In praise of those who protect and serve in Old Bridge
How can anyone think that Gov. Jon Corzine is courageous ("Governor's Actions Show Him To Be a Man of Great Courage," Letters to the Editor, Suburban, March 13)?

He has been in office almost two years and has done absolutely nothing to help the financial problems of the state. His big idea to help get us out of trouble is to do exactly what he says caused the problems, and that is to borrow more money. His big toll-increase plan was nothing more than a complicated scheme to allow the state to borrow more money. Luckily, not all the residents of New Jersey were too naive to see that.

He has wasted millions of state dollars to come up with this idiotic plan. Of course, the people he has paid millions of state dollars to for coming up with this idea were all political contributors, and the people who would have benefited from this plan also were all political contributors.

If Corzine had any courage at all, he would have done something the first year he was in office when he had the chance to reduce the state's contractual burdens for the future. Instead, he gave a big raise to the unions who helped get him into office and gave the rest of us a sales-tax increase.

Now, next year he can say there is

he can do to reduce the budget because of these same contractual obligations.

It's obvious Corzine thinks very little of the intelligence of the people of New Jersey. Of course we certainly give him reason to feel this way when we continue to put people in office who do nothing but waste our hard-earned money.

Now he is trying to scare us into falling for his budget schemes by saying he will have to close hospitals and parks. In the meantime, he has created numerous highpaying, do-nothing jobs for his buddies. He has done absolutely nothing to crack down on waste and fraud in the spending of our tax dollars. If he took care of that problem, he would not have to close anything.

Instead he has allowed the people controlling the money in this state to just squander it away. A good example of this is the state's purchase of $3 million worth of gas-guzzling sport utility vehicles (SUVs).With gas at $3.50 a gallon, tell me how this is going to help the state save money.

Wake up, people of New Jersey. You are being made fools of.
Laura Anderson
East Brunswick