Where's the banner headline?

Image by dougtone via Flickr

Bergen County Executive Kathleen Donovan should stick to her guns.

LOL

Did you read that preposterous statement from Governor Christie about public employee unions "trying to break the middle class"? Who does he think he's kidding -- besides Editor Francis Scandale?

Public employees are the middle class. Why is this nonsense only a brief on Page 1 of The Record of Woodland Park, and not under a banner headline to show what a fool Christie is?

"In New Jersey, we're not trying to break the unions; in New Jersey, the unions are trying to break the middle class," Christie said on a morning television show, where he was promoting his budget proposal to cut public employee benefits in return for higher property tax rebates (A-3).

The governor -- apparently with a straight face and unchallenged by his interviewers -- is trying to pit one segment of the middle class against another, so neither group notices how he kowtows to rich and powerful people like himself.

In another piece of fiction, he claimed "the main driver of property taxes in New Jersey are [public] employee costs," when he and every other public official knows those taxes are high because of the ruinously expensive home-rule system, including $200,000-a-year salaries for police chiefs.

Another ass slapper

Scandale felt a big part of A-1 today should be devoted, not to the governor's ridiculous statements, but to a large photo of an overpaid athlete who plays in New York. 

The editor who loves to put sports stories on the front page apparently is happy paying property taxes of about $18,000 a year on his Glen Rock home.

How else to explain the upbeat story leading A-1, emphasizing Christie's proposal for a tiny 1% increase in education aid? So Hackensack, which lost about $5 million in aid, would be getting chump change in 2012 -- $852,000 more.

Make college accountable

I disagree with the A-12 editorial opposing Bergen County Executive Kathleen Donovan's desire for veto power over decisions at Bergen Community College. 

She can start by getting college officials to come up with a calendar that has the same breaks as public schools. 

This week, public schools are closed for vacation, but the college is oblivious and holding classes, making family activities difficult, if not impossible.