Christie Planning To Steal Jobs From Other States While Fixing States Fiscal Woes

Governor Chris Christie and
Lt. Governor Kim Guadagno

Governor Chris Christie is planning help for small business by working to stabilize the States Finances. "The number-one job of this administration is to get the state's fiscal health back in order," explains Christie. Although many other states have a fiscal mess on their hands NJ's is among the worst, right behind California and Indiana. He says, "My hope and my plan is to get our house in order fiscally before all those other states do so we can then be in a position to steal as many of those jobs, create as many of those new jobs as we can."

The Governors plan has been bantered about so it should be no surprise, "It's nothing I haven't been saying for the last year. I mean, we are in an enormous fiscal crisis and it is not over…..New Jersey is now the leader in talking about this issue. We're talking about it and have been talking about it and have been doing something about it for a year."

The Governor who was told he inherited a surplus, quickly found out that Corzine squandered millions in the 11th hour much of it doled out to his cronies.  Enter Christie who immediately faced with an 11 billion dollar deficit and a budget he had to balance.  Christie successfully closed the 11 billion budget gap in Fiscal Year 2011 and the 2012 budget will be as painful, or even worse than the last one.

"I think any budget that a Christie-Guadagno (Lt. Governor Kim Guadagno) puts forward is going to be a pro-business budget," says Christie. "The question is; how do operate within the fiscal constraints that we have and this is going to continue to be a very difficult budget. Fiscal Year 2012 is going to be a very difficult budget."

Governor Christie was asked how next year's Supreme Court hearings on the Abbott v. Burke case regarding school funding will impact the 2012 budget. He doesn't believe State Supreme Court decisions should play any role in the budget process but they do. He says he will be forced to keep a close eye on the Courts rulings on the issue.

The Governor believes there are other concerns in next year's budget. "The closer you get to balancing that structural deficit the tougher the decisions are because you try to save as much as you can on worthwhile programs while you can. This year will be tougher than last year in that respect. The decisions will be even more difficult because of the decisions we made last year."

The state constitution mandates that New Jersey have a signed and balanced budget in place by midnight June 30. The biggest issue to deal with is the unfunded pensions and health care for retired public employees. The total unfunded pension liability for health care for current and future retirees is now $120.7 billion.



Trenton's Top Two Democrats 
Senate President Stephen Sweeney and
Assembly Speaker Sheila Oliver

While they are largely responsible for the fiscal mess the state finds itself in, the States Democratic Controlled Assembly and Senate, who are all up for election in November 2011, have shown little cooperation with the Governor in fixing the States fiscal house.

The hope and advice from NJECPAC, is that every Taxpayer in the State of New Jersey enter the voting booth in November 8th 2011 with their tax bill in hand, review it and then pull the lever for the candidate they believe will cooperate with the Governor in achieving what he was elected to do. Get the states fiscal house in order and provide much needed property tax relief.  

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NLRB Proposes Employer Mandate To Alert Employees to Union Rights

National Labor Relations Board Rule Will Require Businesses to Alert Workers to Union Rights

In a move designed to help boost unions, the National Labor Relations Board on Tuesday proposed a new rule requiring private-sector employers to post notices telling workers about their right to unionize.

The Proposed Rule is sure to please Unions that are struggling to maintain membership, but will surely result in objections from businesses. Under the rule, businesses would be mandated to notify their employees about their union rights by posting a Department of Labor Appoved Poster regardless of whether a union already exists in the workplace.

Employees would have to be notified about their rights to form or join a union and to bargain collectively with their company for the purposes of improving pay and working conditions.

The Notice of Proposed Rulemaking was published in the Federal Register on December 22, 2010 and members of the public can submit comments on the proposal for 60 days, until February 22, 2011.

Under the NPRM, employers would face various sanctions for failing to post the notice, including:

• Unfair Labor practice charges
• Time limits for filing other unfair labor practice charges against the employer extended
• The NLRB utilizing the failure to post the notice as evidence of unlawful motive in other unfair labor practice cases To View The DOL Poster, Click Here
  The NLRB, in explaining the idea, wrote in the proposed rule that it was concerned many employees are "unaware" of their rights under the National Labor Relations Act.

Submit Your Comments To The NLRB On The Proposed Rule Here  

The new rule could take effect in as soon as 60 days

View Proposed Rule Here

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Proposed Regulations Published For Independendent Contractors

The head of New Jersey's workers' compensation division will soon begin issuing stop-work orders against contractors for misrepresenting employee headcounts under a bill A3569.

Proposed Regulations for A3569 were published in the New Jersey Register on November 1st 2010. The bill was sponsored by Assemblyman Joseph V. Egan (D-New Brunswick), who is deputy majority leader and chair of the Assembly Labor Committee, and Assemblywoman Annette Quijano (D-Union) and signed into law by former Gov. Jon Corzine.

The change in the law will empower the Director of the Division of Workers' Compensation to issue a stop-work order against contractors that under count their employees or misclassify an employees status as an independent contractor, in order to avoid workers' compensation premiums. The law will apply even if the employers statements and or actions were made in error.
Any stop-work orders issued by the director would affect All Locations And Job Sites For The Contractor, and would be issued no later than three days after the violations were found. Violations of the Act is an indictable Crime of the 4th Degree felony offense. Read More

Read “Construction Industry Independent Contractor Act.” Here

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Construction Employment Up In 13 States

Thirteen states showed year-over-year growth in construction employment, according to data released by the Labor Department.

"It is encouraging that the number of states adding jobs year-over-year was higher in November than at any time since February 2008," said Ken Simonson, the association's chief economist. He added that the gains were "as spotty as they are tenuous." California, New Jersey and New York were among those that posted increases.

Simonson noted, for example, that California had the largest monthly increase in construction employment – adding 7,800 jobs – but also the largest 12-month drop – 36,900 jobs, or 6.4 percent. New Jersey and New York had the next-highest number of construction job gains in November with 4,500. New Jersey also led the nation in monthly percentage gains (3.7 percent), followed by Vermont (3.4 percent, 400 jobs) and Maine (2.5 percent, 600 jobs).

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New Census Report Expected To Complicate Obama's 2012 Relection Bid

The 2010 census report coming out Tuesday will include lots of good political news for Republicans and grim data for Democrats hoping to re-elect President Barack Obama and rebound from last month's devastating elections.

The population continues to shift from Democratic-leaning Rust Belt states to Republican-leaning Sun Belt states, a trend the Census Bureau will detail in its once-a-decade report to the president. Political clout shifts, too, because the U.S. must reapportion the 435 House districts to make them roughly equal in population, based on the latest census figures.

The biggest gainer will be Texas, a Republican-dominated state expected to gain up to four new House seats, for a total of 36. The chief losers -- New York and Ohio, each projected by nongovernment analysts to lose two seats -- were carried by Obama in 2008 and are typical of states in the Northeast and Midwest that are declining in political influence.
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The Aura Has Faded, Now Its Either Govern Or Fail.

Now that his aura is faded in the eyes of most Americans, Obama has successfully isolated himself from just about every group that matters in American political circles. How much worse can it get? The fact is many Democrats now consider the Adminstration an inattentive and hapless political operation. Democratic lobbyists feel slighted by his holier-than-thou take on their profession. His own Cabinet, with few exceptions, has been marginalized.

His relations with business leaders could hardly be worse. CEOs friendly with the president walk away feeling he’s indifferent at best to their concerns. Add in his icy relations with Republicans, the media and, most important, most voters, and it’s easy to understand why his own staff leaked word that it wants Obama to shake up his staff and change his political approach.

Obama has failed to engage the customs and institutions of Washington, leaving him estranged from the capital’s permanent power structure. “This guy swept to power on a wave of adulation, and he learned the wrong lessons from that,” said a Democratic official who deals frequently with the White House. “He’s more of a movement leader than a politician. He needs someone to kick his ass on things large and small and teach him to be a politician.”.............Good Luck With That!  Read More

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Under Duress, Obama signs Tax Rate Extention

By Joseph Hovanec Jr

Even though he doesn't like it, President Obama signed the bipartisan tax package that has divided both parties. Meanwhile, the White House says there's no viable alternate plan. That is because the Democrats in control never had one, unless you count raising taxes as a plan.

Despite repeated visits by thousands of business groups and concerned citizens including our NJECPAC, the Democrats who have had control of Congress for 4 years have had no real interest in moving the economy forward. The proof is in their actions. They throw money at the economy and go on to one of their other Liberal agenda items, throw more money at it and go back to their alternate agenda. As long as they can keep throwing money at it in the hopes of increasing their base, the economy in its current state is working for them. That was evident in their insistence that unemployment be again extended, which in itself takes away much of the incentive for many to even look for work.

It seems that everything the Republicans have been pushing for, and Democrats wouldn't consider ultimately became an emergency for them at the last minute such as this tax deal. The Democrat Majority have had 4 years to extend the Bush tax rates and they refused, and then it became an emergency. And they still have not fixed it they merely put a two year band aid on it. The bill that passed will expire in 2012 so they can make it into an election issue.

They should have fixed health care years ago when President Bush was trying to implement real reform that would have resulted in significant premium savings but again the Democrats blocked all efforts to reform health care.  Even Obama voted no to every health care reform bill while in the Senate. Now as President it became an emergency, and in their haste passed a egregious monstrosity of a health care law that is already increasing costs, people are losing their health care, Health care companies are getting out of the business all together and the law was recently found by a federal judge to be unconstitutional. 

Early on in his Presidency The Democrats Passed and Obama signed the so called Lilly Ledbetter Act, which was presented under the guise of equal rights for women. That is of course a noble cause so who can argue with that. The problem is what they passed causes business to rethink even hiring women due to the extension of the statute of limitations on discrimination lawsuits (not just for women) to a virtually perpetual level. The Law that was passed makes it impossible as time goes on for Business to defend themselves against frivolous discrimination lawsuits.  

Luckily for American taxpayers, Harry Reid was forced to pull the Massive Spending bill due to the noble efforts of Republican Senators who stood by their firm stance against wasteful spending. Read Bill Here

The spending bill was packed with over 8 billion in earmarks from both parties, although 90% of them are from Democrats. Click here to see how much the Spending Bill would have cost you.

Unfortunately, virtually every Bill that Congress has passed or wanted to pass since the Democrats have been in control includes the epitome of unintended consequences.  

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Eating Their Own: 600 IBEW Members Picket Carpenters’ Union Hall

A large protest over union recognition attracted about 600 IBEW workers outside of a union hall on Hampton Ave. in south St. Louis.

Nationwide, unemployment reached 9.8% last week and in the construction industry the unemployment rate is nearly 19%. This is causing union bosses to think ‘outside the box’ on how to get work for their unemployed members, even if it includes stepping on another union.

In April, the Carpenters’ union in St. Louis did what, in the union building trades, is the unthinkable, they set up their own electrical union to compete with the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW).

The IBEW in turn launched a counter-offensive. On Tuesday evening, the IBEW hit the Carpenters’ Union hall with 600 picketers to protest the encroachment.

Could this happen in New Jersey? There is no way to know, but stay tuned.

Hows That For Solidarity.
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UNCONSTITUTIONAL !!!

Obama suffered a major blow when, a federal judge in Virginia ruled Monday that a key provision of H.R 3590, the new national health care reform law is unconstitutional.

U.S. District Court Judge Henry Hudson said that forcing individuals to purchase health insurance was in violation of the Constitution's "commerce clause," The Washington Post reported.

The courts cannot enforce the law's requirement that Americans be fined if they don't have health insurance by 2014, the judge said in a 42-page opinion.

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Unemployment Rate In Construction Rises To 18.8%

Construction Unemployment Rate Remains The Highest For Any Industry

The Unemployment Rate in Construction rose to 18.8 percent in November losing another 5,000 jobs since the end of October. Thats Roughly double the overall rate as federal projects remain the only bright spot for the Industry

The newly released Federal Government figures show the construction sector has experienced a higher rate of unemployment than any other Industry during this economic downturn.

"The unemployment report shows construction still has not broken free of the recession that has gripped the industry since 2006," said Ken Simonson, the AGC Association's chief economist. "Other than the stimulus and other temporary federal programs, it has been a pretty bleak four yours for the industry." Read More

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