The State of New Jersey is going bankrupt. The state transportation fund is basically empty; but, Christie refuses to raise the gas tax (one of the lowest in the nation) because it will hurt his White House dream.
“Why did the Transportation Trust Fund fail? Because legislators are irresponsible, and governors rewarded that irresponsibility,” Kean said. “It looked to them like a cash cow. They didn’t look to the future.” The trust fund failed because the LEGISLATURE spent it down buying a lot of votes without the need to find current funding. The way to curb that excess is not to keep giving them an unlimited source of revenue. Think of it like a guy who goes into bankruptcy. Probably best not to give him an unsecured $100k credit line.
http://www.northjersey.com/news/analysis-n-j-transportation-trust-fund-drained-and-state-lawmakers-blamed-1.1108657
Now, yesterday the State Supreme Court ruled that the state has to payback the $1.57 BILLION that the state cut from the pension fund to close last years budget gap. No one has a clue where that money is coming from.
"This budget was passed by the Legislature and signed by the governor with a pension payment. The governor will continue to work on a practical solution to New Jersey's pension and health benefits problems while he appeals this decision to a higher court where we are confident the judgment of New Jersey's elected officials will be vindicated." Keep in mind that the budget, which did include a pension payment, was passed by the Democratic Legislature. Whether or not you agree with the funding decision, the passage of the budget was bi-partisan. One could argue since the Dems have the votes to block anything the blame (or credit) for the budget can fairly be laid at the legislatures door step. It is probably best to withhold judgment until after Christie's budget speech tomorrow and until after the State appeal on the lower court decision is heard.
http://www.nj.com/politics/index.ssf/2015/02/judge_rules_christie_must_make_15b_pension_payment.html
Thus, in turn, the state I desperate to reduce funding to Rutgers (and all other higher education schools in the state). But, Rutgers is on the hook for $75 to $100 million for it's acquisition of UMDNJ and there is tremendous internal pressure to eliminate the 'subsidy that Rutgers pays to its athletic programs.
In an instant, Rutgers will become a 65,000-student school with a $3 billion budget. It will rank among the top 25 research universities in the nation, with more research spending than Harvard, Yale or Northwestern University. I wasn't in favor of the merger, but it is an aggressive move that positions RU to improve it's stature. Time will tell if the merger will pay off. The Robert Wood Johnston Foundation has pledged $12.5M toward (LINK) covering the estimated $76.3 million of merger costs, so that will offset the cost a bit. Barchi believes that he can fund the rest by deferring other costs. I'm skeptical but we'll see. Down the road the merger university should run more efficiently.
http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/20...iversity_makes_history_with_umdnj_merger.html
Thus, all of the money from the B1G and even their recent, successful endowment campaign is going to be used to pay-off that UMDNJ debt reduce the subsidy, and if any money is left, keep the golden goose, the football program, afloat. Everyone else within Rutgers athletics is SOL. The RAC is not being replaced. The Olympic sports are screwed. And the B1G can forget having a Rutgers ice hockey team anytime soon.
"Rutgers University, which long has lagged peers in fundraising, surpassed the $1 billion goal of the most ambitious fundraising plan in the school's history, the university will announce this morning. The campaign raised more than $400 million for faculty and research and brought in more than $300 million in new endowment. At the same time, more than $100 million in athletics funding was raised, with a big spike in donations as Rutgers began play in the Big Ten Conference" Tough to read that as bad news.
http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2015/01/rutgers_eclipses_1_billion_fundraising_goal.html
