Watch our latest Talking Politics TV show which broadcasts through June 9th.... Conversations with Tony Cucci & Bill DeRosa. Ed Cheatam was a no show.... winners of the 4/18th election.....

The show is streaming off our website:
www.TalkingPolitics.Net
JC--- Channel 51
Mondays at 9:30pm / Wednesdays at 8:30pm
Thursdays at 7:30pm

I pay my taxes via personal check but I just signed up for electronic withdrawl from my checking account. That'll go into effect with the next quarter. Call Maureen at 201--547-5120 / 5526 and they'll fax you a form. It's a simple ACH form. You can also stop by & fill one out at the counter.
The form may also be on the city's mediocre website....

As for the personal check, I think there's some confusion. If you were late for the May taxes due by the 10th, then they won't accept personal checks.... The city will have a lien sale by mid-June. The city's year-end is 6/30th so the lien sale is to clean up the Balance Sheet & the Allowance of Uncollected Taxes.... an accounting issue... Because of this sale no personal checks are accepted after the 10th. It's an annual event....

Sounds like you were late ... I suggest you sign up for the electronic withdrawl. I've been told checking accounts will be charged (debited) the 9th or so....

Our current show broadcasting thru June 8th....

Conversations with Bill DeRosa and Tony Cucci, reelected commissioners of the JC Board of Ed.... We discuss lots of issues: the cut in state aid and the resulting increase in our property taxes to come, the Stop & Shop vs school controversy in the Heights, the Early Childhood Development Centers for the 3 & 4 year olds and the Supv of Schools Charlie Epps "Londongate" controversy......

This show is streaming off our website......

Show Schedules:
Jersey City - Comcast's public access Channel 51 -
Mondays at 9:30pm
Wednesdays at 8:30pm
Thursdays at 7:30pm

Hoboken, North Bergen, Weehawken and Union City - Cablevision's public access Channel 19-
Thursdays at 9:30pm
Saturdays at 8pm

35of our shows stream off our Talking Politics website.
High speed internet access required to view.

Check out some of our recently broadcasted shows....

Mia Scanga
Exec Producer
TalkingPolitics@comcast.net

Controversy over the closing of St Mary's Hospital in Hoboken

Interview with Abbie Jacobs, M.D., Director of Family Medicine. Dr. Jacobs says that Bon Secours is willing to give the hospital to UMDNJ at no cost. In addition, there're interviews with politicians and locals at the rally to save St. Mary's Hospital.

This show started Wednesday, April 19th in Jersey City and broadcasts through May 8th...

Show Schedules:
Jersey City - Comcast's public access Channel 51 -
Mondays at 9:30pm
Wednesdays at 8:30pm
Thursdays at 7:30pm

Hoboken, North Bergen, Weehawken and Union City - Cablevision's public access Channel 19-
Thursdays at 9:30pm
Saturdays at 8pm

It'll stream off the web soon.
33 of our shows stream off our Talking Politics website. High speed internet access required to view.

Check out some of our recently broadcasted shows....

Mia Scanga
Exec Producer
TalkingPolitics@comcast.net

Latest show which will air thru 4/19th:

Appellate court's decision reversing the lower court's decision favoring the Lefrak Organization's defamation lawsuit against a Newport tenant, Eleanor Capogrosso. This is followed by a discussion of NJ legislation needed against SLAPP (defamation) lawsuits. Guests: Eleanor Capogrosso & Assemblyman Lou Manzo.

Eleanor discusses her battle for heat in her apt at the Easthampton and the denial of due process by the Hudson County courts..... She represented herself, pro se, in the Appellate decision & they ruled in her favor & wrote a 20 page opinion which is published! Major win for her and all tenants in NJ.

JC inclu Newport - Channel 51 - Mondays at 9:30pm, Wednesdays at 8:30pm and Thursdays at 7:30pm

33 of our shows stream off our website.....Talking Politics


Hoboken, Union City, North Bergen & Weehawkin - Thursdays at 9:30PM and Saturdays at 8PM - Channel 19

Mia Scanga
Producer
TalkingPolitics@comcast.net

Latest Talking Politics TV show
The current Talking Politics TV show is the ?January 18th public hearing on Jersey City FYE 2006 budget.? The fiscal year ends June 30th so we?re over half way thru the year and $$$. It's interesting to listen to the "lame" explanations for 20-65% increases in departmental salary budgets for this year. More people?.. more patronage? your taxes wasted... The result so far has been a 14% tax increase, JCMUA water & sewer increases and the proposed bond refinancing that would have cost the taxpayers $139 MILLION in additional interest costs. The state's Division of Local Govt Services rejected that refinancing proposal but on Wed. approved a new refinancing that?ll cost the taxpayers $90 million in additional interest costs. It's absurd.... many of the bonds have been refinanced so many times; they've lost their tax-exempt status. This show runs thru March 13th and airs on Channel 51, Mondays at 9:30pm, Wednesdays at 8:30pm and Thursdays at 7:30pm or watch it on thw web any time, any place.

Unfortunately the audio wasn?t great at City Hall. Pasted below is my recently published letter to the editor on the city?s budget.?

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Once again the public turn-out at the city?s budget meeting was disappointing but then again in the 15+ or so years I?ve attended it?s never been scheduled for 5pm. Even the City Council President Mariano Vega didn?t make it. Wasn?t he quoted in the JJ as looking for suggestions from the public? Is the Healy administration sending a message? Too many public meetings now begin at 5pm while people are still at work!

You?ve got to have a job to pay the 14% tax increase in the February 2006 quarterly bill. At the public meeting I didn?t get the impression that the Council really scrutinized the budget. How can they raise taxes and allow salary expense increases of this magnitude. Examples of departmental salary increases include ?Mayors Action Bureau? 35%; Mayor?s Office 32%, Office of the City Clerk 16%, Dept of Recreation-Director?s office 10%, Health & Human Services 13%, Architecture 17%, Cultural Affairs 35%, Fire 9%, NIDs? 59%, Traffic & Transportation 48% etc. The response I got on the 73% increase in the Administrator?s office salaries was the addition of messengers & security guards to that budget but to the tune of almost $800,000? Distressed companies cut salaries not go hog wild like the Healy administration.

As for the revenue side, I see buildings with people living in them like 140 Bay Street, which got a tax abatement in Feb 2003 has ZERO taxes budgeted for 2006 and ZERO dollars received in 2005. They?re condos. I never got a straight answer on that. As for the parking lot tax revenue it?s going down in 2006. It?s a $5.2 million line item and the city hasn?t audited them in the last 10-15 years. The reasoning given is most are computerized and they fill out the forms! Hello it?s a cash business. Most companies are computerized but also get audited. As for tax abatements, again the city never audits them but the salary budget for ?Abatement Management? is up 10%. My years of experience with that manager are he should be replaced not get a raise. It?s scary?

Then there?s the $6 million reduction in 2006 revenue from the JC MUA that the City Council accepted while the JC MUA raises our rates annually and the city adds hundreds of new housing and commercial units but the taxpayers don?t see a dime?.

As for the bond refinancing, it appears the additional cost to the taxpayers will be about $139 MILLION! It?s the same old gimmick, push off the principle bond payments to the next administration. Many of the bonds have been refinanced so many times they?ve lost their tax exempt status.

What about that early retirement the Healy administration had? Many of the same people have been rehired on an hourly basis. Now the same people collect 2 checks! What was the savings for the taxpayers?

Gov Corzine comes into office and starts cutting positions as he faces a state budget crisis. Mayor Healy comes in and adds his patronage on top of all the prior administrations. There is no shame anymore!


Mia Scanga
www.TalkingPolitics.net

Channel 51 - Mondays at 9:30pm, Wednesdays at 8:30pm and Thursdays at 7:30pm
31 of our shows stream off our website.....

I won't go into all the detail on the extension of Jersey Avenue which spans over 10 years. Check out my old website on the history of this battle & yes I'm very happy we stopped the roadway which would have been disastrous. http://stopbretschundler.com/JA.htm and Steve Lanset?s site http://www.hartwheels.org/JerseyAveFile.html

When the battle first started in the late 1980s?, NJ DOT wanted to take out all the sidewalks on Jersey Avenue & turn it into a 4 lane freeway to connect Audrey Zapp Drive to Jersey Avenue so commuters could take a short cut to the Holland Tunnel. Everyone here fought that. We refused to live by the BQE and see our neighborhood destroyed. Instead the $800,000, which NJDOT allocated for the widening of Jersey Avenue was used for sidewalks.. That?s another story but it finally got done and yes due to my involvement.

Then in 1996 Schundler comes along & wants to connect the roadway again irrespective of the plans for a new medical center, School 3 which would house almost 1500 elementary & middle school students AND HBLRT?s plans to have their trains cross Jersey Avenue at Aetna Street... Yes, my group dug up the truth about all this planned construction and pieced it all together and got the dialogue started. I dealt with NJDEP, the Corp of Engineers, and the SVP at the medical center & contacted Dames & Moore, the project manager/engineering firm who Schundler paid $279,000 of JC taxpayer?s monies to get the permits for this roadway. Sorry I wouldn't sit by & see people using Liberty State Park and our local streets as a thruway to cut their commute to Manhattan and kill people in the process. You guys need to get out from behind your computers & walk the area. It?s sad you can?t see it now when most of the construction is done.

HBLRT spent $1.4 BILLION of our tax dollars to build the lite rail system to transport commuters. If you haven?t noticed it travels in that area. They added the Marin Blvd stop for the Liberty Harbor North development. .A train crosses Jersey Avenue at Aetna Street every 2 minutes or so. It was a disaster in the making to have 2-4 lanes of traffic on Jersey Avenue plowing into train cars. Then you have visitors to the new 360 bed medical center, who use the lite rail crossing at Jersey Avenue to get to the hospital. They have to cross Jersey Avenue. Then a mere block away is the new School 3 with all the buses & school children. The old school 3 on Bright Street near Jersey Avenue is not being retired since much of the planned new construction for schools is on the back burner. many of the kids get bused in from Greenville & Bergen Lafayette. No parent wants to see their kids mowed down by commuters. Even the Dames & Moore project manager was floored when I told him about all the PLANNED construction. I gave him names & numbers of the execs to call & confirm my facts, which he did. Everyone had been lied to by Schundler & his sidekick Kevin Sluka.

As for Liberty State Park and that bridge, the city gave FREE land/ easement to 55LotDev LLC to build a roadway on the park side to connect to a landlocked, polluted piece of land, which the developers paid $1 million in 1998. As expected, they built the road on our land then flipped the lot for big bucks. The consideration/payment for that easement was for them to renovate the walkway with new lighting, planking, railing, landscaping, bike path etc.... They never finished the bridge as specified. The project is now to be "the View". I worked with the City Council to have the ordinance passed. Well the developer did a poor job & the city, Bob Cotter's planning department, even after dozens of calls from myself, Sam Pesin etc, let it go.... If you want to do something worthwhile, I encourage you to pressure the mayor & Bob Cotter to have the new developers live up to the agreement to rehab that bridge or take back the land due to breach of contract?

Last fall, I walked the are with Stve Fulop, DT Councilman, to find out it's part of Viola Richardson's ward, Bergen Lafayette. Pressure her.... Good luck... I have all the details & copies of the ordinance which was extended for another year but still the developers didn't finish the project.

I?ve only skimmed some of the postings. I don?t have the time to follow these posts. I suggest you read my section of my website and get the facts. As for Liberty Harbor North, Peter Mocco bought that land for $800,000, a sweet heart deal from the McCann administration. At that time it was quoted that it was sold for less than the price of linoleum?. It was all city owned land?

Sam Pesin, Friends of Liberty State Park, can fill you in on the latest transportation study for that entire area.... He could also use some volunteers...

Mia Scanga