I arrived early at the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Marriage Equality in order to get a good spot for my video camera. The hearings were scheduled for 11 AM. By 9:15, when I arrived, the line was all the way back to the lobby and more people were coming. I was the first reporter there, and was able to secure a prime spot adjacent to the witness table, a power outlet, and access to the audio feed. What more could a blogger and amateur videographer ask for?
I've been to a lot of committee hearings over the last year, but this was one of the most emotional for me. Yes, I've heard the stories about Danny and John, and about Marsha and Louise before, and they touched me deeply. But today, their stories were juxtaposed with those of marriage bigots who demand special rights for heterosexual couples. (And I'm sad to have to use the term "bigot", but their arguments hold no more water than those who worked to deny women's right to vote in the early 20th century or those who worked to deny rights to African Americans in mid-century.) My head reeled with the thoughts of how can these people call themselves religious? Religion involves compassion and understanding, but these people did not understand a word that was spoken.
On Tuesday, we will see the first step in the effort to pass Senate Bill 1 (S1), the Marriage Equality and Religious Exemption Act. It promises to be an exciting hearing. Our friends at Garden State Equality will be there, and I’m sure the proponents of marriage discrimination will be also.
America was founded on principles of individual rights, and it’s appropriate that the marriage equality bill is the first piece of legislation to be considered in this session. That’s not to say that jobs, health care, and education are not critical. But individual rights are the bedrock of our society, and should never take a back seat to the other important issues.
Despite the Constitutional guarantees, there are still people who, as Steven Goldstein of GSE puts it, demand “special rights” of heterosexual marriage. It’s important that we understand and counter their arguments so that we help tip the balance in the legislature toward the side of marriage equality.
I know Senator Ray Lesniak has had problems with the Elizabeth Board of Education.
I know the Elizabeth schools have become a cesspool; witness the arrest of BOE President Marie Munn on charges of lying to get free school lunches for her children.
But still: what is Sen. Lesniak thinking in posting this bill?
1. a. No member or employee of a local board of education shall:
be a candidate for any elective public office, except that a member of a board of education may seek reelection to that office;
be a candidate for, or hold, any unpaid position or any employment with a political party, organization, or club;
make any contribution, as defined in section 3 of P.L.1973, c.83 (C.19:44A-3), except that a member may make a contribution to the member's own campaign for reelection;
participate in any way in any campaign for elective public office, other than the member's own campaign for reelection, or for any office of a political party, organization, or club;
display campaign material or signs on the member or employee's person, vehicle or property;
permit the member or employee's name to be used on campaign material, except that the campaign material of a member seeking reelection may display that member's name;
distribute, sell or purchase tickets to, or attend, any event sponsored by, or for the benefit of, any candidate for elective public office or political party office, or any political party, organization, or club; or
use the member or employee's official position to influence the political action of another person.
This is crazy. This bill would keep every employee of a school board - yes, that includes teachers, principals, custodians, support staff, and even bus drivers - from running for office or donating to a political campaign. Marie Corfield, a teacher who ran a great race for Assembly and who some say could win if she chooses to run again, could never have been a candidate and kept her teaching job.
It's clearly unconstitutional and doesn't have a chance in hell of surviving a court challenge. Still, it's a slap in the face of everyone who works in schools and chooses to participate in democracy.
Senator, the way to reign in abuses by school boards is to maintain strong worker protections - like tenure - and to continue to vigilantly pursue those who misuse their positions of power. It's not necessary to even entertain the idea of destroying the civil rights of educators, let alone actually post a bill that would do just that.
I'm a teacher; I'm not all that hip to the political machinations of Trenton. Maybe there's a reason to do this, but I can't think of one that's worth introducing a bill that is in clear violation of the civil rights of those of us who serve children.
The lowly groundhog has been relegated to having expertise only on the coming of warm weather. His predictive skills, however, have been grossly underestimated. Groundhog Gerry goes where others fear to tread. His reactions on the following New Jersey legislation:
Provides tax credits to entities contributing to scholarships for low-income children, euphemistically known as the Opportunity Scholarship Act. Groundhog Gerry has been laying low and shown little expectation for the soon arrival of Christie's vaunted education bills. However he has shown some stirring on this vouchers act. It has been approved in committees with several Democrats supporting it in the Senate (Lesniak, Vitale, Beach, and Ruiz) and in the Assembly (Coutinho, Lampitt and Fuentes.) S1872/A2810
Appropriates $139 million for Aid to Localities.
The governor five months ago vetoed this much needed aid to our hardest hit (but Democratic) urban cities, stating it should include administrative and monitoring expenses. With $1.5 million added for such expenses, Gerry is definitely stirring. The Assembly overwhelmingly passed the bill and a Senate committee will review it today at 1:00 PM. The groundhog hopes it will be placed on a fast track. S3118/A4373
Permits pharmacies to sell needles/syringes without a prescription.
It will decrease the transmission of HIV, Hep C and other blood-borne illnesses. Although the governor has not said whether he will sign the bill, Gerry is positively excited as the bill passed both the Senate and Assembly with votes, which if they remain the same, are veto-proof. (S958)/A1088
Decriminalizes possession of 15 grams or less of marijuana.
The bill would still fine such individuals, but Gerry feels that too much government money is spent on combatting pot, too many people needlessly being incarcerated and that pot would strengthen his own predictive abilities. He knows that 21 Assemblypersons (Republicans and Democrats) led by Reed Gusciora (D-15) sponsor the bill, but he is not holding his breath. A4252
After claiming that she didn't know her kids were getting free lunches, even though she acknowledged filling out the forms for it, it appears Elizabeth Board of Education President Marie Munn has been arrested for stealing from the federal government. And, not for nothing, from the Elizabeth schools she is supposed to be helping.
That was Chris Christie on streaming radio yesterday, talking about teachers. Listen, and then I'll tell you what I think, as a newly-elected school board member:
Early on, in the conversation hosted by NJ School Board Association, he trotted out the now-debunked canard that only 17 tenured teachers have lost their jobs for poor performance. We know that many poor teachers are either weeded out by not getting hired for the third year, or by self-selection (leaving the profession). But it suits his purpose to blame tenure for poor teachers as if that's the real and only problem in poorly-functioning school districts. His plan is to continue evaluating teachers even after they have earned tenure. If they are rated "ineffective," then they lose tenure for the next year. They can earn it back, but that's not guaranteed. It's a great plan in his mind.
I suspect that Christie's real plan is to poison the well of teachers. Make teaching, or getting ahead in the profession, so difficult, that most new teachers won't see the value of the union. If joining becomes optional, then fewer and fewer will join and pay dues. He called union dues a "political slush fund." That's right, a political slush fund. So, reducing that fund will reduce the influence of the profession and allow the hedge fund managers to take over.
Last primary day one of the biggest battles were the "reform" Democrats led by the Christie-loving Elizabeth Board of Education and the "establishment" Democrats led by Ray Lesniak and Joe Cryan.
Despite winning the primary, Lesniak actually lost Elizabeth in the primary which has to gall him. It's his home town, and he still lives there even after all his success. And he's friends and support with the Mayor of Elizabeth, Chris Bollwage, the next target.
Recently Lesniak even floated Bollwage for Governor, and idea that had to have originated with Lesniak because pretty much no one ever considered it. But in raising the idea Lesniak also raises Bollwage's image which isn't going to hurt in 2012 when he runs for reelection.
...NJDSC Chairman John Wisniewski for putting his name on the following e-mail:
Dear Supporter,
Please join the New Jersey Democratic State Committee for our 3rd Annual Women's Equality Event honoring County Chairs Charlotte DeFilippo, Elizabeth Muoio, Marguerite Schaffer and Lois Zarish at the home of Marcia Marley on Thursday, August 25th from 6 to 8 pm. Contributions are $91 commemorating 91 years since women received the right to vote.
We are honoring these county chairs who have blazed the trail for all of our women candidates and set an example in their county. Chairs DeFilippo, Muoio, Schaffer and Zarish embody our Democratic ideals and they work tirelessly to make sure women are on the ballot and to elect Democrats every November.
No other Governor in the country has targeted women in this manner. Chris Christie has repeatedly displayed a pattern of insensitivity and vindictiveness to the issues that are most important to the women in the state of New Jersey. He's used the health of women as a pawn to court the far right of his. The women of New Jersey deserve better.
The county chairs we are honoring have stood up for these issues and supported candidates that stand up for women. Your support at this event will help enable the NJDSC to better use its resources in this current fight and help train and elect future candidates.
We hope you will join the NJDSC and women leaders from across the state and show your support! To purchase tickets please click here or to RSVP or for more information, please email Heather at hdejong@njdems.org or call 609-392-3367.
Sincerely,
John Wisniewski, Chairman
I have to be honest. I don't know anything about Chairwomen Muoio, Schaffer, and Zarish, but there is no doubt in my mind that they are more deserving of their awards than Union County Democratic Chairwoman, Charlotte DeFilippo, who during the decade-plus that I have been involved in NJ politics, has done more to prevent progressive women from being elected to prominent offices than anyone in this state in both political parties. If Chairwoman DeFilippo is deserving of any award, it should be the Phyllis Schafly Award for her years of disservice to the progressive women of Union County and anywhere else in New Jersey where her influence has had an impact.
I have at least three examples of Chairwoman DeFilippo's negative actions against progressive women candidates for elected office during this period of time and if this topic interests you, please feel free to continue reading below the fold as I tell the stories of would-be Congresswoman Maryanne Connelly, State Senator Linda Stender, and Assemblywoman Ellen Steinberg. Imagine if you will that the following stories are accompanied by Arlo Guthrie-style acoustic guitar strumming a la "Alice's Restaurant Massacree" (Unrelated to this issue, I had the opportunity to visit Southbridge, MA recently and found the restaurant that used to be "Alice's Restaurant" and is now "Theresa's Southbridge Cafe").
I'm pulling this up top again for a 2nd look, partly because it was originally posted in the middle of the night when traffic is low. That said, there are 21 comments already, good discussion. - Rosi
We now have 21 (plus) guaranteed votes for marriage equality in New Jersey. Senators Jen Beck and Steve Sweeney have indicated their changing from prior abstentions or "no" votes to "yes"votes. There's probably one or two more not yet counted. Should we move ahead with legislation (again) if we are not sure of 27 to override a Christie veto? I'm ready to start along with my colleague, Ray Lesniak. Are you up for the battle to make it to 27? Tell us what you think.
Police, Firefighters, Teachers, Gays, Public Sector Workers, Progressives - you name parts of "the base" of the Democratic Party in New Jersey and they aren't fans of Senator Steve Sweeney right now.
But then comes the party bosses, men who make their living lying, cheating and stealing as many elections as they can. Needless to say, you have to watch them and take whatever they say with a big grain of salt.
Enter Ray Lesniak, Senator and Party Boss who openly endorsed Sweeney's Kabuki Theater to a comical degree:
"This was a crossing of the Rubicon for Steve Sweeney," said the Union County power-broker. "It absolutely put him in play as a statewide candidate... By stating what he did in no uncertain terms, it put him on the same terms with Chris Christie..."Right now he's my hero," Lesniak said.
Guess you have to lay it on thick to cover up a big crack. But wow, he really supports Sweeney then again (same article):
Although he supported Sweeney for senate president in 2009, Lesniak has been critical of some of Sweeney's tactical decisions even as party progressives find in the gay marriage-abstaining, public pension-reforming South Jersey Senate prez a Stonehenge-sized target... Lesniak admitted. "Folks (like Sweeney) who sought a kinder and gentler mode of conduct, found out you can't negotiate with someone as mean-spirited as Gov. Chris Christie."
But here is the kicker:
But critics of the Senate president's say Lesniak and Adbuato are merely trying to cover up their wrong-headed move in backing the ginger-footed Sweeney to begin with, and quietly called into question the judgment of a leader who trusted Christie not to make the deeper budget cuts he exacted last Thursday.
Yeah I wonder who those "critics" are and who is backing their criticism. Watch your back Steve. More Union problems.
Are you ready to give $25 from your pocket to Xanadu ($100 for a family of four)?
That is one of several important questions to be decided this week in Trenton, each of which we'd be seriously fixated on if not for the undoubtedly even more important anti-union armageddon currently unfolding. Still, these things are worth keeping an eye on because they all have a huge impact. Here are the top five, in no particular order:
1. Will thousands of working families be kicked off of Medicaid? Gov. Christie (R-Rove) has decreed that working families earning more than $6,000 a year should be dropped from Medicaid. Thus creating new incentives to go from work to welfare. Will the Democrats stand up and try to block this change (not clear from the reporting exactly how much power the Legislature has, but at the least they could pass a resolution telling the Obama Administration to reject the waivers needed)?
2. Will we have to pay $25 each to bail out Xanadu? Sens. Ray Lesniak (D-Progressive Social Causes and Crony Capitalism) and Kevin O'Toole (R-Tool) have introduced a bill to expand the ability of the Christie Administration to give away our money to large developers to include the Meadowlands. If you have driven the Turnpike recently, you may be aware that the Meadowlands includes a large eyesore called Xanadu which has been a total failure. Apparently the solution to this problem is for everyone in the state to pay $25 (that is $200 million divided by the 8 million people in NJ) to a large Canadian developer in order to get the mall ready for opening. I have two questions: could those of us below I-195 at least have the option of giving the money to a more local mall that is not 100 miles away, or perhaps have it go to the casinos and at least get $25 in chips back? And if this expert is right that even with $200 million of our tax money the project only has a 50-50 chance of success (after all four prior owners have failed), do we get double our money back if it fails again? Seriously, is this really something that the Democrats are going to support instead of using to bash Christie?
4. Women's health: what happens next? Planned Parenthood, our own Sen. Weinberg (D - Actually a D), and many others have been running probably the best progressive campaign of the year against Christie's deeply unpopular cuts in women's health. What happens next? Do the Dems take it up a notch? Like hold Xanadu, which costs over 20 times as much, hostage? Now, you may say: those are the kind of techniques that Republicans use, not Democrats. Which brings us to the next and final point...
5. Will the Democrats reverse all of their progress in making Chris Christie unpopular? For a while, Senate President Sweeney (D-Sorry About that Marriage Thing) and Speaker Oliver (D-What Happened to that Awesome State Convention Speech?) were on a roll - and Christie was having bad week after bad week - jobs numbers, helicopters, women's health - and looked more arrogant than strong. Now, Christie is going to have a new round of bragging rights from overcoming the unions' power. Christie this week looks more strong than arrogant. Are there any other tricks up leadership's sleeve to help boost Christie's sagging poll numbers?
It is going to be an interesting week with a lot at stake for our state's future. And please post additions to this list if I missed something.
Weigh in, especially you Union County folks - Rosi
By Stephen Yellin - I am proud to be on the ballot for the June 7th primary on Column A. I am also a candidate for Township Council in Berkeley Heights.
This isn't a 'me-first' rally - this is a 'community-first' rally...a worker's rights rally!
- Joe Cryan, March 3 2011 (standing with union workers in Trenton)
He's going to do a wonderful, fabulous job as our next Governor.
- Tony Monteiro, November 4 2009 (at Chris Christie's victory party)
On June 7th, Democrats in the 20th Legislative District (Elizabeth, Hillside, Roselle and Union) have a clear choice to make. They have a choice between the regular Democratic ticket, whose Democratic Party credentials aren't in question, and a renegade group called "Democrats for Change".
Just who are these "Democrats for Change", and what do they stand for? Examining the facts paints a troubling picture of this group, and its candidates for the State Legislature in the 20th District. This ticket has managed to combine the 2 worst problems confronting New Jersey today: a corrupt, unaccountable political machine and the enabling of Chris Christie's destructive, divisive policies across our state.
I like Tom Moran. I think he's a heck of a writer, and often has pretty good things to say. However, he has been infected by an insidious sickness running through the news media of false equivalency.
This is the disease that causes TV news shows to cover evolution by giving the scientists and young earthers equal time, thus creating the impression that both have valid points. Young earthers do not. It's the disease that allows major news magazines to give scientists and oil company shills the same weight when covering global climate change, thus slipping doubt into what is a close to scientific fact as we get.
In Moran's case, it is the pretense that both Democrats and Republicans are equally to blame for the dearth of African Americans and Latinos in the state legislature. In yesterdays column, Moran's infection oozed the puss of false equivalency all over the pages of the Star Ledger in an opinion piece called "New Jersey's parties both fall short on blacks, Latinos."
Republicans in New Jersey don't have a single African-American or Latino in the state Legislature. Their governor has none in his inner circle and he has removed the only African-American from the state Supreme Court.
On the whole, their record on minority representation is somewhere between bad and awful.
Not a bad beginning, pretty clear. A good description of the situation. Yet for some reason he then goes after the Democrats.
But let's not just pick on Republicans. Because the Democratic machines that control the slate of candidates are mostly controlled by white men who have a keen affinity for their own kind as well.
Take Camden. When the African-American senator representing Camden resigned last year, the South Jersey machine boss George Norcross knew just what to do: He put his brother, Donald, in the seat.
What Moran doesn't note is that this anonymous "African-American Senator" is Dana Redd, and the reason she resigned was to become Mayor of the state's second largest city. Not exactly a demotion for her. Oh, and the Democrats also selected Redd as Vice-Chair of the Democratic Party and a rep to the DNC for the past six years. How dare they treat an African-American so badly?
And it's not until much later that Moran notes that the two Assembly members who run with Norcross are African American and Latino. So now the three major races in the district are all represented, and -- not for nothing, here -- that district has more minorities than the entire GOP state delegation. Again, damn those Democrats!
But Moran tries to redeem himself after using false equivalence to damn the Democrats, noting that while his headline and article has so far slammed the crap out of them,
On the whole, Democrats are light years ahead of Republicans. One in three of their state legislators is black or Latino, and they can reasonably defend the Norcross and Ryan appointments.
But before he completely recovers from his disease, Moran has a relapse by allowing the Republicans to re-frame the debate. Here's the final quote of the piece.
"Both sides have to do better," says Republican Bill Palatucci, a confidante of the governor who is leading this fight over the map. "Since Gov. Kean left office, my party's record on diversity is nothing to write home about. I'm not saying we're 100 percent right. But neither are they."
And there you have the most exquisite diagram of the virus that causes false equivalence, plotted out and sitting there for all to see.
Republicans have exactly zero African-Americans in the State House or the Governor's cabinet. Democrats have more than 20 percent of their delegation as blacks -- far higher than the state's 14 percent African-American population -- and 10 percent of their delegation as Latinos -- far higher than the state's Latino voting population.
But Palatucci gets to say, "Our 0% is the same as their 90%. A pox on both their houses!"
A "Democrat" in the state senate who might actually make Steve Sweeney look good? Yes, it appears so. Not content to push draining money from the public schools for private school vouchers, and bringing back exclusionary zoning, the despicable Ray Lesniak is now pushing to eliminate consumer protections against cable companies. Doing the bidding of the cable companies, Lesniak is pushing a bill with the Orwellian title, the "Market Competition and Consumer Choice Act." There will be little of each under this bill, but one thing will happen, elimination of consumer protections. This didn't stop the bill from being voted out of the Economic Growth Committee.
NJ Raymond Lesniak wants to reduce prison recidivism rates by offering a small fraction of now risk, non-violent drug offenders early release in exchange for entering a rigorous drug/alcohol treatment program.
Learn about how it'll pay for itself (+ an intriguing connection between former Gov. McGreevey & First Lady Mary Pat Christie) in this 2min. clip.
In an era where every dollar is needed by state and local government and unemployment is high, you might figure that no stone has been left unturned in finding sources of funding and ways to create jobs.
The article finds $263 million in unspent funds around the state. That's a lot of homes not being built and a lot of jobs not being created.
In fact, more than 50 towns statewide have spent NO money since 2005 on actually creating homes despite having growing trust fund accounts. Seems that they want to keep out lower-income people so much that they would rather sit on the money than actually do anything.
You would think that, if nothing else, the new housing legislation being pushed by Sen. Ray Lesniak (S-1/A-3447) would get this money spent.
And you would be wrong. In fact, Sen. Lesniak's bill would make the problem worse. In the future, ALL obligations could be met through payments to trust funds instead of actually building homes. Leaving, well, even more money sitting around, and adding costs for non-profits who want to use that money to try to dislodge the funds by hiring lawyers. More bureaucracy and fewer homes - exactly the opposite of what this legislation should be trying to achieve.
A packed house of civil rights leaders, environmentalists, municipal officials, special needs groups, developers, and religious groups showed up in State House Committee Room 11 at noon today for a November surprise: a hearing on a housing bill that had been substantially rewritten, with a thick packet of amendments handed out after the meeting already started.
"Even some lawyers might have a problem understanding the language in this particular bill," Chairman Jerry Green said near the start - and indeed, audience members and even committee members were puzzling over what, exactly, the many new changes sprung at the last minute mean. Apparently, according to Chairman Green, there were a series of meetings earlier this morning with various groups (though we confirmed that no housing groups, environmentalists, civil rights groups, or special needs groups were invited) that led to these changes. Even DCA Commissioner Lori Grifa said she had not seen these changes in her extensive remarks opposing the bill.
The bill changes don't fix the critical flaws with the bill: that in all instances developers can pay a fee that will then sit in a fund for years instead of actually building homes; and that towns can comply based on homes that cost as much as $600,000.
And the changes didn't really seem to please anyone (which was kind of a surprise to many groups that were excluded from the morning meeting and thought some kind of deal had been cut). The key takeaway message: NOBODY testified in support of the bill. All opposed - for many overlapping reasons and some differing reasons - include the Christie Administration, the NAACP, League of Municipalities, New Jersey Builders Association, NAIOP, the Housing and Community Development Network, the New Jersey Regional Coalition, the Sierra Club, the Highlands Coalition, the Coalition on Affordable Housing and the Environment, the (usually fairly nonpartisan) New Jersey chapter of the American Planning Association, New Jersey Future, and the Chamber of Commerce.
To name a few.
It's usually kind of hard to pass legislation that nobody supports. Yet the committee voted to pass the bill anyway, 4 in favor, one abstaining (Vandervalk), one opposed (Carroll), and one absent (Greenstein, whose district would be hit particularly hard by the bill's strange "expensive homes" requirement, the subject of a report we released today.
So what's happening here? It seems like there is a lot of pressure to do something based on a fear that they will get attacked by the Governor and a feeling among many, including Chair Green, that they have sat on the issue long enough. And everyone agrees - they should do something - we need a more effective state housing policy.
But the details seem to have gotten kind of mixed up, with a hodge podge of ideas from Green and other Assembly leaders (many of which are quite good) and Ray Lesniak seeking to preserve aspects of his now-infamous S-1 legislation (many of which are quite bad). The result is a stew that nobody really seems to like, and that doesn't make a whole lot of sense when put together. Some exurban towns like Jackson and Woolwich have to build thousands of homes costing as much as $600,000; others have to do nothing; and still others are just going to collect more "payment in lieu" fees when they are already sitting on millions of dollars in unspent past fees, a problem that caused committee members, especially Asm. Scalera, considerable consternation during the debate.
They moved the bill out of committee; but it's hard to see this ending up being what happens. Because, well, legislation doesn't usually pass that nobody supports.
We will keep you posted when we know more on the next step of this continually unusual process...
Call for action from our friends at Fair Share Housing Center. - promoted by Rosi
Help Us Tell the Assembly that A-3447 as drafted does not actually produce homes!
With a comforter, blanket and sheet on my bed at night, its official, summer is over and fall has arrived with soft burnt-orange leaves and a slight chill in the air at night. But that's not all. The housing debate from the spring, in which Senator Raymond Lesniak tried to get rid of the state's prohibitions on exclusionary zoning through his S-1 bill, is back. Asm. Jerry Green has introduced A-3447, and has set a hearing - and likely vote - on that bill and S-1 on Monday.
Unfortunately, several large, obvious loopholes remain in the legislation, and would be happily jumped through by towns without the slightest interest in building a home affordable to low- and moderate-income families, seniors, and people with special needs.
We are not the only ones to cry foul on this legislation. Assemblywoman Bonnie Watson Coleman wrote this great Op-Ed in The Times of Trenton, and a Star-Ledger editorial calls the bill a failure in need of repair.
We have been talking with Asm. Green and other legislators, and are hopeful that they will fix this leaky bill. However, there are strong pressures for a bill that allows towns to keep out low-income people. Monday is a key decision point for whether we will move forward to help spur the economy with new homes affordable to New Jerseyans of all incomes, or backward to a time before the NAACP brought the landmark Mount Laurel cases, and towns were free to say "if you people can't afford to live in our town, you'll just have to leave."
Blue Jersey readers we need your help again. Please CALL and/or ATTEND!! CALL the Chairman of the committee, Assemblyman Jerry Green, your local Assembly members and the Assembly leadership and let them know that A-3447 will not build the homes New Jersey needs! (more info and sample script below)
ATTEND the hearing. I hope you like bagged lunches because I'm asking you to carry one on Monday, November 8, 2010 at NOON at the Statehouse when A-3447 is scheduled for a vote before the Assembly Housing and Local Government Committee. This is a key opportunity to state clearly to the committee that, "A-3447 needs repair!" through your call, testimony or attendance. A major overhaul is needed to the proposed legislation so homes actually get built and spur economic growth.
This legislation as currently drafted, simply will not produce homes for families, seniors, and people of special needs of all incomes, and does not fulfill the constitutional requirements and promise of the NAACP's Mount Laurel decisions. It is flawed in 3 major ways:
1. The bill does not actually require a single development in the entire state of New Jersey to include homes affordable to low-and moderate-income people.
2. The bill forces construction of unneeded homes for people earning up to $150,000, while excluding working families. In the face of such great need for housing that lower-income households can afford, the need for this provision is especially hard to understand.
3. The bill shuts out non-profits and people with special needs. Every town in New Jersey is granted the power to arbitrarily turn down even small scale proposals for supportive housing or nonprofits building starter homes.
We need your voice and your presence on Monday. Be heard. Let the Assembly know that there is a need for homes for all in New Jersey. Please email me at damikawebb@fairsharehousing.org to let us know if you plan to attend.
He just beat me to the punch, saying what I was writing for a post here - but saying it better, and saying it as a NJ Senator. Lesniak just made a public statement calling for the re-hiring of a NJ Transit worker who did something Lesniak does not agree with - and I think is offensive and dumb - but nonetheless has nothing to do with how he does his job for the public. In this morning's News Roundup, I asked the question whether the firing of a New Jersey Transit worker because he burned the Quran by the misnamed 'Ground Zero' Muslim cultural center site.
Derek Fenton, 39 and from Bloomfield, was apparently inspired by "Reverend" Terry Jones' threats to do the same thing, but Jones backed down. Fenton didn't. In a NJ Transit statement, the agency said Fenton's actions violated "New Jersey Transit's code of ethics."
Huh?
I think it's groovy that the bus and train people have hammered out their own set of ethics and all, but if they're being applied when employees are off-duty and doing things unrelated to their work, it's time to re-think. Given the facts as we know them, Fenton's First Amendment rights were violated.
And that don't make the trains run on time.
I'm going to print Lesniak's full remarks after the jump, because he was first, and they're worth reading. So, jump.
I like Tom Moran. I think he's a heck of a writer, and often has pretty good things to say. However, he has been infected by an insidious sickness running through the news media of false equivalency.
