TexasTowelie
TexasTowelie's JournalHow deep is NJ in debt? Very, very deep but not as bad as 2017
New Jersey is still weighed down by a staggering amount of outstanding and anticipated debt: $239 billion. But the amount it owes is slowly shrinking compared to the record-high set in 2017.
New Jersey owes $45.16 billion in bonded debt, money taxpayers must pay back to bondholders with interest. But that’s $937 million less than the $46.1 billion it owed in 2017. That’s about a 2 percent decrease.
"The state has really only done modest borrowing over the past couple of years," said Marcy Block, New Jersey analyst for credit rating agency Fitch Ratings. "If they continue down that path, it will continue to trend downwards."
The Garden State has $193.9 billion in obligations when looking at all non-bonded debt owed, which includes the pension as well as retiree health liabilities, loans and capital leases. That’s still an improvement and 10 percent drop from 2017, when New Jerseyans were on the hook for $215.8 billion. These numbers look huge next to previous years, but that's "an apples to oranges comparison" because auditors made changes in how they calculated the health benefit liabilities in 2017 and 2018, Block said. "But we still recognize that the number is exceptionally large."
Read more: https://www.dailyrecord.com/story/money/2019/06/03/new-jersey-state-debt-report-analysis/1301540001/
(Parsippany Daily Record)
Sweeney won't rule out shutdown
Senate President Steve Sweeney on Thursday guaranteed the state would have a budget by July 1, but he wasn’t sure whether Gov. Phil Murphy would sign that that budget into law.
“I didn’t say he’ll sign it,” Sweeney said.
Murphy and legislative leaders have found themselves at odds over the millionaire’s tax sought by the former.
Sweeney and Assembly Speaker Craig Coughlin staunchly oppose the measure and have repeatedly said they would not include it in this year’s budget.
Those calls come at a time when tensions between Murphy and Sweeney are at an all-time high due to a growing feud between the governor and South Jersey kingmaker George Norcross over tax incentives meted out by the Economic Development Authority.
Read more: https://newjerseyglobe.com/legislature/sweeney-wont-rule-out-shutdown/
Cory Booker dazzles California Democrats with call to end gun violence, oust Trump
Cory Booker appeared to have a breakout moment in his bid for the Democratic presidential nomination, delivering a passionate and sizzling speech today at the California Democratic Party Convention in San Francisco.
The speech, delivered at a convention that would hear from thirteen other presidential candidates, is getting rave reviews on social media – something the U.S. Senator needs if he is to emerge from a huge field of White House aspirants.
“Beating Donald Trump is a must. Beating Donald Trump is a must, but that is a floor, not a ceiling,” Booker said. “We are bigger than that, we have greater ambitions than that.
One California Democrat said on Twitter Booker “brought the House down.”
Read more: https://newjerseyglobe.com/national/cory-booker-dazzles-california-democrats-with-call-to-end-gun-violence-oust-trump/
Trio Indicted For World Trade Center 'Pay-To-Play' Bribery Scheme, State Attorney General Says
New York Attorney General Letitia James charged three men involved in rebuilding the World Trade Center alleging they engaged in a “pay-to-play" bribery scheme.
“These individuals were trusted with rebuilding the site of the worst terror attack in American history, but instead, allegedly squandered public funds to line their own pockets,” said James in the May 29 announcement.
The individuals charged are James Luckie, 58, of Setauket in Suffolk County; and Michael Garrison, 59, of Stony Point in Rockland County; and Paul Angerame, 59, of Manhattan.
They were charged in a scheme that involved exchanging lavish gifts and entertainment for preferential work and confidential information.
Read more: https://dailyvoice.com/new-york/yonkers/news/trio-indicted-for-world-trade-center-pay-to-play-bribery-scheme-state-attorney-general-says/769236/
Powerful union backs giving licenses to immigrants in New York
ALBANY — The nation’s largest health care worker’s union is backing legislation in New York state that would authorize drivers licenses for immigrants who entered the country illegally.
1199SEIU’s support, announced Monday, comes as state lawmakers consider whether to advance the legislation before adjourning June 19.
In a statement, the union’s political director said licenses are essential to making immigrants a full part of the state’s economy.
The measure has support from top Democrats in the Legislature but hasn’t been scheduled for a vote. It remains deeply unpopular with some Republican lawmakers.
Read more: https://www.uticaod.com/news/20190603/powerful-union-backs-giving-licenses-to-immigrants-in-ny
(Utica Observer-Dispatch)
A 'Bridge' to China, and Her Family's Business, in the Trump Cabinet
The email arrived in Washington before dawn. An official at the American Embassy in Beijing was urgently seeking advice from the State Department about an “ethics question.”
“I am writing you because Mission China is in the midst of preparing for a visit from Department of Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao,” the official wrote in October 2017.
Ms. Chao’s office had made a series of unorthodox requests related to her first scheduled visit to China as a Trump cabinet member, according to people with knowledge of the email. Among them: asking federal officials to help coordinate travel arrangements for at least one family member and include relatives in meetings with government officials.
In China, the Chaos are no ordinary family. They run an American shipping company with deep ties to the economic and political elite in China, where most of the company’s business is centered. The trip was abruptly canceled by Ms. Chao after the ethics question was referred to officials in the State and Transportation Departments and, separately, after The New York Times and others made inquiries about her itinerary and companions.
Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/02/us/politics/elaine-chao-china.html
Insult to injury: Workers' compensation isn't working in New York
While the city contemplates demanding employers provide paid vacation days and other new guarantees for workers toward the bottom of the pay and power scale, a basic piece of the safety net is frayed: the workers’ compensation system meant to support people who get hurt on the job, and to help their families get by when a breadwinner is killed.
Workers’ comp is a private system with benefits set by the state. Employers buy the insurance, which then pays out when an employee sustains an injury that results in lost wages.
A new report from the Center for New York City Affairs lays out some grim vitals. Annually in New York State, 115,000 people get hurt and are forced to take time off work as a result. While that figure is way down over the decades, fatal injuries just hit their highest level in 20 years, driven by a spike in construction deaths.
Yet the minimum weekly payout here, a state with a high cost of living, is just $150, less than half its level in five neighboring states. And in a best-case scenario, because of the Empire State’s particular formulas, workers pocket a sum that adds up to two-thirds of the wages they lost.
Read more: https://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/ny-edit-workers-compensation-20190603-viboaa4f2ng7hispobko5d2c54-story.html
A Tale of 2 invoices: Beto O'Rourke pays El Paso, which Donald Trump's campaign still owes $470,000
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.
Actually, which it was depends on what street you stood on a chilly winter evening in El Paso, Texas.
On one side of town, raucous crowds gathered at the El Paso County Coliseum. With American flags and banners reading "Finish the Wall" displayed above him, President Donald Trump hailed his "big, beautiful" border wall as the reason for El Paso's low crime rate.
Outside the coliseum, thousands of protesters gathered. Marching along the Rio Grande, they joined former Texas Congressman Beto O'Rourke at the Chalio Acosta Sports Center for a counter rally to celebrate El Paso's immigrant culture. It marked a clarion moment for a prospective candidate testing 2020 waters, and heralded what many expected to come -- O'Rourke's official campaign kickoff. Just a few weeks later, he held his first official campaign rally in his hometown.
The bills came due for both: Beto For America owed the city $28,630.50 for his March campaign launch; he had already paid $7,609.14 of that as a deposit. The remainder was due May 24. They paid on time -- just under the wire -- with a check dated the day prior to the deadline.
Read more: https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/tale-invoices-beto-orourke-pays-el-paso-donald/story?id=63350337
A Tale of 2 invoices: Beto O'Rourke pays El Paso, which Donald Trump's campaign still owes $470,000
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.
Actually, which it was depends on what street you stood on a chilly winter evening in El Paso, Texas.
On one side of town, raucous crowds gathered at the El Paso County Coliseum. With American flags and banners reading "Finish the Wall" displayed above him, President Donald Trump hailed his "big, beautiful" border wall as the reason for El Paso's low crime rate.
Outside the coliseum, thousands of protesters gathered. Marching along the Rio Grande, they joined former Texas Congressman Beto O'Rourke at the Chalio Acosta Sports Center for a counter rally to celebrate El Paso's immigrant culture. It marked a clarion moment for a prospective candidate testing 2020 waters, and heralded what many expected to come -- O'Rourke's official campaign kickoff. Just a few weeks later, he held his first official campaign rally in his hometown.
The bills came due for both: Beto For America owed the city $28,630.50 for his March campaign launch; he had already paid $7,609.14 of that as a deposit. The remainder was due May 24. They paid on time -- just under the wire -- with a check dated the day prior to the deadline.
Read more: https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/tale-invoices-beto-orourke-pays-el-paso-donald/story?id=63350337
City tech agency was overcharged for $47M procurement system, watchdog says
The city’s scandal-scarred tech agency was overcharged millions for an electronic procurement system, according to an investigative watchdog.
Ivalua Inc. was first hired by the Department of Information Technology and Telecommunications in 2016 to come up with a a system that allows 40 city agencies to buy products and services online.
In the years since, the contract has ballooned from $30.5 million to a whopping $46.9 million, the watchdog Checks and Balances Project found. The city has spent $27.5 million on the contract so far.
A similar system made for Dallas, Texas, cost just under $50,000 a year, according to documents obtained by the watchdog and shared with the Daily News.
Read more: https://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/ny-new-york-city-e-procurement-system-contract-ivalua-20190602-l2ccjbsohvd3tkohvdk6dp3yiq-story.html
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Gender: MaleHometown: South Texas. most of my life I lived in Austin and Dallas
Home country: United States
Current location: Bryan, Texas
Member since: Sun Aug 14, 2011, 03:57 AM
Number of posts: 112,941
