thread, Grim. It’s not a rant, it’s reality. Taxes are increasingly going to pay for debt service and retired civil servants’ Florida condos and healthcare. Spending and promises of deferred spending are and have been the real problem. Taxes show up as the consequence.
I blame Jude Wanniski and Christie Whitman.
Wanniski and Laffer had a valid point, to a degree, but then encouraged politicians to stretch that point far beyond its limits (that spending and entitlements far beyond current taxation levels are fine, because low taxes will expand the economy so fast that paying for this stuff in the future will be easy).
The problem is that without hiking taxes at the same time one hikes spending, voters will chose to enjoy jam today while burdening future generations with the consequences. I call it intertemporal serfdom.
A.West – Yes, intertemporal since we are always paying for the sins of the politicians past.The assumed rate of return for NJ Pensions investments was changed from 7 percent to 8.75 percent under Florio in 1992. This change overnight made the pension funds appear to go from about 100 percent funded to 125 percent which allowed them to drop $1.25 Billion in Annual State contributions and spend it on pork elsewhere hiring more and more ticks into the system. Whitman made it worse by issuing bonds instead of cash contributions. McGreevey gave away the store while and Codey and Corzine did next to nothing. The Legislature is to blame as well but who knows all those names.
It really is amazing to me how people will never understand the mathematically fallacy that compound growth lasts forever.
One thing you can compound right now is every day this goes on is one less day I will be living in this state.
Also – Anecdotal – Teacher I know who insists their contribution change to medical and pension is a PAY CUT is fully planning on leaving NJ upon retirement. No way they are going to pay the taxes to contribute for the up keep of their bennies for the next 30 years. Seems like every single worker for the State and Local Govs fully plans to abandon NJ upon their retirement.
Juice, a lot of them have abandoned Jersey already…I live in Mercer County, home of Trenton. Far as I can tell the entire workforce of our state capital lives in Pennsylvania.
Amzn in the toilet which dot com 2.0 is next?
New Jersey and you – perfect together!
This guaranteed pension bit is the problem, it should really be more similar to a 401k, not like the crappy ones we have in the private sector but generous. instead of taking the money contributing to a state pension fund run by wild hyenas and taking on the liability of the returns is madness. Put 15-20% of the employees salary in their retirement fund every month, let them decide how to invest to get desired returns and know concretely where your liabilities are and what you are spending every year. We need to stop pretending our govt employees cost us X and really look at it as 1.5X because we need to pay out money in the future. It is madness and if a company were run this way it would go under quickly.
Another big thing is now the employees put in their 25 years, get their full pension and retire at 50 or 55 and get another job! If we are giving out full guaranteed pension you better be working until you’re 65 at the minimum, that extra 10 years is a killer and really makes this setup unsustainable.
#58 Juice: Good call on that from yesterday
JCer [61]
There is nothing unsustainable: you can decide that you want someone to work for 1 year, and then pay him pension for another 50, and make it sustainable – but you need to not lie to yourself and everyone else about the costs of it. There was nothing unsustainable about private sector pension plans, the companies simply figured out that rather than lose their money immediately to the insurance companies that would run the deferred annuity, or facing huge uncertainty in how much they have to contribute annually if they run the pension plans themselves, they’d rather dump it on the employees as 401K “contributions” that can be stopped at any time, and don’t have to be managed.
outofstater [26]
You don’t want to create an incentive for the person making 25K a year to reduce her hours and qualify for the medicaid, this is why you want to price her policy cheaply enough. OTOH, it is unlikely that someone making 110K will let his family go uninsured even if the policy costs a lot.
How NOT to run a company:
http://money.msn.com/exchange-traded-fund/article.aspx?post=8f005346-bb27-4864-9aa2-f6d05ac2c233>1=33035
More Fodder for OWS
CBO shows only Top 1% income grew since the 1970s.
http://cboblog.cbo.gov/?p=2909
(30) expat
I had a lead foot too. Dad was a cop. Same result, even in other towns and with state troopers.
He even managed to fix a license revocation that was a few years old. The prosecutor was a former trooper, and he met me before court and told me what to say. Then he stumbled over himself a lot in court until the judge got the hint and dismissed the case.
(57) deb
very true. I use to work in trenton and saw the back up at the river everyday.
Even my judge, a lifetime new jersey resident, decided to move across the river to bucks county. Because she was a senior judge, her salary was consider retirement income, and is not taxed in pennsylvania. And New jersey doesn’t tax income of pennsylvania residents.
Considering that she is a hard core liberal, I find her tax avoidance ironic.
(66) juice,
I find that hard to believe, unless it is adjusted for inflation. the top 5 percent also did quite well over the last decade.
I keep thinking back to my impressions on economy under clinton, and my remarks back then that the increases in greed, uncertainty, and salary, and the corresponding decline in loyalty, led to a belief that the next time the music stopped, it would stay stopped for a very long time. So everyone grabbed as much as they could now. I think history had borne me out.
http://www.nj.com/business/index.ssf/2011/10/mf_global_shares_plunge_follow.html
eY6lCN xpjtetvnujjd, [url=http://jaumnqkbcsxn.com/]jaumnqkbcsxn[/url], [link=http://hlztqcaamrzo.com/]hlztqcaamrzo[/link], http://ooqyqhvkubvl.com/
Re: #69- Nom top 5 diluted by top 20. I am in top something but I still feel poor as I was at my brother house in Bergen which is in the landing path for Teterboro.. Must have been at least 3 dozen G5 type jets landing in an hour as I played in the park with the kids. There is a world of difference between top 1 and top 5 never mind top 20 etc most of all is aviation. CBO also projected a decades worth of budget surplus and paying down the debt most famously in 1999, who knows how full of it they really are.
“Considering that she is a hard core liberal, I find her tax avoidance ironic”
I don’t, as liberals love for other people to pay for their pet programs.
10 Weird Houses:
http://realestate.msn.com/video/video.aspx?videoID=da4a1f1d-cf79-40fd-978a-4773d356b3fb%26tab=All%20Time%2010s&from=gallery_en-us_realestate_rightrail&src=FLPl:videoContainer:play:smartPools_OPAB
This stuff should make every taxpayer’s blood boil
NY Fed’s $40 Billion Iraqi Money Trail
It has been called the largest airborne transfer of currency in the history of the world. But finding out what happened to all the money involved has become one of the biggest financial mysteries of all time.
Beginning in the very earliest days of the war in Iraq, the New York Federal Reserve shipped billions of dollars in physical cash to Baghdad to pay for the reopening of the government and restoration of basic services.
The money was packed onto pallets inside a heavily guarded New York Federal Reserve compound in East Rutherford, New Jersey, trucked to Andrews Air Force Base outside of Washington, and flown by military aircraft to Baghdad International Airport.
By one account, the New York Fed shipped about $40 billion in cash between 2003 and 2008. In just the first two years, the shipments included more than 281 million individual bills weighing a total of 363 tons. But soon after the money arrived in the chaos of war-torn Baghdad, the paper trail documenting who controlled it all began to go cold.
http://www.cnbc.com/id/45031100
Who knew that the fog of war could be caused by dollar bills raining from the sky?
#75 nje- I think a colleague of my sister at Pfizer in Manhattan had some stories about those pallets of cash. He was a Pfizer manager, retired military, activated in the reserves and deployed to Iraq. I don’t even remember the details but it had something to do with his men being responsible for transporting pallets of cash in clear shrink wrap on open flat bed trucks. He was thinking that he would be headed for a court martial when either his men or the locals absconded with significant quantities. I think the story ended with him delivering what was left of the cash with nobody counting it on delivery, as if he was just delivering pallets of K-rations.
ExPat, you can’t make this stuff up. I guess this was a shovel ready project too. shovel err plough money out the door.
#73 Shore
Are you suggesting the other side of the aisle is kosher?
#4 grim
What I find funny in this discussion here is that the actual law is passed over.
Part of my problem with CC is that he tends to bypass the law and looks to the court of public opinion for judgement.
A pension is deferred compensation so it does fall under the interpretation of the constitution. Medical is a different benefit so there may be a case there for them to pay.
The corporation as a person is an interpretation of the constitution, that I disagree with, but its law so I have to accept it.
Fabius,
A conservative doesn’t want the program or to pay for it.
Eliminate the pensions for all elected officials, except the president.
Sleigh Bells to ring this weekend?
http://www.nj.com/weather-guy/index.ssf/2011/10/nj_could_see_first_snow_of_the.html#incart_hbx
“an interpretation of the constitution, that I disagree with, but its law so I have to accept it.”
So was the Dred Scott decision, until it wasn’t.
#81 Shore,
Do we need to go to tape?
Mitch McConnell
State: Kentucky
Party: Republican
Amount in Solo Earmarks: $51,186,000
Sample Earmarks:
$1.6 million for a forage animal production research laboratory in Lexington,KY
$1.088 million for an animal waste management research lab in Bowling Green
#84 Shore
So I can expect to see Southern Pacific vs Santa Clara overturned soon?
Found a great house inspector:
http://nbccollegefootballtalk.files.wordpress.com/2011/10/sgt-schultz.jpg?w=217
Fabius,
Would that it happens. The problem with corporations being “people” is that they can live forever.
Stu picking stocks for his investment club?
http://nbccollegefootballtalk.files.wordpress.com/2011/09/crystal-ball.jpg?w=222
I agree, earmarks are a poor way of funding worthy projects (and a great way to fund unworthy ones).
“Just as the Obama administration unveils new measures it says will ease crushing student loan debt, the College Board is out with new figures showing the cost of college surged again this year, and student borrowing along with it.”
http://www.cnbc.com/id/45040668?__source=google%7Ceditorspicks%7C&par=google
I do not ordinarily comment however i gotta state respect for that post on this 1.
, gemma arterton sex scenes, fwwxc, elizabeth hurley sex video, 6568,
, demi lovato naked pictures, 333696,
, denise richards sex scenes, 50699, jennifer lopez sex scenes, %(((,
, christina applegate boobs, =]],
comment4, stephanie mcmahon nip slip, >:-DD,
comment1, emmanuelle chriqui bikini, hznpu,
comment4, christina hendricks fake, 224,
Pretty nice post. I just stumbled upon your weblog and wished to say that I have truly enjoyed browsing your weblog posts. In any case I’ll be subscribing for your rss feed and I hope you write once more very soon!
I am no longer positive the place you are getting your information, but good topic. I must spend some time learning much more or working out more. Thanks for wonderful info I used to be looking for this info for my mission.
comment4, miranda cosgrove breast, opw,
I really like it when I read an article that proves there are writers out there that can get their point across without confusing the topic. This is excellent work. http://www.samsung1080phdtv.net/