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| Governor Christie and the Legislature's Democratic majority are preparing to sacrifice middle-class taxpayers on the altar of the General Assembly in Trenton. |
The Record's wealthy publisher, Stephen A. Borg, continues to promote and endorse Governor Christie's war on the middle class, as today's front page clearly demonstrates.
The GOP bully, who has long had Borg and other media owners in his pocket, now adds the Legislature's Democratic majority to his arsenal, Staff Writer Charles Stile reports (A-1).
But even though his Political Stile column leaves a lot more leeway than a news story, Stile can't seem to muster any outrage over the governor's diabolical plan to cut mass-transit and Clean Energy programs to preserve a tax cut that will benefit the rich most of all.
Jersey bull
In writing about Chrisitie's so-called Jersey Comeback income-tax cut in recent months, The Record's editors have been careful to omit how little the middle class would benefit.
If I recall the earliest stories accurately, in the first year of a cut, a typical middle-class family would save $80 -- enough to buy a bag of groceries -- but a millionaire would be handed a cool $10,000 gift from Christie, who has vetoed any attempt to impose a tax surcharge on Borg and other members of the filthy rich class.
The expected huge shortfall in state revenue has Christie jumping through hoops to find ways to reward his wealthy supporters -- quite a feat considering his size.
Zisaville news
But the state budget drama also has pushed back to the Local news section the sky-is-falling-in-Hackensack saga, which has dominated Page 1 since the conviction of suspended Police Chief Ken Zisa eight days ago.
After all the doomsday predictions from head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes and her lazy, incompetent minions, readers now learn the judge who presided at the six-week trial must decide whether Zisa should forfeit his position (L-1).
Why this hasn't been reported before is unclear, though it is typical of how the editors ignore the requirements of the law in pursuit of sensational journalism whose only aim is to sell copies of this once-great daily.
Here comes the judge
This ensured that residents' anger was directed at city officials, not Superior Court Judge Joseph S. Conte, who has moved up the Zisa hearing to next Wednesday from June 14.
The Record has never explained why, on the day the jury announced its guilty verdicts, Conte deflected the prosecutor's request that the court order Zisa to relinquish his hold on the position of police chief.
On Monday night, Hackensack officials named Capt. Tomas Padilla as interim police chief. It's not known whether Padilla, who has run the department in the two years since Zisa's arrest, would be the city's first Hispanic chief.
One man, one vote
Outside of all the Zisa stories, Hackensack residents have seen little reporting about their city's municipal affairs.
And they've simply had to shake their heads over the endless stream of stories about the Rothman-Pascrell battle in the 9th Congressional District's Democratic primary.
Voters in Hackensack, a large part of Teaneck, Fair Lawn and many other towns have no say in the 9th District battle, so they remain in the dark about the contest in their new district, the 5th.
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Re Hackensack Judge Conte did not rule on Zisa's forfeiture of his position and the city "leaders" took no action or position on the matter. It was as reported in the Record. Would really like to know why judge delayed enforcing the law & why city did not ask that it be enforced but stated that they would wait for the judge to decide
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