Rally in Trenton on May 22, 2010 Update

by Pam Hartkopf

 “They say cut back.  We say fight back!”

 

Amid signs of “One Christie is enough,” “Cuts bleed,” “I am the victim of a hate crime,” and “Christie:  The Biggest Loser” about 35,000 New Jerseyans gathered in Trenton on Saturday, May 22nd to rally against the governor’s budget cuts.   One speaker referred to it as the biggest rally in Trenton’s history.  The general message was to save our schools, services, seniors and the state.  Overwhelmingly the speakers spoke against the governor’s refusal to continue the millionaire’s tax and in support of public workers.

 

A specific question to the governor’s cap of 2.5% on the wages of public employees and budgets arose:  Who is in turn putting a cap of 2.5% on utility bills, grocery bills, gasoline and other costs that many New Jerseyans must pay on reduced or frozen salaries and pensions?  Reference was also made to a remark about the state’s paying its part of the pension fund “if it has the funds”.  None of us can tell our mortgage companies that we don’t have the funds available without risking the loss of our homes.

 

 Please call your legislators and Governor Christie (at 609-292-6000) and tell them to restore funding in the state budget for services that families and communities count on.  Visit your legislators’ offices and tell them how your community and family are affected by the governor’s cuts.  Find your local legislators’ names, phone numbers, and mailing addresses by visiting www.njleg.state.nj.us/districts/municipalities.asp.

 

Snippets from the speakers:

 

    * William Mc Nary (US Action Committee President)

          o “New Jersey is in crisis.”

          o The wealthy get tax breaks but the poor, disabled, elderly

             and working families get no breaks.

          o Restore the millionaire’s tax.

 

    * Reverend Bruce Davidson

          o Police, firemen and teachers should be appreciated.

          o For the first time there is no new funding for valuable

             programs.

          o Restore the millionaire’s tax.

 

    * James E. Harris of the NAACP

          o “Don’t demonize teachers!”

          o “Our governor is giving to the rich and robbing the poor.”

          o “I ask our governor, when our school system is trying to

              teach anti-bullying, to stop being the biggest bully in the

              state.”

          o Public money should support public schools not private

             ones.

          o The key concept is “compromise”.

 

    * Barbara Keshishian (NJEA President)

          o “The governor denigrates our schools.”

          o “The governor wants to privatize education and public

              service.”

          o Quoting a military officer in the Revolution:  “There is a

             time to fight and that time has now come.”

          o Our governor wants to destroy our schools and the middle

             class workers who built this state.

          o “We are not the problem.”

          o NJ is 45th in state aid to education.  “Our governor must be

             held accountable.”

          o Our governor wants shared sacrifice but is the 4th highest

             paid governor in the US.  He is giving a tax break to

             millionaires.

          o “We have long memories.”  (Think November.)

 

    * Charlie Wowkanech (AFL-CIO President)

          o He thanked those who belong to the CWA, AFT, NJEA,

             police, fireman, turnpike workers and nurses who

             contribute so much to our state.

          o The governor wants to break the collective bargaining

             system.

          o “Put money in the pension system.”

          o “We are not going to take it [social and economic injustice]

 

    * Phyllis Salowe-Kaye      (NJ Citizen Action)

• The banks and speculators are to blame for the state’s

               financial problems not the poor, those who have disabilities and public workers

•  Restore the millionaire’s tax

 

    * Lawrence Hamm (People’s Organization for Progress)

          o He praised NJ’s diversity as a rainbow coalition.

          o State changes are an “attempt to dismantle 50 years of

             social progress and reform.”

          o He characterized the governor’s budget as one “that hurts

             our children.”

          o He is “tired of tax breaks for millionaires, banks and

             corporations.”

          o “If we have to pay, they have to pay.”

          o Why is the governor blaming the teachers?

          o “They came for the teachers today.  They’ll come for you

             tomorrow.”

          o “Power to the People!”