There are no committee meetings scheduled today and just the Assembly will hold a voting session with twenty-four bills on the agenda. The Assembly will also commemorate Black History month.
There are consumer, public safety, energy, education and transportation bills up for a vote. A-2254 would restrict the towing of handicapped vehicles and requires 24-hour access to towed vehicles. A-658 makes it illegal to mail unsolicited checks that once cashed enroll consumers in costly programs. A-310 clarifies that both credit card and debit card account numbers must be truncated on sales receipts, including copies retained by merchants in order to prevent fraud.
I'll put the full list of bills up for consideration below the fold. If you can't make it to Trenton, you can follow along live here.
The clock is ticking on the lame duck legislative session. Both the Assembly and Senate have committee meetings today. The Senate has the Judiciary, Health, Budget and State Government Committees meeting. They will consider 26 bills and 23 nominations.
The Assembly has the Appropriations, Education, Environmental, Financial Institutions, Housing, Human Services, Judiciary, Labor, Regulated Professions, State Government and Transportation committees meeting. They will consider a total of 98 bills.
The Senate Health, Human Services and Senior Citizens committee will hear testimony from Congressman Frank Pallone, Jr. and invited guests on federal health care reform, and its implications for New Jersey.
The Assembly Education Committee will conduct a discussion with invited participants on charter schools, urban education, and strategies to address the needs of low-income students.
Here are stories about some of the Legislation that is pending before the Committees in Trenton. I'll put the full list of bills up for consideration in the committees below the fold. With everything that is on the agenda, an omission is the Marriage Equality legislation that has been sent back over to the Senate. Garden State Equality will still be holding their Lobby Day in Trenton hoping for a vote to come.
It's another day of lame duck with action in Trenton focusing on Senate Committees. The Assembly has a quorom scheduled for 1pm as well and Michael Symons explains at Capitol Quickies:
No committee meetings or floor votes are planned. But the quorum call will allow for new bills to be added to the Legislature's potential plate when it comes back to town in January. When the Assembly left after this past Monday's voting session, the plan was to not reconvene until Jan. 4th.
We'll have to see what they may add to the agenda for the new year. Over on the Senate side, four committees will meet.
The Senate Budget and Appropriations committee has just four bills listed including small wind energy legislation and dam restoration projects. The Commerce committee has the largest agenda with twenty five bills getting their day in Trenton. Some of those include medical malpractice liability insurance concerns, Tree care licenses and one that permits a three year payoff of accumulated deficits of municipal health insurance funds.
The Environment and Economic Growth Committee each have five bills up for consideration. Highlights include permitting for energy facilities, a fix to the site remediation act and renewable energy legislation.
The lame duck legislative session will get under way today in Trenton. Not only will they have committee meetings, but new Senators will take office including Jim Beach and Michael Doherty who won special elections. There will be leadership elections held in the caucus meetings with it likely that Steve Sweeney and Sheila Oliver will be the next leaders in their respective houses. There will also be supporters and opponents of marriage equality demonstrating for a lobby day today.
Six Senate committees meet. Included on the agendas are bills that let judges waive the mandatory minimums now required for drug-free school zone violations; expand prevailing wage rules to cafeteria contracts; require chain restaurants to put nutrition information on their menus; and boost penalties for repeatedly driving drunk or with a suspended license.
Seven Assembly committees meet. The bills on the docket include proposals to require more state revenue from casino taxes on seniors' transportation; extend prevailing wage rules to cafeteria contracts; prohibit smoking e-cigarettes in indoor workplaces and public places; and create a registry for adults with autism.
The two most talked about bills, marriage equality and medical marijuana are not scheduled for any action today. The Senate Labor committee will hear testimony from the Commissioner of Labor and Workforce Development about the impact of the current recession on New Jersey workers and businesses and the effectiveness of State, federal and local programs to assist workers and their families (including unemployment insurance, job training and job placement programs). I'll put the full agenda and schedule below the fold.
We now know the schedule for the upcoming lame duck Legislative session before the 213th Legislative session comes to a close:
On the Assembly side, committees are scheduled to meet on November 23 and 30, with committees at the call of the speaker scheduled for December 3 and January 4 if needed. Voting sessions are scheduled for December 7, along with January 7 and 11.
The Senate is scheduled to hold committee meetings on November 23, December 3, 7 and 14, with committees at the call of the President scheduled for January 4 if necessary. Voting sessions in the Senate are scheduled for December 10, January 7 and 11. The Senate will swear in new Senators Beach and Doherty on November 23.
Other controversial bills could be added to the lame-duck agenda. One measure would eliminate the politically coveted property-tax rebate checks, instead converting them to credits on homeowners' tax bills. One would cut aid for five years to towns and cities where residents refuse a state recommendation to merge. Another would launch a drivers amnesty from surcharges and fees if they pay for some outstanding infractions. And before the election, Corzine said he would favor providing in-state tuition for undocumented immigrants.
We'll see if any of those bills come to the floor. Speaker Roberts had some comments on the upcoming lame duck session and what he wants to see done including this:
"The post-election session, the so-called lame duck session is generally a time when unfinished business gets finished says Roberts, "For me personally I'd like to see us do a little bit more on regionalization and shared services. I think that's important.........I also would like us to spend a little bit more time on issues that effect the autistic community in New Jersey. We've made tremendous strides, but there are a few things that we have to do there."
Re-organization for the 214th Legislature is scheduled for January 12, so the clock is ticking for Legislators to get the changes they want made before that. Inauguration day will be the following week on January 19.
And in the end, this is not about gut feelings anyway. Gay people in New Jersey are not asking the Legislature for love and acceptance. They want equality under the law. And there is simply no justification for denying that.
Governor Corzine is ready to sign marriage equality. But he can't do that until the Legislature acts.
This is a gut-check moment. It's time for the people who work in our statehouse to lead, as they promised the voters they would when they were elected. Our leaders should go on the record regarding whether they support equality under the law for all of New Jersey's residents. Here's what Senator Lesniak had to say:
"There's no doubt that there are quite a few legislators who would rather see this go away than have to vote for or against it," said Sen. Ray Lesniak (D-Union), who supports gay marriage. "I don't think we should duck this issue."
There aren't any acceptable reasons for delay or ducking. And we need that vote to say Yes to all our families. Gay and straight, we're counting on them now.
ELEC reports today that even less money is being raised and spent on Assembly races this cycle than they anticipated:
Candidates for the General Assembly have raised $14.6 million and spent $10.2 million, according to 11-day pre-election reports filed with the New Jersey Election Law Enforcement Commission for the 2009 General Election.
"These figures represent an even more dramatic decrease in financial activity from four years ago than was reported at the 29-day reporting period," said Jeff Brindle, Executive Director of the Commission.
In 2005, the last time there were contests for Governor and Assembly, Assembly candidates had raised $19.4 million and spent $14.9 million by this time.
While they say that the Governor's race and tough economy have helped contribute to the 25% drop in fundraising and 32% drop in spending, they credit pay to play laws as an additional factor:
"What we have witnessed since Pay-to-Play laws were enacted and executive orders issued is a slowdown in campaign financial activity, culminating in the dramatic decrease at all levels this year," said Brindle.
"Potential donors are hesitant to give, fearing being in violation of the law, forfeiting a public contract, or being prohibited from negotiating and bidding on a contract."
"It is safe to say that Pay-to-Play laws are working with regard to reducing the amount in contributions going directly to candidates," he said.
Overall, the Assembly Democrats have more than their opponents:
Democratic candidates raised $10 million, spent $7.2 million and have $2.8 million cashon-hand. Republican candidates have raised $4.5 million, spent $2.9 million and have cash-onhand totaling $1.5 million. Independents have reported $118,081 raised and $60,971 in expenditures. Cash-on-hand for Independents amounts to $56,929.
They said that even in prior tough economic times, campaign spending would still increase and sometimes significantly, seeming to discount the economy's influence. Do you agree with their assessment? What do you think has caused the drop in fundraising and spending?
PolitickerNJ has a new poll from Republican Rick Shaftan's Neighborhood Research. It has Chris Christie at 36%, Corzine just behind at 35%, and Chris Daggett at 11%. Both Corzine (28-46) and Christie (28-31) have terrible favorable-unfavorable numbers. To be consistent, I need to call this a Christie lead, but with "definite voters" the race is "really" tied: 36-36.
I have to caution that this is based on a mere 300 registered voters from October 6-8. That really is less than you'd like to see in a sample -- the margin of error is 5.7%.
The small sample size does not prevent Shaftan from writing a report that makes very interesting reading (PDF at PolitickerNJ), but really the subsamples need to be viewed with a lot of suspicion due to the tiny sizes. Some of the claims that I found interesting
This poll has the highest percentage of conservatives (40%) Shaftan has ever seen -- is this really the electorate or a just sampling error? (Yes, the poll is 40% conservative yet Christie is at 36%. Hiya Mulshine!)
The "Daggett vote is real, at least for now." Shaftan points to the tax plan fairly convincingly, but remember he is a conservative pollster with an agenda.
Shaftan finds a 44-36 Generic Assembly lead for the GOP
In particular, Shaftan suggests a healthy generic ballot lead for Republicans in South Jersey may give them upsets in LD1, 3, 4 and 6. Overall he believes an 18 seat pickup is possible.
Corzine's open-ended responses are now more positive and he "has the momentum." The "liberal base" has come home while Christie has not improved with his "conservative base."
The key question is where do undecideds go. They have a bad opinion of Christie and a worse opinion of Corzine.
Because I remarked on the use of the "trying" as the positive word for Corzine in the Monmouth responses -- and that not being so great -- I have to quote this:
Looking at key words in open-endeds 30 percent of Corzine's favorables said "done" or "doing" only 5 percent said "trying" -- a big change from last month.
What do you think? Do you have any sense of what's happening on the ground in the Assembly races?
New Jersey's Election Law Enforcement Commission (ELEC) has put out a new report on spending by Assembly candidates this year:
Candidates for the General Assembly have raised and spent significantly less money thus far this year than at the same time four years ago, according to Jeff Brindle, Executive Director of the Election Law Enforcement Commission (ELEC).
The 29-day pre-election reports show Assembly candidates have raised $9.7 million and spent $5.2 million thus far in the 2009 campaign. Brindle said "these figures represent a 21 percent drop in fundraising and an almost 19 percent decrease in spending."
Democrats have a major money advantage:
Democratic Assembly candidates raised $6.8 million and spent $4 million compared with Republican Assembly candidates who raised almost $2.9 million and spent $1.2 million. Independent candidates have raised $84,000 and reported minimal spending. According to the reports, Democratic candidates have reported over $2.7 million as cash- on-hand and Republican candidates reported a balance of over $1.6 million.
Reporters are available at the ELEC website and to my surprise I was finally able to view them using my Mac. Hooray! I did have to allow Java unrestricted access which seems unnecessary.
PolitickerNJ believes she is likely to get a number of other votes, so she appears to be quite close to wrapping the contest up. I wouldn't be surprised if the others concede very soon.
Frankly I know very little about her, so I hope our readers will weigh in. (Yes, I already know you don't like George Norcross, what about her?)
All across the state, children are heading back to school to continue their education. President Obama recently gave a speech to our youngsters urging them to stay in school, and work hard at their studies, so that they may have a bright future. Our President's message encourages and provides hope that education and hard work are the major ingredients to success in life. I truly wish that was true. Instead, today we have an antiquated system of public education. A system that perpetuates a continuing substandard level of quality that fails to challenge the majority of students to be the best student they can be.
We, as a nation, lack a standard measure of educational success commiserate with our ideals and needs of our children. One size fits all educational standards like No Child Left Behind are misguided and are destroying the last vestiges of a once progressive public policy that propelled the United States to its status as a world power. We are living on borrowed time because we have failed to move education forward into the 21st century.
A true measure of educational success must be one that measures success of one student at a time based on their unique individual potential.
Providing every children with a high quality education can be the silver bullet to helping us deal with so many of New Jersey's and our nation's problems. Educational dollars are the largest expenditure of any municipality and in New Jersey; therefore, we must reevaluate how effective the allocation of these tax dollars has been. Here, once again we have an antiquated standard of measure to identify appropriate spending levels. I challenge anyone to justify whether we are spending too much or not enough money on education.
I have written an education policy paper that establishes a standard that can measure proper levels of funding by linking it to student growth potential. By establishing a real standard of educational success and a standard for educational costs we can restore parental confidence in our public school system. More than that, imagine the vast implications of getting education right and treating our students with individuality and respect. Then we can boldly move into the future with hope and confidence. Our children are national treasures; as such we must secure their future and ours by fixing the antiquated system called public education.
From an email sent out by Chairman Angelini of Gloucester County and Beach of Camden County:
Donald W. Norcross was unanimously nominated today to be the Democratic candidate for the 5th District State Assembly seat being vacated by Speaker Joseph Roberts. Norcross, a longtime labor leader whose work on behalf of working families, charities and civic ventures has earned him the respect of ordinary citizens as well as government and community leaders, was chosen at a special meeting of the Camden and Gloucester Democratic county committees. A resident of Camden, Norcross will be seeking the position left open by Roberts' decision not to run for another term in the November election.
And a comment from the new Assembly candidate:
"I believe we must change the way business is done in Trenton," Norcross told hundreds of Democrats attending the meeting at Brooklawn American Legion Post # 72. "We must put our partisan differences and the special interests aside to do what is best for the ordinary, hard-working taxpayers of this state. The status quo is not working. The state government is wasting too much of our money."
Norcross called for a state-government spending freeze and a moratorium on tax increases. He said that if elected he will push initiatives to create jobs for the growing number of unemployed New Jerseyans, institute tax breaks and other economic incentives for small businesses and stimulate New Jersey's struggling economy."
Norcross will now run with Camden City Council President Angel Fuentes for the seats in November. The changes may not be done in the 5th however, as State Senator Dana Redd is expected to win Mayor of Camden. That would mean that a new Senator would be coming as well and Wally speculated about the implications of that change on a potential contest for Senate President. I'm sure there are varied opinions on this as always. Have at it, but let's try to keep it civil.
We'll have to wait for confirmation tomorrow, but we get this big news from NJ.com:
Assembly Speaker Joseph Roberts (D-Camden) is planning to announce Wednesday morning that he will not seek re-election this fall, ending a 22-year career in the Legislature, according to two top Democrats familiar with his plans.
Roberts, the most powerful figure in the lower house, plans to break the news to fellow South Jersey Democrats at an 8 a.m. breakfast meeting in Camden County, said the Democratic sources. They requested anonymity when speaking in advance of the announcement.
Sources in the story say that Donald Norcross, co-chair of the Camden County Democrats and President of the Southern New Jersey AFL-CIO will replace him on the ballot. Nearly no story will go without mentioning that he is also the brother of George Norcross. The 5th district is considered more of a safe Democratic district, but along with this move came speculation of further implications on the Senate:
His departure also has implications for the upper house, where a leadership battle is brewing between Senate President Richard Codey (D-Essex) and Senate Majority Leader Steve Sweeney (D-Gloucester). Traditionally, if one leadership position is filled by a North Jersey Democrat, the other is filled by a South Jersey Democrat. Political experts have said that with Roberts leaving, a North Jersey Democrat could ascend to the speakership and boost Sweeney's chances of wresting power from Codey.
But one prominent Democratic legislator said Roberts' motives are straightforward.
"There is a desire for all regions of the state to be represented," said state Sen. Raymond Lesniak (D-Union), who said he had known Roberts was preparing to leave but did not know the announcement would come Wednesday. "But I don't believe that this announcement has anything to do with the senate presidency, I think it has to do with the fact that Joe's had a great career and wants to move on."
There had been prior rumors that Sweeney was considering a challenge to Codey's position as Senate President. Things may not be done here however, because the Senator from the 5th District is Dana Redd, the likely next Mayor of Camden. So we may still see more domino's fall before this story is done. What do you think of the news and what are the wider implications of the Speaker not standing for re-election with the rest of the body up on the ballot? Another big question will be who becomes speaker if you assume that the Democrats maintain control after the election?
"Last month's arrests of legislators, mayors and local officials - and the resignation of a key member of Governor Corzine's cabinet - proved that the Democratic tact of pretending New Jersey is not infested with corruption does not work," said Addiego. "We must act now to purge the Legislature of anyone - regardless of party affiliation - who is accused of breaking the public trust."
But Speaker Roberts was prepared for their grandstanding, having already consulted legal counsel about that possibility as well. First he explained the rules of the Assembly and then said this in his letter responding to Addiego and Rudder:
As you know, prior to any expulsion hearings, Rule 7:6 requires that the committee "serve written charges on the member, provide an opportunity for the member to be heard, to present witnesses, testimony and other evidence, to cross examine witnesses and to be represented by counsel."
Given that our rules would require the formation of a parallel investigation to the ongoing criminal inquiry, I immediately consulted with the State Attorney General and the United States Attorney concerning the expulsion of these members and the due process proceeding required by our rules. They advised that moving forward with the expulsion proceedings could significantly threaten their ongoing criminal investigation of these members and conveyed to me their strong inclination that I not move forward with any proceeding that could in any way hamper their investigation.
I agree that we must send a strong message to the public that corruption will not be tolerated. But, I believe that the actions we take can never jeopardize the ongoing work of law enforcement as they continue to interview witnesses, collect evidence and develop their criminal case against these individuals. That is why I took the unprecedented action of suspending the pay and benefits of these members last week.
I would once again renew my call for Assemblymen Smith and Vas to do the right thing for their constituents and for the good of the Legislature and resign because I believe that they cannot effectively serve the people they were elected to represent given the charges levied against them.
The fact is, Addiego and Rudder could have just sent Roberts the letter, but they decided to try and get some extra attention by putting out a release, which they love to do. So given the response from Roberts, do Addiego and Rudder want to jeopardize the ongoing work of law enforcement in an effort to score more political points? Maybe they can send out a release on that.
This should be a very busy week in Trenton. The Senate has a regular schedule of committee meetings, but the Assembly only has the budget committee on tap.
The big talk will be over the budget. The official Senate and Assembly bills became available on Saturday afternoon. They are scheduled for consideration in both the Senate and Assembly Budget committees today. The Assembly committee will take public testimony on the FY2010 appropriations bill at 9am and the committee will consider it. The Senate Committee will follow with a meeting at 2pm. They have all of the individual appropriations bills on the agenda for consideration along with the budget bill.
The Senate Labor Committee will discuss a bill that would address the suspension and revocation of employer licensees for repeated violations of wage, benefit and tax laws. They will also have a bill up for discussion only that would extend prevailing wage requirements to food service contracts and state authorities.
Among the bills up for consideration in the Senate Health, Human Services and Senior Citizens Committee are two that would memorialize Congress and the President to enact legislation to provide universal health insurance coverage.
The Law and Public safety committee has a few bills up including one that would require all wireless cell phones issued by public entities to receive Amber Alerts and another that would another that would require telecommunications companies to provide caller location information to law enforcement in emergency situations
With a difficult task in balancing the budget, many hearings held and testimony taken, the Legislature does not plan to delay things any longer than necessary. Here is the planned schedule for the budget to move through the Legislature to get to the Governor's desk:
A4048 [Roberts, Joseph, J.], NJ Economic Stimulus Act of 2009
That is pending introduction and referral. Maybe they think it's like taking off a band aid. Try to make it quick and minimize the pain. If they don't pass the budget on the 18th, possible fallback dates could be June 22, 25 or 29th before they come up against the June 30 deadline. When do you think they will pass the budget?
The Senate and Assembly have committee meetings in Trenton today as they begin the home stretch toward adopting a budget. Lets start on the Senate side.
A bill in the Senate State Government Committee would establish electoral and campaign finance requirements for candidates for Lieutenant Governor. Another bill would establish standards for the sale of State surplus real property. They will also consider eliminating the requirement to mail sample ballots to inactive voters.
A bill in the Senate Environment Committee would require parental notification of contaminated soil found on school property. Another measure would approve the FY 2010 plan for the Environmental Infrastructure trust. Still anotehr bill would prohibit the DEP from mandating public access to tidal waterfront areas adjacent to critical infrastructure unless they purchase or improve off-site locations.
The Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee will consider everything from limited licenses for general barbering to the "New Homebuyers Bill of Rights Act." They will discuss increasing penalities for medical waste and also establish a "Silver Alert System." The Senate Commerce Committee has the "New Jersey Foreclosure Fairness Acit," which imposes additional foreclosure notice requirements and amends the Mortgage Stabilization relief act. They may also ban novelty lighters.
Over on the Assembly side, the Appropriations committee, pending introduction and referral, has the "NJ Economic Stimulus Act of 2009" posted. The Assembly Financial Institutions and Insurance Committee will consider legislation to require increased public participation and independent analysis when a health insurer seeks to convert to a for-profit company. The bill proposes more public hearings and an independent study examining the health impact of the proposed conversion.
Time will tell if this is wishful thinking, but Legislative leaders are hopeful that the Budget will be done early this year:
Sen. President Richard Codey and Assembly Speaker Joseph Roberts Jr. said they hoped to get the budget passed on June 18.
The new fiscal year begins on July 1, so that would be the deadline before they'd have to stop the clock and extend time. Here's what Speaker Roberts had to say about what we will see:
Roberts says the proposed budget provides for basic services "but not much more."
In an election year with not much good news, the budget has the potential to cause nothing but headaches and bad headlines. They may just want to get this one behind them.
With nothing on the Senate side, the Assembly has 8 committees holding meetings today.
The Education Committee will conduct a roundtable discussion with invited participants on the Statewide assessment program. In addition, a bill to require school districts to ensure high school juniors and seniors are aware they could be in line for a NJ STARS full-tuition scholarship will be considered.
The Judiciary Committee has a few bills to discuss including legislation allowing municipalities to enact rules to prohibit known sex-offenders from living near schools, parks and playgrounds. The measure (A-641) responds to a recent state Supreme Court ruling that invalidated 118 local ordinances that created such exclusionary zones, citing "a need for statewide uniformity." The panel will vote on the "Jessica Lunsford Act", which would increase sentences for sex offenders and people who harbor them. Another bill up for a vote would make ignition interlocks mandatory for all drunk driving offenses in New Jersey. The committee will also consider legislation to require county political parties to adopt constitutions and bylaws and file committee membership lists with county clerks.
The Agriculture and Natural Resources Committee will receive testimony concerning emerging bio-fuels technology that may benefit New Jersey agriculture. They will vote on a bill that designates "Made With Jersey Fresh" baked goods and other food products.
The Military and Veterans Affairs Committee will consider legislation that would allow taxpayers to voluntarily contribute money to help New Jersey military personnel and families in need of assistance with a voluntary contribution on gross income tax returns to charitable organizations that support active duty members of the New Jersey National Guard and Reserve and their families. The veterans panel will also hear testimony on the Our Lady of Lourdes Hospitality North American Volunteers and their work with veterans and retired U.S. military.
The Homeland Security has invited representatives from the FealGood Foundation, which is dedicated to assisting first responders who have suffered adverse heath effects after responding to the September 11 attacks,
