Tuesday, May 21, 2013
Committee is one path for public employees to get around in-state-residency requirement of New Jersey First Act.
For the past two years, the meeting held monthly in a bare Trenton conference room determined the fates of hundreds of New Jersey public employees, including scores of teachers and school administrators. But the process has nothing to do with disciplinary actions or tenure or anything like that. The meetings of the five-member Employee Residency Review Committee are all about where people can live if they want to hold onto their jobs. Under the New Jersey First Act enacted in 2011, all New Jersey public employees must reside in New Jersey. There are a couple of exceptions, and the law grandfathered those who already lived out of state -- as long as they don't move. But it’s pretty unforgiving otherwise, and it takes some fairly …
Monday, May 20, 2013
Zoning board grants conditional use variance for redevelopment of the Mrs. G TV and Appliances property at Route 1 at Bakers Basin Road.
After nearly a year of hearings before the zoning board, the township voted 6-1 last week to grant a conditional use variance for the redevelopment of the Mrs. G TV and Appliances property and adjacent vacant lots along Route 1 at Bakers Basin Road, according to centraljersey.com. The zoning board granted preliminary and final site plan approval for four proposed buildings on the site at the meeting, with final site plan approval for the fifth building to occur a future date once a tenant is found, according to the report. As part of the proposal, existing buildings on the properties – the current Mrs. G showroom, a vacant business, an abandoned diner, and three unoccupied homes – would be demolished. Constructed in their place would be …
Jobless rate drops to 8.7 percent, revenues sufficient to avoid further cuts.
Gov. Chris Christie got a double dose of good news last week, as New Jersey's April unemployment rate dipped below 9 percent for the first time in four years and state revenue collections met his Treasury Department's revised targets. Echoing former President Ronald Reagan, an ebullient Christie declared at a town meeting in Sayreville that "the best social program is a job," and declared that his economic and fiscal policies were responsible for New Jersey's economic, employment, and revenue growth. “Revenues are up, jobs are up and unemployment is down," Assembly Minority Leader Jon Bramnick (R-Union) declared. Treasury's announcement that April's revenues came in just ahead of target takes some of the drama out of Monday's Senate Budget…
Sunday, May 19, 2013
NJ results part of a national trend charted in just-released report from U.S. Census Bureau.
A new report on voting in the 2012 presidential election found that blacks in New Jersey, like those across the nation, turned out in greater percentages than any other racial or ethnic group and the youngest voters, those age 18 through 24, turned out in the smallest numbers. The report by the U.S. Census Bureau released on Wednesday said that a greater percentage of eligible blacks voted than whites for the first time since officials began publishing voting statistics in 1996. Nationally, two in three eligible blacks voted in the presidential election, which was slightly higher than the 64.1 percent of non-Hispanic whites. In New Jersey, 68.5 percent of eligible African Americans voted, compared with 63.4 percent of whites. James Harris…
Gubernatorial candidate speaks in Newark Monday about the 'scourge' of gun violence
The likely Democratic candidate for governor accused incumbent Chris Christie on Monday of supporting "shallow" gun control legislation in order to avoid alienating conservatives elsewhere in the country. “This governor calibrates every decision he makes with an eye towards 2016. He calibrates every decision he makes with an eye towards making sure it plays well with voters in the cornfields of Iowa, instead of standing up for what’s right for the people and neighborhoods of New Jersey,” state Sen. Barbara Buono (D-Middlesex) said during a press conference held at Good Neighbor Baptist Church in Newark. Buono is expected to win next month’s primary, but is an underdog in the November governor’s race against the popular Christie, who is …
Thursday, May 16, 2013
Christie administration wants $164 million in affordable-housing funds to help balance state budget.
Municipalities have won yet another reprieve from having to give more than $164 million in affordable-housing funds to New Jersey. A state appeals court panel late Monday issued a temporary injunction to stop the state from taking the money to help balance its budget. The Appellate Division of Superior Court issued a stay of the state Council on Affordable Housing’s attempt to seize municipal affordable housing trust fund money that has gone unspent for more than four years. Judge Jose L. Fuentes, who signed the order, set oral arguments for June 5 in Newark. Fair Share Housing Center sought the injunction last Friday, after COAH met on May 1 for the first time in more than two years and authorized its staff to begin the process of taking …
Monday, May 13, 2013
But Community Affairs chief says systemic reforms, cuts in total tax rate are key.
Assembly Democrats last week assailed Gov. Chris Christie for an 18.6 percent increase in net property taxes over the past three years, but Christie’s community affairs commissioner said long-term savings and cuts in overall tax rates are more important. Community Affairs commissioner Richard E. Constable III told the Assembly Budget Committee that the 2.4 percent growth in property taxes in 2011 and 1.6 percent rise last year were the smallest statewide hikes in 20 years and an improvement over an "increase of 70 percent in the 10 years before Governor Christie took office." But Democratic committee members disputed Constable’s view, citing a New Jersey Spotlight analysis showing that net property taxes -- the net cost of property taxes …
Sunday, May 12, 2013
New program is shadow of former funding, with deeper cuts to come in second year.
The state expects to spend $100 million in the coming fiscal year to fund projects to preserve open space and farmland, at least $50 million shy of what New Jersey traditionally spends annually on the popular program. In the fiscal year following that, the funding will drop off even more dramatically, with only $40 million -- at most -- available to fund open-space preservation, parkland projects, and buyouts of flood-prone properties, according to New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection Commissioner Bob Martin. The total does not include $250 million in federal funds that may be available to help buy out flood-prone properties in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, Martin said. The steep decline in funding reflects the exhaustion …
Saturday, May 11, 2013
GOP lawmakers says proposal’s too expensive, not needed because people can cast absentee ballots.
Gov. Chris Christie on Thursday vetoed a bill that would have created a system for early voting in New Jersey, which Democrats saw as needed to expand voting opportunities but the governor deemed unnecessary. Inspired by the state’s chaotic 2012 presidential election held in the wake of Superstorm Sandy, the bill, S-2364and A-3553, would have permitted voters to cast ballots in person at designated polling locations as early as 15 days prior to an election. It was sponsored by and supported by only Democrats. All Republicans in both the Senate and Assembly opposed it, and given the composition of the Legislature, it is impossible to override a veto without GOP support. In his veto message, Christie said New Jersey voters have been able to …
Friday, May 10, 2013
But Motor Vehicles chief says new contract pushes off privatization option for three years.
Stung by their inability to block the privatization of the State Lottery, Democratic members of the Assembly Budget Committee yesterday assailed the Christie administration for considering privatization of motor vehicle inspections. Raymond P. Martinez, chief administrator of the New Jersey Motor Vehicle Commission, acknowledged that privatization was one of the options explored by Eastern Research Group, Inc. (ERG), a Lexington, Mass.-based consultant hired in 2011 to advise the MVC on best practices and assist in negotiations over a contract extension with Parsons Corp. Since 1998, Parsons has operated New Jersey's hybrid system of centralized MVC inspection lanes and private garages that inspect 2.3 million vehicles a year. "Our goal …
Tugwalla
7:52 pm on Tuesday, May 21, 2013
The whole thing is a scam....nobody is penalized and nobody is fired. It just a smoke screen so politicians can pretend they are doing something other than raising taxes, stuffing their faces and pockets... more ›