BY MICHAEL HAYNE

NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM

COMMENTARY

Old New Jersey residents no longer recognize their beloved state. New Jersey still faces high unemployment following the economic abortion of 2008, our governor refuses to increase the minimum wage in a state where the cost of living is outrageous, and residents still haven't seen their grotesquely high property taxes decrease.

If you're a multi-millionaire, then life has never been any better, especially since the governor continues to veto the millionaire's tax. Combine these hardships with the destructive effects of Superstorm Sandy and nearby Delaware isn't looking so dull anymore. Perhaps this explains why New Jersey residents recently told pollsters that they're less satisfied with the quality of life in the Garden State.

It seems that 60 percent of New Jersey residents surveyed by the Monmouth University Polling Institute now say the state is a good or excellent place to live, which poll director Patrick Murray says has decreased from the 72 percent who gave the state a positive rating in December, just weeks following Sandy.

"This drop that we're seeing right now has wiped out any gains it made even before that storm hit," Murray said. "The issue that we saw with Sandy was there was this feel-good attitude towards the state, that it was a good place to live, that people were pulling together, and that seems to have disappeared." (NewsWorks)

Not surprisingly, the areas with the most damage from Sandy saw the biggest drop. People in those areas are saying that all the initial attention and all the governor photo-ops quickly evaporated and now things aren't getting better as quickly as they'd like.

"And for the rest of the state, it seems to be kind of a return to normal. That post-Sandy sheen seems to have worn off," Murray said.