What is going on in Newark?
On Tuesday, the city’s mayor, Ras Baraka, blasted Gov. Chris Christie for an impending 6 percent local property tax increase because of what he said was poor management of the state-operated school system, a criticism that provoked an angry response from Christie. Yet, just a day later, on Wednesday, the school board adopted the state regime’s $1 billion budget with the big tax increase potentially still there, because, said its newly elected president, Antoinette Baskerville-Richardson, Baraka would come up with $9.6 million to fill the budget hole-and ultimately prevent the tax increase.