Monday, April 06, 2009

Stimulus, New Jersey-Style!

Investing your money in New Jersey is like buying pumpkin futures on October 30th. Money down a freakin' sinkhole:

With the promise of 500 jobs, Gov. Corzine today said more than $47 million from the federal economic stimulus package will jump-start a long-overdue bridge upgrade on Route 46 in Bergen County.

The $67 million project, funded with $47.6 million from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, will raise two bridges on the highway in Lodi


Bill Mullen, president of the New Jersey State Building and Construction Trades Council, said economic stimulus money for public projects was a start toward putting 25 percent to 30 percent of union's 150,000 members back to work.

So what did America get for its $47.6 million dollar investment in the People's State of New Jersey?

-Corzine building bridges in North Jersey - conveniently the base of his support and the home of most of key campaign contributers, while blithely ignoring the other 2/3rd of the state.

-Union jobs, of course - with no mention of employment for the rest of the private sector whatsoever.

- union jobs that are incidentally costing the American taxpayer approximately $96,000- each, assuming, of course, that 500 jobs are actually created. After all, the "no-show" job was virtually invented in this state.

So how do we see this portion of the stimulus spent? On Jon Corzine's key support groups. The rest of New Jersey's citizens - say, 45% of them - can go to hell. 'Cause it ain't gonna change much down the road.

Invest in Jersey? Please. You'd be better off trying your luck with the three-card Monte dealer I see hanging around Times Square all day...

2 comments:

MikeGSP said...

You may be right about Corzine pandering to his constituents, but I use that area of Rte. 46 and I can tell you it needs to be fixed badly.

Anonymous said...

The word in back rooms is that the federal economic stimulus money has already reached New Jersey, but Corzine has taken the money and invested it to use the interest to help offset the state's budget gap. Obama made it clear that the stimulus money was not to be used to close states' budget gaps, so Corzine found a loophole. He is doing this so he looks good come November elections, but in the meantime, we are all struggling to stay afloat without the stimulus money. Politics as usual in New Jersey!