Politicians Must Lead By Example- Not Greed

Source: Howell Patch 

The New Jersey taxpayer pays Senator Robert Singer $88,404 a year. $5000 dollars a year as chairman of the Lakewood Municipal Utility Authority in Ocean County, $34,404 dollars as a retiree of multiple governmental agencies, and his $49,000 legislative salary.

The Salary used for his pension calculation was $74,040 with a monthly pension payment of $2,867.17. The only way Singer could have calculated that salary for his government service is if he included his salary as a Senator. So in reality Senator Singer is receiving a pension for a job that he is still employed in.

This salary does not include the other jobs that he has received all these years on Boards of Directors of Banks and Companies where his legislation could directly benefit those companies(more on that later).

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But when it comes to helping minimum wage workers our good Senator is much more fiscally responsible. He voted nay twice on a bill that was proposed to raise the New Jersey Minimum Wage from $7.25 to $8.25. The bill, that recently passed the  Senate, will help struggling families with a minimal effect to small businesses that already need to pay more than minimum wage to their employees. It would apply to large corporations such as Wal-Mart that could easily cover the cost, and help keep some of their employees off of public assistance.

So it seems that Senator Singer, who has also been parroting Chris Christie in his call for pension reform for public workers, feels that fiscal fairness is for other people with much smaller salaries.

For another 'do as i say not as I do' example look at our own Assemblyman David Rible.  In addition to his $49,000 salary as a legislator, Rible continues to receive a state disability pension that pays $54,502 a year without anyone seeming to care. he retired as a disabled police officer after falling while chasing kids playing with fireworks. He retired at age 31 after being deemed unfit to work. Yet Rible competes in five-mile and five-kilometer runs along the Jersey Shore.  He exercises at a gym, dances as a celebrity, commutes to Trenton to represent the 30th district in the State Assembly, and He completed a 5K marathon in 26 minutes, 50 seconds, according to official races results.

  Records show Rible also competed in:  

• The Avon 5K run at Avon-by-the-Sea on May 31, 2008 in 30:45.2.
• The five-mileJohnny Cobb memorial run in Belmar on July 12, 2008 in 49:22.2.
• The Sea Girt 5K on Aug. 3, 2008 in 28:14.2.
• The Neptune City 5K on Aug. 1, 2009 in 28:42.2'

But Rible doesn't feel that what he benefited from should be applied to others. Ironically, Assemblyman Rible has been a vocal critic of compensation paid to other public employees:

• In January 2009, Rible criticized a $500,000 severance package given to outgoing Rutgers University Athletic Director Robert Mulcahy. Although he has already collected over 600 thousand dollars from his own pension.
• In March of 2010, Rible introduced legislation to “reign in excessive salaries paid to school administrators.”  “This is absolutely outrageous,” said Rible. “It’s a blatant abuse of the system and one of the reasons our property taxes are so high.”

You can't be a true Republican fighting for fiscal responsibilty if you yourself are abusing the system. We need someone that will promote fiscal responsibility without hurting middle class working families. we need someone dedicated to creating jobs by bringing businesses and revitalizing neighborhoods with responsible redevelopment. We need a legislator that will not be looking to receive benefits....for himself.

Please Vote Tuesday June 4th In the Republican primary for a candidate that will be dedicated to helping himself by helping us all together.