Hear Holly Schepisi discuss NJ's affordable housing crisis

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At 7pm on Tuesday, April 24th, Assemblywoman Holly Schepisi will speak at a town hall meeting to discuss New Jersey's affordable housing crisis.  The event is being held at the West Windsor Municipal Building (Room A), 271 Clarksville Road, West Windsor, NJ 08550.

The meeting is being sponsored by the West Windsor Republicans, the Princeton Republican Committee, the Hopewell Valley Republican Association, and the republican Women of Mercer County.  The event is free and open to the public.  Light refreshments will be available.

Click Here to Register

New Jersey's lack of affordable rentals and housing is not due to a lack of housing stock.  Rather, it stems from residents paying property taxes that are often as much as their mortgage payments.  The latest onerous court mandates are not the right solution.  They will only drive our property taxes higher.

Since the 1970's, state courts have mandated that municipalities build low-income housing in New Jersey.  Despite constructing 92,000 units over the last three decades, a recent decision by the New Jersey Supreme Court is mandating more than 201,000 additional units.  This far-reaching decision could increase required COAH units by up to 142 percent.

What is worse is that under the builders' remedy, more than a million new dwelling units could be built, making way for a 30 percent population increase. Even while our State has experienced significant out-migration, our communities are being forced to approve new units rather than remediating existing housing stock where it is needed most to help restore those communities.

If population booms at the rate contemplated by the courts, education costs would increase by over $11.75 billion alone.  The communities that are targeted for these massive population increases receive very little funding from the State for educational purposes.

Who is to PAY for the $11.75 billion in increased educational costs?  YOU, the New Jersey taxpayer, will foot the bill.

Where was Nia Gill's outrage on Neil Cohen?

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Some people -- like Democrat  Senator Nia Gill -- think that slavery is something that happened long, long ago.  In fact, slavery is with us today... and it's bigger than ever.  According to world agencies, 45.8 million people are enslaved and a big part of that enslavement is through the exploitation of children in the child sex trade.

Which brings us to former Democrat Assemblyman Neil Cohen, Senator Nia Gill's onetime "BFF".  Democrat Cohen got caught using State computers to access child porn, an aspect of modern slavery.  As Wikipedia notes:

Cohen was indicted for official misconduct (2nd degree), reproduction of child pornography (2nd degree), distribution of child pornography (2nd degree), and possession of child pornography (4th degree).  In a plea agreement, the state dropped the official misconduct charge and three of four child pornography counts, and on April 12, 2010, Cohen pleaded guilty to the charge of endangering the welfare of a child by distributing child pornography. Initially facing up to 30 years imprisonment, State Attorney General Paula Dow sought a five-year prison term for Cohen, as well his disbarment.   He was incarcerated from November 4, 2010 until January 4, 2012, when he was released on parole.

But guess what, Democrat Cohen wasn't disbarred.

No, the New Jersey Supreme Court failed to do that.  Instead they just suspended his privilege to practice law in New Jersey.  They did say, that attorneys convicted in future child porn cases may be disbarred "in light of society's increasing recognition of the harm done to the victims of those offenses."  Increasing recognition?  WTF!

So where was the outrage from Nia Gill?  Where were those eloquent words... "The Party of Jefferson and Jackson and Wilson has fallen into the hands of human traffickers and child pornographers!"

No outrage. 

In Nia Gill's world there is nothing worse than attending a Hank Williams Jr. concert and having your photo taken in front of the band's flag.  In Nia Gill's world, that is far, far worse than the slavery that goes on today, all around us.

Symbols are what matters.  People don't.

APP exposes corruption at NJ municipal courts

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The Gannett publishing company is the largest in America by circulation -- reaching over 21 million people every day.  Its flagship in New Jersey is the Asbury Park Press (APP) -- the second most read newspaper in the state.

This week the Asbury Park Press has continued its watchdog investigations, this time focusing on the corruption in local municipal courts in New Jersey and the too cozy relationship between court employees and the local governments who pay their salaries.  Reporter Kala Kachmar is heading the APP's watchdog investigation.  She began her series...

"Somewhere in between burying her mother and taking care of her sick father in Maryland, Neptune resident Karen Marsh forgot to renew the licenses for her two rescue poodles.

Instead of paying the $17-per-dog renewal fee, she was compelled to spend a March day in municipal court and then pay $122 in fines and fees. The total would have been $178, but the judge suspended one of the fines in exchange for a guilty plea.

Marsh became prey to a system that increasingly treats hundreds of thousands of residents each year as human ATMs.

Many cash-strapped municipalities have turned to the law for new revenue...

Towns have the power to pass new rules or increase fines on old ones. And just like the singular judge-jury-and-jailer of the old Western days, a town first enforces the higher fines through its police force, then sends the defendant to its local court — which is headed by a judge appointed by the town leaders who started the revenue quest in the first place.

While municipal judges are sworn to follow the rule of law and judicial ethics, the pressure to bring in the money is potent in New Jersey, lawyers and former judges told the Press. In Eatontown, email records between town officials showed that increasing revenue generation by the local court was the main reason the council replaced the municipal judge in 2013..."

You can read the full report here:

http://www.app.com/story/news/investigations/watchdog/investigations/2016/11/27/exclusive-inside-municipal-court-cash-machine/91233216/

A follow-up report explains that the New Jersey Legislature is planning to address the corruption at municipal courts, with the Chairman of the Assembly Judiciary Committee  calling the "fairness of the system into question" and for the Legislature to "study municipal court reform."  Assemblyman Declan O'Scanlon (Republican Budget Officer) is promising to make it happen this year and plans on holding hearings across the state to understand the full extent of this local corruption -- case by case.  He calls the current system a "municipal money grab" and promises to explore "legal remedies."

According to the state Administrative Office of Courts, over 75 percent of the more than 4.5 million cases handled by municipal courts statewide are adjudicated with a guilty plea or a plea deal and some kind of payment to the court.  The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is currently studying how municipal court corruption impacts the state's residents, especially the poor.

The APP report notes that the New Jersey State Bar Association earlier this year assembled a panel to study the independence of municipal judges and whether the political pressure they face through their appointment impacts decision-making. The panel is still receiving testimony and hasn't yet disclosed its findings.

The APP report also notes that "the municipal court system can be altered or abolished by an act of the Legislature at any time."

It cites a former member of the New Jersey Supreme Court Committee on Municipal Courts, who said that "the first step in fixing the broken municipal court system is to professionalize staff."  Most prosecutors and judges are part-time employees who work in multiple towns. 

Blogs like More Monmouth Musings and Sussex County Watchdog have received tip-offs about local municipal corruption in the past.  If you have anything to pass along confidentially, please contact More Monmouth Musings at artvg@aol.com or Sussex County Watchdog at info@sussexcountywatchdog.com.