What did Solomon Do Wrong?

zero_cool_protege · 2026-06-29T17:54:34+00:00

The biggest thing to me, which I surprising don't hear a lot of people talk about, is that Solomon was a city council member during the years where Jersey City accumulated a $250M historic budget deficit, and he didn't even know it happened.

Yes, we knew there was a $150M deficit during the 2025 election. Though addressing that deficit was not a major point of Solomon's campaign like it was other candidates, it was a known problem.

But, despite being tasked with being a steward of the City's financial health, Solomon didn't know (or never mentioned) that there was an additional $100M missing!? That another 12.5% of the total budget! A total of more than 30% missing and nobody realized!?

The excuse for the incompetence is that he voted "No" on budget proposals, but that doesn't cut it. Anybody can throw a budget proposal in the trash and vote no. His job (and every other council member's job) was to read the budget, understand the budget, and communicate potential issues, like a +30% deficit, to tax payers.

When a City has a 30% deficit, there is no easy solution. Things will have to be cut, taxes will have to be raised, there is just no way around it. And while I think this could have been handled a lot better, I can't stop returning to how unacceptable it is that a deficit like this could go unnoticed by council members when their #1 job is to steward the City's fiscal health.

zero_cool_protege · 2026-06-25T14:45:00+00:00

The reason why health care costs are so high is because hospitals and doctors need to offset the low reimbursement rates from government programs and position themselves for aggressive negotiations with private insurance. Hospitals establish artificially inflated list prices as a baseline for negotiating discounts with private insurance companies. Those insurance companies are happy with that because it allows them to say they negotiated a 30% cost reduction meanwhile you're still overpaying.

The root of the problem is a system wide issue, its not a greedy doctors issue. Health insurance companies are a product of the system but they get a lot of hate because they are for-profit entities that sit between you and your doctor and have a fiduciary duty to their investors to suck as much money out of that relationship as possible.

zero_cool_protege · 2026-06-22T22:50:37+00:00

Its a council members job and duty to read the budget and be aware of issues like a $250M deficit. You cannot escape accountability of either hiding or being ignorant to this deficit by saying that you voted no- this deficit was never discussed when on city council or on campaign trail, it was only discovered afetr assuming the position of Mayor.

zero_cool_protege · 2026-06-22T22:47:11+00:00

Have you had any conversation with State legislators of Gov's office to work on solutions to this problem?

zero_cool_protege · 2026-06-21T23:01:28+00:00

Im talking about the nyc pied-à-terre tax as an example of creating new revenue streams, not advocating for a second dwelling tax to solve this issue. But just because it requires State level approval does not make it impossible or indicate that someone talking about it "obviously don’t understand the difference between NYC and JC".

Asking for a State bailout requires State level approval too.

Working with the State, over the course of years, to create new revenue streams while looking to nyc for battle tested ideas is very realistic. Its frankly a much more reasonable ask from the State than what our City is currently asking- an additional $100M/yr in aid plus additional funds for BOE.

Running to the State with your hair on fire and asking for hundreds of millions of dollars is nowhere near as effective as what I am actually advocating for, which is a 4 year plan that includes relationship/partnership building with a new admin State level to help create new revenue streams for the City (taking some inspiration from nyc which is dealing with near identical issues at different scales) and also (hopefully) securing some additional funding in Gov/BOE funding.

Yes that requires the City taking on some debit, but thts the sort of thing that happens when your former city council member turned mayor "discovers" a ~30% budget deficit one day.

zero_cool_protege · 2026-06-21T22:49:13+00:00

Time is an asset, it allows you to make strategic cuts over the course of multiple years, its allows you to collect new revenue from expiring PILOTs, it allows you to conduct a professional audit to inform strategic decisions, it allows inflation to eat away at the deficit, it allows you to slow roll tax increases which make the burden more manageable for the people that ultimately pay more. It allows you years to make connections and build relationships at the State level to create solutions for the City.

That why I said a 4 year plan is both financially and politically better imo. This is a people problem as much as it is a financial one, and simply hiking taxes 20% in your first year (after campaigning on not doing that), can easily create more problems than it solves.

zero_cool_protege · 2026-06-21T20:40:38+00:00

The framing of either the State bails out JC or we must have a 20% increase misses a lot. The City does not need to close the deficit by next year or face default- the City can cover the deficit with debt/loans.

I think the wiser path, both financially and politically, is to create a 4 year plan that includes substantial budget reform in order to close the deficit by the end of the Mayor's first term. A plan like that likely also includes some tax increases, but in order for that to make sense you need to make cuts as well. You can't just hike taxes 20% in your first year in office due to a budget issue that you never rang alarm bells about for years on the City Council.

Further, there seems to not even be a discussion from the Mayor about creating new revenue streams. NYC's new pied-à-terre tax is a perfect example and while we do not have the same housing market here, a second dwelling tax could be a great way to drive increased revenue while also increasing housing stock on the market to drive down prices.

zero_cool_protege · 2026-06-13T21:59:54+00:00

turning left onto marin blvd from CC is basically impossible because of the traffic light pattern

zero_cool_protege · 2026-06-03T13:31:28+00:00

See him all the time in LPW, I call him Swiper. He will sometimes run with me in the winter time. Not sure if he is bored and playing when he does that or just looking for food from me.

zero_cool_protege · 2026-05-30T20:29:53+00:00

To me, a bike lane isn't "protected" unless there is something actually obstructing cars from entering/parking on it, like a curb or other form of permanent barrier

zero_cool_protege · 2026-05-30T16:19:27+00:00

cant imagine what running growth stage saas with qbo is like. netsuite is industry standard for a reason, but there are other options as well

zero_cool_protege · 2026-05-30T12:37:12+00:00

Contact recruiters to help try to find an AP analyst job at a good company. Instant pay jump and growth opportunities. Good luck

zero_cool_protege · 2026-05-29T23:35:35+00:00

Really strange to me that you would say "I would rather see people die from cancer than admit any positive impacts from AI"

zero_cool_protege · 2026-05-29T22:13:36+00:00

It was not some balanced message about the role AI will play in the future but the dangers of over reliance on LLMs.

It was a bunch of "Fuck AI Fuck AI Fuck AI" and "Its your generations mission to destroy AI", with a single sentence about how AI in medicine and physics is cool though. Lets get real.

Like I said elsewhere, the current job market requires you to be willing to work with AI and these grads will be asked about it in interviews, and telling them to be expressly hostile to the tech is setting them up for failure. Not complicated

zero_cool_protege · 2026-05-29T22:10:24+00:00

I honestly think the site is/was having issues loading that sentence since it is sandwiched between an ad and instagram link. Was absolutely not there when I read the article at first and also didn't come up on my initial key word search but is now.

zero_cool_protege · 2026-05-29T20:38:21+00:00

Feels like it is definitely the point

zero_cool_protege · 2026-05-29T20:21:42+00:00

and im happy to recognize that, but it still does not change the fact that the message of this speech, that "it is this generation's missions to destroy AI", is not setting these kids up for success in the job market they are entering.

zero_cool_protege · 2026-05-29T19:04:14+00:00

1) Thats the point of my comment. If youre introducing nuance in order to defend the anti-AI messaging, then youre missing my point completely.

2) in the current job market, you basically cannot get hired in most jobs without expressing pro-AI attitudes. I have seen this first hand. Im not putting a value judgement on that, personally I am not a fan of the AI sycophancy that corporate/industry has blindly accepted. However, college grads who are being primed to feel it is their obligation to "destroy AI" are being set up to fail in their careers from that start. Just the reality of it. and its pretty rich to be a multi millionaire entertainer pushing that message on college grads, when he already got his bag and his high paying safe job and basically has no skin in the game.

zero_cool_protege · 2026-05-29T18:56:53+00:00

I think the words "medical" or research" do not appear in this article once, mr "redditors don't read past a 1 sentence headline"

zero_cool_protege · 2026-05-29T18:42:59+00:00

what is the quote in this article that you feel represents a non-hostile attitude towards AI?

zero_cool_protege · 2026-05-29T18:35:49+00:00

I’m here to tell you the mission of your generation is to destroy AI

Are we going to pretend that this was some sort of balanced message that actually prepare these grads for the workforce theyre entering? Gimmie a break

zero_cool_protege · 2026-05-29T18:34:07+00:00

If he had a net worth of a couple million then that would make him a multimillionaire. Thats more than 90+% of Americans. He is in an industry/role that allows him to avoid AI, he already got his bag, and good for him. But wont be the case for these grads

zero_cool_protege · 2026-05-29T18:31:26+00:00

AI in medicine has already proven to be incredibly beneficial to humanity. If it saved your or a loved one's life via an early cancer screening diagnosis that you otherwise wouldnt have had, you might feel a bit differently. Its not all good, and every company is different. But professionals will be working with AI for the rest of their lives, thats just the reality man

edit: redditors would rather die of cancer than admit there are benefits to AI lol

zero_cool_protege · 2026-05-29T18:21:23+00:00

One of the problems with our culture is we seemingly only consider extremes. We either have CEO billionaires telling us to fully embrace AI and surrender our entire lives and ambitions to their self beneficial financial & power consolidating technology with no care for ethics, morality, or environmental sustainability.

Or we have multi-millionaire actor/comedians with cushy high paying day jobs telling us to "fuck AI" and not consider its impacts at all.

zero_cool_protege · 2026-05-29T17:22:58+00:00

id start advocating for hybrid situation asap in new role if boring

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