Posts Tagged ‘Trenton’

The following story is often passed along by Republicans who wish their liberal friends could understand economics.  They hope that making a simple parable out of the down-side of progressive taxation they can stop the madness.  As Dr. Kamerschen (the author) and many other economist and philosophers (including my favorite Ayn Rand) have pointed out, there is no stopping the madness of self destructive societal behavior that attempts to feed on the success of others.  That’s certainly one of the factors that’s contributed to Trenton’s mess.  We love the poor and hate the rich.

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Like many Trentonians, I approached the 2010  mayoral run-off with trepidation and knew I had two less than perfect options.  But there’s always hope. 

Since then, I’ve largely taken the summer off from Trenton politics because I was too depressed about the election including the city council contest in which most of my choices lost.  But still there’s hope. Read the rest of this entry »

by guest writer  – Brian Hill

So I was thinking about what I do for a living, and that I am a municipal public employee… and how I see so much waste everywhere. I also really dislike the perception that we are all just lazy bastards. So how do we really change the City of Trenton employee image and while we are at it, how can we change the image of Trenton? Us, how can we do it as well???  I did some research and wrote this up… Read the rest of this entry »

I’ve been voting candidates off the island on FaceBook.  This is my advice on the remaining six (including me).

Eric Jackson, Frank Weeden, John Harmon, Keith Hamilton and Annette Lartigue are left on the Island along with me. Read the rest of this entry »

Here’s the thing.  I don’t want to have to be involved in local politics at all.

However, I live in Trenton and own enough property so that high taxes and declining value could be a substantial economic blow.  I am not alone in this precarious situation.  Every home and building owner in Trenton is at risk as our city’s budget comes closer to falling into the financial abyss. Read the rest of this entry »

The Fix Trenton’s Budget committee created a multiple choice survey to assess the aptitude and policy perspective of Trenton’s municipal candidates.  This was the committee’s major pre-election project.  We hope it gives some perspective on the kinds of things that are necessary to fix the problem and the candidates who are most in tune with the correct solutions. Read the rest of this entry »

In the past, I’ve criticized candidates for having little or no Internet presence.  By the last election cycle in 2006, the Internet had been in wide use for 10 years, and yet only a tiny handful of Trenton’s municipal candidates had web site and many didn’t know how to use e-mail.

In this cycle the situation has improved dramatically. Read the rest of this entry »

The below is a guest article by Stephen Slusher – Thanks to him for letting Reinvent Trenton publish it.

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A Modest Proposal to the Governor For Preventing the Institutions of NJ from being a Burden the Taxpayers and for Making them Beneficial to the Public.

Governor Christie is pushing cuts in state funding for the City of Trenton, including eliminating the Capital City Aid program.  Meanwhile state budget officials and legislators are struggling to balance the budget – and everybody thinks if we can just get through this next year things have got to improve. Read the rest of this entry »

Now that the Petitioners have won their court case, the voters may need to decide on whether to do the Water Deal.  This is a complicated decision and presumably will be on the ballot this December.  In the meantime, the city will have to pass along at least an $.80 / $100 tax hike.  That’s assuming there’s not another tax hike on top of that to make up for money the State is taking away. Read the rest of this entry »

The elephant in the room when it comes to revitalization is schools.  Everyone knows it but most are hesitant to talk about the real underlying problem. Read the rest of this entry »