Making sure every dollar counts  Thurman Hart/NJ Voices By
Thurman Hart/NJ Voices on April 17, 2010 at 8:55 AM, updated
April 17, 2010 at 7:51 PM We chose not to use gimmicks or band
aids to hide the budget gap or defer it until next year, when it
would be even worse. We refused to repeat the failures of the
past. - - --- Governor Chris Christie, Feb. 11, 2010  Here's a
general financial question: Is a loan at 300% interest ever a
good deal? If you said, "Yes!" then I have some money to lend.
If you said, "No!" then we're on the same page. And you'll have
to wonder what's up with this little bit of information: The
state's Economic Development Authority has approved the sale of
as much as $2 billion. Don't worry, the sale will probably only
be a paltry $1.6 billion.  I want to pause here to gain some
context. A billion dollars is an insane amount of money. If I
were to give you a dollar per second, it would take eleven-and-
a-half days to give you one million dollars. I would need to
shell out a thousand bucks