A Classical Liberal Blog on Political Science, Economics, Philosophy, Law, and More
After no fewer than six attempts, United States president Grover Cleveland has finally been inducted into the New Jersey Hall of Fame. (Yes, there is such a thing, apparently.) It is a long-overdue honor, but it is well deserved. Of course, President Cleveland has to share the honor with co-inductees like Whitney Houston and Joe … Continue reading Congratulations, Grover!
New Jersey was just denied its bid for some $400 million from the federal government's "Race to the Top" initiative. The reason, apparently, is because of a "clerical error" in one paragraph on one page of the 1,000-page application. (Apparently the state was required to provide budget figures for one set of years, and it … Continue reading Robots, Bureaucrats, and New Jersey’s Race to the Top
Two recent stories in the WSJ dramatically illustrate once again that people respond to incentives. And taxes are incentives. The first story suggests that one reason LeBron James might have chosen to go to Miami is to avoid the punitive taxes in the other places he was considering---especially Ohio and New York. The income tax … Continue reading Taxes and Incentives
New Jersey Governor Chris Christie is proposing a state constitutional amendment that would cap annual property tax increases at 2.5%. In another contender for Today's Dumbest Comment, Barbara Keshishan, the president of the New Jersey Education Association, described this proposal as "an official attack on the very future of public education." Would that it were … Continue reading Let Them Eat Cake, and Pass My Gravy
More from the "You wish he were your governor, don't you?" file: Chris Christie gives a local anti-Christie reporter a taste of his own medicine. Be sure to watch the entertaining video. UPDATE: Here is the response from the reporter in question.
The budgetary “catastrophe” was narrowly avoided for many, though not all, school districts in New Jersey yesterday. If the budgets hadn’t been passed, the consequences would have been, we were warned, “disastrous,” and “the children” would have suffered unspecified but very scary things. After all, what was proposed by Governor Chris Christie, whom New Jersey … Continue reading Teachers and Politics
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