I mean the whole situation here is so bizarre that Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland could be considered non-fiction in New Jersey.
And talk about NOT wanting to talk about the elephant in the room! We have the financial wreckage because of something called the Abbott Decision that skews state budgets into carnival mirror distortions ... and instead of anyone saying, "Wow, don't we look funny!" ... we all nod and wink as if we are the only ones in the know, and by not saying anything, no one will notice the distortion.
As I wrote on April 17th:
I believe it is time to bypass the politicians and start a citizen to citizen discussion about the governance of our great State of New Jersey.Anyhow, I thought I would google the New Jersey Abbott Decision and start putting some of the information here periodically ... at least a couple of times a month ... like on the 2nd and the 17th.
The search string for today was: "new jersey abbott decision" in Google (I'll expand the search both as to the search string and the search "engine" in future posts.)
I found this citation:
Introduction To "Abbott" In New Jersey“Abbott” is the short-hand description of a series of New Jersey Supreme Court decisions growing out of litigation filed in 1981 in behalf of children ...
www.state.nj.us/njded/abbotts/about/ - 19k -
[ More results from www.state.nj.us ]
Every person residing in New Jersey should be familiar with the Abbott Decision because it affects all of us in some manner. We know we are not going to get to that level of familiarity, but we can start the discussion and trust the lattice of citizen connections to spread the information.
Please keep in mind Paul Mulshine's column as you become more familiar with the issue:
" 'There are all kinds of ways that elected officials use the courts to evade responsibility,' said Schoen brod when I called him yesterday. He is the co-author of a book, 'Democracy by Decree,' that focuses on the many ways in which judges and politicians team up to win policies that neither could enact on their own.
"The story of how New Jersey first got its income tax in 1976 is a classic in this genre, said Schoen brod. The chief justice, Richard Hughes, had failed to get an in come tax passed back when he was governor in the 1960s. Once on the court, however, Hughes ordered the schools closed so that Gov. Brendan Byrne could go to the Legislature and win passage of an income tax to solve the 'crisis' his fellow Democrat had created.
" 'I'm convinced the school closing order was put there only because as a politically connected person the judge knew it would be sufficient to change enough votes,' said Scheinbrod."
By the way, after today you will also find me over in the Star-Ledger's online forum chat room, Just Jersey ... my moniker is ncswede.
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