Christie vetoes raises for Pinelands staff
- Thread starter Teegate
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Not many details of what is really happening here so I will wait before forming an opinion. But I'm curious.... how many of you have received a 5% raise this year?
I don't believe the Commission has the authority to grant across the board raises. Would like to read the minutes, but they have yet to be posted. Would also like to see what the total monetary amount of those raises would be. Can't find any info on staff salaries, but there is a large staff, about 50 individuals. Not clear if the Commission is included in the raise. If so, the veto was the right thing to do.
My wife and I have both got very minimal raises in the last 5 years and had a complete freeze for 1 year, however, with our growing cost of health care, we both make considerably less than we did 4 or 5 years ago. Good times.
If I understand correctly, the money was not specifically for a 5% raise, but it was put into a budget that could be used for raises. I believe the employees in question are represented by collective bargaining and currently negotiating a new contract with management. So whatever raises they actually get would be determined by the new contract.
I wonder... is this a way to get those employed by the commission anxious enough to leave the post? Developers are ever encroaching on the borders, not to mention the gas line that was proposed but thankfully shot down. Weakening the structure of the commission will make it easier to get projects like that to become more commonplace. People working for the commission might be less likely to put up a greater resistance if they are frustrated with their worth within the system. These are the kind of tactics republican slime balls like Christie use, they care very little for environmental issues, but sometimes pretend as though they do. Research into the budgets of republican administrations show exactly how much they do value such issues.
Folks, please don't start with the name calling. There can be intelligent discourse over this without having to go there.
This isn't the NJ.com comments section.
This isn't the NJ.com comments section.
Well, I didn't call anyone on the site any names so I didn't think that would be an issue. This is an all pine barrens forum, my intent is to put the place and it's culture at foremost of concern. I apologize for any infractions of someone's character that I may have assualted. My passion for the forests and people of the pinelands may have betrayed me here.
I will say this: we might expect many more of these types of occurances under this political regime.
FWIW, Jason, you and I have similar opinions on our current leadership. Nevertheless we can discuss our feelings without taking cheap shots.
I totally understand what you are laying down. You see, I am an artist, a watercolor painter to be specific google my name if you wish to see or read about my work. But back to the subject, being an artist might make me predisposed to heated emotion, it has been said it is the nature of the artist to feel, and not necessarily to think. Passion is very strong in me, I fell in love with the pinelands forests the very first day and evening I camped there, enough to the point that I have spent many months living within the forests away from established campsites even as how illegal the authorities of the area might deem that to be. I find it rather silly that it is illegal to do so, and also have to pay for a permit to camp within these forests. The tracts of Wharton, Bass River, and Brendan Byrne are public lands. This of course means that we citizens of New Jersey are the owners of these places, having to pay to camp on my own property along with only doing so in a few designated sites in such a vast beautiful place that is the back yard of all NJ citizens seems nuts to me. Despite breaking these mandates (nobody tell on me please! ), I am very much lower and impact camper on this environment that comes from my reverence for the place as well as my mostly self taught mastery of woodland survival skills. My passion can betray my poise if I am not careful and despite what my logical judgement tells me not to do, my emotion wins on its sheer power.
OK, keep in mind this: by saying you doubt it, you are instigating a response from me. Also, you are not the admin, it is not your duty to speak for the administration. I'm pretty sure Ben can handle the situation, as it is his jurisdiction and frankly not yours. I would ask respectfully for you to not take on the role of disciplining me. Let's not create the error of thinking we can control each others opinions to become more palatable to our own beliefs and political leanings and instead recognize that our different opinions are ends in themselves rather than means to our ends.
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