A Tough Month for Governors in NY and NJ

It’s been a tough month for governors in the New York/New Jersey area.

Unless you’ve been hiding under a rock, you have noticed that one governor resigned after meeting with a high-priced hooker from New Jersey, and the other governor stayed put after meeting with about 200 mayors.Ours was the one to stay put and give them in person the bad news about state aid: There’s gonna be less of it. Ours was the one to stay put and give

I don’t know what was worse---having to resign in disgrace, or facing down a team of mad municipal mayors.

My hometown of Flemington stands to lose more than $250,000 in state aid, unless we figure out how to merge with the town that surround us. Raritan Township, the big gelatinous cell of a bedroom community, is the one that surrounds the Main Street nucleus that is Flemington.

Well let’s just look at that “merger”.

In 1910, Flemington separated itself from Raritan Township, and became it’s own community. I've read that the issue back then was much the same as it is today: property taxes that were too high. The residents of Flemington did not want to have to pay for the development in Raritan Township.

Ironically, we have still have the same issues today, as Flemington prepares for their centennial celebration. The fastest growing Township in Hunterdon County has placed nearly all its dense residential infrastructure around Flemington, choking the smaller town with traffic, stores and condo communities.

The governor has proposed to cut all aid for towns that have under a population of 5000. Flemington has a population of about 4200, and we are not about to jump over 5000 really soon. Raritan Township logs in at about 22,000 or so, according to the latest population estimates. So, according to the governor’s plan, their aid would not necessarily be cut.

What motivation would Raritan Township have to merge with Flemington? So, it goes.

I am sure that the issue will be hotly debated in the state legislature, and be fought sharply by the fine folks of the New Jersey State League of Municipalities.

State Sen. James “Sonny” McCullough's 'Macaca' monent.

“State Sen. James “Sonny” McCullough is learning the hard way that jokes from another era with ethnic punch lines tend to punch back in today's political campaigns. Democrats on Thursday jumped all over McCullough, R-Atlantic — who is running for his first full term in the state Senate — after he told a reporter from a political Web site a joke about an Asian couple with a black baby.” (McAleer, Press of Atlantic City

I have been doing professional stand-up comedy for more than twenty years, and I have heard just about every racist, sexist, anti-Semitic, homophobic, ageist, anti-feminist, and anti-transgender joke there is. Sometimes the jokes emanate from other comedians and sometimes from comedy club audience members. However, very infrequently do they come from fellow elected officials. In this case, however, that is not true. State Sen. James “Sonny” McCullough is setting himself to lose his seat on the basis of his exposed racist values.

And he made it worse by declaring afterwards:

"It was not an ethnic slur...It was never said in a slanderous way toward African-Americans or the Chinese. If they took it that way, I certainly would apologize. I never took it that way."

"...If they took it that way, I certainly would apologize."??? That's just like saying, “Hey! Come on. It’s just a joke! Lighten up.”

However, it’s not just a joke. Your sense of humor is a great window into your core value system. We should judge people’s core value system not just on the basis of what they say during prepared speeches. But what they say in spontaneous moments. This is especially true of those in public office. Remember Virginia Senator George Allen in 2oo6. His casual use of the racist term 'macaca' for a dark skinned person was caught on YouTube, and cost him the election.

At my annual program for the New Jersey State League of Municipalities on humor in government, we always have a panel consisting of myself, a professional political stand-up comedian, political cartoonist Jimmy Margulies, and sometimes another elected official. In the past, we have had the pleasure of having join us Dena Blizzard, the former Ms. New Jersey, and current stand-up comedian. We have had comedian Scott Blakeman from The Late Show with David Letterman and Barry Weintraub from ComedyCentral. And Assemblyman Jon Bramnick has joined us as well, as he is listed as the ‘Funniest Lawyer in New Jersey’.

There are great lessons to be learned from those elected officials who used humor wisely ---like John Kennedy and Ronald Reagen. And from those who used it poorly ---like Dan Qualye, Gerald Ford and Richard Nixon.

The question of what is appropriate humor will be debated for years. However, at the NJSLOM session we have always come away with the following universal truths regarding humor:

1-Always make yourself the butt of any joke.
2-Never make an ethic joke.
3-Always know your audience.

State Sen. James “Sonny” McCullough is most definitely learning the hard way. He should have attended my program at the League.

Yo, New Jersey, How You Doin’?

One of the best resources local New Jersey officials have in order to govern effectively is the New Jersey State League of Municipalities.

The League has the largest state conference in the nation. The folks at the League ----Bill Dressel, Helen Yeldell and Mike Darcy --- do a heck of a job advocating for all the towns in NJ. They are and have always been a great resource for locally elected officials in NJ. And as a state with this much government [566 municipalities at last count] and a committment to local control, the League is invaluable.

Since we are at the half-way mark in 2007, here for your perusal is the NJSLOM legislative agenda as established back in January.

How is NJ doin’?

LAND USE & AFFORDABLE HOUSING
• Strengthen participatory democracy by safeguarding the institutions, through which people can, cooperatively, shape the future of their own communities.
• Defend the local planning and zoning review process from attack by those who value private profit more than the public’s interest.
• Urge support for initiatives which would encourage those who reap the greatest benefits from new development to, more equitably, share the costs of the infrastructural improvements, which that development necessitates.
• Continue our review of potentially unnecessary and duplicative bureaucratic requirements which inhibit the construction and renovation of sufficient safe and affordable housing for the families of our less-affluent fellow citizens.

PUBLIC HEALTH & ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION
• Promote policies that will permit communities to achieve and sustain compliance with appropriately high public health and environmental standards.
• Advocate a spirit of cooperation among state and local governments, which emphasizes the solution of problems, rather than the assessment of blame.
• Foster Legislative and citizen awareness of, and respect for, our public health and environmental priorities; and, thereby, increase our communal quality of life, while decreasing the costs, which will accrue in the long run if remediation efforts become necessary.
• Support policies that will permit communities to create flexible solutions to site remediation problems.
• Champion efforts to maintain, for future generations, the natural diversity which draws millions of visitors to our State, and to bequeath to our children a healthier and cleaner environment.

TAXATION & FINANCE
• Evaluate the outcome of the Special Legislative Session
for Property Tax Reform to determine its impact on New Jersey’s over-reliance on property taxes to fund essential public services and programs.
• Determine the need for further reforms, which could be effected by a special citizens’ property tax reform convention.
• Oppose the continued diminishment in property tax relief funding, which would inevitably exacerbate the burden borne by New Jersey’s families and small businesses.
• Oppose further Administration and Legislative Budget proposals that would shift costs from the State to local governments, because of their contributions to the property tax crisis.
• Champion policies that will permit local governments to jointly negotiate and enter into contracts so as to provide, for our citizens, the best possible supplies and services at the lowest possible rates.
• Support fair and reasonable public pension and benefit reforms that appropriately reward current and retired public servants for their service without inappropriately burdening their fellow citizens.

INTERGOVERNMENTAL RELATIONS
• Promote and participate in discussions among public servants representing their fellow citizens at the local, state and federal level, in order to best meet the challenges and respond to the opportunities emerging from developments in our state’s and nation’s capital.
• Tackle existing mandates by supporting legislative review and repeal or relaxation of unnecessary, unfunded requirements imposed on municipalities in the past, which remain in effect today.
• Review, with the intent to repeal, statutory impediments to greater intergovernmental cooperation.
• Promote the continuing dialogue between and among neighboring municipalities and school districts in order to find creative and cooperative solutions to existing and emerging problems.