Hamilton needs to choose a side

Democrat Jennifer Hamilton ran a campaign in which she stood side-by-side with her ideological running mates for the photo-ops but then quickly scurried away to assure her GOP "friends" that she was really one of them... except on the issue of abortion.  She is pro-abortion.  

Hamilton campaigned this way and not just where party identification is concerned.  She managed to be on both sides of the tax restructuring package that funded the Transportation Trust Fund, raised the gas tax, and cut or eliminated a host of other taxes (included the Estate Tax).  She claimed to want to fund the TTF, but opposed the means to do so (and offered nothing in place of it).  She claimed to want to cut property taxes, while turning over responsibility for funding local road and bridge maintenance to municipal and county governments -- a move that would raise property taxes an average of $600 a year.  

Hamilton offered very little beyond conflicting sentiments and slogans designed to ingratiate herself with whatever audience was on hand at the moment.  The vacuous habits of her effort put us in mind of this memorable line from the 1997 film, "As Good As It Gets."  Enjoy:

How radical are the Democrats running this year...

Read for yourself.  In their own words.  Here we have Kate Matteson, a Democrat who is running for Assembly against Republicans Parker Space and Hal Wirths.

There you have it.  Kate & Gina "would love support from the Resistance" -- also known as "ANTIFA". 

Violent and crazy ANTIFA.  Why would anyone want their support?

Kate and her running mates Jennifer Hamilton, Gina Trish, and Dan Perez love Phil Murphy and his sanctuary state plans so much they would pull down a statue of George Washington just to erect something in homage to Murphy.

The whole ticket is nuts this year.  Bring back Bill Weightman!

Sussex Democrats have embraced the radical "resist" movement of Linda Sarsour and the Women's March.

"When we stand up to those who oppress our communities that Allah accepts from us that as a form of jihad... we are struggling against tyrants and rulers not only abroad in the Middle East or in the other side of the world, but here in these United States of America."  Linda Sarsour, co-chair of the Women's March, speaking to the Islamic Society of North America.

For months now, organizations affiliated with the so-called Women's March have been holding rallies on Newton Green in support of illegal immigration, dropping the immigration ban on terrorist nations, funding abortion clinics, higher property taxes, the confiscation of legal firearms, and other radical causes.  Their goal was summed up by Kate Matteson, a Democrat candidate for the state legislature.

And now the Democrats top statewide candidates have embraced "no questions asked" illegal immigration and have promised to make New Jersey a "sanctuary state."

 Yep, the Democrats and their party support turning New Jersey into a Sanctuary State.  Yep, the entire state. 

What that means to New Jersey taxpayers is explained by former Mayor Steve Lonegan:

"A 'sanctuary state' will mean a huge influx of people who will need the social services safety net more than average.  The Democrat gubernatorial ticket has promised to impose a so-called 'millionaire's tax' that will chase away those who currently fund the state's social safety net.  Those who are left... the middle class who can't leave because of a job, or because they can't sell their home for what they paid for it, or because their child wants to finish school -- they will have to make up for the shortfall in higher taxes.

That won't be easy, because at 26.1% of income, the cost of living in New Jersey is, according to Bloomberg, by far the most expensive in the nation.  Meanwhile, state household income is nearly seven percent lower than it was in 2008 and has only grown by a little more than one percent since then. 

Those coming to the new 'Sanctuary State' of New Jersey will enter the workforce of the gray economy, where the minimum wage doesn't apply.  But for everyone else it does -- which will leave trade union workers, manufacturing, medical care and health workers, service industry workers, and mothers with part-time jobs all at a disadvantage when competing for a job.  It will be bad news for people trying to pay their mortgage, their property taxes, those hoping to avoid foreclosure. 

And just where will all these newcomers to the 'Sanctuary State of New Jersey' reside?  Why in subsidized sanctuary housing -- courtesy of COAH and its plan to build tens of thousands of new subsidized no-questions-asked units throughout New Jersey. 

This will require massive infrastructure investment by taxpayers -- and an increase in property tax collections.  To pay for it, the Democrats intend to scrap the 2-percent cap on local government spending.  Under the Democrats property taxes rose an average of 6.1 percent a year -- triple the rate of inflation.  Since the cap, property taxes have gone up an average of just 2.1 percent a year."

"If the Democrats are successful with their idea, they will have to build a wall to keep taxpayers in," Lonegan said.  True enough.

Stay tuned...

Democrat Hamilton's lies continued. . .

At last evening's debate, Democrat legislative candidate Jennifer Hamilton pulled some facts out of... thin air?  Or her bottom?  We can't tell where they came from, but we can tell they have been made up.

Once again, there is data on this.  Perhaps they should go back to teaching the philosophical underpinnings of "truth" at law school -- or at least hone wannabe lawyers' research skills -- because if Jennifer Hamilton is a representation of this new breed of lawyer, you don't want her in the Legislature or the Judiciary.

In this case, the data is from the North Jersey Transportation Planning Authority.

And the data is pretty clear.  Jennifer Hamilton lied -- again -- when she made the false claim that last year's gas tax increase is costing the average household $500 more for gas each year.  First of all, gasoline prices are lower today than they were in 2015, as this graph clearly shows, so nobody is paying more for gasoline than they have in the past.

Yes, we are clearly paying less today for gasoline at the pump than we did in 2015. 

So now let's examine Hamilton's $500-per-year figure.  According to the North Jersey Transportation Planning Authority's latest data the total "Vehicle Miles Traveled" per day in the county is 3,113,131.  And the total number of housing units for Sussex County are 62,057.

If you divide those 3,113,131 miles travelled by those 62,057 housing units, you  get 50.17 miles per housing unit per day (on average). 

 Multiplying 50.17 miles per day by 365 equals 18,312 miles driven by the average housing unit per year in Sussex County.  If the overall price of gasoline had not declined, the New Jersey Department of Transportation's data indicates that the gas tax increase would have cost an additional 1 cent per mile.  At one cent-per-mile that comes to $183.12 per year.  NOT the $500 figure belched out at the debate by Democrat Hamilton. 

Hamilton lied.

And in any case, gas prices at the pump have gone down since 2015, not up.

Stupid? Hamilton thinks property taxes go to Trenton

Speaking at last evening's debate with Republican Senator Steve Oroho, Democrat Jennifer Hamilton let loose with this howler:  "We send an awful lot of money to Trenton in our property taxes..."

One problem.  Property taxes are not collected by the state.  Look at your property tax bill.  We pay property taxes to the county, to local government, and to the school district.  Not a penny goes to the state.

Is Hamilton stupid... or just another lawyer who lies to us?

Hamilton also either lied about or got confused about the length of the average commute Sussex County residents make to work each day.  Hamilton said it was 42miles -- but in fact, the United States Census has updated figures on this for 2016.  It is 42 minutes, not miles.  And that is for male commuters.  The average for women is 35 minutes, while the average for all commuters is 39 m-i-n-u-t-e-s not miles. 

Someone who doesn't know the difference between minutes and miles has no place being in the Legislature... and no place in the Judiciary either.  There is enough stupidity and lying in government already.

The data provided by the United States Census actually provides us with an understanding of the real problem going on in Sussex County:  The Highlands Act.

The Highlands Act was the brainchild of Democrat Governor Jim McGreevey and was passed by a Democrat-controlled Legislature.  At the debate, Jennifer Hamilton expressed her support for the Highlands Act, which allowed government to take away the use of much of Sussex County from the property owners and to lock it up for the benefit of providing an aquifer for urban New Jersey. 

Hey, nobody is against the cities having clean drinking water, but if you are going to take the use of someone's land away from them, pay them for their loss.  Don't just take it the way the Democrats did.  That is petty Marxism.

Since the Highlands Act came into effect, job creation in Sussex County has stalled and commutes have become more necessary.  Let's compare Sussex County with Cape May County at the other end of the state.  In Sussex County, just 45% of those employed work in the county, the rest must commute to work outside the county.  In Cape May County, 78% work within the county. 

In Monmouth County, which has a similar average commuting time to Sussex County, 62% work within the county.  That means that those who do commute outside the county must travel a greater average distance and spend more time commuting than do out-of-county commuters in Sussex County.

Some other data from the United States Census indicates that commuters in Monmouth County prefer to carpool much more than do those in Sussex County and that commuters in Sussex County use public transportation more often than do commuters in Cape May County. 

Note to Democrat Jennifer Hamilton:  The facts are out there, if you care to look for them.