Shutdown hitting home
The Star Ledger reports that across the state, effects of the shutdown started to spread as the impasse entered its first non-holiday workday.
In Chatsworth, in the heart of the Pine Barrens, a private canoe rental service has had to cancel float trips for hundreds of participants, because the state shutdown of parks has led to a ban on boat trips on the rivers that flow through the parks.
"We are shut down until further notice," said Steve Sooy, manager of Pine Barren Canoe Rental. "Right now I can’t even put a canoe in the river."
For hundreds of state highway contractors, expecting to be logging hours on the 128 road projects the state has shut down since Saturday, the state budget stand-off is proving exceptionally costly.
"This is the height of the employment and construction season," said Phil Schifano, principal of Schifano Construction in Middlesex. Schifano has had to pull hundreds of workers from six ongoing state jobs since they were shelved on Saturday.
"Many of our employees who are not guaranteed work, this is a time of year when they make a considerable amount of money in overtime," he said. "For them it has a more dramatic impact.
On a personal side, I needed to renew my licence this past weekend and found the doors to the DMV closed. I was happy to here today that anyone who needed to renew in June is OK until July 1st and anyone who needs to renew in July has until the end of August.
The other part of this mess is what are they negotiating down in Trenton.. I just received an e-mail from the New Jersey State association of Realtors saying that one of the proposals is to tax "services" that could mean Real Estate services. I contacted the Governor’s office to let him know my opinion… Hope he listens.
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