Instead of raising taxes a little, Christie just giving money away - to institutional investors, that is

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-04 ... owngrade-larkin-says.html

N.J. Tobacco Move May Prompt More Downgrades, Larkin Says
By Elise Young

New Jersey’s move to raise $96 million by pledging tobacco-settlement revenue to investors may lead to additional downgrades after Standard & Poor’s cut the state’s rating this week, according to Herbert J. Sims & Co.

Governor Chris Christie’s administration has sacrificed $385 million over 10 years in a tobacco-bond refinancing for a one-time infusion to cover current expenses, according to an analysis by Richard Larkin, director of credit analysis at the Fairfield, Connecticut-based company.

i like the #62 bus but sometimes it can get very crowded. it's a shame there is no bus from hobken or jsq

i am saying that if williamsburg doesn't/can't support a big screen theater, then i definitely do not see how mcginley square can support one especially since it is not hear a transporation hub and it is not a major destination. let's be realistic, hoboken only has 1 big theater, jersey city already has 2 and there are jsut several megaplex theaters in brooklyn which is far bigger than jersey city

i worry about mcginley square reaching critical mass, as opposed to jsq. and does mcginley square really need a 13-screen cinema. they don't even have that in williamsburg.

sounds good to me except i wonder if mcginley sqaure needs a 13-screen cinema when i thought efforts were being made to turn journal square into a culture/entertainmet hub

with the pulaski skyway closing, even more reason to create the pedestrian plaza to try to keep as much additional traffic out of JC.

The Port Authority should really be trying to encourage car pooling by having dedicated lanes, discounts such as in california

is whitlock cordage open yet?

muy fantastico idea

someone should set up a camera to record

what about JC Heights around Ogden, Congress

Joshua, chapter 7, verse 23: and another tower shall rise in Jersey City.

I'm surprised at how tall this is.

http://newyorkyimby.com/neighborhoods/jersey-city

serious;y, if i'm paying $10 for a baguette, there'd better not be a tip jar at the register!

I agree that dan is needed to prevent people from doing silly stuff, especially developers.
everytime I walk by that new apartment building on wayne and barrow, I shudder at the
terrible parapet - it has no detail and is so out of character with the rest of nab. new is fine
imo, but not trashy. btw, has anyone seen the new house at
93 bright street which is awesome - too bad its so far away.

Iink Brooklyn and Hoboken have far more pragmatic historic preservation policies, from what I have heard. maybe something for someone to bring to Fulop's attention and maybe the City can make the process better for all.

It's a shame because this was a wonderful idea. Instead of people yelling " NO Attica University", people should be begging for it.

Cuomo Drops Plan to Use State Money to Pay for College Classes for Inmates
In an important speech at a gathering of black and Latino lawmakers in February, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo unveiled what he billed as a bold plan to attack the problem of high rates of recidivism: The state would pay for college classes for prison inmates.

But six weeks later, after lawmakers approved the state budget this week, the governor acknowledged that his highly promoted proposal, which his advisers talked up as a major advancement in criminal justice policy, was so politically controversial that he would no longer pursue using public money to finance it.

The abrupt decision was a rare political retreat by Mr. Cuomo, a careful student of public opinion polls and legislative sentiment who has generally avoided the kinds of miscalculations about hot-button issues that can easily trip up a chief executive.

At a news conference on Tuesday to celebrate passage of the budget, Mr. Cuomo said he had decided against seeking public money for the prison classes because of opposition from lawmakers, particularly in the State Senate, who pointed out that many law-abiding families are struggling to pay for college.

“I understand the sentiment,” the governor said. “I don’t agree with it, but I understand it, and I understand the appearance of it.”

Mr. Cuomo, a Democrat, had proposed creating publicly-funded college programs at 10 state prisons. His office estimated the program would cost $1 million in the first year, a minuscule sum in a state whose corrections agency has an operating budget of $2.8 billion.

College programs in prisons dwindled two decades ago after President Bill Clinton signed legislation denying Pell grants for inmates. Gov. George E. Pataki, a Republican, later made prisoners ineligible for New York’s Tuition Assistance Program, cutting off another source of public funding.

New York currently offers college programs in more than a dozen state prisons, funded mostly with private money, though a small amount of public money has been used. Mr. Cuomo wants to create a state program to build upon those offerings so more inmates can participate and earn degrees. A study by the RAND Corporation last year found that inmates who participated in education programs while incarcerated had much lower odds of returning to prison.

“Let’s stop this cycle of a society that incarcerates more people than any industrialized nation on the globe,” Mr. Cuomo said when he unveiled his proposal.

Mr. Cuomo takes care to choreograph announcements to maximize media coverage and to amass public support, but in this case, the rollout was atypically rocky — Republican lawmakers immediately began ridiculing the idea, and the opposition continued to mount even after the governor’s office lined up supporters to endorse it publicly.

At one point, during a stop near Buffalo, Mr. Cuomo was even asked by a reporter what he would say to Yoko Ono if Mark David Chapman, who murdered John Lennon and is imprisoned Western New York, sought a college education. (He did not directly respond.)

In Albany, lawmakers started petitions to collect signatures from constituents who oppose the idea, including one with the title “Hell No to Attica University.” The State Senate, which is controlled by Republicans and a group of independent Democrats, included in its draft of the budget a provision that forbade the use of state money to pay for college degree programs in prisons unless inmates pay the full tuition.

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The idea provoked outrage in Washington: Three Republican congressmen from upstate New York introduced what they called the Kids Before Cons Act, which would prevent federal money from being used to pay for college classes for federal or state prison inmates.

The proposal also gave fodder to Rob Astorino, the Westchester County executive, who is campaigning to unseat Mr. Cuomo in November. During a recent visit to Buffalo, Mr. Astorino, a Republican, spoke about how he and his wife were saving to pay for their children to go to college. “Maybe our 10-year-old son, we should sit him down and explain how to rob a bank,” Mr. Astorino said.

A Siena College poll conducted last month found that 53 percent of voters supported the governor’s proposal, compared with 43 percent who opposed it. But the poll found strong opposition among some groups: 68 percent of Republicans, and 66 percent of upstate voters.

A spokesman for Mr. Cuomo, Matt Wing, said on Wednesday that several private donors had expressed interest in providing financial backing for the program the governor had proposed. He said administration officials were considering a plan in which the state corrections department would accept the grants and donations for the program.

Supporters of the program said they found the backlash to be dispiriting.

“For a lot of politicians, it’s just like rolling off a log to demagogue on this issue,” said Robert Gangi, a former executive director of the Correctional Association of New York. “To make claims that we’re soft on crime or coddling prisoners, it’s really a kind of know-nothing politics.”

Assemblyman Daniel J. O’Donnell, a Manhattan Democrat and the chairman of the Correction Committee, said prison superintendents had repeatedly asked him to push to expand the college offerings in their facilities.

“The people who run the prisons want it,” he said. “The prisoners’ lives are improved. The prisons are made safer. So who exactly is opposed to this?”

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/03/nyr ... l?hpw&rref=education&_r=0

great ideas about the fines. people should turn the phones off while driving

what's funny is that there used to be decent public clinics in the us in the 60's or 70's.....i don't think they exist any more

guess what, joe billionaire made $1 billion in 2009 but on;y paid $100,000 in taxes! Yet he had the nerve to apply for unemployment after being laid off

These people are as bad as me in waiting to the last minute to file my taxes.




http://www.washingtonpost.com/nationa ... 2b1245_story.html?hpid=z4

in another sign of obamacare's failings, the federal system stopped working today and it is doubtful that the plan will reach its goals. so sad!

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/01/us/ ... -last-enrollment-day.html

as jc's reputation and ammenities improve, i'd venture to guess that many will decide to take the very LOOOONG leap across the Hudson to the New Territories.

this was probably grandfathered

you can put makeup on a pig, but it's still a pig

i'd be happy with trader joe's or fairway or wegman's

I guess developers are going to add the second tower afterall

http://newyorkyimby.com/2014/03/revealed-65-bay-street.html

i heard....life imitates reality

i'm watching scandal and it seems to have clinton/christie written all over it

dude/gal, they are gonna pack us in like Sardines! now if christie had the foresight, they would have extended lightrail to seacaucus junction and had more convenient access to manhattan as well as the new tunnel

...in the south, i think the saying is something like show a pig....

anyway, a new york developer is planning to buy a large parking lot in the journal square area...I

Property Deal in Jersey City to Get Tax Aid
Firm Agrees to Pay $28 million for Property in Journal Square

By KEIKO MORRIS CONNECT
March 25, 2014 10:38 p.m. ET
A New York developer is in contract to buy a site in the heart of Jersey City's Journal Square, an area the city has been targeting for development with a revamped program of tax incentives.

HAP Investments LLC was in contract to pay $28 million for 80,000 square feet at 500 Summit Ave., said Eran Polack, chief executive of HAP.

The firm has yet to work out the exact plans for the site—now partly covered by a parking lot—but Mr. Polack said it could accommodate a 42-story, 1-million-square-foot tower for rental housing.

A project that size could cost $400 million to develop. It could incorporate either a hotel or offices, with a park and about 35,000 square feet of retail space as likely elements. He declined to name the seller.

This will be the first New Jersey project for the firm, which has focused on Manhattan, Mr. Polack said. High land prices spurred HAP to look for development opportunities 35 to 40 minutes outside of Manhattan, he said. And Jersey City has been aggressive about attracting developers to Journal Square, situated close to a PATH station and bus terminal.

"Journal Square is very close to Manhattan," Mr. Polack said. With the PATH train service, "in 15 minutes you are on 34th Street." And, he said, "the city is very pro-development."

HAP Investments is the sort of developer Jersey City has been hoping to bring to Journal Square for decades, said Mayor Steven Fulop. His administration made an overhaul of the city's tax-abatement program one of its priorities, shifting focus from the waterfront to Journal Square and other inland areas with better transit options. In the past, the system didn't clearly distinguish incentives to build in the city's inland sections, he said.

The incentives provide four tiers of tax abatements for developers lasting between five and 30 years, offering the longest terms to those building in targeted areas.

About 10 projects in the Journal Square area are in the planning or development stages, including a 53-story tower the Kushner Real Estate Group is building, Mr. Fulop said. That tower is one of three planned residential buildings in Kushner's Journal Square development project, which received tax abatements devised under the new system.

"We have created an incentive program that has changed the dynamic," he said. "Seeing an acquisition like this is consistent with the types of investments we are seeing there.....

I've gotten one of those tickets before...If i broke the law, the why shouldn't I be fined. I think red light cameras a re a great way of raising revenue...if you don't want to pay this "tax" then obey the traffic laws.