Christie's own panel says he's failed on pension reform

With many businesses closed and residents off from work, the Jewish New Year effect was evident on Cedar Lane in Teaneck on Thursday afternoon, above. But some employers, including The Record, refuse to give Jewish employees paid time off for Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

The Record's editors couldn't bring themselves to put the story on Page 1 today, but a panel named by Governor Christie says the GOP bully has failed miserably to reform the public-employee pension system.

And the two Trenton reporters assigned to the story jumped through hoops to soft pedal the criticism from the nine-member panel (A-3).

"The report played down the impact of reforms passed in 2011, which Christie has held up as a model for other states [italics added]," Staff Writers John Reitmeyer and Melissa Hayes say.

Tax hike pushed

The lead paragraph emphasizes the "attention grabbing figures" offered by the panel:

"Every New Jersey household would have to write a $12,000 check just to close the $37 billion gap in pension funding ... and the state would need to double the amount of tax money dedicated for all benefits to 20 percent of the state budget."

To close a "$90 billion drain on future budgets," one of the options is "additional tax revenue" -- such as a surcharge on millionaires -- "something Christie states is not an option," according to the story.

Need money for roads 

Despite mounting evidence Christie's rigidly conservative no-tax policies are wrecking the state economy, The Record's editorial editor refuses to urge the governor to back an increase in the gas tax.

"You aren't going to fix New Jersey roads and bridges without money," is the introduction to an editorial on the state's broken Transportation Trust Fund (A-12).

Besides ignoring the fund also pays for mass-transit improvements, the editorial wimps out on recommending a hike in the gas tax -- apparently out of fear that would alienate the car dealers whose ad revenue has made the Borg publishing family rich.

Big wheel

Is it just a coincidence the last name of Afzal "Bobby" Khan rhymes with "con" (B-1)?

A group of people who owned Porsches, Bentleys and BMWs allege Khan sold their cars on consignment, never paid them and never transferred the titles.

Khan's luxury car dealership, Emporio Motor Group, is on Route 17 in Ramsey.

Terra firma

Today, Staff Writer Elisa Ung gives 2.5 stars to Terra, an Englewood restaurant that opened in May next to bergenPAC, replacing the Grand Cru Wine Bar.

Or, as her poorly edited sentence says, "Terra opened ... in the site of the former Grand Cru Wine Bar [italics added]."

The owners, Ung says, are Steven Sotland, previously a managing partner of Grand Cru, and his wife.

But the review doesn't say whether Stephen and Jennifer Borg still have an interest in Terra, as they once did in Grand Cru.