At the start of the Independence Day weekend, Senate President Sweeney and Gov. Christie stood at a podium and announced an accord on their very different property tax cap proposals. Notably absent was Assembly Speaker Sheila Oliver who said during the final hours of negotiation that she wasn't part of any closed-door deal. And in fact, she actually left the state house before Christie and Sweeney's joint press conference. That left a lot of people wondering what she might say or do when she came back to Trenton.
But this afternoon, Oliver now says she won't "stand in the way" of the agreement to lower the property tax cap from its current 4% to 2%.
Oliver also talked about why she ditched the much-heralded press conference Saturday. It was because the two men had already hammered out a deal before consulting her:
Why should I participate in a photo op for something I know nothing about? [snip] I wasn't upset. I won't call it upset. I just felt that the General Assembly as an institution ... should have been afforded a little more recognition in terms of the protocol of how government works.
How does that make you feel about Trenton, Blue Jersey?
