Union County Retirees – June, 2019 Update

Data on participants in the New Jersey Retirement System have been updated on the state website and, as we did in 2017 and 2018, here is  a spreadsheet, sorted by employer and name, of 17,242 retirees getting total annual benefits of $589,065,086 whose last Employer was in Union County. Of those there were 740 getting $29,314,083 who retired in the last year including these 83 who retired in the last year from Union County:

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Corruption Level: Puerto Rico vs. Union County

2019-640: Resolution in support of the resignation of the Puerto Rican Governor Ricardo A. Rosselló and the improvement of Puerto Rican lifestyle conditions.

Most people outside of government, where they get to define the term, would consider both Union County and New Jersey as rife with corruption (ie. pay-to-play, budget chicanery, who-you-know hires) so when the freeholders call out an area outside of the continental US for for their practices it is with some regret:
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But the point was made….

UCCF 7/25/19: That Was Never Five Minutes

It is supposed to be 5 minutes for comments but when you talk about voting machine snafus and the chair’s conflicts:
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County To Buy Cranford Property

From tonight’s agenda:

809-2019 BOND ORDINANCE TO AUTHORIZE THE ACQUISITION OF REAL PROPERTY IN THE TOWNSHIP OF CRANFORD FOR OPEN SPACE CONSERVATION AND RECREATIONAL PURPOSES IN, BY AND FOR THE COUNTY OF UNION, STATE OF NEW JERSEY, TO APPROPRIATE THE SUM OF $530,000 TO PAY THE COST THEREOF, TO MAKE A DOWN PAYMENT, TO AUTHORIZE THE ISSUANCE OF BONDS TO FINANCE SUCH APPROPRIATION AND TO PROVIDE FOR THE ISSUANCE OF BOND ANTICIPATION NOTES IN ANTICIPATION OF THE ISSUANCE OF SUCH BONDS.

Even though Open Space taxes bring in about $10 million annually, most of that money is appropriated for the county’s own budget leaving the need to borrow. But the ordinance is not up so we do not know which Cranford property the county is looking to buy.

What do you think?

Cut and Paster Scutari

That’s the picture USA Today used in their investigative report with this blurb under it.

UCIA/Aries Biosolids Scheme in Linden

Here is the scheme as I see it now:

1. Union County Improvement Authority (UCIA) sells $50 million in tax-exempt bonds;
2. UCIA loans most of that money to Aries Linden, LLC to refurbish a building owned by the Linden Roselle Sewerage Authority;
3. Bond default in 2022 after all the usual suspects have taken their cuts.

But maybe it is different this time so I did a little digging and this is what I came up with so far.

UCIA Doing Biosolids for $50 Million

You will recall from the last blog that the Union County Improvement Authority (UCIA) has gotten about $30 million* from county taxpayers since 2004, lately to keep from defaulting on bonds from an inane solar panel scheme. That amount is headed higher with another deal going down:

2019-529: Resolution of the Board of Chosen Freeholders of the County of Union, New Jersey providing the consent for the Union County Improvement Authority to undertake and implement the construction of a Biodosolids Processing Facility to be located in the City of Linden, New Jersey.