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Middle-class candidate? Tell it to the Marines
Originally appeared in the Star Ledger on 10/11/01
I heard twice last night that Jim
McGreevey's father was a Marine Corps drill instructor.
That makes about two dozen times I've heard it in this
century. And I heard it maybe another dozen times in the
last century.
So what? My father was a Marine Corps drill instructor,
too. It taught me the same lesson that young Jim
McGreevey apparently learned: Whatever you do, don't join
the Marine Corps. Like Jim, I went into college instead of
the Corps, partly because my dad had given me a most
vivid impression of what life would be like on Parris Island.
So neither I nor Jim has much to brag about when it comes
to the Marines. So why does he keep bringing this up over
and over again?
My theory is that it's a heck of a lot easier to talk about his
dad than to talk about his predecessor as the Democratic
candidate for governor. That would be Jim Florio, and if
there's any bragging to be done in that area, McGreevey
can claim some credit, too. He cast the deciding vote for
Florio's tax increase, as Bret Schundler reminded the
audience several times in last night's debate.
"If there was no Jim McGreevey, there wouldn't have been
those increases," Schundler said in his summation. He
went on to add, "This man is worse than Jim Florio. You
will have the highest taxes in America. It will hurt us."
Schundler (whose dad was in the Army Air Corps, in case
you were wondering) made that statement in his closing
remarks. It summed up his case in his bid for governor.
McGreevey's case is not so easily summed up. He began
with a pledge to help New Jersey's middle-class families
by lowering property taxes. But he also gave his
wholehearted endorsement to the institution that has made
those property taxes the highest in the nation, our public
school system. Spending on public schools has more than
doubled in real dollars since the largely Democratic effort
to "reform" them, yet many are still awful even under
McGreevey's terms.
Asked to name the weaknesses of our school system,
McGreevey noted that there are 800 public schools in
which 30 percent or more of the students cannot read at
grade level. Given the fact that these schools are funded at
almost the highest level in the United States, that's the
sort of statistic Schundler should be citing. But McGreevey
said the cure is "accountability."
Schundler in his rebuttal pointed out that the schools
already are accountable -- but only to "politicians who only
care about the next election."
"The key is parental accountability," he said, and the way
to provide that is by school choice. He made a big pitch for
both charter schools and his tax credit plan for moving
more kids into private schools.
Both arguments have some appeal. McGreevey is clearly
aiming to make suburban parents fearful that Schundler's
plans would take away state aid from the local schools.
That's certainly a valid tactic, but if you delve a little deeper
into his math, you see that he has no plans to send any
money to the suburbs either.
There was his attack on Schundler's tax credit proposal for
moving kids into private schools, for example. McGreevey
said it would move a mere 80,000 kids out of the public
schools while costing $600 million. He said that's a bad
deal for taxpayers.
It isn't. That's a mere $7,500 per student. That's a savings
of about $4,500 a year from the average amount now spent
by the public schools, and that translates into a tax
savings of about $220 million a year.
McGreevey's argument is that we wouldn't save anything
because public schools wouldn't cut their costs to make
up for the lost enrollment. But that of course points up the
problem with the public schools. They don't respond to
market forces. Schundler argues that they should have to.
McGreevey says they shouldn't, but that is hardly the
argument of a man who will cut taxes.
Further insight into McGreevey's plans for the middle class
came when he attacked Schundler because the Jersey
City schools receive $311 million a year in state aid while
Woodbridge schools receive a mere $19 million. This was
a dishonest argument for two reasons. One is that in New
Jersey mayors don't run school districts, so the figures are
irrelevant for both Mayor McGreevey and ex-Mayor
Schundler.
The other reason is that McGreevey and his fellow
Democrats are for the most part the architects of the
funding plans that send disproportionate amounts of money
to urban schools. When I interviewed McGreevey in
August, I specifically asked him if he would change the
funding structure so middle-class towns like Woodbridge
would get the same proportion of aid as the cities. He said
he wouldn't.
It may be perfectly fine policy to give Jersey City 15 times
the school aid of Woodbridge -- and every Democrat I know
supports that policy -- but it does not benefit the middle
class. In fact, when you unspin them, none of McGreevey's
policies are aimed at helping the middle class. Another
question concerned the Mt. Laurel affordable housing
program that forces high-density housing on middle- class
suburbs. This might be a lovely program, but all the middle
class gets out of it is more traffic and higher taxes.
McGreevey is not in any way the candidate of the middle
class, except those members of that class who are in
public employee unions. Like any intelligent politician, he
has tailored his policies to benefit those people from whom
he expects to get the most votes -- the urban Democratic
machines.
Nothing wrong with that, but it would be refreshing if he
would come out and say so instead of talking about the
Marine Corps. And it would also be refreshing if he would
admit it is those very political machines that are
responsible for the problems he intends to use your tax
money to cure.
Oh wait. He did. In response to a question about reviving
Camden, McGreevey told the story of a minister who
complained about the fact that the snow in front of his
church still hadn't been plowed after four days.
He quoted the reverend as asking, "Why do the people
have to tolerate this?"
Let me guess, Jim: Because they voted Democratic?
Paul Mulshine is a Star-Ledger columnist.
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