Warning - I'm in a Crap Mood

I'm too damn busy, and I did it to myself. Still, I cannot resist blogging. I'm such a ham it's sad.

So last night, a friend calls me, let's call her "Pfefferneuse". Anyway, she says to me, "So how come YOUR governor is raising taxes?". Like it wasn't going to happen if we had Forrester.

All right, maybe Forrester wouldn't have raised taxes, maybe he would have just driven us further into debt even worse than Corzine's going to. Because New Jersey's going a bit further into debt, believe you me.

Why? Because we have a million programs that make the quality of life better for the average New Jersey resident. Some of them are vital, and some of them are idiotic. None of them ever get cut, because of deals with bosses and contracts with corporations, or just perhaps the sponsorship of someone very powerful.

Throw on top of the HORRENDOUS amount of corruption I've seen happen in certain school districts - like when (this is my favorite example) the woman who was sleeping with the principal got a new mahogany desk while the other teachers were told to bring in their own pencils - and you get a black hole of money.

"Who will stop the corruption?", I wonder. So far, it seems like no one. "Who will cut state's programs, because we just don't have enough budget money to cover them all?". No one has enough power to slice them cruelly enough, not even our governor. Not that I'd want them to, I *like* having after school programs for kids, and meals for seniors and that sort of thing. I give my own money to that stuff on top of the taxes.

So there it is. We're going to spend billions of dollars, and we're not taking enough billions of dollars in. When there's programs, someone has to pay for them.

"Waaah!", people who live in nice houses cry, I'm already spending so much money on my taxes that I can't pay off my SUV early! "Boo-hoo!", sez Libby McFashion plate, "I can't afford all the new shoes I want because of my property taxes!"

I know there are people who can't afford to buy groceries, but they're not the ones on the phone accusing me of causing the higher taxes. It's the people who *can* tighten their belts, but don't want to. You know what? I don't really want to either, now, do I!

Cry me a river, people, at least we're not California.