Belated second thoughts on Christie plan

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The biggest winners in Governor Christie's plan are residents with $1 million in taxable income.

Why did it take The Record's staff the better part of two days to give prominence to Democratic criticism of Governor Christie's latest proposal as a "B.S. tax cut" that's "not real" and "for the wealthy"?


All of the quoted words came from state Senate President Stephen Sweeney on Tuesday, but they're just appearing on Page 1 today, along  with an "ANALYSIS" that found a lot of holes in the governor's proposal.


And the State of the State address may have been released under an embargo the night before Christie was to deliver it on Jan. 10. The delay was prompted by the unexpected death on Jan. 9 of Republican Minority Leader Alex DeCroce.
  
Interim Editor Douglas Clancy again shows readers he isn't a serious journalist, devoting only a third of the front page to state government and burying other important stories inside.


A Christie veto of a bill on taxpayer-funded pensions is on A-3, and a $325 million shortfall in state revenue is reported on A-4. Both of those stories are worthy of being packaged with the two on the tax-cut plan.


Two more embarrassing corrections appear on A-2 today.


Column has holes


On the front of head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes' Local section, an unflattering photo makes Columnist Mike Kelly look like the newsroom idiot (L-1).


Kelly finally has taken note of the five-week-long "silence" from law enforcement officials on the many questions surrounding the shooting of Malik Williams, 19, of Garfield.


But Kelly doesn't do any original reporting here. He doesn't even bother interviewing the owner of the garage where Williams hid before he was shot dead by two police officers.


All he does is regurgitate all the unanswered questions, which have appeared in at least a half-dozen news stories since the Dec. 10 shooting.


In fact, Kelly's style is to ask a lot of rhetorical questions. He rarely expresses the strong opinions that readers are looking for in a columnist.


Nor does Kelly inform readers he wrote a book defending a white Teaneck police officer who shot and killed a fleeing black teenager, Phillip C. Pannell, in April 1990.