I’ve been ignoring the stories about Chris Christie’s expense reports, because I travel to New York for work a lot and it really is tough to get midtown hotels much under $300 a night sometimes. But $236 is a lot for a ride from downtown Boston to Logan:
In Boston, Christie could have taken a cab for the four miles between his luxurious hotel and the airport, but he instead took a $236 car service. In London, Christie’s drive to the airport cost $562. He had us pay for all of this, too.
I’m sorry, but that is just plain wasteful. There’s no two ways about it.
For Christie to present himself as some principled opponent of government waste is laughable.
beltane
I bet that’s nothing compared to what he spends on food.
Jay C
Aside from the fact that Chris Christie is, himself, a sterling example of “government waste”, maybe he figures he’s going to get paid back for all these expenses with the money he’s “saved” New Jersey by canceling the Hudson Tunnel?
Redshirt
Does it matter? Is there any limit to the hypocrisy a Repug can get away with, these days, openly? Diaper David Vitter lectures us about morals; Spend-a-lot Bush tells us about deficits and small government.
Now, if this were a Dem getting a Trenta Iced Coffee at the airport Starbucks – and you know how much they charge – then this would be a big deal.
Omnes Omnibus
Hell, I got a car service to take me from Logan to Beverly, MA for $55. Probably a different car service.
russell
Damn, give the man my phone number. I’ll be happy to drive him from downtown BOS to Logan for $236.00. I’ll throw in a sandwich, his choice of meat.
Dannie22
Christies fat ass prolly can’t fit in a cab.
DougJ
@Redshirt:
Yes, that is exactly right. There would be a lot of “8 bucks for two pieces of Sbarro’s meat lovers pieces, why not just order plain slices like a Real Murkin?”
Mike Kay (Team America)
How do you know Jesus didn’t tell him to take a limo?
Don’t tell me you know better than Jesus.
geg6
@beltane:
The interwebs? You have won them.
daveNYC
I’d suspect that the $236 was for more than just the car service. Unless he just went whole hog and rented a limo.
Arclite
IOKIYAR
Nick in PA
Yeah, but the Crisco Kid made the car stop for donuts.
bayville
The big Christie news today is the $276 million in Federal aid the state will have to give back as the result of canceling the rail tunnel. Immediately.
Feds are also conducting an audit to determine additional expenses.
Add that on top of the $400 million the administration lost in Race-To-The-Top education aid earlier this year – due to general incompetence and to spite the dreaded teacher’s union —…and you can see why fiscal Cons love this guy.
KDP
Can we add this?
New Jersey gets bill for scrapped tunnel
Corner Stone
@daveNYC:
What you did there. Some of us see it.
NonyNony
@DougJ:
I call false. There ain’t no “Real Murkins” who are eating plain slices. “Real Murkins” eat meat lovers pizza not your sissified “plain” pizza.
In fact the real outrage would be “8 bucks for two pieces of Sbarro’s veggie lovers”. That would get their knickers in a twist. Meat lovers would lead to shock and disbelief that a Dem would actually eat meat like a Real Murkin does. In fact, the story would probably quickly twist into veggie lovers just to make sure the cognitive dissonance wasn’t too much for ’em.
Keith G
@beltane: You killed.
DS
I just noticed this and didn’t want to wait for an open thread: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe-investor/markets/markets-blog/here-come-the-gold-is-a-bubble-comments/article1791926/. Always, always, always wrong.
Kryptik
@daveNYC:
Depends what kind of limo. Honestly, depending on how many people you’re bringing with you and the distance, a quick limo service can cost less than fare for a cab. Now if it was a full featured and furnished limo for…distinguished patrons, then yeah, I can see the issue.
Mike Kay (Team America)
Why are people making fun of Christie being over weight — isn’t that racist?
GregB
Leave Chris Christy alone!
His car service charges by the pound.
Sorry, I’m a fat fuck too but I don’t have and expense account so I am bitter.
Bob L
@NonyNony: You forget the side of ranch dressing for the all meat pizza. No REAL American touches food without his ranch dressing.
MB
Something’s definitely off here. I used to take a (nice) car service from downtown to Logan regularly, and it was never anywhere near $236. Call Boston Coach for a quote. New model Lincoln Towncar, top-end driver, will run you less than half that. And that’s with some waiting.
MikeJ
@DS: Actually, this is as close as she’s ever been to right. The only reason to buy gold is because you know that a lot of chumps will buy it. You just need to get out of it before they do.
When gold hit US$800/oz in 1980 ($2100/oz in today’s money) there were people who swore it was the only sane reaction to stagflation. When it sat between $350 and $400/oz for twenty years it turned out you would have been stupid to buy at $800.oz.
If you’re buying gold for WTSHTH, you’re an idiot. You should be buying ammo.
gnomedad
But, but, Obama spent $200 trillion a minute to go to India!
Redshirt
What’s wrong with the Blue Line?
Oh yeah, Christie HATES TRAINS!
Bubblegum Tate
And for teabaggers to continue to back Christie because he “fights against government waste” is all too predictable.
Nellcote
DougJ
You have no idea what a thrill it is that you use so many Stones’ refs in your titles.
Poopyman
@GregB: I was going to go with the comment that wide loads require expensive permits, but by this point in the comments I give up.
(Why yes, I am a mean-spirited little shit. Thank you for noticing. And I doubt it takes one to notice what a mean spirited shit Christie is.)
kindness
Damn, I stay at a nice place on Bleeker Street for $125. Yea that’s down town, not mid town. Taxi’s are cheap.
Calouste
So about 400 pounds (no, not talking about Christie weight there, talking about the UK currency) for a transfer for a London hotel to (presumably) Heathrow?
Just did some quick research and a normal cab is about 50 pounds, and a limo service (Mercedes S class) is about 120 pounds. We’re not talking about wastefulness here, we’re talking about fraud.
JerseyJeffersonian
Well, knock me over with a feather; I’m just so surprised that the Fat Fuck is just another waster. I mean, who would have ever suspected that his conduct is not guided by principle? That is, of course, if you overlook his craven obedience to the dictate from Karl Rove that he should misuse the power of his office as a United States Attorney to launch politically-motivated witch hunts to try and kneecap NJ politicians from the other party. Chris didn’t want to end up like those other U.S. Attorneys who wouldn’t toe the line, don’t you know. He had Political Ambitions, after all! (Plus, I’m sure that those two pasty weasels were simpatico from the get go.) Oh, and there was that matter of trying to fix his traffic tickets by intimidating the officers through informing them that he was A Very Important Personage, indeed…
Hmm. Maybe I shouldn’t be so surprised after all, eh?
D-Notice
I live in London.
I don’t see how he could possibly claim that much for a taxi to any of the airports serving London, even if he went to Stansted (the furthest one out) and is 30 miles from central London.
Calouste: XE.com converts it to £350.00 and if he was travelling to the US, yeah, it would be Heathrow, which is only 14 miles from central London.
ellid
That doesn’t sound like the rates charged by a car service. It sounds like a *limo service*, which is an entirely different thing.
Either way, he paid about three times the going rate for a trip to Logan. Disgusting.
Unabogie
@DS:
Well, don’t upset the goldbugs. What better way to drain the Teatards of all their money?
curious
waste. check. fraud. not really. abuse. check.
Nancyboy
@Nellcote: I thought it was a Ramones ref.. Could also be a Stones ref.
Corner Stone
And the media will find a D Gov somewhere who used AT&T for a long distance call for $7.62 instead of a calling card for $6.62 and it will be “both sides guilty” routine.
Post hoc ergo sum cogitus infinitum.
A Duck
DougJ: You are being too kind to all the AGs not named in the report. They can submit expenses up to 3x the standard per diem with a justification. Not hard to do, really. These guys and gals got too lazy to come up with some BS excuse, which is just sad.
And some blamed their Exec Assts, ’cause they classy like that.
Nellcote
@Nancyboy:
I thought Stones’ “No Expectations”. What Ramones are you thinking of?
DougJ
@Nancyboy: @Nellcote:
It’s the Stones. The Ramones is “get me to the airport”.
You just can’t beat Beggars Banquet/Let It Bleed/Sticky Fingers/Exile era Stones, not in my book.
JPL
If the President tightened up on the expense accounts so future Christie’s could be prevented, shouldn’t that be added to the what the f**k has obama done for you video?.
Maybe not, if he could convince Christie not to order two meals every time he goes out, that would be a real accomplishment.
Joshua
@Bubblegum Tate: Yes. Newspaper commentators rarely have brains more developed than algae, but there’s plenty of “Obama is spending $500 trillion every second in India” or “At least he’s not a TEACHER” (those evil teachers, educating your children!) on NJ.com’s site.
They really don’t care, but then again, let’s be real here. These aren’t principled people. They are fascists who yearn for a big daddy to tell them what to do and piss off the hippies. That’s what Christie is, so they love him. It doesn’t matter that he is an incompetent, bullying, finger-pointing thug – hell that probably is makes them love him more.
BTW I’d bet $562 dollars that Christie’s cab ride came with a hooker.
Nancyboy
@Nellcote: “I Wanna Be Sedated “, which is actually “GET me to the airport, put me on a plane”
Steve
I went from New York to Dallas last week on business. On the way back, I was offered a first-class upgrade for $135. I could have billed it to the client and no one ever would have known (I approve my own expense reports), but I didn’t feel right about it so I turned it down. I didn’t think this was a particularly saintly move on my part, it’s just that the people who write the checks trust me to be frugal with their money.
HyperIon
DougJ wrote:
I’d prefer to take you to the river and drop you in the water.
MikeJ
@HyperIon: I’m *still* waiting for him to Teach Us How to Dougie.
Anya
@Mike Kay (Team America): Even worse, it’s reverse racism. But seriously, we should not make fun of him because he is overweight. We libtards are better than this. We do not judge, we accommodate.
Calouste
@D-Notice:
He could also fly from Gatwick, there is/was a flight from there to Newark, but Gatwick isn’t really more expensive to get to than Heathrow. Stansted I’m fairly sure doesn’t do flights to the US.
DougJ
@HyperIon:
That’s actually clever. What’s going on with you today?
Dennis SGMM
I recall the rush to silver back in (I think) the early Eighties. People bought shitpiles of the stuff because “It keeps going up and you’re stupid if you don’t get in now.” Then it went down and stayed at a point where it was better to use it as fishing sinkers.
Given the choice between buying gold and buying freeze dried food as a hedge against the apocalypse I’ll buy the food. You can’t eat gold.
Schad
I did reservations for a high-end car service whose main stomping ground was Boston (though they operated worldwide). $236 is very, very high…about double what that company charged.
The only way I can see it reaching that price is if he a) made the car wait for 2+ hours, or b) he got a limo rather than a towncar with an hourly minimum. Either way, it’s absurd.
Mike Kay (Team America)
@kindness: hippie.
goblue72
@Redshirt: FTMFW.
Srsly – I lived in Boston for over 10 years. Logan is spitting distance from downtown, whether by the Callahan or Ted Williams Tunnel. Heck, I bet I could see Logan from my old house.
A cab ride would cost you a fraction of that. Or take the T. Half the time its quicker to take the Blue Line from downtown than to deal with the traffic. And with the new Airport station on the T, its even easier to get to the airport.
Chris Christie is a typical Republican – telling everyone else to tighten their belts, while they loosen theirs.
JCT
@goblue72: Yup– went to Boston via Logan twice in the past month, both times on expense, but the $40 can ride pissed me off so much the first time I took the T the second time for all of $3.70 to Longwood medical.
Really guys, Christie is just another hypocritical Republican douchebag, nothing to see here.
Svensker
I know it’s cool to hate Christie and perhaps he deserves it for some stuff. But the teacher thing… I have a friend who just retired as a NJ teacher — she was making $90K and now gets $70K pension plus full medical for life. Another friend is a high school guidance counselor, age 38, making $120K. She will be able to retire in 15 years with a pension of $100K and full medical benefits for herself and her husband for life. As a (nearly former!) NJ tax payer, I call that unsustainable. Something has to be done and at least Christie is trying to do it, unlike fuckhead Goldman Sachs-dickwad Corzine, who was unwilling to confront the unions.
PurpleGirl
@Anya: I’m just waiting for him to be “out of town” for a few days and then turn up quite a bit lighter… lipo suction and/or a belly band. Just like Huckabee.
MattR
@Svensker:
This does not sound that unreasonable to me, depending on the details. Guidance counselors on the other hand are f’in useless.
kindness
@Mike Kay (Team America): My brother lives in the East Village and my sister lives on 10th above NYU. It really is easier being able to catch both of them that way..
I used to be a freak but I was never a hippie. Sure I had a pony tail for a long time & did most drugs. I was what passed as normal in that era.
Stefan
I have a friend who just retired as a NJ teacher—she was making $90K and now gets $70K pension plus full medical for life. Another friend is a high school guidance counselor, age 38, making $120K. She will be able to retire in 15 years with a pension of $100K and full medical benefits for herself and her husband for life. As a (nearly former!) NJ tax payer, I call that unsustainable.
How little do you think they should be paid to teach your children? Because Lord knows, if there’s one place I really want to skimp it’s on the people who watch over and educate my children.
Alan
@Svensker
Don’t worry. Neither Christie nor Corzine properly funded the teacher’s pension, so that’s all funny money. Your friends are going to die in poverty.
Sustainable!
Stefan
I have a friend who just retired as a NJ teacher—she was making $90K and now gets $70K pension plus full medical for life. Another friend is a high school guidance counselor, age 38, making $120K. She will be able to retire in 15 years with a pension of $100K and full medical benefits for herself and her husband for life. As a (nearly former!) NJ tax payer, I call that unsustainable.
I’m just not getting what you think is so wrong about that. They did valuable and difficult work, they were paid well for that work, and now they’ll be able to retire in comfort and dignity. And the problem with that is what, exactly?
Mr. Furious
@DougJ:
Agreed. Goats Head Soup. Also, too.
Maude
I hope this story has legs. Christie has been acting like he’s the Second Coming.
jrosen
For us plebes, there is the Silver Line which runs from most downtown stations directly to the Logan terminals and avoids most of the tunnel jams. It costs about $2. I lived in an around Boston for 35 years and I know my way around. You could do better to rent a car downtown and drop it at the airport (but you risk tunnel traffic and if you are in the jungle that is Boston traffic you probably should have a native guide).
When I lived in Watertown (just to the West if Cambridge) my neighbor ran a car service that got me to and from Logan for $35 each way. To find a service that expensive you would have to really search, and I wonder what sort of extra amenities you would get for the extra $200? I can think of some (why does Eliot Spitzer come to mind?)
I live in NJ now. When I moved here a considered getting a bumper sticker saying “Beware..Boston driver!” but I decided it would be provocative, especially in Yankee and Jet territory.
I think Christie may be trying on the royal manner to see if he could take four years of it. I doubt the country could take four years of him (ride the PATH train from Manhattan to JC at rush hour to get a preview).
whetstone
@Stefan: Feelings about the reasons for substantial pensions or lack thereof, sustainability really is an issue. And all over the place they’re not showing themselves sustainable.
Could you make it sustainable? Sure, even though it’s harder with the Baby Boom bottleneck, along with declining birth rates and lengthening lifespans. But if we want it, we have to pay for it, and elect pols who will pay for it instead of spending the money on other stuff. Being able to IOU things, as you can with pensions, requires pretty close oversight.
Nick
@jrosen:
There’s only one thing worse than a Massachusetts driver
A New Jersey driver
jrosen
I wonder if Svensker has ever confronted a middle school classroom. Or corrected a huge pile of barely literate papers and exams (on his own time BTW). Good teachers (ones who care) tend to burn out after a few years…that’s why you have to offer good pay and benefits to keep them.
Unless of course, you prefer to keep the next generation as ignorant (of simple math and economics, or civics, or basic history, or — shudder! — biology which is built on Darwinian evolution) as the present members of the Tea Party, who, led by the likes of Beck and Limbaugh, can be trusted to vote against their own interest (and that of everyone else who makes less than $80K or so) every time. Who want to send a message by putting the US into default and bringing down the entire world economy (as well as cutting of their SS checks along with mine).
hilzoy
To add to what everyone has said: I grew up in Boston. My parents and sibs still live there, so I go back quite a bit to see them. Sometimes I take a cab to the airport; sometimes I take the T. It has never ever cost me over $40, and even that was the time I was feeling generous because business was slow and the recession had hit and it was Christmas.
JerseyJeffersonian
jrosen,
If you are that fiddler guy from Beantown, I just tried twice to send you an email, but the aol account wasn’t working. Change your address? Shoot me an email with corrected info and I can get it to you. Thx.
Woody
HyperIon
@Alan:
That’s what I thought when I read Svensker’s comment.
And as for the “flack” she’s getting: defined benefit pension plans are teh suck. That is, they over-promise and then, presto, fail to fulfill those promises.
I say, social security to provide a base then put your 401K (or in my case IRA) on top of that.
jrosen
Nick:
I learned to drive in the Midwest. I became a Boston driver out of self-preservation, learning to assume that everyone else was either (a) drunk, (b) brain-damaged or (c) a homicidal maniac. I got two tickets (the bucks are in parking violations, not moving ones) in the whole 35 years and was rear-ended just once…a week before I moved to NJ! Mass drivers are actually not unskilled, just insanely aggressive and hopelessly rude. The lousy street signage doesn’t help (I never went anywhere new without the street atlas next to me…this was before the GPS).
Do you remember a few years ago when there was an enormous flap about “terrorist devices” plastered all over the downtown area? They were actually electronic gizmos got up to promote a satirical website, and featured a very primitive cartoon with a certain finger raised in what every driver knows as the “Boston salute”. That the Boston cops could not identify this logo until a day of panic and national coverage (almost as embarrassing as the Patriots loss to Cleveland last week) is a tribute to the keen observational powers and razor-sharp intellect of the force.
I had hoped that somebody would invent a hood-ornament that would make the gesture mechanically by push-button control…safer than taking your hand off the wheel and waving it outside the window with the middle digit extended.
Lancelot Link
The cars with hookers and blow in them are more expensive.
jrosen
JerseyJeffersonian:
I am that guy.
[email protected]
(don’t ask!)
Steve
@jrosen:
Let’s take the example of the high school guidance counselor who will be able to retire at the age of 53 with a $100k pension and medical for life. Even if we assume that this person has an advanced degree, what other job would they be able to choose that offers anything remotely in the ballpark?
My mom worked with troubled kids for the County. She had a master’s degree and she had to put in 35 years, earning high five figures, to earn her pension and retirement. She considered it a great deal and so would just about anyone. There’s something a little out of whack in this example.
Mnemosyne
@Svensker:
Don’t worry, I’m sure your prison guards get paid even more than teachers do. They do here in California, and even then their average base pay is less than a CHP officer’s.
Bill Murray
@Steve: well we know you’ll never be Governor of New Jersey
RinaX
@MikeJ:
Wow, I had no idea that I really needed to get up and Dougie, but turns out I did. Thanks for that.
T. Scheisskopf
Christie is going down. That is not supposition. That is puretee fact. Based on knowledge, not fantasy.
mai naem
I wonder if this will stop Mika Brzenzski and Joe Scarborough from continuing to give Chris Christie a metaphorical daily blow job.
Mike Kay (Team America)
@mai naem: so YOU’re the ONE who was Moruning Blow.
Mike Kay (Team America)
@T. Scheisskopf: “he’s going down”? You mean he’s flying to Australia?
FlipYrWhig
@Svensker:
@jrosen:
@Stefan:
@Steve: I have a PhD, and am a college professor, at a damn good college. I currently have a pile of papers in front of me. I’m not remotely near 6 figures. NJ must have a DAMN strong union for its teachers.
Evolved Deep Southerner
@Svensker: How dare those teachers not have to worry in their retirements like the rest of us!
Davis X. Machina
Boy do I teach in the wrong state. After 30 years, my pension will be — if it’s there at all — 60% of the average of my last three years’ earnings, reduced by 6.35% for each year of my age less than 62.
Redshirt
@hilzoy: Indeed. And even better: I live out in the suburbs of Boston and marveled at my recent trip to NYC: I walked to the Orange Line and went to Back Bay; at Back Bay got on the Acela train to NYC; in NYC I got on the subway and after 12 stops, walked out onto a busy East Village street and was at my friend’s apartment in 10 minutes.
It was gloriously urban and well planned!
Nick
@Redshirt:
12 stops from Penn to the East Village?!?!? Dude, you should’ve turned around on the platform, that’s where the express is lol
Redshirt
@Nick: I’m not confident enough in my NYC subway skills to judge the local from the Express. Anyways, when I’m there, I’m usually not in a rush, so I take it as easy as possible along the way. I’m guessing at the number of the stops also, too.
Svensker
@Evolved Deep Southerner:
What I’m saying is that the people paying the taxes for those teachers (or cops — our local beat cops make 90K after 5 years in a town with no crime) — don’t make anywhere near what those union folks are making. And then add on the cost of the pensions and health benefits — I’d settle for half of what they’re getting. Good teachers (and cops) are important, but the salaries and bennies need to be in line with those of the people who are being taxed to pay for it.
Svensker
@FlipYrWhig:
Yes, it does.
Svensker
@Alan:
It goes back to “fiscal conservative” Christie Todd Whitman who played funny money with the pension fund.
gwangung
Why?
You haven’t made a case for it. In fact, you’re saying that they AREN’T important. If we value these jobs, then they SHOULD be paid better than most (and that’s not something you’ve even established yet)
jrosen
The NYC Subway system is great (in Manhattan) if you are going up or down. Not so much crosstown, and traffic being what it is, the crosstown busses are slower than walking.
But that is somewhat true in Boston as well. The subway lines fan out from the center like spokes (and the Green Line is a legend for discomfort) but covering the arcs is a major pain.
Rathskeller
@Calouste: I agree. I’ve gone that route many times from Heathrow to London, and 50-60 pounds is typical for a cab. (And of course, train service is nearly perfect and the best way to go.) I’ve never taken a limo service there — ironically, because I worked for wall street companies, which wouldn’t have permitted it.
On that occasion, he stole about $450 or so of government money, then, either by signing for some absurd luxury service, or by taking a £60 cab and getting a $560 reimbursement for it.
drunken hausfrau
In London, he could have travelled FIRST CLASS on the Heathrow Express for £26. (about $38?)
fat bastard
Joshua
@Svensker:
The second part of this sentence contradicts the first. If good teachers are important, they should be paid better. I will say, as a taxpaying resident of NJ, my job is not nearly as important as that of a teacher or a cop, so yea, I don’t mind them getting a good pension for putting decades of honest work in. But that’s just me.
Oh, and I find Christie and his goon squad’s vilification of teachers to be absolutely beyond the pale. The stuff the algae brains on NJ.com say about the people teaching their kids is disgusting. It’s pure divide-and-conquer stuff for the rubes.
Ricky Roma
@Steve: Well said. Everyone sane can get on board with paying teachers who show an actual ability to teach well in excess of average incomes, but NJ is out of control. I went to a good public school in NJ, I can still remember teachers who shouldn’t have been allowed anywhere in the building, let alone teaching advanced placement classes.
I can think of a few incredible teachers at my high school who must have been furious to teach along side those numbskulls, but with our glorious union, they not only couldn’t be fired, some of them made much more than some of the best in teachers in the school.
It is important that we compensate teachers well, but trying to say that retirement at 53 with a $100k pension and medical for life is in line is an insult to everyone else that works hard at a non-teaching job.
I don’t mind being taxed, and I want to get good teachers at proper salaries, but in NJ we are simply being robbed, and so are new teachers.
I have a friend who left the state because his family could not make it on his teaching salary in NJ, and even with the drop in salary with the move west, the cost of living change made life more livable. The problem he faced is that with older teachers, many of whom sucked at their jobs, and a ton of bureaucratic jobs taking up all the money, new teachers at his school were payed pathetically.
I have grown to hate Christie, but NJ schools and local government are completely out of control, so I understand how reasonable people might be willing to give him a chance.
We have 566 towns and 605 school districts, and the overhead is killing us. When I mention the actual property tax amounts to people from other states, they are always completely shocked. A middle class family with a decent 2,500 – 3,000 SQFT home can easily be paying $10,000 – $14,000 a year on property taxes.
I living in a town that is, no joke, 1.2 SQ Miles. This complete with a school, school board, mayor, town council, full police department. The town is sandwiched between three town, that have almost the exact same income, education, racial, family size and structure, religious and age make up. There is no reason, legitimate or discriminatory for the populations of these towns to merge. But that never happens, and never does anywhere else in the state.
I heard a lot of praise for Christie when he discussed his own town, Mendham Borough. The Borough is surrounded on three sides by Mendham Township. What is the difference between the two you ask? Well back in 1906, Mendham residents couldn’t decide if they wanted public water and sewer services, so the Borough was formed for the people who wanted the services, and the Township for those who didn’t. So now, 100 years later, an area you can drive through in 20 minutes has double the overhead, with residents paying for the ‘benefits’ of an independent local government.
My hope, and it is sad that this can be described as hope, Christie actually does break the budgets for the townships, and people finally force the towns to merge, matching the regional high school districts, and then we merge down again to half of that number. 200 towns would do nicely.
rumpole
Rolling Stones, Beggar’s Banquet.
No Expectations?