Quote:

There's a joke in there somewhere.....

DeGise to Feds: HUDSON 'SHOVEL READY'

Friday, January 30, 2009
By EARL MORGAN
JOURNAL STAFF WRITER

If the federal government is looking for "shovel ready" programs to invest in, it need look no further than Hudson County.

That's one of the points Hudson County Executive Thomas DeGise stressed yesterday during his State of the County speech.

"We don't build bridges to nowhere," DeGise said to a packed audience inside the freeholders' chambers in the County Administration annex on Pavonia Avenue, clearly counting on some of the $825 billion in federal stimulus money approved by the House on Wednesday flowing Hudson's way.

"Whether it's the parking deck at Harrison PATH station, the North Hudson Campus of the Community College in Union City, repairs to the Pulaski Skyway or extension of the Light Rail, Hudson County has projects that will create jobs in the short run and improve our economic competitiveness in the long run," DeGise said.

Noting that Hudson County will "do its part," DeGise said the state and federal government will have to help Hudson weather the economic downturn that has gripped the nation.

DeGise said he has joined Bergen and Essex county executives to urge the state Legislature to pass Gov. Jon Corzine's pension deferment plan that would allow counties to reduce their 2009 pension obligations by half. The move could save Hudson County nearly $7 million this year, he said.

The county spends $153 million a year on labor costs, DeGise said. More than half of those funds are dedicated to three services: Corrections, the Prosecutor's Office and the Sheriff's Office.

Approximately 95 percent of the rest of the money is spent on three other services: welfare, the psychiatric hospital, and maintenance of parks, roads, bridges and other public property, he said.