Possible Government Shut-down may affect your weekend..

Ben Ruset

Administrator
Site Administrator
Oct 12, 2004
7,616
1,863
Monmouth County
www.benruset.com
Ugh. They could have easily passed a bill to temporarily fund the government while negotiations continue. This was just so that people would look bad in the eyes of the voters.

Apparently it has to do with funding addiction treatment by raiding the reserves of Horizon BCBS. I'm all for publicly funded addiction treatment, but can the state stop with the idea of raiding all kinds of funds to pay for things? That's how our pension and transportation funds got ruined. Maybe, I dunno, stop with government people taking helicopter rides? Don't do a full restoration on the capitol building (yet - just stabilize it.)

But no - let's steal money from somewhere else and when people push back just close the government.

I know I'm breaking my own no politics rule, but if you want to talk about our horrible state government in this thread have at it.
 

smoke_jumper

Piney
Mar 5, 2012
1,518
1,046
Atco, NJ
IMG_4953.JPG
 

Dochartaigh

New Member
Sep 4, 2015
14
3
45
Pennington, NJ and Levittown, PA
I was planning on going kayaking on the Wading River today. I'm trying to find out if my car will be towed if I park at Hawkins or Evans. The Atsion ranger station confirmed the roads won't be gated, and Micks/Pine Barrens canoe (which was closed when I called, then while I was on the phone there was some commotion - and then said they're open again???) doesn't know...

What does the community say? I really can't afford a ~$200 car towing fee x 2 cars or whatnot...
 

lj762

Explorer
Feb 18, 2017
358
227
Bass River State Forest
It's unbelievabe. They say they are going to have State Park Police go through the campgrounds this morning and evict everybody. I was at Bass River yesterday afternoon and the campgrounds were filling up fast for the holiday weekend - almost everything was reserved. That's 176 tent/trailer sites, 6 group sites, and 21 structures (cabins, shelters, leantos). And that's just one state campground facility.

I know there are mixed feelings here about the State Park Police, but how would you like that job - telling all those people they have to pack up and leave now? Because of 2 guys in Trenton?
 
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Piney4life

Explorer
Oct 8, 2015
381
128
51
Waterford
I was planning on going kayaking on the Wading River today. I'm trying to find out if my car will be towed if I park at Hawkins or Evans. The Atsion ranger station confirmed the roads won't be gated, and Micks/Pine Barrens canoe (which was closed when I called, then while I was on the phone there was some commotion - and then said they're open again???) doesn't know...

What does the community say? I really can't afford a ~$200 car towing fee x 2 cars or whatnot...
It's a gamble I'm not willing to try
 

Dochartaigh

New Member
Sep 4, 2015
14
3
45
Pennington, NJ and Levittown, PA
It's a gamble I'm not willing to try

Yeah, we decided not to go. Pine Barrens Canoe is running trips (they have permission from the state/park police? or whatever to traverse the roads - hats off to Mike there BTW - awesome guy who gave lots of free advice to a non-customer), but we don't want to risk getting our cars towed.

So messed up. Can you imagine how many families weekends were just ruined in the State of NJ?
 

46er

Piney
Mar 24, 2004
8,837
2,143
Coastal NJ
He is reprehensible.

I assume you refer to our Guv. The Senate and Assembly are the ones to vent at, they failed to produce anything to sign, a good number of them abstained from voting for anything. Put the blame equally on all of them. If he had something to sign then certainly he would be to blame. But that did not happen.
 

smoke_jumper

Piney
Mar 5, 2012
1,518
1,046
Atco, NJ
I assume you refer to our Guv. The Senate and Assembly are the ones to vent at, they failed to produce anything to sign, a good number of them abstained from voting for anything. Put the blame equally on all of them. If he had something to sign then certainly he would be to blame. But that did not happen.
I do. There was nothing to vote on. But ruining thousands of people's holiday plans to prove a point is solely his decision. He could have easily approved a temporary budget for the weekend just like Delaware did.
 
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Ben Ruset

Administrator
Site Administrator
Oct 12, 2004
7,616
1,863
Monmouth County
www.benruset.com
I assume you refer to our Guv. The Senate and Assembly are the ones to vent at, they failed to produce anything to sign, a good number of them abstained from voting for anything. Put the blame equally on all of them. If he had something to sign then certainly he would be to blame. But that did not happen.

He said he would sign a budget that was put in front of him, but that he'd line item veto a bunch of other stuff. But that other stuff would stay if the BCBS authorization was in the budget. So it's not like he felt those things really ought to not be in there, he's just using that as a stick to get his way.

That's negotiation at the end of a gun barrel.
 
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46er

Piney
Mar 24, 2004
8,837
2,143
Coastal NJ
He said he would sign a budget that was put in front of him, but that he'd line item veto a bunch of other stuff. But that other stuff would stay if the BCBS authorization was in the budget. So it's not like he felt those things really ought to not be in there, he's just using that as a stick to get his way.

That's negotiation at the end of a gun barrel.

And his vetoes could be over-ridden, but there aren't the votes for that. I wonder why. So here we are moanin' and groanin' about it all.
 
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