As New Jersey taxpayers, it is a shame that we continue to fund Rutgers University’s athletic division to the point exactly where its total income is $131 million a year.
Rutgers spent a lot more than six other schools in its Significant Ten Conference on athletics and lost $53 million final year – the biggest shortfall of any Significant Ten college.
As former student athletes, we enjoy college sports. Like most individuals, we do not want to see sports applications reduce, but it does matter exactly where our tax dollars are spent. For each tax dollar spent on Rutgers athletics, that dollar can not be spent on other points, such as K-12 schools, preschools or homeless shelters.
We can continue to use tax dollars for college coaches, mainly football and basketball achievable win a lot more. But Rutgers football has gone a dismal 12-22 due to the fact rehiring Greg Schiano as head coach. And when he’s amongst the lowest-paid head coaches in the Significant Ten, we nonetheless have to make a decision if this is the greatest use of taxpayer dollars.
One particular could argue that a win brings in income via donations and improved ticket sales, but it would also imply that Rutgers ought to be prepared to use this cash on its personal to make its athletic applications, and not require any taxpayer funds to do so.
If alumni are not prepared to donate adequate cash and ticket sales do not justify the price of Significant Ten membership and stadium expansion, why ought to taxpayers spend? Whilst winning national championships in football and basketball might bring in a lot more students, losing $53 million a year to potentially attract two,000 to three,000 a lot more applicants to the college does not pass any financial test.
Ticket sales and alumni donations are about $30 million, but net losses are $53 million. The math does not add up. Alterations will have to be produced, but why would a university invest their cash when they know that Governor Phil Murphy and the Legislature will give them “cost-free” cash?
It is about time taxpayers stopped paying for sports that can finance themselves.
Danielle Zanzalari and Kurt W. Rotthoff, South Orange
The writers are, respectively, assistant professor of economics and professor of economics and finance, each at Seton Hall University.
Billionaires currently have adequate in Liberty Park
It was astounding to study a current op-ed by Paul Fireman (“I am not attempting to privatize Liberty State Park”), the Palm Beach billionaire who owns the sophisticated Liberty National Golf Course nearby.
My vague memory goes back to the 1950s, when I was a kid playing war games and obtaining enjoyable on the dilapidated aspect of the Jersey City waterfront. The firefighter, who apparently wasn’t born in the city, says he benefited from a heart surgeon at Beth Israel Hospital in Newark, and now, as a token of gratitude, he saved St. John’s Higher College for a when. an indication of his enjoy for the neighborhood.
The firefighter claims that golf builds character. Does he know that some leading golfers have left the US PGA Tour for one particular sponsored by the infamous Saudi royal household? Golf could be a gorgeous game, but it is particularly made to make small business relationships amongst its participants. If I lived in one particular of the significantly less favorable neighborhoods of Jersey City, would I be permitted to hit the ball with 3 moguls in a foursome?
Is it cost-free to join Liberty National? Not. There is an entry charge of about $500,000 and an annual membership charge of only $25,000, so one particular can think about how diverse the membership is.
Recall, respected civic leader Maurice Pessin, selflessly and without the need of ego, devoted a great deal of his public service to the improvement of a great deal of the waterfront as a sacred location for recreation and relaxation for locals and guests: the People’s Park. The fireman reclaimed a portion of this land for his personal individual get and advantage.
Expanding up in this region automatically offers us a sixth sense for fraudulent sales techniques. And, by the way, why would somebody who professes to enable us want to pour blacktop and concrete on our sacred land, Liberty State Park? You are just attempting to enable us poor individuals? What a great neighbor.
Art Fredman, Milburn
Why is Christie fodder for a prospective Murphy shutdown?
The Star-Ledger and nj.com are focused on criticizing former Republican Gov. Chris Christie at each chance, fair or not.
A current write-up reporting on Gov. Phil Murphy’s reaction to Assembly Speaker Craig Coughlin’s proposal for a new tax break for senior citizens — which Murphy opposes as also costly — indicated that the governor is “preparing a ‘contingency’ program to shut down the government” if a rift prevents that the spending budget for fiscal year 2024 be authorized by July 1.
The write-up reminds readers that Christie shut down the government in 2017 more than a spending budget fight, the one particular with the infamous photo of Christie on a state beach that was closed to every person else. There was no mention of the 2006 shutdown that occurred beneath Democratic Gov. John Corzine. It is not as if Christie — or Corzine, for that matter — had any decision but to shut down the government without the need of a spending budget.
Neither Corzine nor Christie played chicken by vetoing the spending budget Neither had been passed by the Legislature prior to each shutdowns. At least in 2017, there was an excuse for partisan variations with the legislature of the opposite celebration. The Democrats did it to themselves in 2006, and possibly they will do it once more in 2023.
My guess is that future coverage will concentrate on the edge — as is the case with Washington’s existing debt ceiling — rather than the particulars and merits of Coughlin’s proposal.
Jay Bohn, Phillipsburg
Not all seniors require half-cost taxes
Our letter is in response to a proposal to reduce house taxes in half for senior citizens in New Jersey.
Assembly Speaker Craig Coughlin, D. Middlesex, says it really is time to make New Jersey competitive for seniors who want to invest their golden years in their personal residences, to make it a superior location to retire.
Living in a state with typical house taxes close to $ten,000 can be tricky for lots of seniors. But my husband and I are not amongst them. Whilst the tax break would be a good bonus, we reside pretty comfortably on pension funds and Social Safety. Some of our close friends are equally fortunate.
As an alternative of providing tax breaks to all of us, why not limit the bill to give a break to these seniors who seriously require it? Use the balance of the projected appropriation to finance regions that could deliver a superior high-quality of life for households: economical, high-quality kid care per diems for healthcare workers compensation for households caring for disabled or elderly household members, to name a couple of.
We seniors are the primary voting bloc. We can not enable but wonder, is this a political move to garner votes? Let’s make confident it really is a bill that puts our tax dollars exactly where they are necessary most.
Richard and Elaine Toupee, Eatontown
It does no harm, unless it brings profit
I just study an op-ed by Sandeep Shah, a going to professor at Rutgers University, entitled “This plan meant to enable the sick is really an outrageous failure.” This is stolen cash that ought to go to low-revenue individuals for their prescriptions.
The federal plan involved enables hospitals to invest in drugs at a deep discount for covered individuals, but these hospitals get the greater retail cost as reimbursements from insurers. If this was just one particular hospital, I would not be so concerned. But to study about hospitals obtaining $44 billion for drugs that would otherwise price about $94 billion – and pocketing the distinction – this is fraud and we are the ones paying for it.
It is time to develop up and speak about how we transition from a profit-driven health-related business to a patient-centered remedy technique in the United States.
Taking an oath to enter the health-related field ought to carry some weight. The modern day Hippocratic Oath incorporates: “I will charge only for my expert solutions and will not profit financially in any other way as a outcome of the tips and care I deliver to my individuals.”
How lots of medical doctors and nurses had been at odds with the actual billing remedy of individuals and their insurers at their facility?
John Bailey, Ewing
Sooth Miss Liberty’s hand
The hand of the Statue of Liberty is shaking. This is not a great sign, mainly because the hand carrying the torch, with each other with the pedestal of the statue, represents the extremely foundation on which our democracy stands.
Blame is everywhere. I see the primary culprit as our US Supreme Court Justices, some of whom are operating amok in the most shameful show of ignorance of the law due to the fact the birth of our terrific nation.
Associate Justice Clarence Thomas, a self-proclaimed down-to-earth guy, has been caught red-handed accepting pretty much any freebie to catch his eye. His wife, Ginny, is no superior, as a supporter of the rebel movement that pretty much brought down our government.
Conservative extremists are also carrying out their greatest to push lawmakers in Congress down a destructive path for a nation facing a debt ceiling crisis. Clearly they do not care. Their purpose: to blame President Joe Biden, the individuals and the nation be damned.
The clock is ticking and the hand of freedom is uncertain. That hand will have to forever stand in the sign of freedom for individuals everywhere.
Howard Luxenberg, Monroe, Middlesex County
Uvalde anniversary marked without the need of any actions
I see Texas Governor Greg Abbott lowered all flags in his state to half-employees on May perhaps 24th in honor of these who lost their lives a year ago in the Uvalde mass shooting at Robb Elementary College. The attacker killed 19 students and two teachers.
Final year, when it occurred, he provided his “thoughts and prayers,” and now this honor.
Of course, the Republican governor and the GOP-led Texas Legislature did tiny else about gun restrictions to avoid anything like this from taking place once more.
Do you consider Abbott seriously prayed?
Nonetheless, it was genuinely Christian of him. It is comforting, I am confident, to have leaders who care.
Bob Wojcik, Barnegat
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