LETTER: How can Hoboken Democrats praise Senator Stack as a leader?

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In a letter to the editor, longtime state Senator (D-33)/Union City Mayor Brian Stack critic Joe Blaettler asks how Hoboken Democrats can praise the state legislator as an effective leader. 

Stack-Hoboken

Dear Editor,

Having watched and read the recent story published by the Hudson County View titled “Bhalla Rallies Hoboken Dems to Elect Stack as the Next HCDO Chairman,” I could not believe how many elected officials actually state that Brian Stack is all about the people of Hoboken.

Yes, if you like a card for your Birthday, a free Turkey, hot dog or handout then yes, Brian is your guy. If you are looking for fair representation in Trenton, I suggest you look elsewhere.

Mayor Bhalla was quoted as follows: “There are a lot of issues where we just do not get our fair share of the pie: we subsidize a lot of the streets and roads, the parks, the jail, the courthouse and we pay the highest percentage of taxes.”

While the statement is true, the reason is not solely the fault of the county. A bigger reason is Senator Stack’s failure to secure proper funding for Hoboken where he serves as Senator and should provide equal representation.

While Stack is successful in securing hundreds of millions of dollars for Union City, what does he secure for Hoboken? When you go to Union City you will see new schools, swimming pools, parks and roads all paid for with state dollars.

Can anyone tell me the last time Brian Stack secured money for a new school in Hoboken? How about a swimming pool or new police station? Recently, I drove down Washington Street in Hoboken and I thought I was in Bagdad, Iraq.

I was lucky to escape without blowing out the tires on my car. However, go to Union City and look at all the new roads. A few years ago, Stack secured $2.7 million from the Port Authority for new roads in Union City; what did Hoboken get? Zero.

If Stack cares so much about Hoboken why is he not getting funds to redo Washington Street? Three years ago, Stack got Christie to give him a five-million-dollar loan to balance the Union City budget, how much of the loan did Hoboken get? Zero.

Last week, the new school aid figures were released. Union City was awarded a 9 million dollar increase, increasing their overall funding to $190 million a year from state taxpayers. The levy to Union City taxpayers is 5%.

What did Hoboken get? Zero percent increase with a total annual funding of $10 million from the state. Whereas Union City taxpayers only contribute 5% locally for education, Hoboken taxpayers are forced to pay 54.5% locally to fund their schools.

Where has Stack been in fighting for school aid for Hoboken? Maybe this is one reason Hoboken taxes are so high. Stack seems to get a lot of state funding for Union City but nothing for Hoboken.

Now that Brian Stack wants to take over the county he comes to Hoboken asking for support, and local politicians stand next to him praising him. Did any of them ask Senator Stack before we commit to you, what have you done for us lately?

No, like typical politicians they follow the bosses lead and blow smoke up the public’s butt.

While Bhalla gets what he wants– Mayor of Hoboken and then a second high paying job with a politically connected law firm, and Stack gets to be the next Chairman of the HCDO, Mayor, Senator and King, what do the people of Hoboken get?

Just more lip service about taxes which are too high and it is ‘everyone else’s fault.’

I find it ironic that many have attacked and questioned Councilwoman Jen Giattino for being a Republican. Yet Brian Stack endorsed Chris Christie (the worst Governor New Jersey ever had) two times and called Christie the “best Governor ever” (he left office with a 14% approval rating).

Stack’s fellow Democrats in Hoboken forget history and give him a free pass. Christie was the “best Governor ever” for Union City. He gave them hundreds of millions of dollars to bail out Stack. What did Brian Stack’s friend and “best Governor ever” do for Hoboken?

Nothing, he was too busy taking care of Stack. The point is, Stack is out for Stack. Since most politicians are afraid of him, they stand behind him like sheep being led to slaughter, lying to the public about how great he is.

As a friend once said about Stack “If you’re looking for a handout, Brian Stack is your guy. If you are looking for a hand up, don’t expect help from Stack.”

Joseph Blaettler
ECPINJ
P.O Box 219
Brookside, NJ 07926


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31 COMMENTS

  1. Notice Stack doesn’t say a darn thing about helping Hoboken. It’s all “me, me, me.” Ravi stands up there saying Hoboken gets a seat at the table. Stack listens and then says nothing about Hoboken getting a nickel.

    What deal did Ravi get from Stack? He got a political payoff – for himself.

    • Very few people in Hoboken have even a rudimentary understanding of County politics. The smart ones understand there is much they don’t know and try to figure out what is really going on as best they can. The stupid ones make up self serving narratives to fill in the blanks and genuinely believe stuff they have literally made up in consultation with other stupid people and the voices swirling around in their heads.

      Nobody knows everything and lack of knowledge doesn’t make one stupid. But genuinely believing you know stuff about which you obviously objectively have no clue, and creating lunatic narratives around the stuff you’ve made up (and believing it) makes one stupid or delusional or both.

      The Hoboken election exposed some people who had made a career out of speaking authoritatively about things they didn’t actually know and/or didn’t fully understand as the frauds they always were. As a result, their “careers” as “smart knowledgeable objective people explaining to folks not paying attention what is really going on” are over.

      Their new careers are as angry, nasty self absorbed bufoons laughed at by some, pitied by others, and taken seriously by few.

      • When are you going to finally make a case defending Ravi’s Republic law firm contract with his second job? How many of these shady deals can he do before you apologize for putting corruption into the mayor’s chair?

        What’s your role in the Ravi-Russo deal? How about telling the public something useful like what Ravi gets for selling out Hoboken in this latest scam in the Ravi-Stack deal?

        Stop your worthless preening and tell us something that actually matters on these issues that cost Hoboken dearly.

        You did it, own it!

      • Actually you can do a quick search on the internet and see how many times Stack and those around him have been investigated and what for. It is a number of times. It’s a fact. Just because Sacco is old style politics and possibly his time is over doesn’t make everyone else good. This certainly merits an explanation from anyone claiming to be a reformer who thinks this is ok. Your claiming that this is “insider baseball” won’t work. We have the internets now and we can use it to confirm facts about this man.

        • Don’t offer condolences, Shadowstan is no white (hat) horse but an enabler and insider behind Ravi. He’s not commenting to illuminate the truth; he’s trying to bury it. He well knows the political deal Ravi cut with Stack. He also knows the deal cut with Hoboken’s crown prince of corruption, Michael Russo.

          His objective is to see the truth six-feet-under and attack the messenger but the funeral is his and Ravi’s. Everyone knows Stack is a vacuum sucking up tax dollars at an enormous rate. Union City is insolvent without $10 million plus subsidies annually from the state. This is all a con job of epic proportions.

    • As long as some here are making unfounded conspiracy theory’s, perhaps we should also ask what was the deal that Hoboken’s Michael DeFusco had to have to make with N. Bergen’s boss Nick Sacco to get behind his mayoral run ?

      • Old news. We know there’s no truth coming from UnTruthBeTold above. Ravi Robots continually try to distract from what Ravi’s doing and his deals with Russo, Stack and his Republican law firm pals. Pathetic.

  2. Why don’t you give back your huge pension you pig? You have an ax to grind because Stack wouldn’t make you chief. Come to think of it you wanted him to bump out a minority for you. Stack did, does, and always will stand for diversity. Go look for attention in Morris County where you live you paid political hack. How much is Joey Muniz paying you these day? Scumbags.

    • What diversity you talking about? Tell me one minority commissioner in Union City that can run their own department. Brian you are a dictator stop lying to the people, you buy poor voters with turkey and register undocumented individual to vote for you. If you are soo good why you dont resign from your senate seat stop double office holding and allow a minority to take your place? is all kool aid talk! you are the problem Brian Stack not the solution.

      • So then shouldn’t Mayor/Senator Sacco also resign ?

        North Bergen Mayor Sacco had his own machine come into Hoboken to back Hoboken First Ward Councilman DeFusco run for mayor and one of his politically connected law firms is handing out freebie legal work for him.

        • Ravi should resign. It beats being arrested. Three months in and Hoboken people are disgusted with the broken promises and selling out City Hall for personal gain.

          • What about the queen of bile and smear against her former friends?
            The attacks by queen of the cave against Jen alone should be enough to prove how mean the Bhalla gang can be.
            Attacking her on a daily basis.
            Mocking Tiffanie
            Suggesting Lenz is doing something dishonest ( after Lenz provided her a deposition that nailed the plaintiff )
            Attacking Indie on her facebook page

            Someone who really cares about her would normally intervene, but all those people are with Jen… Ravi’s using her and paid her to produce so much bile and distortion.

        • yes! double office holding is wrong, too much dough to the city the senator is a mayor and screw the rest! also Deguise should call for a review of voter registration in union city! lot of voters dont have citizenship and are illegal immigrants!

          • sacco holds a few jobs too. love to see dems eat each other alive. sanctuary state phil, i got your back phil. and now the racist dems want to investigate illegal alien voter fraud in uc. Love it.

  3. Hey, Paid Political Hack, while you go off on a tirade simply because someone pointed out the truth, I don’t see anything in your post denying the fact that Stack does nothing for Hoboken. That is the subject of the article and you obviously don’t want to let facts get in the way.
    Hoboken has to carry it’s own weight and Mayor 32% seems perfectly comfortable selling out Hoboken in order to gain favor with the Boss on the hill.

    • Hoboken has long carried it’s own weight and much more of the finacial burden for Hudson County.

      Unlike the County, Hoboken has learned to live within it’s means and has held the line on tax increases.

      Hudson County has annually increased taxes by double digits under it’s current leadership and repeatedly short change the taxpayers of Hoboken who give the County far more revenue then it gets in benefits.

      Hoboken taxpayers now pay more in taxes to Hudson County then they do to their own city.

  4. This from a guy the press referred to Joseph Bleattler as poster boy for the government pension system gone wrong . His $135,000.00 a year pension will cost taxpayers $4,500,000.00 if he survives to be 80 years old.

  5. Not a fan of ex-Governor Christy but when Hoboken’s Saint Ann’s hospital was in dire jeopardy of finacial collapse and closing putting Hoboken taxpayers on the hook for a $50M bill he stepped in with the funds to keep it going. Sure he may have wanted to get a big pay day for his Republican developer friends at Hoboken’s detriment but Mayor Zimmer kept that from happening.

  6. I think there are good points made in this letter to the editor. Some people seem ready to shoot the messenger but the fact is that Stack does work very hard to get money from County and State sources and that is how he gets re-elected year after year. If he was just Mayor of Union City that would be one thing but as State Senator he has a responsibility to his constituents in his district which includes Hoboken.

    Hoboken has historically got the shaft from the county and whether it’s Nick Sacco, Brian Stack or Tom Degise (who has been eating Hoboken’s cheese). My take on Brian is he is just funneling money to where he thinks it’s needed most in part because it’s the right thing to do but also to consolidate political power. Since there is only so much money to go around and since Zimmer apparently asked very little from the county in the last 8 years Hoboken gets very little in return.

    It does not make Brian Stack a bad guy for his constituents in Union City; they in fact love him, but the constituents in Hoboken as affluent as they are still have many lower income residents that could use some of those services Stack lavishes on Union City.

    I think he is a dedicated public servant but I will not sign a pledge card until I see more dedication come Hoboken’s way.

    • There you go again pretending to be a knowledgeable insider while you spout fake “facts” you just pull out of your ignorant ass. County political issues are well beyond your limited pay grade. In fact, most local Hoboken issues are as well, since patronizing pomposity does not equal knowledge or understanding. Cast your solitary vote any way you please. Fortunately, Mayor Bhalla’s ability to advance Hoboken’s interests in Hudson County Democratic politics is not dependent anything you do do or say.

      • What fake facts? I was in the room at the Hoboken meeting with Stack and when I mentioned the county giving very little back to Hoboken under Degise he nodded in agreement. In fact the whole room did including Ravi.

        As far as the analysis part of my comment I think it’s pretty spot on. Just saying supporting Stack will yield good results because Ravi is behind him does not translate into more services for Hoboken. That reeks of Ravi robot talk. I only have one vote but you can take your 32% plate of diminishing plurality and wish all you want. It does not mean Hoboken will benefit in any way other than Ravi in a self serving way.

        I hope to be surprised but with history as my guide not too hopeful. Some insider you are. It does not take a lot of knowledge to know all the current county players view Hoboken as their ATM machine. All you can do is lob insults like Bhalla’s paid for political attack dog Nutso Nancy.

        The only pomposity on this thread is from your craven distorted mind talking about pay grade and lobbing insults to a measured post. Do you even know how much Hoboken pays in County taxes each year? How much do we get back in services? I know we get very little back for what we pay for. This is not rocket science.

        • If folks wonder why so much SPAM always appears on Heinis’ Hoboken stories, this is why: two narcissistic Hoboken jackasses with dead blogs pelt SPAM here like gorillas pelt their turds! That’s because the debased duo killed off their own online discussion venues. Let me introduce you:

          JACKASS #1:
          Alt-Right meet Alt-Wrong. Did you know that Alt-Wrong Slippery Hoofs steals stories and other content from the GA website without attribution? SHOCKING! Today’s word salad about Ravi (announcing he’s running a full ward slate)… Stole it. Left hoof prints all over the place. Today’s GA story said “Exclusive” but the Trailer Park Pony didnt have the class or honesty to add an attribution when he swiped the exclusive. No “according to GA…” Nope. Just lifted it. Oh, the Pilfering Pony pilfered her graphic recently– this really happened! GA merged Q& A docs in Photoshop, the next thing you know, her original graphic was on his dead website. Yep. Then he would not give her attribution for her work after she asked him to. Swear to God. Imagine, after all of that pilfering of her original content….the larcenous loser has the balls to whine like a b*tch on his deader than dead blog today because the gal has actual City Hall sources (and he doesnt!) His “zebra” wont talk to him–that’s a fact. Told me so. That is why Sippery Hoofs writes pulp fiction a.k.a. fake news on his dead blog. Yes, his blog stinks, he makes up names (usually Jewish ones) to comment to himself. And, he insists on lying that the GA is “paid”– more fake news– but not actionable. Though he is very close to the line. When he crosses it, he’ll lose his horse shoes. Oh yeah! Reap what you sow, Mr. Ed.

          JACKASS #2:
          Then there’s GIANT loser who is (heaven help us!) a public official. Oh the humanity! He kept his Resistance blog going for about 1 week. A readership issue? A censorship issue? No, a RESISTANCE issue. Readers resisted it. Traffic resisted it, too. In fact, there was simply no temptation to resist. Why? It sucked. 30% of his crappy articles complained about the GA website. So the GIANT toddler bloviates endlessly here, as if anyone cares, because he RESISTS his own dead blog. He also has very very thin skin… no jokes about synthetic sweeties, please.

          CONCLUSION: When you the reader chokes on their SPAM here, remember who is behind those thousand screen names. Free advice: avoid reading Hoboken comment threads.

          Signed,
          Not a Friend

  7. This writer is not saint, neither is double dipping Bhalla , double dipping Stack and triple dipping DeGise.

    They’re all the same.

    Too bad Zimmer thought Ravi Bhalla would carry on her legacy…

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