Batting .500 Ain’t So Bad
Well, for the first time in ages NJ voters defeated a ballot question, two of them in fact
TRENTON, N.J. (AP) — New Jersey voters on Tuesday rejected borrowing $450 million to pay for stem cell research grants in the state for 10 years.
With 95 percent of the vote counted, 53 percent of voters opposed the spending.
The rejection was a defeat for Democratic Gov. Jon S. Corzine, who campaigned heavily for the measure. He argued the money would help find cures for conditions such as spinal cord injuries, Parkinson’s disease, sickle cell anemia and multiple sclerosis while also luring leading scientists and research firms to the state.
But the measure was opposed by anti-abortion activists, conservatives and the Roman Catholic Church because it would pay for research that destroys human embryos and would increase state debt.
Well, I know folks love to raise the ‘religious right’ bogeyman every time something they don’t like happens, but that certainly was not the reason I opposed it. In fact, I find myself agreeing with Dick Codey on this one
Senate President Richard J. Codey, a leading stem cell supporter, pinned the defeat on chronic state fiscal problems and mounting state debt.
“The taxpayers of New Jersey are not against stem cell research,” said Codey, D-Essex. “It’s clear. The message we’re getting is put your fiscal house in order and then do these things.”
I’m against the state paying for it.
Now here’s the laugh of the morning:
Said Corzine spokeswoman Lilo Stainton, “The public understands the state has serious financial issues that must be addressed first.”
Yes, the public does; the problem is that the Governor doesn’t, and neither does the Legislature.
As an aside, someone at the Associated Press needs some, shall we say, sensitivity training; look at this next paragraph in the story:
Scott Simpkins, a 36-year-old Williamstown resident who broke a vertebra and was left paralyzed after a bicycling accident in Colorado in late August 2000, was crushed. He hopes stem cell research might help him walk again.
Anyhow, so that was voted down, as was the sales tax/property tax shell game scheme; the $200 million Open Space and Let’s Have Nice Words In The Constitution measures both passed.
All in all a better day than might have been expected, but on the radio this morning there was already talk that Corzine might try and put more Stem Cell money in the budget…
Politics | Mr. Bingley | 
November 7, 2007 6:44 am
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So, has Scott Simpkins become your new Heather Mills?
Aw heck, I feel sorry for the guy. The copy writer is a dufus.
The problem with Corzine is that he is trying to project the image of getting control of the budget process, while putting us further in debt. With the Transportation Trust Fund, he back-loaded the new debt so it won’t come due for years.
Out of sight, out of mind. Well, I’d certainly agree that he is out of his mind! And apparently enough people caught on that to some extent, they put the breaks on!
He’s relly in a bind on the “dedication” question because now the Democrat-controlled Legislature will be salivating to spend all that “free” dough on additional nanny proposals aimed almost exclusively at providing benefits for the Democrat parts of the State. Now that the Democrats don’t have Karcher and Panter in Monmouth to worry about any more, they’ll get back to taking everything they can from those folks and giving it to Hudson and Essex and Camden.
The Republicans should now begin to specifically and repeatedly point out that it is utterly unconscionable, and no doubt unconstitutional that their taxpayers are paying for everything, and that only Democrat districts benefit from that money.
I wouldn’t even be surprised to see a “demonstration movement” perhaps in the north west portion of the State — Morris, Sussex, Warren, Hunterdon, and perhaps other areas to call for a referendum to secede. It won’t happen, but it might help to get the point across.
Meanwhile, the ranks of the state workers who actually do the work (not the political appointees whose ranks have hugely swelled) have been cut so thin in certain departments (e.g., Transportation), that huge volumes of work are simply going undone.
And there is a $4 Billion dollar shortfall.
So, here comes monitizination during the “lame duck” session. Anyone with any sense of fiscal integrity should start calling it the “dead duck” session.
As a native of Sussex County I know full well of what you speak.
The spending and asset mis-management will truly get insane, and if he sells off the Turnpike Authority I have no idea how we will ever pay off any of this.
We need someone who will control the spending.
Stem-cell research is barely disguised welfare for medical administrators. We’ve poured a ton of money into it out here in CA and it’s just goldrush of institution-building – with each bigwig egomaniac Dean and MD naming one after himself.