Deminski: While your house falls apart, NJ will spend your money renovating theirs

That headline pretty much sums up how I feel about Governor Christie's announcement that $300 million is about to be spent on renovating the Statehouse. I think it's a shame.

The Statehouse was constructed in 1792. At 224 years old, Christie implored reporters to "really look what this place looks like" and says the deteriorated building shouldn't be the symbol of the state. I couldn't disagree more. Considering the way New Jersey as a state and we as a people have been neglected for so long with one scam after another I think the deteriorated building is a PERFECT symbol for this state. Didn't we just read that New Jersey leads the nation in distressed mortgages? That means we lead the nation in foreclosures or mortgages in arrears and heading there. Aren't we drowning in unfairly high property taxes that no politician has the will to truly fix? Didn't we just go through a huge gas tax hike because of raiding funds and years of kicking the can down the road by those very trolls who work in that deteriorating Statehouse?

How many of us have renovations our own homes could desperately use but we cannot afford because of living in this far too expensive state? Yet we don't have the luxury of taking money from other people in the form of taxes and getting the work done. But they will take $300 million that you all collectively paid to restore their own house. Fair? You tell me.

The governor says the condition is deplorable. That there are code violations that the HVAC doesn't work well. That there are safety issues. That windows are practically falling out and that he would not be proud to show off the Statehouse to visitors. Good. You shouldn't be. Because the Statehouse is the very symbol of neglect and hard times that this government continues to hand all of us. Maybe it's time they lived in the reality they created for a few more years. Just like the rest of us have to.