He is from Montclair, is 56 and brings new generational ideas. He is married with four children. He is a former US Treasury undersecretary. Any Wall Street candidate has nothing on him. Jim's experience in government secures his knowledge of governance.
"Does anyone believe that if we keep running the same playbook written by the same insiders that your lives are going to get any better? I don't. ... That old playbook got us the highest property taxes" in the nation."It got us Jon Corzine, it got us Chris Christie, Chris Christie again, and it will get us Phil Murphy unless we demand real change."
Given his knowledge and experience in government he doesn't have to have a department of so called experts to write policy. He knows where the change needs to take place and can instrument it without holding anyone's hand.
HE VALUES ETHICS! Yes, yes, yes!
Ethics reform: Johnson wants to eliminate no-bid contracts, ban political contributions from lobbyists, require greater disclosure of lobbying activity, and limit public officials to one public pension.
There may be a pension crisis, but, that doesn't mean the NJ State Pension Funds are valueless, quite the contrary. The very last person that should be leading New Jersey is another Wall Street executive. New Jersey was built by the Middle Class who invested in unions and the pension provided. The vote for Governor has to begin with the promise to fix the pension system to take away the burden from voters to young to vote right now.
January 5, 2016
By Mark J. Magyar'
Next November, (click here) New Jerseyans will be asked to vote on a constitutional amendment to require the state government to make regular quarterly pension payments, which would put the state's pension system -- and the state of New Jersey itself -- on the road to fiscal solvency within six years.
The biggest winners, if the constitutional amendment passes, are not public employees -- who will get their pensions anyway -- but all of New Jersey's taxpayers.
State laws, Supreme Court rulings and legal opinions have already established that public employees are entitled to the vested pension benefits they have earned....
...New Jersey's pension system for teachers and state government workers has a $40 billion unfunded liability that is growing exponentially and is in danger of collapse because governors and legislatures treated the pension system like a credit card that would never come due.
Over a 14-year span, Republican governors underfunded the pension system by $2.6 billion, then Democratic governors did so by $10.2 billion. The Christie administration promised to fix the problem, but instead made it worse by underfunding the pension system by $17.5 billion in its first six years -- and a projected $23.7 billion by the time the governor's term ends in January 2018
Every year that the pension system goes underfunded, the long-term cost of fixing the problem grows exponentially.
It would have cost only $1.1 billion a year to restore the pension system to full funding when Sweeney first flagged the problem in 2005. Five years later, at the end of the Corzine administration, it would have cost $2.5 billion. It would have cost over $4.5 billion by 2018 when the seven-year ramp-up to full funding was to have been completed under the bipartisan 2011 pension law....
Do not let Wall Street go near this issue. Today, Wall Street, including and especially Goldman Sachs are gamblers, not investors. Greed and not growth is the Wall Street model in the year 2017.
July 11, 2016
By Samantha Marcus
The state Supreme Court (click here) on Thursday upheld a landmark 2011 law freezing cost-of-living adjustments for retired government workers, a decision that will slowly erode the value of pensions paid to 800,000 current and former public employees.
The 6-1 ruling is a major legal victory for Gov. Chris Christie's administration, which warned that restoring the annual increases would hurl a pension system already underfunded by $59 billion closer to insolvency.
"State taxpayers have won another huge victory," Christie said. "One that spares them from the burden of unaffordable benefit increases for public employee unions."
The lawsuit filed by a group of retired prosecutors hinged on whether the legal promise not to reduce workers' pensions includes cost-of-living adjustments. Christie and state lawmakers suspended the regular increases in 2011 as part of a sweeping overhaul of employee benefits that also raised the retirement age and required workers to pay more for their pensions and health care....
Jim Johnson as Governor will be ready from inauguration to target issues that burden future generations. That readiness begins with future generations today, since, New Jersey's education is badly underfunded. The education of future generations is already compromised and New Jersey taxpayers need someone in the Governor's seat that appreciates the priorities they hold.
Is there a difference between health and good environmental policy? No. Good environmental policy insures a better quality of life with increased health capacity. Every time a jogger or runner or walker heads out the door for exercise, they will not be getting a full does of pollution, unseasonable heat, extreme freezing temperatures or ground ozone in their face and lungs to impact wellness. Yes, freezing temperatures despite the obvious, causes stress on the body and mind. If that stress is also due to high energy costs, the switch to alternative solar and wind will improve the budgets of New Jerseyites.
IT WORKS IN CALIFORNIA. It will work in New Jersey.
March 3, 2016
By Craig McCarthy
In its annual list (click here) ranking the world's richest people, Forbes has included eight New Jersey residents, all of whom have amassed a personal net worth in the billions.
Most of the people who made the cut in New Jersey, according to Forbes, are self-made men with fortunes in finance and investments.
There are more billionaires in the United States, 540, than any other country in the world, according to Forbes. Trailing the U.S. is China with 320 people who have a 10-figure fortune and Germany with 120....
It is very possible a temporary tax increase would benefit the long term for the state. Where should those taxes be increased first? There are at least eight billionaires in New Jersey who would not feel the tax increase. Promise. Stop to think about the return to the state while their lives go unchanged.
New Jersey needs a change and the person best qualified of ANY of the candidates is Jim Johnson.
He can keep his promises when no one else can because he is prepared to do so.
New Jersey needs a change and the person best qualified of ANY of the candidates is Jim Johnson.
He can keep his promises when no one else can because he is prepared to do so.
