The Most Important State Expenditures

In your opinion what is the most important expenditure for your state government?  Education?  Welfare?  Crime Prevention? Health care / Medicaid?  Environment?  Infrastructure like roads and bridges?  Whatever your answer is, I bet it is not what the New Jersey State Assembly thinks.  Their answer? Guaranteeing pension payments for government workers!  Yes, you read that correctly, they have begun the pursuit of a constitutional amendment that guarantee pension payments for government workers over all other types of state spending. Of course this generous guarantee to state employees would naturally include all politicians. which is why they are introducing it. Is there anything else guaranteed in the state constitution to be paid? All your answers and my answers are certainly not and are thus subject to elimination.  To make sure the pensions of 800,000 current and former public employees, politicians want to amend the Constitution and that means property taxes in New Jersey will SOAR. I guess the people of New Jersey have a choice – stop this insanity now or once it is a constitutional amendment, that is it. They will rob everything you have as a constitutional requirement.

Without much attempt to explain the seriousness of the issue, the New Jersey Legislature will put a proposed constitutional amendment on the ballot this November that would provide consistent state payments each year to the $79 billion New Jersey Pension Fund.

Here is a bit of advice to my friend in New Jersey, sell your home and get out now. If this goes through, property taxes will explode as they did in Illinois and the value of your home value will drop. But don’t feel too bad, there are seven other states (Alaska, Arizona, Hawaii, Illinois, Louisiana, Michigan, and New York) which have specific clauses in their constitutions that protect public employee pensions.

We have already seen Illinois on the brink of bankruptcy. Illinois will be completely devastated. What about just changing the Constitution back in those states? Changing the Constitution at this point in the game would only apply prospectively.  Is the damage already done? I am not certain, but watch and mark my words these states will see an explosion in taxes over the next four years and they may simply be forced into bankruptcy if they are unable to meet bond payments BECAUSE pensions (i.e. politicians and other state workers) come first.