Elections Day Special.
The people of New Jersey often wonder where does all the billions of money from the road-tolls go?
I came to a conclusion that collecting tolls is simply a time honored tradition. After all, the New Jersey’s delegates to the Constitutional Convention were late because they stopped to collect tolls, as well as trying to collect tolls from the Continental Army (which prompted an angry letter from General Washington to the New Jersey legislature which resonates as truth to this day).
Richard Stockton, the signer of Declaration of Independence from New Jersey, hedged his bets by also signing the a loyalty oath to England. The only signer to do so (and we named a college after him). That’s almost like having an elected official being a member of the workers’ union he/she is supposed to negotiate with (according to Bob Ingle’s Blog post “Union Federation Runs Election Boot Camp” New Jersey has five of these, while the other 49 states have nine – combined!).
Bob Ingle
Bob Ingle (Politics Patrol – The Bob Ingle Blog | @bobingle99) has co-authored the New York Times bestseller “The Soprano State” (buy | review) together with fellow journalist Sandy McClure. The book is funny half way through until you realize that that it’s all true (and well documented in the back) which is why New Jersey has the dubious honor of having some of the highest taxes in these United States.
Here “corruption tax” is felt everyday.
Q. The website www.sopranostate.com has an “update” section. Is there enough material for another book?
A. We created the Update section of thesopranostate.com to keep readers posted on the latest news about New Jersey corruption. It has been suggested there is enough there for a second book and a second book would probably use some of that material but it would be more than that.
Q. It is amazing that the people of New Jersey put up with such shenanigans, why?
A. The most asked question we get is “Why do New Jerseysans tolerate this?”
I wish I had a great answer.
I think some who never lived anywhere else think this is the case all over. Some people are so busy working two and three jobs to support their families they don’t have time to keep up or fight the crooks. There are also those who benefit from the corruption and they want to keep it.
Q. You referred to New Jersey as having a “culture of corruption”, how so? Is that why is it so difficult to root it out?
A. When you look at the big picture it is clear that corruption is so deeply ingrained it is a part of the state’s culture — and has been since before the Garden State was a state
Q. How long did it take to write the book?
A. It took about two years to research and write the book. But the work included represent decades of work by me, Sandy McClure and many of the great reporters in New Jersey.
Q. What was the reception of the book outside of New Jersey?
A. Outside New Jersey they love it. They think it is the funniest book they read all year. Seeing ads for the book in foreign languages is interesting. In some languages all I recognized is Bob Ingle. That’s the same in any language.
Shameless plug disguised as a wise ass question: Why do you love ManOfLaBook.com so much and often visit the website?
Wise Guy Answer: I like books and I like good book reviews so I come to ManofLaBook.com and get my fix.
The “Soprano State” movie came out last month and St. Martin’s Press just came out with a movie tie-in version of the book. Congratulations to Bob & Sandy for their success – you can buy the tie-in version of the book, a fascinating read to say the least.
Thanks to Bob for answering. I have been a follower of Bob’s articles & blog long before the book came out.
Zohar – Man of la Book.
3 Comments
The Soprano State should be required reading for anyone who lives and pays taxes in New Jersey. Thank GOD for Chris Christie, but I think that The Soprano State was a huge wake-up call for those of us who didn’t truly know HOW bad things were. As you said, we were all too busy working two jobs in order to pay the $16,000 per year property taxes!
What’s sad is how many familiar names were in the book: People we grew up with, people we do business with, and people running our schools!
Great interview! Looking forward to seeing the movie in Flemington next weekend!
Thanks for the comment Alison, I also think the Soprano State should be required reading. That being said, everyone in NJ knows that corruption is rampant but we still vote the same crooks into office.