I woke up this morning to the following headline in the Star Ledger "Jersey's Budget Gap Triples to $1.2 Billion" and I'm angry. Of course I didn't vote for Jon Corzine, but where is NJ's job growth plan? Don't tell me it is because of the recent downturn. Governor Corzine has done nothing to spur job growth and I can't even find any plans of his for growth. When you Google "jon corzine job growth" you get this nice article from the Star Ledger back in September 2008 called Corzine's job growth strategy faulted with these tidbits...
When Corzine and Rose took over, they set a goal of 70,000 new jobs a year and said they'd settle for 40,000. The state came close in 2006, with a rise of 33,900 jobs. But it gained only 4,700 jobs in 2007, and has lost 16,000 in the first eight months of 2008.
Figures released by the state last week show unemployment at a five-year high of 5.9 percent. The national rate was 6.1 percent.
It ranked 46th out of 50 states in total job growth in the first half of 2008, even though its total employment base is the 11th-largest.
The state was 21st in job growth in 2006 and 36th in 2007.
I also went to the Department of Labor and created this spreadsheet of private jobs. Basically, the Corzine administation has done a horrible job of creating jobs in this state (up slightly in 2006, flat in 2007, and probably loss in 2008). Where's the plan Governor? I thought you were supposed to be a financial wiz? Sure we have to cut expenses, but the key to solving our budget problem is work the tax revenue line and the way to fix that is to GET JOBS in this state.
Well the only good news for NJ and bad news for the US is that Governor Corzine is being mentioned for a job in the Obama administration. Plus if he doesn't leave he is up for re-election this fall. I'm not sure what Corzine has done to impress Barack Obama, but he can have him.
BTW - why would we in NJ believe that Corzine can create jobs now in this economic environment when he failed to create jobs in 2006/2007 at an acceptable rate? We shouldn't expect this (thanks to Kate K for that last thought).
PardonMyFrench,
Eric
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