Fiscal Year 2024 K-12 State School Aid - NJ DoE

 Well, here we go - the K-12 School Aid numbers for Fy 2024 from the NJDoE website:

By County:

Middlesex County by School District:

Top 25 State Aid increases in the State:

Bottom 25 State aid increases in the State:

Edison State School Aid - last 4 years and increases for last 3 years:

Anyhoo, let's see what the Board of Mythomania, aka Board of EdDems, Board of Dysfunction and without Doubt, Board of HOARDERS does with that $25.9 million (54.4%) increase in State Aid in their Preliminary FY 2023-24 School Budget up for approval on March 16th.

Edison State of the Township Address under Mayor Sam 'Mr. Shrink-flation' Joshi, aka the Malleable Marionette, the Weathervane Millennial

 Well, if you've been paying attention to what is and has been going on in this town under his stewardship and his all-Dem Council, then you have to realize the penalty you're paying for letting the Powers that Be from outside of town pick your Mayor. 

An inexperienced, ill-prepared Dem-party parasite who sold out the People of Edison for a chance to climb up the politically corrupt Dem-party ladder who brought nothing to the table from his time on the Council other than a demonstrated lack of credibility and trustworthiness. 

The guy's stewardship is a cartoon joke at best and a serious detriment to your pocketbook and any kind of transparancy at worst. His all-Dem Council is just a rubber stamp for his opaque agenda and a major gatekeeper into any scrutiny of his administration.

So, let me save you some time (and money) with his speech - Blah, Blah, Blah, look how good I'm doing - applause.

Anyhoo, Welcome to another year in Edison - Home of the 2017 Racist Flyer. Same old, same old Dem-party Leadership - just with less contents this time.

Oh boy..there's a shocker - who'd of 'thunk' Joe 'the Florist' Coyle would turn chameleon at screening time?!?

 Well, guess you gotta do what you gotta do to continue doing what they do to you.

Anyhoo, you get the type of poor governance you deserve - Enjoy.

Edison Town Hall doesn't have an information problem - it has an information block problem.

Well, when you have a 'Malleable Marionette' of the Powers that be from outside of town for a Mayor, you need another ill-prepared person to carry on the ineptness as Council President.

Welcome to the newbie Council President John 'Joshi's Mini-me' Poyner.

 

If you watched Wednesday's meeting with maybe 3 or 4 people in attendance and No Department Heads available to answer questions, except the BA - you can see this guy is clearly not equipped, prepared or ready for prime time and it shows.

Problem with having one of Joshi's County ticket guys in the lead is the continuation of the non-dissemination of information to the public about what his Administration is doing - as was the modus operandi with Joe 'the Florist' Coyle in the lead.

It's bad enough that you can't get any information from this Council about the Administration but it looks like some of the Council members can't either.

A Big Kudos though to those three or four residents asking questions at the podium. Not sure I caught their entire names and don't want to misspell their last names so I'll say Kudos to Bruce, Frank, Joel and Sue for raising important questions. Apologies if I got any of those names wrong.

To make matters more to Joshi's benefit - look at the stacking of the Committee assignments. 

N. Patel is Chair of 1 and on 2 others. 

Ajay Patil is Chair of 1 and on 3 others. 

Margot Harris is Chair of 1 and on 1 other. 

Joe Coyle is Chair of 2 and on 2 others. 

Joyce Ship-Freeman is Chair of 2 and on 1 other. 

Richard Brescher is Chair of None and on 1 other. 

John Poyner is Chair of None and on 4 others.

Here's the Committee List:

Time to wake-up and recognize you can't count on this Council to keep any Checks & Balances or provide any information on Mayor Sam 'Mr. Shrink-flation' Joshi's stewardship  and their meetings have become an embarrassment to watch.

As for a Public Advocate, get serious - they'll never let that happen. Joshi's administration would have a hard time explaining themselves.

The only way we could possibly get away from the one-party strangle-hold in this town is switch to Wards.

Anyhoo, we get what we vote for and we deserve the poor governance we get as a result.

Heads-up to Property tax season here in the 'DemBadLands' of Downtown Edison

 Well, it's that time of the year again when one hand washes the other and both hands pick your pocket from over there at 100 Oligarchy Blvd and Pierson Ave, at the cross-roads of Delusional and Dysfunction streets.

First up on March 16th - the $300+ million Bloated, Out-of-Control $pending Preliminary School Budget courtesy of the Board of Mythomania, aka Board of EdDems, Board of Dysfunction and last, but certainly Not least, Board of HOARDERS.

Pay attention folks - with Sam 'Mr. Shrink-flation' Joshi's outlandish Administrative $pending (including secretly raising his salary from $49k to $75k and then to $150k with Council approval along with giving themselves raises too) and Doug 'Mr. Hospitality' Schneider along with Jerry -ReferenDumb' Shi's infamous Hoarding at your expense in 2022, you might want to pay attention this year.

Here's the 2022 Current starting point for this years budgets and what you're currently paying in Property taxes:

Anyhoo, pay attention - it's your money.

When you Have No Checks & Balances, You Have a Dictatorship

You know, under the Faulkner Act, our government structure is commonly referred to as a 'Strong Mayor, Weak Council' form of government.

Well, given the latest disconcerting circumstances being brought to light by Keith Hahn, that's half-true.

We have a 'Weak Council.'

Hahn raises a good question about a lawsuit settlement back in September 2022 - 'Can someone explain how Mayor Joshi was able to settle a lawsuit for $752,000 with Democratic Committee woman Fran Bar-Eli when on December 10, 2019 it was then Council Vice President Joshi who led the charge to eliminate her position at the Library?

Seems a lawsuit was settled by Mayor Sam 'Mr. Shrink-flation' Joshi back in September 2022 without Council approval.

Now, how is that possible that such a settlement can bypass the Council, responsible for the purse strings, and be unilaterally done?

Even if it's paid through the insurance fund, doesn't the Council get to have a say and People of Edison have a right to know about this settlement?

When you have a Mayor making such unilateral decisions that completely bypasses any Checks & Balances - you don't have any form of representative government - You Have a Dictatorship.

Here's Hahn's video of 'Mayor Joshi in December of 2019 telling the Library Board they do not have to listen to their attorney in eliminating the position of Democratic Committeewoman Fran Bar-Eli. One lawsuit later and a secret $752,000 settlement later and three words pop into my head; pompous, arrogant and wrong.'

Wow - according to Hahn, 'in 2019 then Council VP Joshi led the effort to eliminate the position of Fran Bar-Eli at the library, leaving her without a job. In September of 2022 he secretly settled the lawsuit for $752,000. None of the Council members were informed of, or approved the settlement.'

Kudos to Keith Hahn for highlighting something that has long been a reality in this all-Dem party town - We Have No Checks & Balances here in the 'DemBadLands of Downtown Edison.

Anyhoo, looks like the town has gone off the rails under the ill-prepared and ill-equipped stewardship of Mayor Sam 'Mr. Shrink-flation' Joshi, aka Big-boy pants, the Weathervane Millennial and the Council has turned a blind eye to it.

Current Salaries - Edison Board of Education

 As usual (with now $300 million plus School Budgets) this time of year - I made an OPRA Request for the Current Salaries. That request asked for the current salary file by year, name, location, department, title and total salary.

In response, I received a data file by name, location, title, salary and year.

According to this file, there are 2,147 employees with total current salaries of $159,802,072.

I put together a couple of summaries of this file; one that shows the salaries by salary range with corresponding average, median, high and low salaries for each salary range and, an Excel data table which will allow you to sort and drill down into the file by any of the file headings of name, location, title, salary or year.

This page doesn't accomodate drop-down tables so if anyone wants this Excel file, just drop me an email and you're welcome to it.

In summary, this file indicates that 33.6% of the employees representing 51.9% of the total salaries make $100,000 and above.

Here's the summary by salary range:

Here's a sort of the table which shows the Top 25 Salaries:

Here's another sort which shows Principal salaries:

Anyhoo, always helpful to see what makes up the single largest expenditure in the School Budget.