Letters
Privatization wreck must be stopped before it happens

I guess it’s true that if you live long enough, everything comes around again. We now find ourselves staring down the barrel of yet another privatization scheme, this time a toll road, yet.

The recent Your Turn guest column by Assemblyman John Wisniewski, Assembly Transportation Committee chairman, (“Privatizing Road Won’t Benefit Taxpayers,” Sentinel, July 8) is both timely and informative, giving solid reasons to oppose any effort to privatize state infrastructure, as well as providing a clear history of how we were led into this mess. And, as always, there is much more to the sad legacy of failure that follows privatization.

The idea of privatizing assets is neither new nor novel. It has been used by the industrial and manufacturing sectors for decades and lately has become popular with certain political groups. That said, anyone with eyes can see the resultant disappearance of meaningful industry in New Jersey, and that same slope is just as slippery for public assets.

Privatization of assets is a fiscal charade, a three-card monte cooked up by desperate leaders as a short-term remedy for chronic mismanagement. It was and is a smoke-and-mirrors approach to avoid unpopular or difficult executive decisions, and often serves to divert blame onto disinterested third parties, rather than where it belongs — with the responsible but incompetent officers.

Privatization takes many forms and can be as convoluted and obfuscatory as is required. But invariably an entity bids on a contract to operate and maintain the defined assets for a given time period. Most times the entity is required to render periodic payment to the assets’ owners, and is in turn assured a specified minimum profit above and beyond his maintenance and operating expenses.

But the devils are in the details, and it is easy to imagine the orgy of creative bookkeeping that follows, as the contractor performs minimal or no maintenance and clamors for his guaranteed profit. And what results is that the assets are run into the ground, and the contractor scoops up his profit at the end of the contract and leaves town. The now worthless assets remain, and are written off and/or abandoned.

But with public assets, the price is much more painful. States cannot just write off or abandon infrastructure. When a private contractor destroys a vital and necessary public asset, that asset must be replaced at today’s prices, by you and me. The politicians dodge responsibility, contractors escape with our money, and we are left to clean up the mess. We cannot remain silent and let what happened to our industry be perpetuated upon our public property.

Chairman Wisniewski has taken a bold stand on this issue, a proper one, I think, and one surely not popular with other politicians. He deserves our support to stop this wreck before it happens, or we have only ourselves to blame.

Daniel Maliszewski

Sayreville

Coury’s record, expertise make him top choice for Assembly

I recently learned that the Republican Party has endorsed Frank Coury as a candidate for the state Assembly in the 18th District. I can think of no one who would be a better representative for those of us concerned with reducing taxes. Just look at his record.

When Coury was an assemblyman in 1968-69, the state was prepared to spend $500,000 to conduct a statewide study on the problem of long wait times at motor vehicle inspection stations. Frank Coury filed Assembly Resolution No. 6, which stated that he would conduct the study for no cost at all and that the study would be completed in three months. The resolution was passed, and the study was conducted by volunteers, recruited by Coury, from the New Jersey Association of Industrial and Chemical Engineers. The study did not cost the taxpayers 1 cent and was completed on time. It pointed out many problems with the motor vehicle system that were swiftly corrected. Coury, by this one action, saved the taxpayers a half-million dollars.

When Coury was a Middlesex County freeholder from 1970-72, the county prepared to spend $2 million to correct the flooding on River Road under the railroad underpass bordering Piscataway and Middlesex Borough. Coury stated that the condition could be corrected for only $20,000. At Coury’s insistence, an 8 a.m. meeting was held on the site among freeholders and engineers from both Piscataway and Middlesex Borough. It was determined that the problem could, in fact, be solved for only $20,000. All of this was reported in the newspapers and is on file. Coury again saved the taxpayers money — this time $1.98 million.

Also as a freeholder, Coury reduced the budget in his department by 13 percent, while at the same time improving services, hiring an extra person and giving pay raises to his employees. How? He cut out waste.

This is the kind of man I want to represent me in public office. He has the background to handle projects intelligently due to his experience as a scientist and business executive. He also has an innate desire to help people, as evidenced by his volunteer activities delivering Meals on Wheels in New Brunswick and East Brunswick, volunteering in the emergency winter homeless shelter for men, and serving as a member of the board of directors of the Perth Amboy Salvation Army and the Sacred Heart St. Vincent DePaul Society.

I know I will vote for this man and his running mate, Don Epstein, to represent me in Trenton. I hope you will do the same.

Ruth Merson

East Brunswick

Aid to Abbott-bordered districts would be just the beginning

Democratic senators Joseph Doria Jr. (D-31) and Nicholas Sacco (D-32), representing Hudson County, co-sponsored a bill to give $20 million in additional state aid to some school districts that border Abbott school districts. It was approved by the Senate and is going to the Assembly for its vote. If approved, it goes to Acting Gov. Richard Codey for his final approval.

These districts are Bayonne, North Bergen, Clifton, Hillside and Weehawken. Doria is also mayor of Bayonne, and Sacco is also the assistant schools superintendent in North Bergen. Isn’t this a conflict of interest?

The ruling by the state Supreme Court was to order additional state aid to Abbott school districts to bring them up to what the best suburban school districts spend per student. The Abbott school districts are now spending almost double that spent by the most successful suburban school districts. Now the state will give additional aid to districts that border some Abbott school districts. Why? That is only a start. There are 31 Abbott districts. Why are only districts near three getting aid?

If this bill is passed, it will open the floodgates for all districts that border Abbott districts to receive equal state aid. Since the Abbott ruling, the suburban districts receive less state aid each year, so our property taxes are going through the roof, with no end in sight for the double-digit increases each year.

If the Abbott ruling stated that the poor districts should receive state funding so that they can spend per student the same as the suburban districts spend per student, why is it now double what is spent in the suburbs, and those students are still failing?

According to the court ruling, we in the suburban school districts want state aid to equal the amount given to the Abbott districts so we can spend per student what is spent in the Abbott districts.

Mark Klein

Monroe

Fund-raiser helped school band program

On behalf of the Spotswood High School Band, I would like to thank everyone who has helped make our ink jet/cell phone collection a wonderful success.

As many of you know, Spotswood did not pass its budget again, leading to many cuts in our schools. Thanks to fund-raisers like this, the Spotswood Band Parents Association has been able to help our band program by sponsoring some of the much-needed things to make our band the wonderful group that it has become.

A special thank you goes out to the Spotswood post office; the Spotswood Public Library; Kearney Bank, KrisKell Creations, both Spotswood; the high school and Memorial and Schoenly schools; and the Sentinel newspaper for displaying our notices throughout the year.

This program doesn’t only help our band; we also help the soldiers overseas and battered women’s shelters as well. Please continue to look for our drop-off boxes throughout the year. Once again, thank you.

To find out more about this or any other fund-raisers that the Spotswood High School Band will be participating in, please visit our Web site at www.Spotswoodbands.org.

Patty Reisert

vice president

Spotswood Band Parents Association